What a twist! Turns out Beloved CBC tv series Murdoch Mysteries, about an early 20th Century detective with disturbingly pretty eyes, has been on the air for so many years that it now takes place in the year 2079.
The first 17 seasons saw Yannick Bisson’s Murdoch solve a new murder every week during a decade in which Toronto had almost no murders. But as the show went on producers were forced to acknowledge the passage of time.
“I think it was around Season 53 that we caught up to present day,” said producer Peter Carney (great grandson of original series creator R.B. Carney). “And we just kept going from there.”
“Frankly I’m just glad to move on from the seasons set in the 1970s. That version of Murdoch loved beating up hippies and ‘women’s libbers.’ It was pretty problematic.”
The current season sees Murdoch, still played by Bisson and still dressed like a Victorian era cop, investigate several space murders using his space magnifying glass and space fingerprint duster, with the help of his space friends, like the clone of Ernest Hemingway and a robot played by Stephen Harper.
“Did the writers just put the word ‘space’ in front of plotlines that we had done several times before? Who’s to say?,” said CBC President Catherine Tait.
Some network executives were worried the futuristic sci-fi element would be a turn off for Murdoch’s core audience of people in their 70s and 80s. But it turns out they are just as happy to fall asleep in front of the new Murdoch as they were the old.
What a fun #cancon development! Way to go Murdoch team! And for a related story on the top 10 times Murdoch Mysteries predicted the deaths of your family members: click the Murdoch Mysteries tag!
