Tampa Bay Times from St. Petersburg, Florida • 63

nu mm mm section SUNDAY, JULY 28, 1991 TIMES First of Three Ewts TV FROM LA I Mt JANIS D. Pg I FROELICH mm 'Murder is moving to lew York The Tragedy and Triumph of Organ Transplants TLOS ANGELES he homicide rate in Cabot Cove is about to plunge. Jessica Fletcher (a.k.a. Angela Lansbury), best-selling mystery writer and moonlighting sleuth, is leaving for Manhattan. It's a major turn of events for fans of Murder, She Wrote, CBS' top-rated whodunit.

So the network presented its 65-year-old star to talk with TV critics about the changes planned for this fall. Lansbury, dressed chicly in black slacks and blouse and poppy-colored blazer, brought out her reassuring Fletcher mannerisms to patiently inform writers about the new setting. But Lansbury, also like Jessica, can be a stern schoolteacher, too. When the question came up about her merely introducing and ending the show, as she did for a while, Lansbury firmly dismissed the inquiry. "That wasn't successful," she said briskly, shaking her head, "so there's no point in 1 1 v.

I- I r-V discussing it. Then she said with characteristic pluck, "It (the show) may seem like yesterday's mashed potatoes to you, but it is really the linguini positano of the future. We are going into a new season of Murder, She Wrote, a rejuvenation, shall we say, of the character, a revitalization of our stories." Lansbury reportedly needed time off from the demanding drama (thus the limited appearances), but now she's back full-time and will appear in all 22 episodes of the series as it enters its eighth year. She's cut a deal to CBS TIME FOR A MOVE: Angela Lansbury is moving Murder, She Wrote to Manhattan. rjm 4 if, I I 7 A boy dies in a tragic accident.

His father, numb with grief, is asked to give the gift of life by making his son an organ donor. Thus begins the long, tenuous process of organ transplantation. For the next three days, staff writer Sheryl James will tell a story of challenges and crises, of grief and joy and of the people who make it happen. By SHERYL JAMES Times Stall Writer 0 TAMPA the last day of his life, Tuesday, May 21, Sam Green, a big-boned, healthy 12-year-old, got home from school about 3 p.m. He barreled off the school bus and greeted his father, Sunny, who sat on the front porch at their home on Palm Avenue near Ybor City.

Sam kissed his father on the cheek and proudly displayed his homework, which had "100" scrawled at the top. Then he bolted inside, wove his way through the double beds in the small room next to the kitchen. He grabbed some baloney and bread from the refrigerator, made a sandwich and popped open a grape soda. After he finished his snack, he went back outside. Let's get some watermelon, he said to his dad.

Sunny agreed. The two got on their bikes the family does not own an automobile and pedaled up Palm Avenue toward the Blue Ribbon Discount Supermarket on the corner of Tampa Street and Columbus Drive. They got the watermelon, which Sunny Green plunked into his bicycle's wire basket. Sam, climbing on his red Huffy bike, told his father he'd be home in a little while; he wanted to ride some. "I'll cut the watermelon and have it ready in the icebox," Sunny Green replied to the youngest of his two children, both sons.

As near as Sunny can recall, his son simply said, "Okay, Dad," and rode off toward Nebraska Avenue. A few minutes later, just after 4 p.m., Sam was cruising down the sidewalk on Nebraska, just past the traffic light at Columbus. He veered, still coasting, into the street, looking to his right. He slowed down, still looking right, toward the brisk city traffic in the opposite lane. He never looked to the left.

Just then, a man driving a 1977 Ponti-ac passed through the green light, heading southbound at about 35 mph. In one nightmarish instant, the man saw Sam, realized Sam did not sec him, and struck the boy with the right front of his car. Sam somersaulted off his bicycle, hit the car hood, his head smacking the windshield with a sickening thunk. The driver slammed on his brakes. Sam's body rode the hood for several yards, then rolled off, landing in the middle of the street.

His bike's front tire, torn from the frame, rolled several yards behind Sam's body on the sidewalk. His left shoe landed several yards away. The bike flew to the opposite side of the street, to the corner of 15th Avenue. Dwayne Aguiar, owner of Dwayne's Pawn Shop on Nebraska, heard Sam hit the windshield and saw his body land a few feet south of the shop. He saw Sam lying on his side.

He saw a lump "the size of a coconut" on the back of Sam's head. He saw a woman go up to Sam, feel his pulse. A man stooped over the boy. Aguiar called 9 1 1 But he could tell from the woman's expression, and by looking at Sam, so still, that it was bad. Real bad.

The driver pulled over into an abandoned parking lot, too shaken to approach the boy. The man and woman stayed at Sam's side until Tampa Fire Rescue paramedics arrived about 10 minutes later. Please see LIFE FROM DEATH 6F work just four days a week so she has time for Because Lansbury is the only 60-plus woman to star in a weekly show, her large audience certainly couldn't begrudge her the time off. But the multi-award entertainer she has four Tonys for best actress in a musical wasn't content to take it easy. Money "was not the deal," said Lansbury, the highest-paid actress in TV as she explained why she's about to "work my fanny off" again on Murder, She Wrote.

She said she recognized that Jessica Fletcher, the widow from Maine who shows police departments in cities wherever she goes how all-wet their investigations are, "has become a national habit." So Lansbury's preparing to feed that habit with Manhattan adventures for Jessica. The novelist will take up residence in an apartment at Columbus Avenue and 88th Street so she can teach criminology at Manhattan University. That will bring her into contact with more young people, which could be good for CBS' struggle to attract under-30 viewers. When asked if the NYPD is going to trust a matronly mystery writer, Lansbury joked, "Well, a great many members of the New York Police Department are Irish." Jessica Fletcher, of course, is Irish; so is Lansbury. But, Lansbury said, Jessica isn't going to give up her Victorian home in Cabot Cove.

She'll teach in the Big Apple three or four days a week and then return to Maine. That means cast regulars, William Windom (Dr. Seth Hazlitt) and Ron Masak (Sheriff Amos Tupper) will stick around. Will folks still be dropping like flies? David Moessinger, executive producer, chuckled when asked about Jessica's tendency to attract trouble and said new episodes will indeed have a body or two. "They didn't run her out of Maine, so we're anticipating Jessica being able to do her thing in New York," he said.

Please see 'MURDER' 2F 1 '1 i INSIDE An option to implants A new breast prosthesis provides women with an alternative 3F Times photos JOE WALLES Ot txtxttt -nTT-NT av 21 Sunny Green (above) and his son Sam (photo at top) rode home. Sam rode off. I'll be home in vJUrNiN VJIVDON their bikes to the store. Sunny went went a little while, Dad, he said. Ann Landers 2, 2F Health Fitness 3F Movies 5F Alligator Express 8F.