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NBC to revive classic drama ‘Murder, She Wrote’ with Octavia Spencer

Octavia Spencer, here at the 17th Annual Hollywood Film Awards Gala, will take on the role made iconic by Angela Lansbury in NBC's reboot of "Murder, She Wrote."
(John Shearer / Invision / Associated Press)
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Quick, break out the typewriter. NBC is set to resurrect ‘80s crime procedural “Murder, She Wrote.”

The reboot will feature Oscar winner Octavia Spencer in the starring role of everyone’s favorite author/super-sleuth made iconic by Angela Lansbury, the network confirmed the news first reported by Deadline. In the contemporary version, Spencer is a hospital administrator and amateur detective who self-publishes (naturally!) her first mystery novel.

Though it was a CBS staple for 12 seasons, the peacock network is resuscitating the onetime Universal TV series and giving it a put pilot commitment, which means NBC will have to pay a penalty if the pilot does not air.

FALL TV 2013: Watch the trailers

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Let’s just hope the re-imagining has better luck than the network’s most recent revival, “Ironside.” The cop drama, which featured Blair Underwood in the Raymond Burr role, was canceled after four episodes. And we all remember the fiasco with “The Munsters” reboot “Mockingbird Lane.” We’ll stop there.

David Janollari (“Six Feet Under”) and Alexandra Cunningham (“Desperate Housewives”) will serve as executive producers of the “Murder, She Wrote” reboot, which NBC describes as a “light, contemporary procedural, in the vein of ‘Bones’ or ‘Fargo.’ ”

OK, cool. But on to more important matters: Can we keep the retro theme song?

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