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Ron Miller's DARK CORRIDORS VOL. 9, No. 30 |
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Whimsical murder mystery
new formula for Seymour
of TheColumnists.com
Ever since CBS put "Murder, She Wrote" out to pasture because it wasn't luring enough young viewers--despite its towering ratings overall--there's been a dire shortage of whimsical, female-oriented old-fashioned mystery programs on TV.
The Hallmark Channel certainly has been trying to fill that gap for the last several years with its string of light-hearted mystery movies, most especially the popular "Mystery Woman" with Kellie Martin. Now it finally may have come up with the show that will be keeper.
It's called "Dear Prudence" and, like "Murder, She Wrote," it stars a familiar and beloved TV veteran--Jane Seymour, whose own CBS series, "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman" ran from 1993-98 and has enjoyed frequent reruns on cable networks and local stations.
Jane's new character, Prudence McCoy, is quite easily explained. Just imagine Martha Stewart with an English accent, solving murder mysteries during her hiatus from her national television show.
Like Stewart, Prudence can do almost anything that has to do with the art of what might be called "the domestic sciences." For instance, to get an official to order a post mortem exam of this week's murder victim, she comes up with a cure for his dog's excessive gas-passing. (Put yogurt in his dinner twice daily!) Another time she uses restaurant hot sauce to take the tarnish off the silverware. Pure Martha Stewart...with maybe a little "MacGyver" thrown in.
In the premiere episode, Pru is in serious need of a vacation, so she winds up in rural Wyoming at a lodge favored by her mother, who was once a famous advice columnist. She isn't there long before she's gripped by tragic circumstances--the lodge owner's trouble-prone son is found dead at the bottom of a cliff, an apparent suicide. Naturally, Pru doesn't buy the suicide idea because she has found traces of blood in the son's residence and suspects foul play.
The local police detective (Jamey Sheridan) thinks her murder theories are amusing, but doesn't pay them much heed until that post mortem exam suggests the dead man was killed elsewhere and his body thrown over the cliff to make it look like suicide. Still, nobody's doing anything to solve the mystery, so Pru tackles the job herself, calling in one reinforcement--the youthful science whiz who helps her on her TV show: Nigel Forsythe III (Ryan Cartwright).
Do not expect serious thrills and chills as Pru and Nigel skulk around Wyoming, not even when the real killer starts trying to add them to his list of victims. This is done whimsy-style like "Murder, She Wrote" and you won't mistakenly think you're watching "CSI Miami" if you join "Dear Prudence" in progress.
I believe Hallmark has a winning formula for attracting the viewership it gets for its mystery lite shows. It chooses a welll-loved and familiar TV star to front the show, avoids violence and concentrates on "clues" while light-hearted music churns in the background. It all depends on how much the audience likes the star and the new character she plays.
For me, Jane Seymour has always been a special passion. Of course, I remember her from her ultra-sexy days when she was a James Bond girl--that would be in Roger Moore's first 007 movie, "Live and Let Die"--and for the many roles in which her lovely figure was on display a lot (i.e. "Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger.") I also spent a good part of a memorable day with her on the set of ABC's "East of Eden" miniseries and discovered she was as loveable in person as she was on screen and a very intelligent lady to boot.
It was during her run of "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman" that Jane made the transformation from hot number into family-safe TV icon. She's been pretty much G-rated ever since. I'm happy to report that at age 57, she's still trim and lovely and worth spending an hour or two with even in a reasonably insipid mystery show like "Dear Prudence" looks like it'll become.
If you loved "Murder, She Wrote"--and we mustn't forget it was TV's most-watched drama series for a decade--you'll probably really like "Dear Prudence," which seems to have all it would take to be a big hit for Hallmark Channel.
©2008 by Ron Miller. The photo is courtesy of The Hallmark Channel. This column first posted Aug. 18, 2008.
Ron
Miller is a former nationally syndicated television columnist
and the author of "Mystery! A Celebration," the official
companion book to PBS' "Mystery!" series. He currently
writes about television mysteries for MYSTERY SCENE magazine.
You can comment on this column online. Please address your message to either "The Editors" or Ron Miller. To send an email, click here and don't forget to mention Ron's name: talkback@thecolumnists.com
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