A very good question
Now, when it comes to getting lucky—winning the National Lottery for the second time in a row lucky, that is—Angela Lansbury, as ridiculously successful amateur detective Jessica Fletcher, really takes the biscuit. Not only is she a bestselling author, who merely needs to splash ink on to a page to create captivating prose, but she solves a complicated a murder every single week, and almost always while in the process of either finishing yet another novel or embarking on yet another book tour to promote the last. (Nine times out of ten while dealing with the harrowing psychological effects of someone being murdered while she just so happens to be around, again–Something I think I’d begin to find gradually more worrying if I was in her shoes.)
So you could say someone stepping in to Angela’s shoes would have their work cut out to appear convincing–
This important question is the subject of discussion here (by possibly the world’s most forgetful but enthusiastic fan).
So, who would dare take over the role of Jessica Fletcher? She’d need to be both intelligent and friendly, yet also determined, sneaky and profoundly unshaken by killers of all descriptions. My guess is that a former successful politician turned actress would be a good bet, since even if they were a truly terrible actress then they’d always be able to fall back on their cunning natural-born ability to fool the general public. Not to mention a politician would probably have been in the near vicinity some time or another while an assassination too place–or at least discussed it over dinner–which would come in very handy when dealing with all those very harrowing murders, wouldn’t it?
If the producers—and also the fans of course—could overlook the differing skin colour then I think Michelle Obama could do very well as the re-invented Jessica Fletcher. She’s always smiling, athletically built—handy for criminal catching escapades—and appears to be remarkably honest, which makes a nice change.
It wouldn’t hurt ratings if Obama made an appearance, too.