7.6/10535 votes#1 - Death Stalks the Big Top (1)
Season 3 Episode 1 - Aired 9/28/1986
Jessica's niece receives a gift from her grandfather---a man long thought dead---which leads Jessica (Angela Lansbury) to a circus beset by accidents and murder. Part 1 of two. Neil Fletcher: Jackie Cooper. Edgar Carmody: Martin Balsam. Brad Kaneally: Greg Evigan. Katie McCallum: Pamela Susan Shoop.
Director: Seymour Robbie
Writer: Paul Savage
7.5/10488 votes#2 - Death Stalks the Big Top (2)
Season 3 Episode 2 - Aired 10/5/1986
Conclusion. Despite her brother-in-law's confession, Jessica refuses to believe he killed the circus foreman. Neil Fletcher: Jackie Cooper. Preston Bartholomew: Alex Cord. Edgar Carmody: Martin Balsam. Brad Kaneally: Greg Evigan. Katie McCallum: Pamela Susan Shoop.
Director: Seymour Robbie
Writer: Paul Savage
7.2/10501 votes#3 - Unfinished Business
Season 3 Episode 3 - Aired 10/12/1986
A retired policeman decides to re-examine an old case he never solved in which Seth was a strong suspect.
Director: Walter Grauman
Writer: Jackson Gillis
7.4/10478 votes#4 - One White Rose for Death
Season 3 Episode 4 - Aired 10/19/1986
Attending a concert in Washington, D.C., Jessica gets involved with two East German defectors and a murder.
Director: Peter Crane
Writer: Peter S. Fischer
7.2/10474 votes#5 - Corned Beef And Carnage
Season 3 Episode 5 - Aired 11/2/1986
An adman handling the account of a fast-food chain is murdered and Jessica smells something funny.
Director: John Llewellyn Moxey
Writer: Robert Swanson
7.2/10487 votes#6 - Dead Man's Gold
Season 3 Episode 6 - Aired 11/9/1986
While diving for sunken treasure near Cabot Cove, a young woman is murdered.
Director: Seymour Robbie
Writer: N/A
7.4/10438 votes#7 - Deadline for Murder
Season 3 Episode 7 - Aired 11/16/1986
A veteran reporter, who suffered a heart attack, says his best medicine would be the removal of his publisher who has turned a good paper into a yellow rag.
Director: Seymour Robbie
Writer: Tom Sawyer, Michael McGough
7.5/10523 votes#8 - Magnum on Ice (II)
Season 3 Episode 8 - Aired 11/23/1986
Jessica offers to help Thomas Magnum, who has been accused of killing a hitman with an unknown target. The crossover starts on Magnum, P.I. S07E09 Novel Connection (I).
Director: Peter Crane
Writer: Robert Swanson
7.5/10469 votes#9 - Obituary for a Dead Anchor
Season 3 Episode 9 - Aired 12/7/1986
Jessica reluctantly agrees to do an interview for an old friend, Paula Roman, but is surprised when Kevin Keats, a journalist who had been doing a series of stories on an art dealer who was really a drug dealer, shows up to do the interview, complete with cameras and crew. After Kevin is presumed dead when a boat Amos chartered for him explodes, Cabot Cove explodes with press and paparazzi, and the citizens blame Jessica for all the problems it causes, demanding that she solve the mystery. Unfortunately, once Keats is revealed to be alive and well, the real question is who the true target was.
Director: Walter Grauman
Writer: Robert Van Scoyk
7.4/10459 votes#10 - Stage Struck
Season 3 Episode 10 - Aired 12/14/1986
The murder of the leading lady's understudy disrupts rehearsals of a play starring two previously married, but now warring, actors.
Director: Walter Grauman, John Astin
Writer: N/A
7.5/10506 votes#11 - Night of the Headless Horseman
Season 3 Episode 11 - Aired 1/4/1987
The 'headless' horseman rides again, but his costume becomes more realistic.
