Peter S. Fischer

Writer

October 8, 1935 (88 years)

† November 30, 2023

U.S.A.

Biography

Peter Steven Fischer (August 10, 1935 – October 30, 2023) was an American television writer, producer, and novelist. He was best known for the series Murder, She Wrote, which he co-created with Richard Levinson and William Link. Description above from the Wikipedia article Peter S. Fischer, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Filmography

8.1

Columbo

Columbo is a friendly, verbose, disheveled-looking police detective who is consistently underestimated by his suspects. Despite his unprepossessing appearance and apparent absentmindedness, he shrewdly solves all of his cases and secures all evidence needed for indictment. His formidable eye for detail and meticulously dedicated approach often become clear to the killer only late in the storyline.

7.5

Murder, She Wrote

An unassuming mystery writer turned sleuth uses her professional insight to help solve real-life homicide cases.

6.5

Baretta

Baretta is an American detective television series which ran on ABC from 1975 to 1978. The show was a milder version of a successful 1973–74 ABC series, Toma, starring Tony Musante as chameleon-like, real-life New Jersey police officer David Toma. While popular, Toma received intense criticism at the time for its realistic and frequent depiction of police and criminal violence. When Musante left the series after a single season, the concept was retooled as Baretta, with Robert Blake in the title role.

7.2

Kojak

A bald, lollipop sucking police detective with a fiery righteous attitude battles crime in New York City.

7.5

Ellery Queen

Ellery Queen is an American television detective mystery series based on the fictional character Ellery Queen. It aired on NBC during the 1975-76 television season and stars Jim Hutton as Ellery Queen, David Wayne as his father, Inspector Richard Queen, and Tom Reese as Sgt. Velie. Created by the writing/producing team of Richard Levinson and William Link, the title character "breaks" the fourth wall to ask the audience to consider their solution.

7.0

McMillan & Wife

McMillan & Wife is a lighthearted American police procedural that aired on NBC from September 17, 1971 to April 24, 1977. Starring Rock Hudson and Susan Saint James in the title roles, the series premiered in 90-minute episodes as part of the wheel series NBC Mystery Movie, in rotation with Columbo and McCloud. Initially airing on Wednesday night, the original line-up was shifted to Sundays in the second season, where it aired for the rest of its run. This was the first element to be created specially for the Mystery Movie strand.

6.8

Once an Eagle

Once An Eagle is a 1976 nine-hour American television mini-series directed by Richard Michaels and E.W. Swackhamer. The picture was written by Peter S. Fischer and based on the 1968 Anton Myrer novel of the same name. The first and last installments of the seven-part series were each two-hour broadcasts, while the interim episodes were 60 minutes. The mini-series concerns the thirty year careers of two military men, from the outbreak of World War I to the aftermath of World War II.

7.2

Darkroom

'You're in a house. Maybe your own... maybe one you've never seen before. You feel it. Something evil. You run, but there's no escape... nowhere to turn. You feel something beckoning you... drawing you into the terror that awaits you in the Darkroom!' Darkroom is an American horror/thriller anthology broadcast on ABC from November 27, 1981 to January 15, 1982. Similar in style to Rod Serling's Night Gallery, each hour-long episode featured two or more stories of varying length with a different story and a different cast, but James Coburn hosts all the wraparound segments.

7.0

Black Beauty

Born free in the American West, Black Beauty is a horse rounded up and brought to Birtwick Stables, where she meets spirited teenager Jo Green. The two forge a bond that carries Beauty through the different chapters, challenges and adventures.

7.3

The Law & Harry McGraw

The Law & Harry McGraw is an American mystery crime drama television series created by Peter S. Fischer and a spin-off of Murder, She Wrote. The series stars Jerry Orbach as a Harry McGraw, a loudmouthed, uncouth, old school private detective who continually finds himself solving mysteries on behalf of the prim and proper attorney Ellie Maginnis who has an office across the hall.

7.5

Donovan's Kid

Timothy Donovan, a con-man, returns to San Francisco to see his wife and daughter. Realizing his family is under the control of his wife's domineering uncle, Timothy Donovan teams up with a fellow con-man to free them.

5.6

Dead Man's Island

Henrietta O'Dwyer Collins, called Henrie O., is a world-famous journalist and writer. She's invited by her old lover Chase Prescott to his secluded island home. Chase, a wealthy businessman with money woes, hopes Henrie O. can discover the person he thinks is trying to kill him. It seems like she has her work cut out for her. Possible suspects include Chase's much younger wife, his son, and many others.

8.8

Hellinger's Law

A flamboyant criminal lawyer named Nick Hellinger takes on the case of a syndicate's accountant (actually a Justice Department agent who has infiltrated the mob) accused of murdering a local TV newscaster.

7.3

The Last Child

In a badly-overpopulated future, where each couple is only allowed one child and where people over 65 are forbidden medical care under a very draconian set of laws, a young couple, pregnant with their second child (the first died shortly after birth) enlist the help of an elderly former US Senator to help them escape to Canada.

7.4

A Cry for Help

A talk-radio host, who specializes in abusing and insulting his audience, gets a call from a disturbed teenage girl who says she is going to commit suicide. After first encouraging her, he has a change of heart and frantically tries to get his listeners to help find the girl before she makes good on her threat.

N/A

The Case of the Baltimore Girls

Former police captain and his assistant investigate extortion and murder at a dating service.

6.6

Stranger at My Door

A cop on the run from his mob boss "in-laws" tries to start a new life on a deserted farm with his two children. But things are not that easy.

8.0

Coopersmith: Sweet Scent of Murder

Prospective series pilot about a maverick, motorcycling insurance investigator who uses unorthodox methods to smoke out the truth behind every claim that crosses his desk, and here looks into a life insurance claim when the wife of a second-rate race car driver appears to have died in an accident.

9.0

Cops n Roberts

No description available

7.5

Charlie Cobb: Nice Night for a Hanging

A California rancher hires a private detective to deliver the rancher's long-lost daughter to him. However, several people, including the rancher's new wife, his foreman and a crooked sheriff, don't want the girl--who would inherit the rancher's large spread if he died--to make it to the ranch alive.