‘All in the Family’s Jean Stapleton Almost Starred in One of the Biggest Shows of the ’80s
Edith Bunker as Jessica Fletcher? It’s impossible to think of anyone else but Angela Lansbury as the star of Murder, She Wrote. For over 250 episodes, Lansbury brought excitement every Sunday night as the retired teacher-turned-mystery writer solving actual murders in her home of Cabot Cove.
But in a stranger-than-fiction twist worthy of the show, the role almost went to someone else: Jean Stapleton, who starred opposite Carroll O’Connor‘s Archie Bunker on All In The Family. Stapleton played Archie’s devoted, long-suffering wife, Edith.
In 2015, Stapleton revealed that she was initially offered the role of Jessica Fletcher. “Angela will attest to that as well,” said when speaking with the Television Academy. “Every time I saw Angela in those years, she’d say, ‘Thank you, Jean.’”
Stapleton said that she has turned down the role partially due to time commitments. “I’d just come off eight and a half years in a series,” she said, referring to the run of All In The Family. She wasn’t eager to jump headfirst into what could have been another huge drain on her time.
Plus, she realized that Murder, She Wrote was a completely different animal from the Norman Lear sitcom.
“It didn’t seem to be the kind of role I could really sink my teeth into, and it just didn’t have enough color for me,” she added. “And I found that those in charge are rather rigid about changes that I had discussed. And I thought it would be a hard row. It wouldn’t be the free theater that we had enjoyed in [All In The Family]. And I thought, ‘this isn’t for me.’”
Everett Collection
For Lansbury, Murder, She Wrote was the right role at the right time. “I was coming up to being 60 years old. I was really tired,” she told the Television Academy. Up to that point, she had spent her time working on films, winning Oscars for her performances in Gaslight, The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Manchurian Candidate.
From there, she transitioned to Broadway, where she won a handful of Tony Awards, specifically for Best Actress in a Musical for Mame (1966), Dear World (1969), Gypsy (1975), and Sweeney Todd (1979).
“I had been on the road a lot, and I was ready to sort of settle down, in a sense,” said Lansbury, so she turned to television. After sifting through some dismal roles where she would play a side character like a maid, Lansbury reminded her agents who she was, and told them to get her some better parts.
“I got two scripts in the mail. One of them was Murder, She Wrote. The other was from Norman Lear, and it was for a series, a sitcom, to do with Charles Durning.”
After doing a table read with Durning and Lear, Lansbury felt “unsure” about the role. But when she met with the producers of Murder, She Wrote, Lansbury knew her answer. “This lady, Mrs. Fletcher, was the one I could bring something to.”
Murder, She Wrote debuted on Sept. 30, 1984, and ran for 12 seasons. During its course, Lansbury earned twelve Emmy nominations (never winning, which feels like a crime) and ten Golden Globe nods, winning four.
Puzzler '80s Comedy Classics
Vol 1, Issue 6
This issue is packed with puzzles and trivia from all your favorite '80s sitcoms.
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