History YMMV / MurderSheWrote

** Jessica eating popcorn (from “[[Recap/MurderSheWroteS4E03WitnessForTheDefense Witness for the Defense]]") is a popular reaction GIF, mainly used in response to juicy gossip and the like.

** A pre-[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration TNG]] Creator/JohnDeLancie appears in the season 2 episode "If The Frame Fits". Creator/KateMulgrew presaged her own [[Series/SarTrekVoyager ''Trek'']] tenure by appearing in "The Corpse Flew First Class".

** A pre-[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration TNG]] Creator/JohnDeLancie appears in the season 2 episode "If The Frame Fits". Creator/KateMulgrew likewise appeared in "The Corpse Flew First Class" in the next season.

** A pre-[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration TNG]] Creator/JohnDeLancie appears in the season 2 episode "If The Frame Fits".

** The episode "Murder, Plain and Simple" does a good job of utilizing NothingIsScarier when Jessica finds the body of the VictimOfTheWeek, despite the scene taking place in broad daylight. Jessica is walking through a field early in the morning when she notices something strange about a nearby scarecrow in the distance, and gets closer when she realizes it's actually a dead body. There's no dialogue, and the use of Jessica completely alone while the background music heightens the sense of something being off makes the sequence totally unsettling.

* SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments:
** In "Simon Says, 'Color Me Dead'", Sheriff Tupper bonding with Tommy Rutledge and acting as a father figure is pretty sweet. He even contemplates adopting him if his mother gets convicted.
** In "Benedict Arnold Slipped Here", Dr. Hazlitt finds an antique chess set among Mrs. Adams' effects and gushes over it, even implying to Jessica that they could "forget" to put it with the rest of the stuff Mr. Tibbles is inheriting. He attempts to buy it from the Tibbles, but gets turned down. At the end of the episode, he laments there being no treasure in Mrs. Adams's house. Jessica tells him treasure is relative and reveals she bought him the chess set. He even kisses her on the cheek.
** Any point in "Something Borrowed, Someone Blue" when Donna looks happy. The poor girl has had a very stressful life so far, so seeing her beam with pleasure when Jessica gives her a family wedding gift or when the wedding finally comes to its conclusion without a hitch warms the heart.
** "A Body to Die For": When Eve is distraught after her business partner and crush turns up shot to death in her room, Jessica insists she come live at her house for a few days.
** "From the Horse's Mouth": Someone claims that King Paragon said one of his recent foals is going to be a champion. When Harry brings up Ms. Emmaline's earlier statement that horses can't tell the future, Mr. Morgan says that fathers can always tell when they have a magnificent child, clearly referring to his daughter.
** "[[Recap/MurderSheWroteS7E22TheSkinnyAccordingToNickCullhane The Skinny According to Nick Cullhane]]":
*** Just after getting the manuscript back from Ben Devlin, Jessica discovers that Mr. Forbes snuck into her house. He confronts her, demanding the manuscript...and then Harry walks in from behind her, gun drawn, and forces Forbes to sit down. Harry tells the man that he already has it in for him thanks to him killing Nick and punching Harry, but even contemplating hurting Jessica is beyond the pale.
*** After their sour start, with Harry calling Sheriff Metzger stupid and Metzger thinking Harry is a crook and possibly a killer, it's nice to see them finally come to an understanding by the end of the episode.

* NightmareFuel: The episode "Murder, Plain and Simple" does a good job of utilizing NothingIsScarier when Jessica finds the body of the VictimOfTheWeek, despite the scene taking place in broad daylight. Jessica is walking through a field early in the morning when she notices something strange about a nearby scarecrow in the distance, and gets closer when she realizes it's actually a dead body. There's no dialogue, and the use of Jessica completely alone while the background music heightens the sense of something being off makes the sequence totally unsettling.

* BaseBreakingCharacter: Out of the recurring characters, Jessica's nephew Grady, has quite the hatedom of people who get tired of his endless schtick of constantly being dumped by his new girlfriends, never having a steady job, failing at life in general, and taking up time in his episodes with unfunny comic relief. It feels like the writers kept wanting him to have his own show. That being said, there are those who feel he's a decently well-meaning AudienceSurrogate who provides some welcome consistency amidst the mind-bogglingly large stream of one-time characters in Jessica's life and in spite of his flaws, he has been shown to care quite deeply about his Aunt.

