By the late 1940s, Buster Keaton, the man who literally reinvented what a human body could do on film, was basically a ghost. He was doing daywork, a four-week circus stint in Paris and touring in a stage production of The Gorilla. It looked like the credits had rolled on one of the greatest careers in cinema.

Then came the magic of the vacuum tube.

In 1949, Ed Wynn (the Perfect Fool and a guy who knew talent when he saw it) brought Buster onto his variety show. It was the early days of TV, broadcast live on the West Coast, recorded on kinescopes and then physically mailed to the rest of the country like a weird cinematic chain letter. The reaction was electric. People remembered why they loved Buster.

This led to The Buster Keaton Show on KHJ (KTTV) in Los Angeles. As Buster put it: “It was one of the thrills of my life… I had almost given up hope of getting another real chance as an actor.”

Watching these episodes now is like looking at a lost civilization. Because there was no such thing as canned laughter yet, and the shows were often filmed without a studio audience, Buster’s brilliant, bone-crunching physical comedy often lands in a vacuum of silence. It’s eerie, beautiful and occasionally heartbreaking.

Eventually, producer Carl Hittleman tried to film a new version of the show in 1951 to syndicate it nationally, bringing in a Who’s Who of silent-era vets like Hank Mann and Harold Goodwin. They even re-titled it Life with Buster Keaton and chopped it up into a feature film called The Misadventures of Buster Keaton for the European market. It was marketed to kids as a slapstick museum piece, but we know better. This is the work of a master finding his feet in a brand-new world.

This set is a miracle of preservation. Archivist Jeff Joseph has done the heavy lifting here, digitally upgrading these rare kinescopes to high resolution. Out of the 13 original live episodes, only 9 remain. This set includes two holy grails: a February 2, 1950, episode that hasn’t been seen since the night it aired, and a February 23, 1950, episode making its first-ever home media appearance.

Extras on the Blu-ray include Three Comedians in Close-up (CBC-TV), an episode of This Your Life, rare footage of Keaton at the circus and two shorts, Cops and The Goat.  If you have any love for the history of the medium or the man who broke his neck for a gag and kept filming, you need this from MVD.

The reform mayor dies in a so-called “accident,” and the mayor’s father is murdered after he demands an investigation into it.

Season 3, Episode 20: The Cemetery Vote (April 5, 1987)

Jessica investigates when her nephew, a junior executive for a large accounting firm, is charged with tax fraud and the murder of his boss.

Who’s in it, outside of Angela Lansbury?

Bruce Davison plays David Carroll, and the man is a legend, appearing in Willard, The Lords of Salem, and so many more movies.

Ed Lauter is the law here; Sheriff Orville Yates and no one played the menacing authority figure better. He was the creepy attendant in Cujo, the cop dealing with Bronson in Death Wish 3 and fought off The Car.

Marie Windsor is Kate Gunnerson, and she was in The Day Mars Invaded Earth.

Jeff Yagher plays Deputy Wayne Beeler. He was in V.

Joseph Campanella is George McDaniels.

Charlene Tilton plays Cyndy March and is best known for Dallas.

Mitchell Ryan is Captain Ernest Lenko, and I will always know him for his role in Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers as Dr. Terence Wynn, the man behind the Cult of Thorn.

Ellen Bry plays Linda Stevens, John McLiam is Harry Stevens, Dick Balduzzi plays Gil Stokes, Katherine De Hetre is Rita, Zale Kessler plays the coroner, Neal Penso is a paramedic and Hank Robinson and Ilona Wilson are casino players.

What happens?

Look, we all know J.B. Fletcher has more dear old friends than a politician has skeletons in the closet, like the Angel of Death. This time, she’s trekking out to Comstock, Idaho. It’s another one of those fictional map-dots that seem to exist only so someone can get murdered in it.

Our girl Jess is living her best life in Rome when she rings up Seth Hazlitt and gets the skinny: Linda Stevens (who we assume is a Cabot Cove expat because they once shared a picnic on the beach) is now a widow. Her husband, the Mayor, took a permanent detour in a car crash. Jess does what Jess does. She cuts the pasta tour short and flies into the eye of the storm to comfort the grieving friend. But Linda’s father-in-law, Harry, isn’t buying the accident narrative. He thinks the town’s political machine is running on high-octane foul play.

