Pilot. The Murder Of Sherlock Holmes  

First aired: 9/30/1984    Production Code: 59274

Jessica Fletcher, a retired schoolteacher from Cabot Cove, Maine, is shocked to find out that not only did her nephew send her manuscript to a publisher, but it's been accepted! Rushed to New York, Jessica is caught up in a whirlwind of publicity tours, book signings, and public appearances, but everything takes a turn when she attends a costume party in New Holvang and a private investigator dressed as Sherlock Holmes ends up facedown in the pool, shot. Jessica initially tries to stay out of things until her nephew Grady becomes the prime suspect, and Jessica decides to take matters into her own hands while fighting her attraction to Preston Giles, the first man to interest her since the death of her husband Frank.

1. Deadly Lady  

First aired: 10/7/1984    Production Code: 59206

After a terrible storm in Cabot Cove, Stephen Earl's four daughters tell Sheriff Tupper that their father died while they were out on the boat. Jessica is only midly intrigued; she finds Ralph, the older gentleman who has offered to work for food, much more intriguing, especially since it is obvious he comes from money. The womens' stories about what happened on the boat change constantly, but once Ralph is found dead and later found to be Stephen Earl, Jessica has to help Amos wage through the inconsistencies in the four Earl daughters storylines to determine who killed their father and why.

2. Birds of a Feather  

First aired: 10/14/1984    Production Code: 59203

Jessica heads to San Francisco for the wedding of her niece, Victoria Brandon, only to learn that Victoria is having second thoughts because she suspects that her fiancé, Howard, is having an affair. Although Jessica and Victoria are relieved to learn that Howard isn't cheating but rather dressing up as a woman to perform at a nightclub, Les Champignons, the relief is short lived when Howard is arrested for murdering his boss, Al Drake, who had been refusing to pay him. The police are convinced that Drake was shot during Freddy York's act, which doesn't leave a lot of time, but Jessica is determined to prove Howard's innocence.

3. Hooray for Homicide  

First aired: 10/28/1984    Production Code: 59201

Jessica's first book, The Corpse Danced at Midnight, is being made into a major Hollywood motion picture, backed by producer Jerry Lydecker. Jessica is furious to see how her book is being butchered by Lydecker and his crew. She heads out to Hollywood to confront Lydecker, but things take a turn when Lydecker is found dead on stage. Jessica ends up being the prime suspect in the murder, but luckily the officer in charge of the investigation believes she's too smart to be the killer and sets her up to find the real murderer.

4. It's A Dog's Life  

First aired: 11/4/1984    Production Code: 59208

Jessica is visiting her cousin Abby at Langley Estate in Greenville, Virginia, when the estate owner Denton Langley dies after a fall from his horse. Abby is suspicious, convinced that something went wrong with the horse and that Langley's death was not an accident. Jessica agrees to stay with Abby for awhile longer, and to look into who may have killed Denton Langley. After Langley's will reveals that he left everything to his dog, Teddy, the family is determined to get their hands on the money by having the dog declared a murderer.

5. Lovers and Other Killers  

First aired: 11/18/1984    Production Code: 59207

Jessica agrees to a series of lectures at a Seattle university as a favor to an old friend, Edmund Gerard, and soon finds herself mixed up in a murder mystery after David Tolliver, the young man that she hires to work as her secretary while she's there, is accused of having killed Allison Brevard, an older woman who had given David money. Jessica decides to try to help the young man who, although she believes is a liar and a con artist, she does not believe to be a killer. Things get worse David's supposed alibi, Lila Schroeder, is found murdered, and Jessica learns that there were a number of people who had reason to want Lila dead.

6. Hit, Run and Homicide  

First aired: 11/25/1984    Production Code: 59216

After a driverless car runs down Charles Woodley, who is in Cabot Cove looking up a former employee who happens to be Jessica's friend, Jessica tries to help Daniel O'Brien prove that he wasn't connected to Woodley's near-fatal accident, or the death of Woodley's partner, Dean Merrill, who had also come to Cabot Cove at Woodley's request. Although Daniel's nephew and longtime friend Katie are convinced of his innocence, Tony's fiancée Leslie also seems to be believing that Daniel could have been responsible for Merrill's death and suggests to Tony that Daniel may be losing his mind.

