''Over My Dead Body'' is an American

police The police are a Law enforcement organization, constituted body of Law enforcement officer, persons empowered by a State (polity), state, with the aim to law enforcement, enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citize ...

crime drama Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and comb ...

which was aired on the

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

television network A television network or television broadcaster is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay television providers. Until the mid ...

from October 26, 1990 to June 20, 1991 as part of its 1990 fall lineup on Friday night at 9:00 p.m. Eastern time. ''Over My Dead Body'' stars

Edward Woodward Edward Albert Arthur Woodward, OBE (1 June 1930 – 16 November 2009) was an English actor and singer. After graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, he began his career on stage. Throughout his career, he appeared in productions ...

as Maxwell Beckett, an aging mystery novelist whose three successful early novels were starting to be overshadowed by the reputation his two most recent works had developed as being "bombs." He was approached by young, struggling reporter Nikki Page (

Jessica Lundy Jessica R. Lundy (born March 20, 1966) is an American actress best known for her television roles, especially as Joel Fleishman's fiancée/ex-fiancée Elaine Shulman on the series ''Northern Exposure''. Early life and education Lundy was born in ...

) who wrote for ''the San Francisco Union'', and who came to him for help after witnessing a

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse, especially the ...

through her window and because he was her favorite author. After they solved this mystery, they became fast friends and began to work together in the "amateur sleuth" tradition to solve crimes. ''Over My Dead Body'' was produced by

William Link William Theodore Link (December 15, 1933 – December 27, 2020) was an American film and television screenwriter and producer who often worked in collaboration with Richard Levinson. Biography Early life Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvani ...

, the man responsible for ''

Murder, She Wrote ''Murder, She Wrote'' is an American crime drama television series, created by Peter S. Fischer, Richard Levinson and William Link, starring Angela Lansbury, and produced and distributed by Universal Television for the CBS network. The seri ...

'', but while it shared the theme of an aging mystery writer as an amateur sleuth in real life, it shared none of the earlier program's success. It was cancelled after a run of less than three months, although a few leftover episodes were aired in June 1991.

Cast

as Maxwell Beckett *

as Nikki Page

Episodes

References

*Brooks, Tim and Marsh, Earle, ''

The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

External links

* CBS original programming 1990s American crime drama television series Television series by Universal Television 1990 American television series debuts 1991 American television series endings Television shows set in San Francisco English-language television shows Television shows about writers {{US-drama-tv-prog-stub