So he dies too. Turns out, being the only guy in town asking the right questions is a great way to get a one-way ticket to the morgue.

Who did it?

Deputy Mayor David Carroll! Bruce Davison goes from clean-up candidate to clean the blood off the carpet real fast. Carroll was playing both sides of the fence, tipping off an illegal gambling ring about police raids. Why? Because he wanted their political support (read: dirty money and influence) to slide into the Mayor’s chair.

Who made it?

This was directed by Seymour Robbie and written by Robert Van Scoyk.

Does Jessica dress up and act stupid? Does she get some?

No. A serious and non-sexy J.B. Boo.

Was it any good?

It’s decent.

Any trivia?

The sound of the truck that runs Jessica and David off the road was taken from the made-for-TV movie Duel.

Give me a reasonable quote:

Jessica Fletcher: Well, I really have to get home. Amos Tupper may uphold the law, but I can’t trust him to water my plants.

What’s next?

Jessica investigates the possibility that a man spent 30 years in prison for a murder he did not commit. Art Hindle is in this episode!

Hey, remember when you went to college and your parents turned your bedroom into a sewing room? Well, Cecilia Matthews did one better. She turned it into a psychic freakout where a spectral brat who never grows up and never talks back finally makes her happy as a mother, unlike her real-life child. In this slice of 80s psychological weirdness (based on a Pamela Sargent short story), we meet Christine (Lorna Luft), who comes home for a warm hug only to get the cold shoulder from her mother, Cecilia (Coleen Gray), who is too busy listening to a ghostly child sing “Three Blind Mice” upstairs to hear her own flesh-and-blood daughter pounding on the door.

It’s been six years. Six years since Christine had a nervous breakdown, likely caused by the very woman now offering her tea while treating her like a trespasser. Cecilia has storage in Christine’s old room, a code word for a pink-hued time capsule filled with pom-poms, horse trophies and a literal ghost of Christine’s childhood.

Enter Chrissie (Virginia Keehne). She’s the girl Christine used to be, or at least, the girl Cecilia wanted her to stay. While Christine is trying to process her trauma and navigate a broken life, Cecilia is upstairs, tucked in with a poltergeist version of her daughter, feeding the thing pure nostalgia.

The second act turns into a battle for maternal territory. We get a visit from Toni (Janet Wood), the Avon lady, who drops the bomb that Cecilia spends an unhealthy amount of time talking to the walls. Then there’s brother Chuck (Lary Gilman), who tries to play peacemaker but mostly just serves as a reminder that Christine is the only one in this family actually living in the real world.

Christine confronts Chrissie, who is basically a sentient World’s Best Daughter trophy with a mean streak. There’s shouting, a shattered mirror, and a tug-of-war for Cecilia’s soul. In the end, the power of a grown-up’s grief beats out a phantom’s playground rhymes, as you’d imagine it would. Chrissie goes poof in a flash of light, Cecilia wakes up from her nostalgic trance, and we’re left with two women holding each other in the wreckage of a childhood bedroom.

Most of Christopher T. Welch’s directing work was on TV, while he has also done ADR and production work. This was written by Julie Selbo, who wrote for this series and Monsters, as well as animation.

Directed and written by John Harrison (Tales from the Darkside: The Movie) from a story by Ron Goulart, “Printer’s Devil” proves that if you own a small business in Tales from the Darkside, a supernatural entity is definitely going to show up to offer you a deal that ends with you screaming into the void.

Junior P. Harmon (Larry Manetti, taking a break from Magnum P.I.) is a hack writer whose career is deader than a Sunday matinee in a blizzard. He’s staring down the barrel of total failure until he meets Alex Kellaway (Charles Knapp), a creepy old man who looks like he smells of mothballs and brimstone. Kellaway offers him the ultimate ghostwriting deal: Junior gets the fame, the money, and the top of the bestseller list, provided he follows a very specific, very bloody set of instructions.

The catch? Kellaway’s muse doesn’t run on coffee; it runs on organic sacrifices. Junior starts small, knocking off pets to keep the hits coming, and soon he’s the toast of the town, moving in with his high-powered editor, Brenda Hardcastle (Nita Talbot). But the “Printer’s Devil” is a greedy editor, and soon the blood tax goes up. Before Junior can say Pulitzer, he realizes that when you sign a contract with a supernatural entity in a Darkside episode, the fine print is usually written in your own hemoglobin.

