Jessica and a slew of passengers are forced to take refuge from a storm at a remote diner when one of the passengers is found stabbed in his seat on a bus to Boston.

Season 1, Episode 18: Murder Takes the Bus (March 17, 1985)

Tonight on Murder, She Wrote…

JB is giving a speech to the Maine Sheriffs’ Association and Amos picks her up, only for his car to die. So why not take the bus?

Who’s in it, outside of Angela Lansbury, and were they in any exploitation movies?

Jane Pascal is played by one of my biggest movie crushes, Linda Blair. Do I have to tell you what movies she was in? I mean, I did a list of Ten Linda Blair films. OK, The Exorcist, The Exorcist II: The Heretic, Born Innocent, Sarah T. – Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic, Airport 1975, Chained Heat, Savage Streets and so many more.

Sheriff Amos Tupper is, as always, Tom Bosely. Will this episode be the time he changes the title of the show to Amos, She Blew?

Ben Gibbons is Michael Constantine, Gus from My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Santa from Prancer and has roles in Thinner, Pray for Death and even a turn as The Sorcerer in Electra Woman and Dyna Girl.

Steve Pascal is Terence Knox, who was in Children of the Corn II, From a Whisper to a Scream and the TV show Tour of Duty.

Professor Kent Radford is Larry Linville, of course, Major Frank Burns from M*A*S*H*.

Miriam Radford is Rue McClanahan, uniting two of the biggest old lady franchises of the 80s, as The Golden Girls and Jessica, kinda, sorta cross over.

Joe Downing is Albert Salmi, whose true love was the stage, not movies or TV. Yet he would be on Daniel Boone and play Alonzo P. Tucker on Lost in Space. He was also in Escape from the Planet of the Apes, Viva Knievel!, Caddyshack, Superstition, Empire of the Ants and more. Sadly, he died in a murder-suicide with his second wife, Roberta, who had a restraining order against him.

Don Stroud plays Carey Drayson. Stroud was the son of vaudeville star Clarance Stroud and singer Ann McCormack. After a Hawaiian beach childhood — his mother owned and operated the popular Embers steakhouse/nightclub where she performed — he was picked by Troy Donahue to be his double on Hawaiian Eye. He moved to Los Angeles, where he managed the Whiskey-A-Go-Go before Sidney Poitier got him into acting. He’s in a bunch of the Roller Blade films — he’s Kabuki Devil in Legend of the Roller Blade Seven — as well as showing up in movies like Sweet Sixteen, The Amityville Horror, The Choirboys and Von Richthofen and Brown.

Ralph Leary is played by Mills Watson, who was in Cujo and Up In Smoke.

Cyrus Leffingwell is David Wayne, Dr. Amos Weatherby from House Calls. He was also in the movie version of It’s a Bird… It’s a Plane… It’s Superman! In a Golden Girls moment of trivia, he was Blanche’s father, Big Daddy Hollingsworth, on the show.

John Davis Chandler (Bleak from Adventures In Babysitting) is Gilbert Stoner.

Charles Bazaldua has the role of man. Just a man.

What happens?

If you’re on a bus with Jessica Fletcher and can hear the Psycho music, you are going to die. Everyone on this bus — which Jessica and Amos got on after their car broke down — has no clue. But it’s raining so hard that they decide to stop at the Kozy Korner Kitchen, one of those diners in the middle of nowhere that are open all night and only on TV shows.

One of the men on the bus is a recently released convict who has already battled with Steve Pascal, so is anyone surprised when that criminal ends up dead back on the bus? The crook had been in jail for 15 years. One of his partners died during a robbery and the other has never been seen after the shootout.

Jessica tries to clear her head and goes to play a video game. In a past episode, it was established that Jessica loves arcades.

Amos is on the case. When Jessica tells him that the woman killed by the convict has the same last name as the bus driver, he tells her that he already figured it out. Amos really wants to get going and win a TV set at the police event, but they’re stuck here. Maybe if he solves a case on his own, Jessica will finally give up her Cabot Cove.

Amos is right. The bus driver did stab the guy. But he was already dead.

So who is the killer?

The phone is out, but the CB is working. And yet, someone has a CB radio here, and that too gets destroyed. It gets shot. So everyone is cut off, by the rain, by the lack of phone, by the CB being blown up and now, a killer is loose.

Who did it?

Amos was right. The bus driver did kill the convict. He just tried to make everyone think they were in a giallo.

Who made it?

Another episode directed by Walter Grauman. It was written by Michael Scheff (who wrote Airport ’77) and his wife, Mary Ann Kasica.

Does Jessica get some?

Don’t you think she should show Amos some Happy Days because he finally got it right?

Does Jessica dress up or act drunk?

No, but she does wear a fashionable Burberry trench.

Was it any good?

I mean, this has a fantastic cast. I’ll say yes.

Any trivia?

Salmi is the only Murder, She Wrote suspect who ever really killed someone.

Is there a TV Guide ad?

Yes! Finally!

Give me a reasonable quote:

Jessica Fletcher: Oh, did you reach them?

Sheriff Amos Tupper: Yeah, said we’d be there about 8:00. Probably miss the hors d’oeuvres.

Jessica Fletcher: Well, no serious loss, I’m sure.

Sheriff Amos Tupper: Ms. Fletcher, the Main Sheriffs’ Association lays out the finest spread east of the Alleghenies.

What’s next?

While in the hospital with a fractured leg, Jessica investigates the murder of a doctor.