Mystery!

Edward Gorey, Derek Lamb, and the Mystery! opening sequence

The animated opening and closing title sequences for Mystery! were created from original drawings by cartoonist Edward Gorey, animated by Eugene Federenko, Derek Lamb, and Janet Perlman, with music by Normand Roger. Animator Lamb had previously worked on Sesame Street, The Electric Company, and The Great American Dream Machine. Gorey's initial storyboard was estimated to run 10 minutes, but executive producer Joan Wilson wanted a 75-second sequence; Gorey eventually handed over the drawings and allowed animators to use his work as inspiration.

The sequence has changed several times since 1980, consisting of non-linear animated period country house tableaux including a formal ball, umbrella-toting funeral attendants, three investigators, a croquet game in the rain, and a moaning damsel. Over time it became more streamlined, shorter, and slightly more colorful; for the Tony Hillerman episodes, the American flag was added. The Masterpiece opening sequence today is almost identical across sub-brands, and the Mystery! version still features the Gorey/Lamb characters.

Inception and early history

Mystery! was the second British anthology to come to WGBH Boston after Masterpiece Theatre. In 1979, Herb Schmertz of Mobil Oil proposed an all-British crime series to WGBH manager Henry Becton. Mobil, already the underwriter for Masterpiece Theatre, spent $2.3 million in 1979 and $3.2 million in 1980 toward PBS programming, including the launch of Mystery!. Not everyone welcomed the genre split; Masterpiece Theatre host Alistair Cooke initially lamented the loss of crime programming.

Early successes included Rumpole of the Bailey, followed by The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes with Jeremy Brett, Inspector Morse with John Thaw, Brother Cadfael with Derek Jacobi, and Prime Suspect with Helen Mirren. Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot (David Suchet) and Miss Marple (Joan Hickson, Geraldine McEwan, and Julia McKenzie) also appeared. Mystery! won the Anthony Award for Best Television Show in 1988 and 1991.

Hosts

The first host, Gene Shalit, opened the debut broadcast on February 5, 1980, and left in 1981. Vincent Price hosted from the second year, incorporating haunted house gags into his introductions; he came to Boston twice a year to tape openings and closings. Actress Katherine Emory called Price "the sweetest scary man I ever met." Price stepped down in 1989 due to failing health. Diana Rigg took over that year and introduced two series in which she starred: Mother Love and The Mrs Bradley Mysteries. Rigg had previously won a BAFTA Award for her work on Masterpiece Theatre's 1985 adaptation of Bleak House. She left in 2003. From 2004, Mystery! aired without a host until the 2008 rebranding under the Masterpiece umbrella, when Alan Cumming became host.

Funding trouble: 1996–2007

In summer 1995, Mobil announced it would stop funding Mystery! at the end of the season. Executive producer Rebecca Eaton noted that even strong mini-series saw audience erosion over time, citing Middlemarch as an example. Mobil, undergoing restructuring with 1,250 job cuts, denied that cost-cutting drove the decision. The company stayed with Masterpiece Theatre through 1999 and did not leave as underwriter until 2004.

After the ExxonMobil merger in 1999, the company shifted its philanthropy to public health and environmental causes, dropping public television. PBS had resisted adding 30-second advertisements before programming blocks despite underwriter requests. Mobil had covered the entire cost of acquiring, repackaging, and promoting British dramas for PBS since 1980, typically about $10 million per year. Without Mobil, both shows lacked consistent support until 2011.

Eaton and her staff sought newer, more relevant stories and looked to past successes; Prime Suspect had gained a strong following, so PBS re-ran Series 4 on Masterpiece Theatre during the 1995–1996 season. In 2002, PBS moved Mystery! from its Thursday prime-time slot to Sunday nights in summer, where it continued through 2004 with shows like The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, Hetty Wainthropp Investigates, and Foyle's War.