The episode even features a deep-cut Easter egg for the die-hards: the song playing on the radio is by Justine Bancroft, the character Lisa Bonet played in “The Satanic Piano.”

Someone is found dead after the engagement party for the offspring of two estranged comics.

Season 3, Episode 18: No Laughing Murder (March 15, 1987)

Welcome to Cooperville, New York. Jessica is in town to visit the Hiawatha Lodge, which is owned by the widower of Jessica’s dear, departed college pal. He’s a retired stand-up comic, and his daughter is set to walk down the aisle with the son of his former comedy partner, who’s now a bitter arch-nemesis.

Who’s in it, outside of Angela Lansbury?

Murray and Mack, the former comedy duo in this, are Buddy Hackett as Murray Gruen and Steve Lawrence as Mack Howard. 

Corrie Gruen, Murray’s daughter, is played by Beth Windsor, while her fiancé, Kip Howard, is played by George Clooney.

George Furth is played by Farley Pressman in one of his three roles on the show.

David Knell plays Police Chief Wylie B. Ledbetter.

Sheree North plays Norma Lewis. You might know her as Kramer’s mother.

Arte Johnson from Laugh-In is Phil Rinker.

Pat Crowley plays Trudy Howard.

In smaller roles, Pat Delany is Ms. Kline, Alice Nunn (Large Marge!) is Henrietta, Richardson Morse is Dr. Worth, Daniel Chodos is Al, Paul Ganus is a P.A., Ron Cey is a musician, 

What happens?

At a wedding bash that feels more like a wake, Mac (half of the comedy duo Murray and Mack) gets a knife in the back. He pulls through because you can’t kill a comic that easily. He’s probably died on stage a thousand times. The real tragedy? Phil, their agent, is found swinging from a rope in the storeroom.

The local law is represented by Wiley, a rookie cop who looks like he’s still waiting for his first shave. He knows he’s outclassed, so he leans on Jessica like a crutch. Our girl J.B. takes one look at the scene and realizes this wasn’t a suicide. It was a cold-blooded hit.

Phil had found the discrepancies in the books, so he had to be killed.

Who did it?

The investment advisor. It’s always the guy with the ledger. He was skimming the duo’s accounts to fund a lifestyle their jokes couldn’t actually afford.

Who made it?

This was directed by Walter Grauman and written by Tom Sawyer, one of the 20+ episodes he wrote. 

Does Jessica dress up and act stupid? Does she get some?

No, and I am beyond enraged.

Was it any good?

It’s decent, even if it feels like every detective show has a comedy partner murder.

Any trivia?

Mack and Murray do an Abbott and Costello routine from Rio Rita.

While we’re discussing fighting comedic teams, Buddy Hackett played Bud Abbott in Bud and Lou. 

Give me a reasonable quote:

Murray Gruen: Well, actually, I am here. And, Mack, I gotta be here in this town. You see, I met this… I met this broad here in the town, and… Sh-She kinda expects me… to take her on a honeymoon.

Norma Lewis: Honeymoon? Honeymoon?

Trudy Howard: Oh! That’s great!

Norma Lewis: A honeymoon!

What’s next?

Grady Fletcher is in big trouble again when his boss is found dead and he is the main suspect.

Archie Fenton (Robert Knepper, Cards of Death and T-Bag on Prison Break) thinks he’s scored the real estate deal of the century: a swanky, high-tech room in the St. George Apartments for $200 a month. The catch? The landlady, Madame Angler (Marie Windsor, who was in everything from Commando Squad and Salem’s Lot to Chamber of Horrors, Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy and Cat-Women of the Moon), has some weird house rules. No nails in the walls, no microwaves and most importantly, he has to provide organic garbage with no bags.

That’s because the building is alive. And it’s quite sensitive. When Archie nails a picture to the wall, the building bleeds. When he tries to feed the disposal unit a bag of chemicals and broken glass, his domicile gets a nasty case of indigestion.

Archie figures out that the previous tenant, Helen (Patricia Pelham), didn’t move out. She was the main course. Madame Angler and her dragon-jacket-wearing goons, Al and Mac (Ben Frank and Robert Sutton), explain that the building needs to be respected. Archie tries to fight back, but this ends with a giant reptilian tongue slithering out of the disposal chute to drag him into the building’s digestive tract.

