Murder, She Wrote  Murder, She Wrote is an American crime drama television series starring Angela Lansbury as mystery writer and amateur detective Jessica Fletcher. The series aired for 12 seasons with 264 episodes from 1984 to 1996 on the CBS network. It was followed by four TV films. Among the most successful and longest-running television shows in history, it averaged more than 30 million viewers per week in its prime (sometimes hitting above 40 million viewers), and was a staple of the CBS Sunday night lineup for a decade. In syndication, the series is still highly successful throughout the world. For her work on "Murder, She Wrote", Lansbury was nominated for ten Golden Globes and 12 Emmy Awards, winning four Golden Globe awards. She holds the record for the most Golden Globe nominations and wins for Best Actress in a television drama series and the most Emmy nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. The series received three Emmy nominations for Outstanding Drama Series. It was nominated for a Golden Globe in the same category six times and won twice. After the series finished in 1996, four TV movies were released between 1997 and 2003. In 2009, a point-and-click video game was released for the PC platform, followed in 2012 by a sequel. A spin-off book series continues publication at present. Series producers Peter S. Fischer, Richard Levinson and William Link thought Lansbury would be perfect for the part of Jessica Fletcher but did not think that she would be interested in a television series. Earlier, she had acted in two film adaptations of Agatha Christie's mystery novels: as Salome Otterbourne in "Death on the Nile" and as Miss Marple in "The Mirror Crack'd" (1980). When the latter film did poorly—despite an all star cast including Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, Kim Novak, and Tony Curtis—the offer for Lansbury to reprise Miss Marple in three more films never materialized. When she made it known she would be available if the right project came along, the three creators sent her the script and almost immediately, Lansbury felt she could do something with the role of Jessica Fletcher. With "Murder, She Wrote" debuting on Sunday, September 30, 1984, the producers were able to parlay their "mystery writer/amateur detective" premise into a 12-year hit for CBS. It also made Lansbury, known previously for her motion picture and Broadway stage work, a household name for millions of television viewers. The title comes from "Murder, She Said", which was the title of a 1961 film adaptation of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple novel "".