7. We're Off To Kill The Wizard  

First aired: 12/9/1984    Production Code: 59204

During a visit with her niece in Chicago, Jessica is summoned to the offices of 'Horrible' Horatio Baldwin, who would like to adapt her books into an attraction for his amusement park. When he is found murdered shortly after, Jessica is asked by the police captain to help with the investigation, which seems to be centering on Baldwin's missing secretary, Laurie Bascomb. Jessica initially wants nothing to do with the investigation, but since everyone, including the dead man's widow (who is willing to pay her $100,000 to prove he was murdered), wants Jessica to investigate, she finally agrees to take a look into the matter.

8. Death Takes A Curtain Call  

First aired: 12/16/1984    Production Code: 59219

Jessica heads to Boston with Leo Peterson, an old friend in Cabot Cove, to attend a special presentation of the Rostov Ballet. When the stars of the ballet are missing during the curtain call, Leo rushes Jessica out of the theatre where she finds that he has helped his grandniece, Natalia Masurov, and her husband Alexander so that the two can defect to the United States like he had done many years earlier. Their plans to announce their defection to the federal authorities fall by the wayside when they are accused of murdering the security guard found dead in their dressing room, and Jessica enlists Ethan's help in hiding the young lovers while the K.G.B. keeps their eye on her and Leo.

9. Death Casts A Spell  

First aired: 12/30/1984    Production Code: 59211

Jessica's deductive abilities are in demand when a flamboyant hypnotist turns up dead, behind locked doors, in front of an audience of journalists whom he had put into a trance.

10. Capitol Offense  

First aired: 1/6/1985    Production Code: 59220

Jessica is assigned to fill the empty seat of a deceased congressman for a brief period of time and finds a great deal of political game-playing in Washington.

11. Broadway Malady  

First aired: 1/13/1985    Production Code: 59209

Broadway legend Rita Bristol and her daughter star in a musical produced by her son, not knowing that murder is lurking in the wings.

12. Murder to a Jazz Beat  

First aired: 2/3/1985    Production Code: 59212

While in New Orleans, Jessica must solve the mysterious murder of a famous musician who died while performing onstage.

13. My Johnny Lies Over The Ocean  

First aired: 2/10/1985    Production Code: 59210

Jessica's niece is terrorized with reminders of her dead husband on a cruise intended to take her mind off her husband's recent suicide.

14. Paint Me A Murder  

First aired: 2/17/1985    Production Code: 59215

The life of a famous artist is threatened on what would be otherwise an idyllic Mediterranean island.

15. Tough Guys Don't Die  

First aired: 2/24/1985    Production Code: 59223

Archie Miles, a private investigator Jessica had hired to research an old murder case, is shot to death in his office. His partner, a hard-boiled detective named Harry McGraw, is determined to find the killer and exact his own justice. Harry teams up with Jessica to see if her case got the man killed. Along the way, a strong partnership and friendship develops between the two sleuths.

16. Sudden Death  

First aired: 3/3/1985    Production Code: 59217

Jessica suddenly must learn all about football when she inherits an interest in a professional team.

17. Footnote to Murder  

First aired: 3/10/1985    Production Code: 59221

An unpublished manuscript is stolen and its author murdered during an awards convention.

18. Murder Takes the Bus  

First aired: 3/17/1985    Production Code: 59231

Bus trips are not always as relaxing as they should be. In this case, one passenger had a one-way ticket.

19. Armed Response  

First aired: 3/31/1985    Production Code: 59228

Over Jessica's protests, she is taken to a hospital after a minor accident in the airport.

20. Murder at the Oasis  

First aired: 4/7/1985    Production Code: 59222

An unpopular show-business personality discovers that elaborate security systems are no guarantee of safety.

21. Funeral at Fifty-mile  

First aired: 4/21/1985    Production Code: 59226

A Wyoming rancher leaves all to a stranger, to the disgust of his disinherited daughter. When the man is found hanged in the barn, the police are quick to rule it suicide, but Jessica notices bruising on the corpse that suggests he was murdered. With so many enemies, Jessica has a deep pool of suspects and discovers that the solution to the case is linked to a decades-old secret shared by the victim and his killer.