The opening minutes of Tune in for Murder were enough to turn me off to this less than stellar outing of the McBride mystery series. The movie begins with a pair of L.A. talk radio blowhards showing their whole misogynistic asses during the morning drive. Hosts Ron Garrison (Frazer Smith) and Bob Carter (John Kapelos) have somehow risen to the top of national charts by filling the airwaves with insults and cruel pranks. Now Ron, bigot in chief, is ready to take his assholery to another level. He thinks his partner is too empathetic, despite Bob’s willful aiding and abetting of his schemes, and plans to jettison his longtime cohost to start his own show. Bob gets wind of the plans and angrily rebukes Ron within earshot of everyone at the station, thus surprising no one when he is arrested for Ron’s murder that night. It’s not just bad blood that implicates the police’s top suspect though; detectives find Bob at the scene of the crime and get ahold of a 911 call in which he’s heard firing the gun. Bob, however, having come at the behest of a late night text from his partner, claims that Ron was already dead when he arrived.
Lawyers Mike McBride (John Larroquette) and Phil Newberry (Matt Lutz) agree to defend the radio host. They find out that while no one checked Ron’s abusive behavior when he was alive, people certainly aren’t cut up about his death. Ed (Victor McCay), the most tragic target of Ron’s cruelty, had motive to kill a colleague whose prank ended his marriage and left him in financial ruin. Then again, sports DJ Kyle (Wren T. Brown) owed the victim his career but also a lot of money, and ambitious radio therapist Leslie (Bridget Ann White) would have done anything to get ahead. The group stays curiously tight-lipped, leaving McBride and Phil to dig around for more secrets. In the meantime, they are pursued by Patti (Veronica Lauren), a mystery woman who keeps showing up at the crime scene and other places of interest.
As it happens, Patti is the most interesting and palatable character in this movie. Almost everyone finds a way to be obnoxious, including the series regulars. McBride, usually an empathetic guy willing to give others the benefit of doubt, gets snarky about someone minding her own damn business in her own damn car. Phil also won’t shut up about how much he enjoys Ron and Bob’s show, and now I have to reevaluate my whole opinion of him. More than anything though, the case and characters are dull. All the suspects work at the station and share similar experiences with Ron. The specifics of their grievances differ, but the blueprint is the same. The narrow scope makes for a claustrophobic story, and I couldn’t wait to get out.
**Spoilers at end of post
Released: 2005
Dir: Stephen Bridgewater
Writer: Jeff Peters
Cast: John Larroquette, Marta DuBois, Matt Lutz, Frazer Smith, John Kapelos, Victor McCay, Wren T. Brown, Bridget Ann White, Veronica Lauren, Jack Conley, John Kassir
Time: 90 min
Lang: English
Country: United States
Network: Hallmark Channel
Reviewed: 2021
** SPOILERS **
Spoilers: Kyle Ward, the sports DJ, killed Ron because he wanted to put an end to a years-long extortion scheme. When he was still a football player, Kyle threw a major game, one that Ron had bet heavily on and lost. Facing financial devastation, Ron obsessively studied game tape to see what went wrong; in doing so he found footage that proved Kyle had purposely dropped a pass. He used it as blackmail, luring Kyle to a job at the station so that he could take a chunk of Kyle’s pay and recoup his losses. McBride and Phil expose the murderer with the help of a sound analyst – a good one, not the crap know-nothing from the police department. The two lawyers suggest that the 911 call was actually spliced pre-recorded audio from easily accessible PSAs and studio sound effects. The analyst shows that the dialogue matches that of PSAs recorded by Ron and Bob. Additionally, the audio footprint of the gunshot heard on the call differs from that of the actual murder weapon. The sound instead matches the gunshot sound effects Kyle used for his show. Furthermore, program logs show that Kyle played a recorded interview on the night in question, thus allowing him time to leave the studio and commit the murder. Confronted with the truth, Kyle only regrets that he did not kill Ron sooner.
Fits of Fury 