"THE JOSHUA PEABODY SHOW"

Over the dozen seasons when 'Murder, She Wrote' was on the air, there was one character associated with Cabot Cover, Maine, who was never seen on the show - Joshua Peabody.

Maybe it had something to do with him dying nearly 200 years before....

"JOSHUA PEABODY DIED HERE... POSSIBLY"

Plans for a new hotel in Cabot Cove are interrupted when a skeleton is discovered in a grave on the construction site. Sheriff Tupper calls in Jessica for help, all the while having an adamant belief that the skeleton in the grave is the remains of famous Revolutionary war-hero Joshua Peabody. However, Dr. Hazlitt argues that the existence of Joshua Peabody is nothing but an old wives' tale. Despite her friends' bickering, Jessica decides to get to the bottom of things, but things get more complicated when a second body turns up at the construction site, and this one is much more recent.

"KEEP THE HOME FRIES BURNING"

All Cabot Cove is obsessed with the Joshua Peabody Inn, a new dining spot big on homemade preserves and cheesy Cabot memorabilia.  (And once again, Sheriff Tupper touts Peabody as a great hero during the Revolutionary War while Dr. Hazlett sticks to his guns that Joshua Peabody is fictional.

I checked a few genealogy sites and found a Joshua Peabody here in the real world but who was born in the 1780s, not in time to partake in the American Revolution, let alone be at least alive during it.

"Joshua Peabody" will be an alias which I plan to use for one of my characters in the final Toobworld adventure.  And I also think that he would make for an excellent character in some fanfic which doesn't even have to have any connection to 'Murder, She Wrote'.  But history mysteries are always popular in literature, why not on TV?

Toobworld in the American Revolution....

I can easily think of a Super Six List of TV characters and real historical figures who could cross paths with Joshua Peabody:

1] John Adams of 'John Adams'

I doubt Giammatti would have interest in recreating the role, however.  If only my friend John O'Creagh was still alive.  He played Stephen Hopkins in that mini-series and might have been amenable to the idea

2] The Yankee Doodle Society of 'The Young Rebels'

This TV show aired in 1970, so if we wanted to have the same actors playing the leads, the timeline would now be 1822!  But they were only part of this rebel cell in Chester, Pennsylvania, so we could have new characters during the Revolution who team up with Joshua Peabody when he goes on a mission to reach the Continental Congress.

3]

The Collins Family ancestors of Collinsport, Maine from 'Dark Shadows'

It might be fun to get some of the few remaining cast members from that gothic soap opera for cameos as their ancestors.  But again we'd have to depend on new actors playing new roles.  However....  Toobworld Central gives a lot of leeway toward recasting when it comes to the aging of characters.  So how about Lucas Haas as future vampire Barnabas Collins as a young man during the Revolutionary War?

4]  Kunte Kinte (Toby) from 'Roots'

Neither John Amos nor LeVar Burton are at an age where they could play the slave in the same time period as Joshua Peabody.  But on paper it could still work.  The life of Kunta Kinte was probably more fiction than fact, so where's the harm in mixing it up with a totally fictional character?

5)  Abraham Woodhull, 'Turn: Washington's Spies'

I wonder if some writer would have the musket balls to insert Joshua Peabody into the action for one episode, and see how long before somebody noticed?

6]  The Doctor, 'Doctor Who'

Well, of course it's obvious to bring the Doctor in; he's a time traveler!

And that gives me the opportunity for a little self-promotion.  At midnight on New Year's Eve leading all the way through New Year's Day, we'll have the annual "Who's On First" blogathon.  Every hour there will be a new blog post about 'Doctor Who'.  

Tune in, won't you?