Murder 101: If Wishes Were Horses

A very expensive race horse goes missing and through Mike Bryant's (Barry Van Dyke) friendship with the horse handler is called in to investigate. This leads to him calling in the help of his old friend and criminology lecturer Jonathan (Dick Van Dyke) and it just so happens that Mike's nephew Ben (Shane Van Dyke) is staying with him so also gets involved. As they dig around they discover that several people have motive to be involved including the Brawley's who own the missing horse as they are having money difficulties.

This is an even bigger family affair with Barry Van Dyke's son joining in this tale of intrigue, a stolen horse, ransoming and intricate criminal scheme, and it's somewhat passable, though not exactly standout. It's much more routine than the other two, but well acted and has some good scenery. It didn't take many little grey cells to figure out the culprits.

I really like Dick Van Dyke and enjoyed watching him in the many roles I've seen him in over the years. He and his son Barry in Diagnosis Murder were very good and are joined with Barry's son/Dick's grandson/s again for regular appearances for this later series.

I saw this was on TV and thought I'd give it a try, assuming it would be similar to D. M. However, although it did seem to be I just could not concentrate on the storyline enough to keep track of what was going on because of the weird, constant background music. It is completely at odds with what is going on, on screen, most of the time and soon becomes really irritating. Such a shame because I think I would have otherwise have really liked watching this.

Update; having now watched a few of these as they're on regularly at time of reviewing, the music is still quite annoying and distracting but I have managed to enjoy them more after a few tries so upped by a star.

There aren't many ways to change the plot line of a stolen horse, but the naturalness of the interactions between the three characters played by the Van Dykes saved the show. Dick added a new quirk to his personality by adding the hearing aid and the trials and tribulations experienced by those who are new to them. Brady's still the never out of debt, and hardly in work, PI / beach bum. The addition of a nephew for Brady seems a little inconsistent since in the previous two episodes when his family history was discussed, he had no siblings. Also, in this episode, though the cat ' appeared ' to be the same from the previous episodes, this one was called Cleo and ate dry food as opposed to being Samantha who ate wet food in the original episode. (Only a feline fanatic like myself would notice this!) All-in-all, I look forward to the next episode. I am never disappointed with the Senior Van Dyke and his offspring in their performances, character quirks, natural (not fake sitcom) comedy and QUALITY productions. I am so glad they hooked up with Hallmark. An added bonus of this episode was having Ralph Waite in it. I wish he did more TV these days. He is truly missed.