Trivia

The dusty bus stop town location was Piru, California, adjacent to Fillmore. The Piru town's short Main Street commercial buildings were completely vacant, boarded up, and unoccupied. Art Director Mary Dodson created all of the shops, selecting a market, a Southwest Indian tourist shop, a barber shop, gas station, with necessary window and sign decoration. Mary and the decorator made the town come to life for the filming sequence. Several other exterior buildings and sidewalk locations were utilized filling out the filming schedule's use of the town site.

With Leslie Moonves axing the twelve year series Murder, She Wrote (1984), Dame Angela Lansbury and the family's Corymore Production company's pay-off settlement was four (two hour) Movie of the Week productions. CBS had previously discussed with Angela about performing a musical special which had never developed beyond the discussion stage. With the series cancellation, Jerry Herman had discussed with Angela and her husband, Peter Shaw, his "Mrs. Santa Claus" musical. CBS agreed to finance this musical special in addition to the four Movie of the Week projects. Mrs. Santa Claus (1996) went into production, after closing down the series, during the summer of 1996 utilizing the Universal Studios' production offices and technical staff and crews. Mid 1997, CBS asked for delivery of the first "Murder, She Wrote" Movie of the Week. The Murder, She Wrote: South by Southwest (1997) script was approved by CBS. The production and technical staff were reassembled, relying on the availability of former staff members to pull the project together within a four week preparation period. The second Movie of the Week was not developed until 2000 because the primary players were never happy with the killing of Murder, She Wrote (1984).

Production coordinated with Amtrak to secure a train for the filming of this movie. The train was assembled to originate downtown, at the Union Pacific Railroad terminal. The train followed the route of tracks to Santa Clarita, California while filming occurred on the train. One car was gutted of seating, to be used as the dining car. The set decorator provided tables and chairs. Construction added lighting fixtures between the window verticals, wired for electricity sourced by batteries. The interior compartment sitting room was built on a Universal Studio stage for process filming. In Santa Clarita, at the end of the line, the train remained on the end siding for additional filming. Location interiors and exteriors were all within a twenty-mile radius of Santa Clarita.

This was one of the most complicated scripts to prep because of the number of locations required. Matching terrain for road work, Sheriff car chases, helicopter landing and takeoff points, interior café diner (Saugus, California), lecture interior, train station (Acton, California), tracks for the Amtrak train to travel for filming while the train was in motion. The production company (Universal Studios) and Amtrak had to gain permission from Metro Rail to use right of way on their rail tracks, with the film train waiting on side bar tracks for the daily Metro schedules. Filming the bus interior while moving on back roads of Acton, the town of Piru, California for the bus passengers to disembark, completely dressing the Piru Main Street for the scripted scenes. An epic for a two hour Movie of the Week, this was a very busy shoot. Every member of the crew drove to each location on his or her own. Not one person was put up in a hotel during the entire filming schedule.

The closing credits begin with "In Memory of Derek Marlowe". Derek Marlow was an English playwright, novelist and screenwriter who passed away shortly before the airing of the movie. He is credited with the story and the teleplay; this would be his last screenplay prior to passing away.