User:Zanimum/Coal Miner's Slaughter

Deep in the hills of West Virginia, Jessica looks under the surface of a corrupt mining company that claims no responsibility for the death of two perceptive employees.

Cast

 * Angela Lansbury as Jessica Fletcher
 * Hoyt Axton as Sheriff Tate
 * Barbara Bain as Nora Morgan
 * Chuck Connors as Tyler Morgan
 * Cliff De Young as Carlton Reid
 * Marilyn Jones as Bridie Harmon
 * William R. Moses as Reese Morgan
 * Megan Mullally as Molly Connors
 * Denver Pyle as Eben Connors
 * Jared Rushton as Travis Harmon

Reception
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=D40xAAAAIBAJ&sjid=iwMEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5002,3446340&dq=coal-miner%27s-slaughter&hl=en http://www.tv.com/shows/murder-she-wrote/coal-miners-slaughter-15267/

AVC: I’ve never seen this episode you guest-starred in, but I have to ask you about it because it’s called “Coal Miner’s Slaughter.”

MM: [Laughs.] Okay, first of all, please watch it. You will not believe how amazing it is. I was 27 or 28; I had moved to L.A. when I was 26. I did really well the first year here, but then didn’t work for two years or something. This was, I think, the job that came at the end of those two years. I got a call, and I’d never been hired from anything just from my reel. I mean, I was destitute. I had no money, I didn’t know how I was going to pay my rent, and I got this call that I’d booked an episode of Murder, She Wrote off of my reel, and it paid $5,000. I think I literally dropped to my knees and started crying. I was ecstatic.

The first morning, my alarm didn’t go off and I was really late, and everybody was really mad. But then I did the first scene and they were like, “Oh, she’s good,” and Angela Lansbury took sort of a miniature shine to me. Nothing crazy, but she was really nice to me. She was a lovely person, very gracious, as you can imagine. She took a shine to me, and was very nice to me, and thought I was a really good actress. Well meanwhile, this episode—you know, the show had a lot of guest stars—had Barbara Bain and Hoyt Axton and [Chuck Connors and Denver Pyle], and they’ve all passed away except for Barbara Bain—and me. At the first act break, I get framed for murder, and Axton is the sheriff, and he says to me, “Molly, I’m puttin’ you under arrest for the murder of so-and-so,” and then it was literally one of the scenes where there’s music like [imitates dramatic music cue] and they cut to each person: Barbara Bain, Angela Lansbury, me, Axton, and some other celebrity. And they cut to each of our faces, separately, our reactions. Like, “What?! No! It couldn’t be! What’s happening?!”

AVC: It’s like a sketch or a spoof of a mystery show.

MM: It’s like SNL. Literally, like a sketch. And it was heaven on earth. I knew at the time we were shooting it that I was going to fucking love it because it was so queer. And it was.

AVC: So you went into it with a “This is silly” attitude?

MM: Well, no. I was just absolutely out-of-my-mind grateful that they offered me this job, because I could pay my rent for three months. It was like a miracle when I got that job, so I was really excited about it. But I also knew that it wasn’t, like, a cool, young, “Hollywood” thing to be doing. It was an episode of Murder, She Wrote, which was a very popular show, but not necessarily a “cool” show. But I’ve never cared if it was cool or not. Maybe my way of being elitist is to not be elitist? I don’t know. I’ll try anything, basically. I’ll say “yes” to pretty much anything, as long as the people involved are nice people. And I want the material to be relatively good, obviously, but I don’t care if it’s cool.

http://www.avclub.com/articles/megan-mullally,70133/