Robert Van Scoyck Movies

This week, Jessica (Angela Lansbury) is visiting the set of "Floppieville", a TV puppet show based on one of her children's stories. But it isn't kid stuff when the designer of the puppets finds out that someone is profiting from his ideas without proper credit or remuneration. Inevitably, a murder takes place--with one of the smiley-face Floppieville puppets as the weapon! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The CEO of a brokerage firm currently under Federal investigation suddenly disappears. Jessica (Angela Lansbury) becomes involved in the situation when the last call made by the missing executive is traced to her phone. A dogged Federal prosecutor demands that Jessica face the grand jury investigating the matter--and then charges her with contempt when she speaks to a witness who later turns up dead. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Tragedy strikes the publishing industry when Jessica Fletcher's editor Edward Graham (Robert Desiderio), a man known for his extreme mood swings, falls out of his Manhattan office window to his death. The police are content to rule Graham's demise as a suicide, but Jessica doesn't buy this. She is convinced that Graham was murdered--and possibly by someone very, very close to him. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Jessica (Angela Lansbury) is shocked when her computer technician is murdered--and even more so when it turns out that the dead man was actually a rookie cop, working undercover. Investigating the situation, Jessica forms a strong bond with the late cop's veteran partner. At the same time, the murderer plans to strike again...and this time the target may be the victim's girlfriend. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Millionaire oilman Buck Wilson (Wayne Tippet), the father of Jessica's editor, has disappeared--and along with him $150,000,000 from his corporate account has vanished. Brought in to investigate the matter, psychic Marika Valenti (Natalja Nogulich) claims to have had a vision that Wilson is dead. Jessica (Angela Lansbury) enters the fray when Marika herself turns up murdered. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

While dining out in Boston, Jessica (Angela Lansbury) and Seth (William Windom) are witness to a mob "hit." The victim is a member of the powerful Abruzzi crime family, who despite Seth's efforts to save him does not survive. Enter the dead man's vengeful son Michael (Vincent Irizarry), who kidnaps both Seth and Jessica--meaning that it is literally a matter of life and death for Jessica to find out who ordered the elder Abruzzi's assassination and prove to Michael that Seth was not responsible for his dad's demise. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Jessica (Angela Lansbury) serves as narrator for tonight's story, which centers around working-class private eye Frank Albertson (a pre-Politically Incorrect Bill Maher) and his wife Sunny (Faith Ford). After years of sponging off Frank and Sunny, Frank's uncle Charlie (John Finnegan) suddenly inherits a fortune--and just as suddenly disappears. Later on, a mangled corpse is found on a local railroad track, whereupon Frank attempts to claim the body as that of Uncle Charlie.. However, there seems to be several other people interested in claiming the corpse--and the aforementioned inheritance--themselves. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Cabot Cove's sheriff Amos Tupper (Tom Bosley) certainly has his hands full when his sister Winnie (Anne Meara) shows up on his doorstep, announcing that she has walked out on her husband. Before long, Amos is besieged by Winnie's ill-tempered Kentucky in-laws, who don't cotton to such matters as divorce. Things get worse when a bowl of home-made chowder intended for Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) is laced with poison--and Winnie's former husband dies as a result! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This week, Jessica is in Hartford, Connecticut--in the vicinity of Trinity College, to be exact. While walking along minding her business, Jessica is witness to the slaying of Adam Cosgrove,who with his dying breath confesses that he is a professional hit man. Before long, Jessica finds herself sequestered in a government "safe house", along with a priest who isn't a priest, and several shady-looking gentlemen all named after American presidents. And that's not all: turns out that the "dead man" isn't quite dead after all. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This episode reunites Jessica (Angela Lansbury) with her former sweetheart David Everett (Leslie Nielsen), a man of great charm--and a great capacity for causing trouble. This time, Everett has spearheaded a search for buried treasure off the coast of Cabot Cove. When one of the divers is murdered, Jessica agrees to investigate in hopes of clearing Everett's name, only to discover that, as usual, her ex-lover has not been entirely honest and above-board with her (nor anyone else, for that matter!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Jessica (Angela Lansbury) heads to a fashionable desert resort for a reunion with her college roommate Peggy (Piper Laurie). Unfortunately, the happiness of the occasion is compromised by the presence of Peggy's ex-husband, nasty showbiz star Johnny Shannon (Ed Ames. In fact, Johnny has made so many enemies that he has equipped his desert home with a wide variety of state-of-the-art security devices, just in case someone should want to murder him. Of course, someone does...and that someone is able to bypass the "infallible" security system with the greatest of ease. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Jessica (Angela Lansbury) arrives in Hollywood, where her first mystery novel "The Corpse Danced at Midnight" is being made into a movie. Unfortunately, Jessica is displeased by the decision of film producer Jerry Lydecker (John Saxon) to "juice up" her novel with heavy doses of sex and violence, and she makes no secret of her outrage. Thus it is that Jessica ends up on the suspect list when the highly unlikable Lydecker turns up murdered. John Astin, later a series semi-regular in the role of Cabot Cove real estate agent Harry Pierce, is here cast as Ross Hayley. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Season Six of Ironside gets under way with the first episode of a two-part story. Wheelchair-bound detective Robert Ironside (Raymond Burr) travels from San Francisco to Los Angeles, where his assistant Sgt. Ed Brown (Don Galloway) lies seriously wounded in a hospital bed, the victim of an unidentified sniper. The situation becomes graver still when it develops that Ed may well be paralyzed for life, just like Chief Ironside. Ed's only hope for a completely recovery rests with an experimental procedure developed by a brilliant surgeon named Ritter (Vic Morrow)--whose daughter has been kidnapped to prevent him from performing the operation! The conclusion of this story was originally seen on September 19, 1972 as the fourth-season opener of the NBC series The Bold Ones: The New Doctors, with the latter show's stars E.G. Marshall (Dr. David Craig) and David Hartman (Dr. Paul Hunter) appearing in both Parts One and Two. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide