NEWHART: MURDER AT THE STRATLEY (TV)
Summary
One in this series of comedies about Dick and Joanna Loudon, who run a country inn in Vermont.
In this episode, George predicts a thunderstorm as Dick happily receives a shipment of his brand-new novel, "Murder at the Stratley," a crime thriller set at a cozy Vermont inn. Joanna is irked to find that the story features the bludgeoning murder of "Johanna" by her husband "Rick." Though Dick assures her that the tale is entirely fictional, everyone else in town starts noticing other familiar characters in the book, including librarian Miss Goddard, the apparent inspiration for "Rick's" attractive mistress.
The thunderstorm begins as Joanna heads off to Albany to visit her mother. Officer Shifflett is immediately suspicious when he finds Joanna's muddied sweater in Dick's car and announces that Dick, like Rick, is clearly a devious wife-killer. When the phone lines go down, an annoyed Dick is unable to verify Joanna's whereabouts; everyone else joins in to try to "crack the case," recreating the so-called crime scene as it plays out in the book. A well-placed clamato juice stain seems to confirm Dick's guilt, but "the ghost of" Joanna then returns in their midst, annoyed to have missed her train because of the weather. Dick then throws all of the ersatz detectives out of the inn. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: CBS
- DATE: May 15, 1989 10:30 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 19:23:40
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:65251
- GENRE: Comedy
- SUBJECT HEADING: Comedy; Novelists; Mystery
- SERIES RUN: CBS - TV series, 1982-1990
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Mark Egan … Executive Producer
- Mark Solomon … Executive Producer
- Matt Dinsmore … Coordinating Producer
- Shelley Zellman … Supervising Producer
- Bob Bendetson … Supervising Producer
- Stephen C. Grossman … Producer
- Michael C. Cannata … Associate Producer
- Michael Lessac … Director
- Sheldon Bull … Developed by
- Barry Kemp … Created by
- Billy Van Zandt … Writer
- Jane Milmore … Writer
- Tim Truman … Music by
- Terry Woodson … Music by
- Henry Mancini … Theme Music by
- Bob Newhart … Cast, Dick Loudon
- Mary Frann … Cast, Joanna Loudon
- Peter Scolari … Cast, Michael Harris
- Julia Duffy … Cast, Stephanie Vanderkellen
- Tom Poston … Cast, George Utley
- William Lanteau … Cast, Chester Wanamaker
- Todd Susman … Cast, Officer Shifflett
- Kathy Kinney … Cast, Miss Goddard
- Alvy Moore … Cast, Delivery Man