Any child of the 1980s will remember at least one sick day spent at home from school, under a blanket, in front of the (very boxy) television, watching Murder, She Wrote. This gentlest of crime procedurals ran from 1984 to 1996 and featured guest stars like Joaquin Phoenix (about 10 years old at the time), Cynthia Nixon, Bryan Cranston, Jerry Stiller, Linda Hamilton and Neil Patrick Harris.
For those of you not currently languishing in middle age, the CBS show centered around Jessica Fletcher, a witty woman of a certain age played with aplomb by Angela Lansbury. Fletcher, mostly a mystery novel writer by trade, encountered murder and mayhem in her every day life, but always managed to solve whatever crime was in front of her. So yes, she was essentially Agatha Christie and Hercule Poirot at the same time. (Or a very masterful serial killer, if everyone’s mom’s theory is correct.)
As luck would have it, much of Murder, She Wrote was filmed a short drive up the coast from the Bay Area, in Mendocino. As such, it’s long been a tourist destination for Jessica Fletcher stans keen to get a first hand taste of “Cabot Cove.” That never-ending stream of visitors gave the folks at the local Kelley House Museum the idea to start a full-blown Murder, She Wrote walking tour. Now, they regularly guide groups around a dozen major landmarks from the show, including Fletcher’s beautiful home (locally known as the Blair House Inn) and Cabot Cove docks (Noyo Harbor), while sharing behind-the-scenes stories from the series.
The next Murder, She Wrote Tour is on Saturday, Jan. 25 at 11 a.m. and lasts 90 minutes. Tickets are still available, but fear not if you can’t make it — the Kelley House Museum does group tours by request, that aren’t listed on their website. You just have to email them and coordinate. (They also do this for their Haunted Mendocino tour, which is additionally worth a visit.)