* NarrowedItDownToTheGuyIRecognize: Many guest stars turned out to be allies of Jessica's or a RedHerring, while a character played by a much less famous person was the actual killer. A guest star has just as good a chance at being the VictimOfTheWeek. In "Murder Digs Deep," the shifty {{Jerkass}} financing the episode's dig is played Robert Vaughn. He isn't the killer. It's his seemingly sweet wife, played by Connie Stevens. In "[[Recap/MurderSheWroteS4E17AVeryGoodYearForMurder A Very Good Year for Murder]]", the family patriarch played by Eli Wallach was the murderer.

* AwardSnub: Angela Lansbury: 12 Years, 12 Emmy nominations, not a single win.

* BaseBreakingCharacter: Out of the recurring characters, Jessica's nephew Grady, has quite the hatedom of people who get tired of his endless schtick of constantly being dumped by his new girlfriends, never having a steady job, failing at life in general, and taking up time in his episodes with unfunny comic relief. It feels like the writers kept wanting him to have his own show. That being said, there are those who feel he's a decently well-meaning AudienceSurrogate who provides some welcome consistency amidst the mind-bogglingly large stream of one-time characters in Jessica's life.

** George in "[[Recap/MurderSheWroteS6E20ShearMadness Shear Madness]]", a quiet, sweet man who goes through most of the episode with the accusation of murdering his sister's fiancés over his head. After the first one's death, he spent years of his life in a mental hospital and just after being released, a second gets murdered the same way, panicking him with the thought that he'll get locked up for life. It's made worse by the fact that he only killed the first fiancé accidentally in self-defense when the fiancé tried to stab him for knowing too much, and blanked everything out from the trauma.
* ValuesDissonance: Given that this was made in the 1980s and 1990s, some elements that may have been considered FairForItsDay may come across as insensitive and tone-deaf today, notably "Indian Giver." (Starting with the ''title,'' for one thing.) An Algonquin Native American (played by a Sri Lankan actor)[[note]]seriously, they couldn't have cast a Native actor? [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reel_Injun Native people participated in film and TV, writing and directing as well as acting]], from the earliest days of Hollywood[[/note]] dresses in a [[BraidsBeadsAndBuckskins war bonnet and paint]][[note]]War bonnets are Plains Indian, not Algonquian, and are not worn in battle; they're for sacred ceremonies, like the Pope's mitre[[/note]] and rides into town to lay claim to Cabot Cove under the terms of an old treaty. (Having him reveal he's also a Harvard Law School graduate is a kinder and truer type: many Native men and women ''have'' studied law in order to work for land restoration.) He's referred to as "the Indian" even after his name, George Longbow, is known. Turns out his land grant is real but he's a fraud; he's Algonquian, but not really a descendant of the old chiefs, and he just wants to levy tribute from Cabot Cove residents so he can start an education fund for "deserving" Native youth. When the townspeople find out that's what he's up to, they decide to start such a fund anyway. [[SarcasmMode Well gee, that's mighty white of you, ma'am]].

** In "Benedict Arnold Slipped Here", Dr. Hazlitt finds an antique chess set among Mrs. Adams' effects and gushes over it, even implying to Jessica that they could "forget" to put it with the rest of the stuff Mr. Tibbles is inheriting. He attempts to buy it from the Tibbles, but gets turned down. At the end of the episode, he laments there being no treasure in Mrs. Adams' house. Jessica tells him treasure is relative and reveals she bought him the chess set. He even kisses her on the cheek.

** Creator/GeorgeClooney and Creator/JuliannaMarguiles both appeared in episodes (separately) eons before ''Series/{{ER}}'' made them famous.

** In the episode "[[Recap/MurderSheWroteS8E8AKillingInVegas A Killing in Vegas]]," the hotel owner Wes [=McSorley=] refers to Jerry Pappas, the casino manager, as "the king of the one-armed bandits". Pappas is played by [[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0441537/?ref_=tt_cl_t3 Andreas Katsulas]] who, aside from his appearances on ''Series/BabylonFive'' and ''Franchise/StarTrek'', is famous for being the One-Armed killer in ''Film/TheFugitiv''e.

