This episode marks the only "MSW" episode for guest stars Charles Bazaldua, Linda Blair, Terence Knox, Rue McClanahan, Albert Salmi and David Wayne. Larry Linville, Albert Salmi and David Wayne have unfortunately since passed.
Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) boards the Cabot Cove bus en route to Boston, as Sheriff Amos Tupper (Tom Bosley), en route to an officer's banquet experiences automobile difficulty as a result of a storm, and joins her aboard.
Ben Gibbons (Michael Constantine) operates the bus, which contains six additional passengers: Librarian Miriam Radford (Rue McClanahan) and her husband, Professor Kent Radford (Larry Linville), young couple Jane Pascal (Linda Blair) and Steve Pascal (Terence Knox), Cyrus Leffingwell (David Wayne) and Joe Downing (Albert Salmi).
Carey Drayson (Don Stroud) also experiences engine difficulties from the storm, and emerges from his station wagon to flag down the bus, while carrying a briefcase, before entering. The bus also stops to pick up a lone Gilbert Stoner (John Davis Chandler), who enters, recognizing one of its passengers.
But as the bus exits Cabot Cove County (Sheriff Tupper's jurisdiction), its engine also becomes flooded as a result of the downpour, yet manages to arrive at a remote diner, operated by Ralph Leary (Mills Watson), for most of its passengers to seek refuge from the thunderstorm.
Jessica observes the gathering from a vantage point, from which she is also able to scrutinize the bus' interior through its windows, to which she observes activity around the one passenger who does not enter the restaurant--for he has been murdered, and discovered after being stabbed with a screwdriver, with no sign of blood upon his clothing.
As the plot unfolds, Jessica learns that the victim has been paroled from a state penitentiary, after serving time, along with two other men, for his part in a crime which had claimed the life of a young girl.
During the course of the ensuing investigation, it is discovered that a book which the victim had been carrying on board has vanished, that a citizen's band radio in a back room of the diner has been destroyed, that one of the passengers is discovered carrying a concealed weapon, and that there is another door from the diner leading toward the bus.
Jessica and Amos (although outside of his jurisdiction) must now make the connections between the co-conspirators of the crime of which the victim had been convicted, and also a connection, if any, between the child who had perished and anyone else currently stranded at the diner, among the nine sequestered from civilization, who appear at the same time frightened and very guilty-looking, as "Murder Takes the Bus." The cast is rounded out by Man (Charles Bazaldua).
Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) boards the Cabot Cove bus en route to Boston, as Sheriff Amos Tupper (Tom Bosley), en route to an officer's banquet experiences automobile difficulty as a result of a storm, and joins her aboard.
Ben Gibbons (Michael Constantine) operates the bus, which contains six additional passengers: Librarian Miriam Radford (Rue McClanahan) and her husband, Professor Kent Radford (Larry Linville), young couple Jane Pascal (Linda Blair) and Steve Pascal (Terence Knox), Cyrus Leffingwell (David Wayne) and Joe Downing (Albert Salmi).
Carey Drayson (Don Stroud) also experiences engine difficulties from the storm, and emerges from his station wagon to flag down the bus, while carrying a briefcase, before entering. The bus also stops to pick up a lone Gilbert Stoner (John Davis Chandler), who enters, recognizing one of its passengers.
But as the bus exits Cabot Cove County (Sheriff Tupper's jurisdiction), its engine also becomes flooded as a result of the downpour, yet manages to arrive at a remote diner, operated by Ralph Leary (Mills Watson), for most of its passengers to seek refuge from the thunderstorm.
Jessica observes the gathering from a vantage point, from which she is also able to scrutinize the bus' interior through its windows, to which she observes activity around the one passenger who does not enter the restaurant--for he has been murdered, and discovered after being stabbed with a screwdriver, with no sign of blood upon his clothing.
As the plot unfolds, Jessica learns that the victim has been paroled from a state penitentiary, after serving time, along with two other men, for his part in a crime which had claimed the life of a young girl.
During the course of the ensuing investigation, it is discovered that a book which the victim had been carrying on board has vanished, that a citizen's band radio in a back room of the diner has been destroyed, that one of the passengers is discovered carrying a concealed weapon, and that there is another door from the diner leading toward the bus.
Jessica and Amos (although outside of his jurisdiction) must now make the connections between the co-conspirators of the crime of which the victim had been convicted, and also a connection, if any, between the child who had perished and anyone else currently stranded at the diner, among the nine sequestered from civilization, who appear at the same time frightened and very guilty-looking, as "Murder Takes the Bus." The cast is rounded out by Man (Charles Bazaldua).