SUMMARY: RUNNING TIME: 47:00 Min.
First broadcast by CBS-TV, on October 12, 1986, Walter Grauman directed this episode off a script from Jackson Gillis.
Newly retired (for the third time), cantankerous police Lt. Detective Barney Kale (Hingle) postpones a trip-around-the-world going-away present from a grateful mayor. Instead, Kale publicly announces his intent to privately sleuth a controversial accidental drowning of city attorney Lowell Dixon years before at secluded Juniper Lake. Kale vehemently believes that Dixon was eliminated to head off investigating a shady property development deal in progress at the lake.
Blatantly re-opening personal wounds, Kale baits several of his ‘old’ suspects back to the lake’s cabin retreat property, including Dr. Seth Hazlitt (Windom). Worried about Seth’s emotional state, Jessica Fletcher & Sheriff Amos Tupper’s (Bosley) search for their friend takes them to the lake, too.
Shortly thereafter, an overnight homicide occurs, as well as an attempted murder of Kale himself. When a disheveled Seth finally turns up, he is again among Juniper Lake’s suspects. Yet, Jessica deduces that something else potentially sinister is brewing.
Jessica Fletcher: Angela Lansbury
Sheriff Amos Tupper: Tom Bosley
Dr. Seth Hazlitt: William Windom
Cynthia Tate: Hayley Mills
Maggie Roberts: Erin Moran
Gary Roberts: Erich Anderson
Dr. Terence Mayhew: Lloyd Bochner
Lt. Detective Barney Kale: Pat Hingle
Jake Sanford: Don DeFore
Sheriff McCoy: J.D. Cannon
Deputies: James Bartz & Phillip Clark
Ethel: Connie Sawyer
Mayor: William Mims
REVIEW:
Aside from Bosley & Moran’s mini-Happy Days reunion, this early Murder, She Wrote exudes an intriguingly ominous tinge. Supported by a veteran guest cast, Angela Lansbury keeps viewers mostly tuned into the ‘mystery’ of Juniper Lake, past and present. Clues are fair enough, though the more tantalizing mystery (Lowell Dixon’s death) is left unresolved, if only to avoid an ultra-convenient, cookie-cutter finish. Speaking of the finish, it’s surprisingly abrupt, as there’s no epilogue or even a sufficient last bit of dialogue – a rarity for this series.
“Unfinished Business,” overall, is a good episode worth catching. Still, one wishes it could have gone a few minutes longer to better wrap up what should have been a satisfying whodunnit.
BRIAN’S ODD MOON RATING: 6 Stars
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