As the show's run continued, Lansbury assumed a larger role behind the scenes. In 1989, her own company, Corymore Productions, began co-producing the show with Universal. Nevertheless, she began to tire of the series, and in particular the long working hours, stating that the 1990–91 season would be the show's last. She changed her mind after being appointed executive producer for the 1992–93 season, something that she felt "made it far more interesting to me." For the 8th season, the show's setting moved to New York City, where Jessica had taken a job teaching criminology at Manhattan University. The move was an attempt to attract younger viewers and was encouraged by Lansbury. Having become a "Sunday-night institution" in the U.S., the show's ratings improved during the early 1990s, becoming a Top Five programme. However, CBS executives, hoping to gain a larger audience, moved it to Thursdays at 8pm, opposite NBC's new sitcom, "Friends". Lansbury was angry at the move, believing that it ignored the show's core audience. The final episode of the series aired in May 1996, and ended with Lansbury voicing a "Goodbye from Jessica" message at the end. Tom Shales wrote in "The Washington Post": "The title of the show's last episode, "Death by Demographics", is in itself something of a protest. "Murder, She Wrote" is partly a victim of commercial television's mad youth mania." At the time it tied the original "Hawaii Five-O" as the longest-running detective drama series in television history, and the role would prove to be the most successful and prominent of Lansbury's career. Lansbury initially had plans for a "Murder She Wrote" television film that would be a musical with a score composed by Jerry Herman. While this project did not materialise, it was transformed into "Mrs Santa Claus" – in which Lansbury played Santa Claus' wife – which proved to be a ratings hit.