Murdoch Schmurdoch

"Murdoch Schmurdoch"
Season	11
Episode	15
Airdate	February 26, 2018
Writer	Robert Rotenberg and Lori Spring
Director	Sherren Lee
Guests	Sayer Roberts as Al Jolson
Previous	The Great White Moose
Next	Game of Kings

"Murdoch Schmurdoch" is the fifteenth episode of the eleventh season of the Murdoch Mysteries and the one hundred sixty-fifth of the series. It first aired on February 26, 2018.

Summary

Murdoch investigates a murder with connections to vaudeville entertainers Harry and Al Jolson and Watts unravels a mystery about his own family.

After the perpetrators of an anti-Semitic riot are taken to Station House No. 4, the owner of Toronto's first Yiddish Theatre dies onstage from a stab wound. While Constable Brackenreid has become enamored with a vaudeville singer,  Murdoch interviews the performers.

Character Revelations

• Detective Watts and Al Jolson make a connection, rounding out Watts' family history in a fascinating way: Watts inadvertently discovers that he's Jewish.

Continuity

• While teaming up with Higgins, Constable John Brackenreid is smitten with an older woman, Charlotte Hanson.
• When Marilyn Clark visits the City Morgue to show Dr. Ogden a previously infertile rabbit has successfully given birth to a healthy specimen, Murdoch expresses his gratitude only to be told that he is "merely a donor".
• Murdoch uses wooden building blocks with pegs ( like Legos) again; the first time was in Raised On Robbery,  Season 9.

Historical References

• This episode takes place in Toronto 1906 – the Edwardian Era (1901-1910) is the time when King Edward VII rules the British Empire.
• The Russian Revolution of 1905 created mass political and social unrest that spread through the vast Russian Empire, including Latvia. After centuries of Swedish, Polish and Russian rule, the Republic of Latvia will establish its independence from Russia in November of 1918.
• 19th century Toronto had Eastern European Jews arriving in the city and by 1906 there were a number of Yiddish theatres.
• Shtick, meaning a gimmick or comic routine, is from the Yiddish German word Stück meaning ‘piece’. Shtick can also mean "bits of business" or mannerisms of a person. 
• American vaudeville entertainers Harry and Al Jolson, sons of Russian (Lithuania) emigrants. Al Jolson tells Watts that he has found his new shtick, before applying black makeup to his face. Al Jolson is best known his starring role in The Jazz Singer, the first feature-length "talky", and Jolson appears in blackface.
• Published in 1902 and originally titled "Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home?" words and music written by American songwriter and pianist Hughie Cannon (1877–1912), "(Won't You Come Home) Bill Bailey" is still a standard with Dixieland and traditional jazz bands.
• The term "skyscraper" was first applied to buildings of steel framed construction of at least 10 stories in the late 19th century. The history of skyscrapers in Toronto began in 1894 with the construction of the Beard Building, which is often regarded as the first skyscraper in the city.
• Watts quotes Lord Nelson, "The boldest measures are the safest" and the Danish fleet that threatened Britain’s strategic position in the Baltic (1801).

Trivia

• Filmed in part in Hamilton, Ontario.
• George does not appear in this episode.
• This episode is not the usual Murdoch Mysteries case. An original early draft had George Crabtree discovering his Jewish roots.
• Al Jolson did perform at the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto, but later than this episode's timeline.
• Vaudeville was first introduced on Murdoch Mysteries in The Keystone Constables, followed by mentions in From Buffalo With Love.
• John Brackenreid's self-proclaimed interest in theatre was first revealed in Republic of Murdoch.
• The first time an anti-Semitism reference was presented was in Season 2, Let Us Ask the Maiden.
• This is the second time a rabbi is watching over the dead body in the City Morgue, see (ep.211).

Errors

• Hebrew (like Arabic) is written from right to left while European languages write figures/letters from left to right: The Jolson poster text in Hebrew (spelling and conventions, rather than in Yiddish) reads left to right - a literal translation of English letters.

Cast

Main Cast

Yannick Bisson as Detective William Murdoch
Hélène Joy as Dr. Julia Ogden
Thomas Craig as Inspector Thomas Brackenreid
Constable George Crabtree

Recurring Cast

Daniel Maslany as Detective Llewellyn Watts
Charles Vandervaart as John Brackenreid
Lachlan Murdoch as Constable Henry Higgins
Sophie Goulet as Marilyn Clark

Guest Cast

Sayer Roberts as Al Jolson
Camille Stopps as Charlotte Hanson
Jesse Nerenberg as Saul Levine
Josh Peace as Horace Barney
Aris Athanasopoulos as Harry Jolson
Tomaso Sanelli as Yitzhak
Elana Dunkelman as Rivka Michaelson
Michael Goldlist as Abraham Michaelson
Jessica Rose as Sarah
Scott Williams as Mason
Yank Azman as Peddler
Ryan Rogerson as Burly Man