Director: Walter Grauman
Writer: R. Barker Price
8.4/10630 votes#12 - The Corpse Flew First Class
Season 3 Episode 12 - Aired 1/18/1987
Theft and murder of the courier occur on board a jet bound for London.
Director: Walter Grauman
Writer: Donald Ross
8.0/10594 votes#13 - Crossed Up
Season 3 Episode 13 - Aired 2/1/1987
The phone wires get crossed during a storm and Jessica can't convince anyone that what she heard was real.
Director: David Hemmings
Writer: Craig W. Van Sickle
6.7/10511 votes#14 - Murder in a Minor Key
Season 3 Episode 14 - Aired 2/8/1987
Jessica tells the tale of a composer accused of killing the professor who plagiarized his music.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
7.4/10425 votes#15 - The Bottom Line Is Murder
Season 3 Episode 15 - Aired 2/15/1987
A lying TV Consumer advocate is killed. Was it done by one of the clients whose products he maligned?
Director: Anthony Pullen Shaw
Writer: Craig W. Van Sickle
7.1/10434 votes#16 - Death Takes a Dive
Season 3 Episode 16 - Aired 2/22/1987
Jessica inherits a boxer's contract and her old friend; Harry McGraw is accused of murdering its former owner.
Director: Seymour Robbie
Writer: Peter S. Fischer
7.5/10450 votes#17 - Simon Says, Color Me Dead
Season 3 Episode 17 - Aired 3/1/1987
An artist is murdered and his prized painting is missing.
Director: Walter Grauman
Writer: Robert Swanson
7.3/10500 votes#18 - No Laughing Murder
Season 3 Episode 18 - Aired 3/15/1987
After the engagement party for the offspring of two estranged comics, someone is found dead.
Director: Walter Grauman
Writer: Tom Sawyer
7.5/10435 votes#19 - No Accounting for Murder
Season 3 Episode 19 - Aired 3/22/1987
Grady Fletcher is in big trouble when his boss, a specialist in tax shelters, is found dead and he is the main suspect.
Director: Peter Crane
Writer: Gerald K. Siegel
7.5/10437 votes#20 - The Cemetery Vote
Season 3 Episode 20 - Aired 4/5/1987
First, the reform mayor dies in an ""accident"" and then the mayor's father is murdered after he demands an investigation of the ""accident"".
Director: Seymour Robbie
Writer: Robert Van Scoyk
8.3/10667 votes#21 - The Days Dwindle Down
Season 3 Episode 21 - Aired 4/19/1987
Thirty years ago, Sam Wilson was sent to prison for murdering his boss, Malcolm Jarvis. After finally being released, Sam goes home to his wife and now-grown son who is expecting his first child with his wife, Terry. At Georgia Jarvis' request, Jessica looks into the crime, and through flashbacks, Sam remembers when Jarvis had offered him $10,000 to make his suicide look like murder. While Jessica believes that Sam is innocent, she doesn't believe it was suicide, and asks Sam's son Rod, a police officer, to lend a hand.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
7.6/10444 votes#22 - Murder, She Spoke
Season 3 Episode 22 - Aired 5/10/1987
During a short black-out in the studio where Jessica is recording a book for the blind, the studio co-owner is murdered.
Director: Anthony Pullen Shaw
Writer: N/A
The Best Episodes of Murder, She Wrote Season 3
Every episode of Murder, She Wrote Season 3 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of Murder, She Wrote Season 3!
An unassuming mystery writer turned sleuth uses her professional insight to help solve real-life homicide cases.
Genres:MysteryCrimeDrama
Network:CBS
Season 3 Ratings Summary
"Death Stalks the Big Top (1)" is the best rated episode of "Murder, She Wrote" season 3. It scored 7.6/10 based on 535 votes. Directed by Seymour Robbie and written by Paul Savage, it aired on 9/28/1986. This episode is rated 0.1 points higher than the second-best, "Death Stalks the Big Top (2)".