* BaseBreakingCharacter: Out of the recurring characters, Jessica's nephew Grady has quite the hatedom of people that get tired of his endless schtick of constantly being dumped by his new girlfriends, never having a steady job, failing at life in general, and taking up time in his episodes with unfunny comic relief. It feels like the writers kept wanting him to have his own show. That being said, there are those who feel he's a decently well-meaning AudienceSurrogate who provides some welcome consistency amidst the mind-bogglingly large stream of one-time characters in Jessica's life.
* BritishStuffiness: most of the upper-class characters in the 'Emma episodes'.

** In "It Runs In the Family", Emma [=McGill=], also played by Lansbury, laughs off returning to singing because her voice has "... more cracks than [[WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast an old teapot."]]

** "The Corpse Flew First Class" had a thief hiding a stolen necklace in a can of shaving cream. Wonder is that where [[Film/JurassicPark Lewis Dodgson got the idea for smuggling the embryos]] from.
** The episode ''Murder at the Electric Cathedral'' has Frank Bonner as a special guest star. [[spoiler:The very next episode has a murderer named ''Frank'' Kelso and a victim named Ed ''Bonner'']].

** In the episode [[Recap/MurderSheWroteS8E8AKillingInVegas A Killing in Vegas]], the hotel owner Wes [=McSorley=] refers to Jerry Pappas, the Casino Manager, as "the King of the One-Armed bandits". Pappas is played by [[https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0441537/?ref_=tt_cl_t3 Andreas Katsulas]] who, aside from his appearances on Series/BabylonFive and Franchise/StarTrek, is famous for being the One-Armed killer in Film/TheFugitive.

* {{Narm}}: The infamous drive-by swording sequence from "The Celtic Riddle".
* NarrowedItDownToTheGuyIRecognize: Many guest stars turned out to be allies of Jessica's or a RedHerring, while a character played by a much less famous person was the actual killer. A guest star has just as good a chance at being the VictimOfTheWeek. In "Murder Digs Deep," the shifty {{Jerkass}} financing the episode's dig is played Robert Vaughn. He isn't the killer. It's his seemingly sweet wife played by Connie Stevens. In "[[Recap/MurderSheWroteS4E17AVeryGoodYearForMurder A Very Good Year for Murder]]", where the family patriarch played by Eli Wallach was the murderer.
* NightmareFuel: The episode "Murder, Plain and Simple" does a good job of utilizing NothingIsScarier when Jessica finds the body of the VictimOfTheWeek, despite the scene taking place in broad daylight. Jessica is walking through a field early in the morning when she notices something strange about a nearby scarecrow in the distance, and gets closer when she realizes it's actually a dead body. There's no dialog and the use of Jessica completely alone while the background music heightens the sense of something being off makes the sequence totally unsettling.
* OlderThanTheyThink: The 1959 film version of ''Theatre/TheBat'' shares many elements with ''Murder, She Wrote'', such as mystery writer going to a small town while writing her next novel and getting wrapped up in a real murder mystery.

** Creator/BryanCranston plays a tennis player named Brian East, who is the VictimOfTheWeek in Season 2's "Menace Anyone". A decade later, he would return to the show as another one-off character for the Season 12 episode "Something Foul in Flappieville". By this point he was a far more established actor in television and film but this was still before his star-making role in ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle''.

** ''No one in this galaxy'' likes Marty from "[[Recap/MurderSheWroteS4E20ShowdownInSaskatchewan Showdown in Saskatchewan.]]" When you cheat on your wife (with whom you have a son), lie to your girlfriend about having a wife and kid, ''and'' [[ArsonMurderandJaywalking name your son Buster]], well... Marty should consider himself lucky that his girlfriend didn't tell his wife what he was up to...

