***SPOILERS*** Looking like he spent all night boozing it up at the local jin-mill a bloodshot eyed Dick Van Dyke as collage criminologist professor Jonathan Maxwell gets involved in a murder that at first was ruled to be a simple heart attack. That had to do with the nasty and arrogant Acher Coe, Alex Hyde Whtite, a bigwig at the collage who, despite being in perfect health, suddenly dropped dead after biting into an orange during a meeting to decide to give Professor Stuart Evens, Whip Hubley, tenure which Coe was dead against.We already knew that there was bad blood between both Evens and Coe in Evens flattening him in front of a shocked group of students and teachers when the two went at it over Evens forthcoming tenure meeting the Coe was to conduct. It in fact was Maxwells insistence in that Coe was murdered that had his good friend Prof. Evens arrested and charged with Coe's murder. It's now up to Maxwell and his good friend private eye Mike Bryant, played by Dick's son Barry Van Dyke, to find out who really murdered Coe by spiking his orange with a lethal dose of Digitoxin.We have the usual suspect dug up by by both the Van Dykes, Dick & Barry, to who was responsible for Coe's murder which leads to two thing that Coe was involved in before his untimely death: His gambling problems with local bookie Herbie Saxe, Joey Diaz, whom he was into for 40 big ones, 40 grand, as well as his new novel that he was soon to have published. it was Coe's gambling that had him get the head of the collage acting dean Camile Brewster, Stephanie Vebditto, to run interference for him, by paying Hurbie off with money from the collage emergency fund, in fear that if it got out her chances of becoming Collage Dean would go straight down the rat-hole. As for Coe's unpublished novel it in fact uncovered all the dirty laundry about the goings on in the collage that was being used by Coe's murderer to get him or herself a promotion with tenure by blackmailing those depicted, with fake names, in the book!It's good to see Dick Van Dyke back on his feet again, he does a lot of running in the film, after his serious leg accident some years ago but his bloodshot eyes and boozed up looks don't exactly make him look like the cool calculating and sober murder investigator, he an ex-homicide detective in the film, that he's playing. As for Dick Jr Barry Van Dyke as PI Mike Bryant he seemed more interested in the many sexy coeds on campus then in finding out who murdered Archer Coe. In fact one of Coe's many drawbacks in him being a man of influence and power at the collage that he worked at was his own sexual escapades with the curvy and sexy girl collage students whom he forced to put out for him in order to give them passing grades. As it turned out that was only one of the many many reasons that he ended up six feet under but in fact not the major one.

I just finished watching Pierce Brosnan in Murder 101... a MUCH better whodunit set on the campus scene... Great turns at every turn with a surprise ending even after the surprise! And the context is better than a criminology class, much more believable than the usual Dyke and Barry Van Dyke show (which parallels the Diagnosis Murder TV whodunit show which ALSO stars Dick Van Dyke as the sleuth and his son Barry as the constable detective!) The comment here that THIS TV Murder 101 is a bit of a cheesy crime solver is, unfortunately, true, and I think I liked the characters a LITTLE better in Diagnosis Murder! The BEST way to find out about the Brosnan TV movie Murder 101 is to look up Pierce Brosnan here on IMDb and look up his filmography.

Disappointing film with Dick Van Dyke as a criminology professor caught up in a murder at his college.We have the usual list of suspects with some excellent motivation for wanting to kill the chairman of the English Department. Who is accused? A professor who was on the verge of being denied tenure by the vote of this department chair. As always, there is no understanding of what tenure means and it's brought out well by the characters here. Before you discuss tenure, you should have researched it thoroughly.Dick Van Dyke looks very old here. He has a funny color around his eyes and appears that this is the result of heavy drinking throughout the years.Even the reason for the robbery of his bicycle on campus was nonsensical here. At least, it should have had something to do with the plot.By the middle of the film, it appears that the mob may have had something to do with the killing. They would have been better off pursuing that thought in this film.While the killer is revealed at the end to be a member of the English Department, it's not that clear why this person did the professor in.About the best performance here is the one by the dead professor's wife who knew that her husband had cheated on her repeatedly. She really acts as the victim here.

Although it's not exactly suspense and drama, there is something quite pleasing in watching the father-and-son duo Dick and Barry Van Dyke. It borrows a lot from Diagnosis Murder but then I quite like that so I don't mind. It's the same sort of set-up: miraculously someone gets murdered in the close vicinity of Dick van Dyke's character and he just has to solve it. It never ceases to amaze how the local police force can be so useless that they always seem to need his help in solving murders but I suppose that might be part of the charm of programmes starring Dick. He is always the gracious and charming old gentleman who has time for his day job as well as a bit of crime solving on the side.I doubt it will be winning any awards but it's well worth watching if you like a bit of cheesy crime solving...