49 Fun Facts About Only Murders in the Building

In which Manhattan neighbourhood is the Arconia of Only Murders in the Building?

Upper West Side: the three leads all live in the Arconia there, but only get talking when an alarm empties the building and they discover they love the same true-crime podcast.

What kind of animal is Winnie, Oliver Putnam's pet, who is poisoned in season one?

A bulldog: Winnie is poisoned on the day a threatening note appears on Oliver's door, and he at once suspects a celebrity neighbour of doing it.

In Only Murders in the Building, whose apartment is Mabel renovating?

Her aunt's apartment is Mabel's home while she does it up. What her two new friends don't know is that she spent her school holidays in the building and grew up with the first victim.

What is the name of Charles-Haden Savage's 1990s crime drama?

Brazzos made Charles a TV detective whose catchphrase was 'This sends the investigation into a whole new direction'. When the show is rebooted, he is brought back only as 'Uncle Brazzos'.

What is Oliver Putnam's profession?

A Broadway director who is badly short of money, Oliver faces eviction over unpaid building fees, so he talks an old friend into sponsoring the podcast.

Who is the murder victim in the first episode of season one?

Tim Kono is found dead in his apartment on the night the three meet. The police call it suicide, but the trio had just watched him take a frantic phone call in the elevator.

What was the name of Mabel's childhood mystery-solving quartet?

The Hardy Boys were the detective books Mabel and her friends bonded over as children while solving pretend mysteries. The group broke up after one of the four died at a New Year's Eve party.

Tina Fey's Cinda Canning is a parody of which real podcast host?

Sarah Koenig's Serial is the model for Cinda's hit, All Is Not OK in Oklahoma. The trio idolise Cinda until she launches a podcast about them called Only Murderers in the Building.

Which Arconia board president's murder is investigated in season two?

Bunny Folger is found dead with Mabel kneeling over her in the last scene of season one, so the trio start season two under arrest and investigate to clear their own names.

Who plays Charles's stunt double Sazz Pataki?

Jane Lynch's Sazz doubled for Charles on his old TV show and stayed his friend. She is shot dead in his apartment at the end of season three, apparently by a bullet meant for him.

Paul Rudd's Ben Glenroy is best known in-universe for playing which superhero?

CoBro made Ben famous, but an old signed drawing suggests the character began as a childhood comic by his brother and manager, Dickie, which gives Dickie a motive for murder.

What is the name of Meryl Streep's struggling actress character?

Loretta Durkin lands her first Broadway role after decades of trying. Her real reason for auditioning is Ben's brother Dickie, the son she gave up for adoption.

Which Irish-born stunt double does Paul Rudd play in season four?

Glen Stubbins doubled for Ben Glenroy and has struggled for work since Ben died. He is shot when the lights go out at a photoshoot, then killed in hospital before Mabel can question him.

Which actor plays a version of himself cast as Oliver Putnam in season four's film of the podcast?

Zach Galifianakis nearly walks out when Oliver fails to recognise him, and sees the man he is playing as a mere narcissist until Howard explains how Oliver keeps going after every failure.

In Only Murders in the Building, which actress plays herself, cast as Mabel in a film?

Eva Longoria tells Mabel to take the film money and build something of her own, then turns sleuth, insisting on sticky mats at a photoshoot so the trio can collect the crew's shoeprints.

Who plays NYPD Detective Donna Williams?

Da'Vine Joy Randolph's detective closes the first case as a textbook suicide. Once her wife gets hooked on the podcast she has second thoughts, and quietly sends Mabel the victim's phone.

Teddy Dimas, the podcast's sponsor, secretly makes money from what?

Jewellery stolen from the dead is his sideline: his son lifts it from bodies at a funeral home, and Teddy gives himself away by paying the trio with a cheque drawn on the secret business.

Which Arconia employee's murder is investigated in season five?

Lester the doorman is found dead in the Arconia's fountain the morning after Oliver's wedding. The police call it an accident until the trio turn up a severed finger.

In season five, what are three billionaires competing for the right to build at the Arconia?

A casino: a secret gaming room has run for years beneath the Arconia, and the billionaires are playing for the licence to open New York City's first legal one in the building itself.

Which actor plays New York mayor Beau Tillman in season five?

Keegan-Michael Key's mayor owes his office to a billionaire's campaign money, and he turns out to be the season's killer: the severed finger the trio have been carrying around is his.

Christoph Waltz's season five billionaire Bash Steed made his fortune in what?

Tech and AI made Bash Steed so rich that, when the trio's podcast hints he and two fellow billionaires are killers, they simply buy control of the company that publishes it.

Beanie Feldstein's season five character Althea, or 'Thē', is what kind of celebrity?

A pop singer who has just moved into the Arconia's penthouse, Althea grew up with Mabel, and she admits that her biggest hit was really written about how much she admired her old friend.

Bobby Cannavale plays Nicky Caccimelio, a man who is what in season five?

A vanished mobster whose wife tries to hire the trio to find him. Oliver does find Nicky, dead in the family's dry-cleaning shop, the body apparently frozen to hide when he died.

Who is Howard Morris, played by Michael Cyril Creighton?

A cat-loving neighbour, Howard becomes the trio's first suspect when his cat's paw prints turn up in the victim's blood. He is cleared when it emerges that he faints at the sight of blood.

What instrument does Amy Ryan's character Jan Bellows play professionally?

Bassoon is the clue as well as the job: a younger player takes Jan's first chair, and a bassoon cleaner found among the victim's things exposes her as the season-one killer.

