Summary[]
A racehorse trainer is murdered as he is on his way to expose a racing fraud.
Starring[]
Regular cast[]
- Angela Lansbury as Jessica Fletcher
Guest stars[]
- Ami Dolenz as Tracey Noble
- Blake Gibbons as Sheriff Clyde Benson
- Tippi Hedren as Catherine Noble
- Stephen Macht as Lloyd Mentone
- Don Murray as Wally Hampton
- Sean O'Bryan as Paul Hampton
- Mickey Rooney as Matt Cleveland
- Shawnee Smith as Jill Cleveland
- Don Swayze as Gus Tardio
- Scott N. Stevens as Deputy Vernon Kelly
- Frank Farmer as Dr. Garney
- David Powledge as Delivery Driver (as Dave Powledge)
- Anne Lower as Pretty Girl at Restaurant (uncredited)
- Craig Shoemaker as Scott (uncredited)
Trivia[]
- Angela Lansbury and Mickey Rooney appeared in the horse racing themed film, National Velvet (1944).
- Angela Lansbury hired Don Mischer for his first attempt at directing a network dramatic film hour series scenario program. Don Mischer had only directed video taped variety and award program specials. Murder, She Wrote: Bloodlines (1993) was his only Murder, She Wrote (1984) directing credit.
- Mickey Rooney's character "Matt Cleveland" is murdered and the body is discovered in an adjacent trench on the horse-racing stable main entrance road. The night scenes were extensively filmed on a Southern California Hidden Hills race-horse stable and exterior grounds exterior location sight. Although a stand-in double scheduled to lay in the ditch-trench stood by, Mickey Rooney (born: 23 Sept 1920, age 73) insisted on performing, on camera, dead or alive! For every angle and shot of Matt Cleveland, during the Friday night's freezing six hour filming stint, Mickey would strike the same prone pose in the trench while the actors performed their road side trench scenes for the director and camera crew.
- Ami Dolenz's real-life father Mickey (of the Monkees) was considered for the role of Matt, while Tippi Hedren's real-life daughter Melanie Griffith was considered for the role of Tracey. While neither was cast, doing so would have added literal meaning to this episode's title.