NO HAPLESS CUCKOLD! EMMY� AWARD WINNER DICK VAN DYKE IS THE ULTIMATE BUMBLING WOULD-BE CRIME SOLVER IN THE HALLMARK CHANNEL MYSTERY MOVIE PREMIERE OF �MURDER 101�

Barry Van Dyke and Tracey Needham Also Star; �Murder 101� Premieres January 7; Executive Producer is Emmy� Award winner Dean Hargrove

Emmy� Award winner Dick Van Dyke stars as a slightly bumbling criminology professor with a steel-trap of a crime-solving mind in the Hallmark Channel Mystery Movie �Murder 101,� which premieres Saturday, January 7 (9/8c). The movie reunites Van Dyke with his son, Barry Van Dyke, and Emmy Award� winning writer/producer Dean Hargrove, who was executive producer of the long-running hit series �Diagnosis Murder,� which starred the two Van Dykes.

�Murder 101� also stars Tracey Needham (�JAG,� �The Division�), Carmen Argenziano (�Stargate SG-1�), Tony Denison (�The Closer�), Roxanne Hart (�Chicago Hope�), John Rosenfeld (�McBride�), Lisa Thornhill (�Veronica Mars�) and William Allen Young (�Moesha�).

Dr. Jonathan Maxwell (Dick Van Dyke) may sometimes forget where his class meets, where he put the house keys, or if he fed the cat, but he never misses a clue, no matter how obscure. His prot�g�, private detective and former cop Mike Bryant (Barry Van Dyke), calls on Maxwell�s expertise when he is asked to look into the murder of Ben Raymond (Denison), a high-powered corporate executive. Somebody has blown up Raymond�s mansion and police lieutenant Dietrich (Young) has arrested Cheryl Collins (Needham) an investigative reporter who had been working as the company�s PR executive while secretly looking to uncover the next Enron scandal. Bryant has been hired by Collins�s defense attorney to exonerate her client and the challenge is daunting, particularly since he is very attracted to the suspect.

Maxwell is intrigued. From the existing evidence, it seems the police have an open-and-shut case against Collins. She had a heated exchange with Raymond at the Omnicom company party just before the explosion, and she was rumored to have been romantically involved with the victim. She also had remained behind after the other party guests had left. Most damning, the police have found a timer in her car and traces of explosives at her home. But to Maxwell it doesn�t all quite add up. He enthusiastically plunges into a world of corporate intrigue and uncovers a long list of ruthless men and women who might have benefited from Raymond�s death and Collins�s arrest. Meanwhile, Bryant and Collins look for the tipster whose anonymous phone call led her to Omnicom, and all the while, a mysterious driver in a battered wreck follows their every move.

�Murder 101� is a Hallmark Entertainment presentation in association with Alpine Media and Larry Levinson Productions. Robert Halmi, Jr. and Larry Levinson are executive producers. Dean Hargrove is executive producer. Nick Lombardo and Michael Moran are co-executive producers. Christian I. Nyby II directed from a script by Dean Hargrove.

Hallmark Channel is a 24-hour basic cable channel that provides a diverse slate of high-quality entertainment programming to a national audience of 71 million subscribers. The program service is distributed through more than 5,200 cable systems and communities as well as direct-to-home satellite services across the country. Crown Media also operates a second 24-hour linear channel, Hallmark Movie Channel. Through its subsidiary, Crown Media Distribution, LLC, Crown also distributes titles from its award-winning collection of movies, miniseries and films for exhibition in a variety of television media including broadcast, cable, Video-on-Demand and High Definition Television.

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