This week should have been Murder, She Wrote S3 E8 “Magnum on Ice,” but as that episode starts here in the first crossover between Murder, She Wrote and Magnum, P.I., let’s get into the world of Thomas Magnum. 

In case you’ve never watched the show, Thomas Sullivan Magnum IV (Tom Selleck) lives in the Hawaiian guest house of an opulent 200-acre beachfront estate known as Robin’s Nest. At some point, he provided services for its owner, world-famous novelist Robin Masters (voiced by Orson Welles for all but the final time when Red Crandell spoke for the character), and he’s been allowed full run of the estate and use of the author’s Ferrari 308 GTB/GTS in exchange for some nebulous security detail. In between, he takes on cases that rarely pay and often put his life in danger. His arch-nemesis is Jonathan Quayle Higgins III (John Hillerman). Like Magnum, he’s ex-army, but he’s by the book, while our hero is laid-back. He’s in charge of Robin’s estate, patrolling it with his twin Dobermans, Zeus and Apollo. The relationship grows and changes as the series progresses, going from antagonistic to near friendship by the close, as well as the suspicion that Higgins is Robin Masters.

This episode begins with Higgins driving guest Pamela Bates (Dorothy Loudon) to the Robin’s Nest when someone tries to run them off the road. Usually, this is where Magnum would come in, but Pamela wants her mainland friend to take the case. That ends up being Jessica Fletcher. If you see this in syndication, they re-edited it to be a standalone episode. However, this was a two-parter that really did crossover the two different TV shows. Man, I love a crossover ep. In the original version, Magnum catches the killer and, after a gunfight, shoots the man. But then the evidence makes it look like he shot him in the back, so Jessica has to exonerate him.

How about this IMDbs? “Larry Manetti (who played Rick) stated that he did not enjoy working with Angela Lansbury, as she couldn’t be bothered talking to him during filming. Larry got the vibe that Angela felt she was “above” him.”

I always go all in on asking if Jessica has any in her stories. Well, here Jessica Walter, yes, the Blutch family matriarch, is all up in Thomas Magnum’s hairy business. While this episode isn’t the best, it was the Marvel Cinematic Universe for 1980s TV kids, connecting two worlds we never knew could be united.