Horton Foote is the author and his daughter Hallie Foote the star of The Courtship. Set in 1915, this minimalist character piece details the courting customs in the small Texas town of Harrison. Hallie, the daughter of a prosperous small-town family, is sought after by travelling salesman William Converse-Roberts, who must prove himself worthy of her hand. The emphasis is on Hallie, who sees marriage as the most expedient means of escaping the tyranny of her father (Michael Higgins). The Courtship was the first five nostalgic Horton Foote plays which originally aired on the PBS American Playhouse series from April 4 to May 1, 1987, under the umbrella title Story of A Marriage. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide.

The pride of Cabot Cove, ME, sprightly mystery novelist Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) indulges her hobby of solving real-life murders throughout the first season of Murder, She Wrote. No sooner had the series joined CBS' Sunday-night lineup than Jessica was busily trying to determine who killed a Sherlock Holmes lookalike at a costume ball. In the second episode, Tom Bosley is introduced as Jessica's best friend, Cabot Cove sheriff Amos Tupper, who as usual gripes and grumbles that Jessica is sticking her nose where she shouldn't -- and putting herself in harm's way in the process -- as she tries to find out who knocked off a wealthy and much-hated patriarch. Likewise bemused by Jessica's private investigations is Tupper's superior officer Captain Ethan Cragg, a character played during season one by Claude Akins. Michael Horton also pops up for the first time in the role of Jessica's trouble-prone nephew Grady. Among the special guest suspects (and special guest victims) seen during Murder, She Wrote's m