We open with an old movie star Rita Bristol (Vivian Blaine) enjoying one of her old films from, it appears, the 1940s. She is joined by her daughter Patti (Lorna Luft) and moments later, Rita's son, Barry joins them with good news-he has found a backer for a musical show titled Always April and they are going to be able to put the play on Broadway. Rita and Patti will play the leads.
By coincidence, they've hired Grady Fletcher to be bookkeeper for the show, so of course he gets his Aunt Jess to come down from Maine, where she can watch rehearsals and go to a special dinner with the cast and others. Grady is also excited for Jessica to meet his new girlfriend.
At rehearsal, we all see how poorly the director, Marc Faber (Robert Morse) treats his stars, causing harsh feelings.
There is an incident that will delay, or cancel the show, with someone dying and someone else being seriously injured. Not long after, a different character has to be rushed to the hospital.
Jessica is sure about one element related to the first incident, but overworked NY police sergeant Moreno (played by Gregory Sierra, who earlier was a detective in New York on Barney Miller) basically ignores what Jessica tells him, is delighted to have one case he can mark "closed" quickly, to move on to a fistful of other important cases. I was thinking he didn't learn too much from Barney when he had the chance.
So Jessica has to work on her own to find the clues that will lead her to the killer. When she does, she sets up a confrontation to try for a confession. She puts herself in harm's way with the way she did it and is lucky the person didn't cause her harm-or worse.
One big difference between this episode and most in this excellent series is that we had very few suspects in this case. Even with more, I thought the identity of the murderer was really obvious due to actions at the time that were all wrong for what should have been the reactions of people.
One highlight was a one-scene guest role of an agent played by Milton Berle. Too bad he wasn't in more scenes. Former McHale's Navy seaman Virgil (Edson Stroll) was also featured briefly.
I think the set-up was too obvious and the solution dangerously arranged by Jessica. This wasn't nearly the quality script we usually get. I have to give this one a 4. Sorry, I could not find a way to explain my major problems without giving away too much of the plot.
By coincidence, they've hired Grady Fletcher to be bookkeeper for the show, so of course he gets his Aunt Jess to come down from Maine, where she can watch rehearsals and go to a special dinner with the cast and others. Grady is also excited for Jessica to meet his new girlfriend.
At rehearsal, we all see how poorly the director, Marc Faber (Robert Morse) treats his stars, causing harsh feelings.
There is an incident that will delay, or cancel the show, with someone dying and someone else being seriously injured. Not long after, a different character has to be rushed to the hospital.
Jessica is sure about one element related to the first incident, but overworked NY police sergeant Moreno (played by Gregory Sierra, who earlier was a detective in New York on Barney Miller) basically ignores what Jessica tells him, is delighted to have one case he can mark "closed" quickly, to move on to a fistful of other important cases. I was thinking he didn't learn too much from Barney when he had the chance.
So Jessica has to work on her own to find the clues that will lead her to the killer. When she does, she sets up a confrontation to try for a confession. She puts herself in harm's way with the way she did it and is lucky the person didn't cause her harm-or worse.
One big difference between this episode and most in this excellent series is that we had very few suspects in this case. Even with more, I thought the identity of the murderer was really obvious due to actions at the time that were all wrong for what should have been the reactions of people.
One highlight was a one-scene guest role of an agent played by Milton Berle. Too bad he wasn't in more scenes. Former McHale's Navy seaman Virgil (Edson Stroll) was also featured briefly.
I think the set-up was too obvious and the solution dangerously arranged by Jessica. This wasn't nearly the quality script we usually get. I have to give this one a 4. Sorry, I could not find a way to explain my major problems without giving away too much of the plot.