1.3 “Birds of a Feather” in which Kenicke is a Drag Queen
Original air date: 10/14/1984
Wikipedia Synopsis: Pre-wedding jitters take on a new meaning for the fiancé of Jessica’s niece when he’s accused of a cabaret owner’s murder.
The premise of this episode is Jessica Fletcher takes what should be a relaxing vacation to San Fransisco for her niece’s wedding and-you guessed it-she become entangled in a murder investigation.
Surprisingly, this episode does not take place in Cabot Cove. Perhaps I misjudged the series and it is more along the lines of “traveling murder mystery” than “continual murders in a small town that seem to alarm no one.” I am genuinely interested in seeing how the show’s writers continue to justify the aura of death around Jessica.
Mrs. Fletcher’s task at hand is to ingratiate herself within the gruff police department of San Fransisco (in which all policemen behave like they’re from the Bronx) and subsequently clear her niece’s drag queen fiance’s name for the murder of a nightclub owner. Got all that?
I spent most of this episode fixated on hair than the plot. Why does the Fletcher niece look like Malibu Barbie meets Little House on the Prairie? Why are these wigs on the drag queens so bad? All the men have Kotter-hair syndrome. Alas, the fashion of the 1980s is strong with this episode.
Also, I am three episodes deep and Jessica Fletcher seems to have relatives coming out of the woodwork: first, her nephew Grady in the pilot was responsible for getting her book published, now her niece pops up and gets married in San Fransisco. Who are these kids’ parents? Why aren’t they or Grady at the wedding? Were they killed along with the mysterious Mr. Fletcher? I need a Fletcher family tree pronto.
These questions plague me as I watch each episode, but its out of love.