Who plays Alice Banks, Mabel's artist love interest in season two?

Cara Delevingne's Alice runs a gallery and coaxes Mabel back into making art. During a party game she is forced to admit she invented her grand background to be taken seriously as an artist.

Adina Verson's Poppy White is revealed to really be whom?

Becky Butler was the missing girl whose case made Cinda Canning's podcast a hit. Alive and working unnoticed as Cinda's assistant, she commits the season-two murder to have a case of her own to crack.

Richard Kind's Vince Fish wears an eye patch for what reason?

Perpetual pink eye is Vince's explanation for the patch. He is one of the west-tower tenants who have been hiding the death of the professor who rents out their apartments to them.

Kumail Nanjiani's Rudy Thurber keeps what up in his apartment all year?

Christmas decorations stay up all year because a festive video made Rudy's name as a fitness influencer. Under questioning he admits that he actually hates Christmas.

In season one, the hooded stranger the trio nickname 'Tie-Dye Guy' turns out to be whom?

Mabel's old friend Oscar, just out of prison after ten years for a death he did not cause. He was outside the victim's door that night and heard the gunshot.

In season two, which murder-mystery party game does Oliver use to interrogate Mabel's girlfriend Alice?

Son of Sam is a game Oliver has played at parties since his youth, with one guest secretly cast as the killer. He uses it to corner Alice, who cracks and admits she has lied about who she is.

In season four of Only Murders in the Building, which film studio wants to turn the podcast into a movie?

Paramount's producer Bev Melon woos the trio with a studio party, then turns amateur detective herself after the murdered Sazz leaves her an unsettling voicemail about the film.

Who plays Charles's sister Doreen, who shelters the trio on Long Island in season four?

Melissa McCarthy's Doreen takes a shine to Oliver and ends up brawling with his partner, before Doreen and her estranged brother Charles patch things up.

Which real New York building is used for exterior shots of the Arconia?

The Belnord, a 1909 landmark that fills a whole city block, lends the Arconia its facade and courtyard, while most of the interiors were shot elsewhere.

In season two of Only Murders in the Building, what do the trio leave as bait to mark the killer?

A glitter bomb, Oliver's idea because glitter never comes off. Mabel later meets a stranger on the subway covered in the stuff, and a trace on a detective's neck finally gives him away.

In which city was the sixth season of Only Murders in the Building filmed in 2026?

London, the first time the show has filmed abroad: season five ends with Cinda Canning dying at the Arconia's gates with a boarding pass from Heathrow, and the new run is billed as Only Murders in London.

Which song by Charles-Haden Savage, heard briefly in season two, was later released as a real single?

'Angel in Flip-Flops' is heard for only a moment on screen, but in July 2022 the show put it out as a real single, sung in character by Steve Martin, who co-wrote it.

Who turns out to have killed Sazz Pataki in season four?

The film's screenwriter had been Sazz's stunt protégé; he stole the script she wrote and sold it under a false name, and killed her when she threatened to expose him.

Which film director plays himself in season four of Only Murders in the Building?

Ron Howard turns out to be an old acquaintance of Oliver's. He directed the film from which a stuntman was once sacked, and the photograph he produces of that man unmasks the killer.

Which network aired season one of Only Murders in the Building, edited for FCC rules, in January 2024?

ABC borrowed the show to fill holes left in its schedule by the previous year's writers' and actors' strikes, opening with three episodes back to back on a single Tuesday night.

Who won the 2022 Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for Only Murders in the Building?

Nathan Lane won as Teddy Dimas. It was his first Emmy, and it came on his seventh nomination as a guest actor, which was itself a record number.

Which star of Only Murders in the Building won the 2025 SAG Award for best male actor in a comedy series?

Martin Short won for playing Oliver on a night when the show's cast also took the comedy ensemble prize, but he missed the ceremony because he had COVID.

Which city do the trio visit in season four of Only Murders in the Building?

Los Angeles, where a studio throws a party to introduce the stars cast to play them. Hence the episode titles, which run from Once Upon a Time in the West to My Best Friend's Wedding.

In season three, the murder-mystery play Death Rattle is hastily reworked into what?

A musical, Death Rattle Dazzle: the idea comes to its director straight after a minor heart attack, brought on by meeting a critic who was about to pan the play.

Which rock star plays a version of himself in season one of Only Murders in the Building?

Sting lives in the Arconia in the show and becomes a suspect because the dead man was his stockbroker and had lost him a fortune. The trio turn up at his door with a turkey to question him.

In season two of Only Murders in the Building, which comedian plays herself and pitches a TV version of the podcast?

Amy Schumer moves into an apartment a rock star has just vacated, tells Oliver she is a fan of the podcast and asks him to sell her the rights so she can make it a series.

What is unusual about the Only Murders in the Building episode 'The Boy from 6B'?

Almost no spoken dialogue: the episode follows Theo, who is deaf, so the story plays out in silence and sign language. Casting a deaf actor, James Caverly, earned the show a Seal of Authentic Representation.

What does teenager Lucy show the trio inside the Arconia in season two?

Hidden passages run behind the apartments, and Lucy has known them for years. She was inside them on the night of the season's murder and saw the killer slip away.

What do Oliver and Mabel find in the bathtub of a locked west-tower apartment in season four?

A pig, alive and well, which bolts for the door at the first chance. The apartment's missing tenant turns out to be the key to the secret his neighbours are keeping.