Peter S. Fischer Dies: ‘Murder, She Wrote’ Co-Creator & ‘Columbo’ Writer Was 88
Veteran television producer and writer Peter S. Fischer, best known for co-creating the CBS crime drama Murder, She Wrote, has died. He was 88.
According to his grandson, Jake McElrath, Fischer passed away on Monday, October 30, at a care facility in Pacific Grove, California. A cause of death was not specified.
Born on August 10, 1935, Fischer studied drama at Johns Hopkins University and initially had ambitions of becoming an actor. “I went to summer stock and found out I was not an actor,” he said in a 2011 interview. “So I decided I’d become a writer.”
After serving in the army, Fischer said his main focus was providing and taking care of his family, so he didn’t officially start his writing career until he was in his mid-30s. “I was 35 when I wrote my first script,” he shared.
That first script was for the TV movie The Last Child, which Fischer said his brother, then a casting director at Universal, helped get in front of the right people at ABC Movies. “The next thing you know, they’re making my movie, and I’m in the movie business,” he added.
From there, he went on to sell scripts for series such as Marcus Welby, M.D., Owen Marshall: Counselor at Law and Griff before penning an episode for the third season of Columbo, the 1974 episode “Publish or Perish.”
Fischer went on to write 11 more episodes of Columbo between 1974-75. He also wrote an episode of Kojak and Baretta before becoming a regular writer and producer on the drama series Ellery Queen in 1975.
But he is more recognized for co-creating Murder, She Wrote alongside Richard Levinson and William Link, who he’d previously worked under on Columbo and Ellery Queen. The Angela Lansbury-starring murder-mystery show aired for 12 seasons between 1984 and 1992, with Fischer writing over 40 scripts for the series.
Throughout his TV career, Fischer was nominated for three Emmys and two Golden Globes for Best Television Series – Drama. He also received a nomination for an Anthony Award from the Boucheron World Mysteries Convention.
His other TV credits include Once an Eagle, Richie Brockelman, Private Eye, The Eddie Capra Mysteries, Blacke’s Magic, and The Law & Harry McGraw, as well as the films Hellinger’s Law, Tagget, Stranger at My Door, and Dead Man’s Island.
Fischer’s screenwriting slowed down after Murder, She Wrote ended, but he later turned his hand to novel writing. Since 2019, the prolific writer has penned 25 novels, the majority in The Hollywood Murder Mysteries series. His last novel, The Man in the Raincoat, was published in 2019.
He is survived by his children, Megan and Christopher, and grandchildren, Peter, Nicholas, Samantha, Jake, Molly, and Eden. His wife of almost 60 years, Lucille, died in May 2017.