This was directed by John Strysik (who also wrote several episodes) and written by Harvey Jacobs and Michael McDowell from a story by Adam K. Jacobs.

Get it? There’s a dragon in a building called the St. George.

Jessica investigates when an artist is murdered and his prized painting is missing.

Season 3, Episode 17: Simon Says, Color Me Dead (March 1, 1987)

Simon Thane is a celebrated artist living in Cabot Cove. For the last several years, Thane has jealously guarded his favorite painting, which he has never allowed to be seen publicly. Jessica becomes involved in the story when Thane is murdered and his prized painting stolen, leading our heroine to conclude that the mysterious work of art may contain a clue as to the killer’s identity.

Who’s in it, outside of Angela Lansbury?

As always, Tom Bosley as Sheriff Amos Tupper and William Windom as Dr. Seth Hazlitt are here.

Diane Baker (The Haunted, The Old Man Who Cried Wolf) is Eleanor Thane.

Comedian Foster Brooks plays Simon Thane.

Ann Dusenberry, Tina from Jaws 2, is Carol Selby.

Leonard Frey is Felix Casslaw.

Tess Harper (Tender Mercies) is Irene Rutledge.

Steve Inwood (Cruising) is Cash Logan.

Dick Sargent (Bewitched) is George Selby.

Chris Hebert (Invaders from Mars) is Tommy Rutledge.

In smaller roles, Phillip Clark is Deputy Collins and Daryl Lynn Wood is Martha Sommers.

What happens?

Simon and Eleanor Thane have been staying in Cabot Cove, but haven’t even tried to spend time with J.B. She’s busy being, well, Jessica. Ever the mediator, she steps in when Martha Sommers accuses young Tommy Rutledge of bike theft. Jessica’s solution is to gift Tommy a bike once owned by her late husband, Frank. This highlights her maternal warmth, contrasting sharply with the cold, pretentious salon hosted by the Thanes later that evening, which they at least remember to invite her to.

Yes, Simon Thane isn’t just a celebrated artist. He’s a man who thrives on being the smartest and most elusive person in the room. Living in Cabot Cove for the quiet atmosphere, he has spent his final years obsessively guarding a secret masterpiece.

Man, the guest list is a powder keg. Felix Casslaw is a gallery owner smelling a massive payday; Carol and George Selby seem to have a deep, albeit strained connection to Simon and Eleanor, Simon’s wife, who has spent years in the shadow of his genius and his moods.

Hours after everyone leaves, young Tommy wakes up to a bloody Irene who tells him to go back to bed. Everyone else wakes up to a dead Simon and a missing painting. Irene swears she didn’t kill him, but Amos is convinced that it’s a crime of passion, remarking that “Just because there’s snow on the roof doesn’t mean there’s not fire in the hearth.”

Is he projecting his cop boner onto his favorite mystery writer?

Now, Carol believes that Cabot Cove should have a Simon Thane exhibition and it seems like everyone wants to get richer off his death. Irene claims that before Eleanor went to bed, she went to see Simon to get the money he owed her, but he was already dead. Somehow, in the middle of all of this, we learn that Irene isn’t Tommy’s real mom. An awful lot happens in Cabot Cove.

Anyway, we got a dead artist, and this is why Simon and Eleanor were not talking to J.N. Simon had to die to learn that lesson.

Who did it?

Jessica realizes that the painting wasn’t stolen just for its monetary value. It was stolen because it was a confession in oil. The painting revealed Simon’s true obsession with Carol Selby, but it also captured a truth about their relationship that Carol couldn’t allow to become public. Simon was in love with her; she just would cock tease him by letting him paint her, but the truth is that she never loved him.

Who made it?

Kevin G. Cremin, who was an assistant director on several other episodes, directed. It was written Robert E. Swanson, one of 87 episodes he told the story of.

Does Jessica dress up and act stupid? Does she get some?

No. I say it’s high time we get that.

Was it any good?

Haven’t we already had another artist die on this show? Yes. Many more will die before we’re done.

Any trivia?

Diane Baker and Steve Inwood would be in three more episodes as different characters.

Give me a reasonable quote:

Jessica Fletcher: I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if they started seeing quite a lot of each other. How about some more coffee, Amos? And I will tell you something else to put into your amnesia file.

What’s next?

Jessica investigates when an artist is murdered, and his prized painting is missing.