Murder, Mayhem and Clever Branding: The Stunning Success of J.B. Fletcher

Abstract

In 1929, cousins Manfred B. Lee and Frederic Dannay¹ unveiled Ellery Queen. Their pseudonymous protagonist, a mystery writer and amateur detective, went on to enjoy commercial success as both author and editor in addition to popular acclaim as an invented character. The series of printed works that allowed readers to follow the numerous adventures of Ellery Queen were so successful that many stories about and ostensibly by him were converted to radio, film and television while the soon-to-be popular and well-respected Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, still published today, made its debut in 1941. In 1975, executive producers Richard Levinson and William Link brought the detective to television in a mystery series entitled Ellery Queen which challenged viewers to ‘match wits with Ellery Queen’. Starring Jim Hutton in the lead role and David Wayne as his father, Inspector Richard Queen, the series survived only a single season. It was not until Levinson and Link, wanting to rework the concept, collaborated with Peter S. Fischer, one of the producers of the failed television series, that a media phenomenon was created in the form of Murder, She Wrote, one of the most successful ever Western television mystery series.