** Considering the hatedom Grady gets compared to some of Jessica's lesser appearing relatives (like Carol Bannister Vicky and Howard and Howard Griffin and Nita Cochran) the producers might have missed a trick giving some of his episodes to them.
** Of the "Wasted in a single episode" characters, Ellsworth Buffum from "Joshua Peabody Died Here, Possily" might stand out, getting a nice introduction as a historical society member who has a slightly comedic interaction with Amos and then a BigDamnHeroes moment getting an injunction to stop a bulldozing, only to completely vanish for the rest of the episode, not being treated as a suspect, or being apparently involved in the further developments of the construction/burial site when he would have had reason to be interested in them.

** George in "[[Recap/MurderSheWroteS6E20ShearMadness Shear Madness]]", a quiet, sweet man who goes through most of the episode with the accusation of murdering his sister's fiances over his head. After the first one's death, he spent years of his life in a mental hospital and just after being released, a second gets murdered the same way, panicking him with the thought that he'll get locked up for life. It's made worse by the fact that he only killed the first fiance accidentally in self-defense when the fiance tried to stab him for knowing too much, and blanked everything out from the trauma.
* ValuesDissonance: Given that this was made in the 1980s and 1990s, some elements that may have been considered FairForItsDay may come across as insensitive and tone-deaf today, notably "Indian Giver." (Starting with the ''title,'' for one thing.) An Algonquin Native American (played by a Sri Lankan actor)[[note]]seriously, they couldn't have cast a Native actor? [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reel_Injun Native people participated in film and TV, writing and directing as well as acting]], from the earliest days of Hollywood[[/note]] dresses in a [[BraidsBeadsAndBuckskins war bonnet and paint]][[note]]War bonnets are Plains Indian, not Algonquian, and are not worn in battle; they're for sacred ceremonies, like the Pope's mitre[[/note]] and rides into town to lay claim to Cabot Cove under the terms of an old treaty. (Having him reveal he's also a Harvard Law School graduate is a kinder and truer type: many Native men and women have studied law in order to work for land restoration.) He's referred to as "the Indian" even after his name, George Longbow, is known. Turns out his land grant is real but he's a fraud; he's Algonquian, but not really a descendant of the old chiefs, and he just wants to levy tribute from Cabot Cove residents so he can start an education fund for "deserving" Native youth. When the townspeople find out that's what he's up to, they decide to start such a fund anyway. [[SarcasmMode Well gee, that's mighty white of you, ma'am]].
----

** ''No one in this galaxy'' likes Marty from "Showdown in Saskatchewan." When you cheat on your wife (with whom you have a son), lie to your girlfriend about having a wife and kid, ''and'' [[ArsonMurderandJaywalking name your son Buster]], well... Marty should consider himself lucky that his girlfriend didn't tell his wife what he was up to...

* OohMeAccent'sSlipping: Jessica's English cousin Emma cannot seem to decide whether she is a Londoner or a Yorkshirewoman.

* Ooh,MeAccent'sSlipping: Jessica's English cousin Emma cannot seem to decide whether she is a Londoner or a Yorkshirewoman.

* OohMeAccentIsSlipping: Jeesica's English cousin Emma cannot seem to decide whether she is a Londoner or a Yorkshirewoman.

* OohMeAccent'sSlipping: Jeesica's English cousin Emma cannot seem to decide whether she is a Londoner or a Yorkshirewoman.

** ''No one in this galaxy'' likes Marty from "Showdown in Saskatchewan." When you [[YourCheatingHeart cheat on your wife (with whom you have a son)]], lie to your girlfriend about having a wife and kid, ''and'' [[ArsonMurderandJaywalking name your son Buster]], well... Marty should consider himself lucky that his girlfriend didn't tell his wife what he was up to...

** George Clooney and Julianna Marguiles both appeared in episodes (separately) eons before ''Series/{{ER}}'' made them famous.

** Joaquin Phoenix appeared in the Season 1 episode "We're Off to Kill The Wizard" when he was only 10 years old. At the time he was so unknown he didn't even appear in the "Special Guest Stars" credits at the start of the episode.

* [[SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct She Really Can Act]]: Lois Chiles, considered by critics to be a rather flat presence in films like ''Film/{{Moonraker}}'' and ''Literature/DeathOnTheNile'', improves considerably in "The Return of Preston Giles" - so much so that when she fatally shoots Giles at the episode's end, she's almost chilling.