General Columbo questions

Columbo was part of a rotating group of mystery shows that made up The NBC Sunday Mystery Movie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJ26K3nVM_0

Although the thought of making it a weekly series was discussed, it was decided to keep it part of the rotation of the NBC Sunday Mystery Movie with the thinking that making it a weekly series would affect the quality of the stories and production value.


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Was it a weekly thing or once a month thing and were there only 4-5 a season?
http://epguides.com/Columbo_1968/

Which network did it come on?
In 1968, Columbo aired as a two hour movie on NBC.
The Columbo series aired on NBC from 1971 through 1978 as one of three rotating detective drama programs that were part of the weekly NBC Mystery Movie. The initial three programs that rotated from week to week were Columbo, McCloud and McMillan & Wife.
Columbo then aired less frequently on ABC from 1989 through 2003.

And were they always 2 hours or were there some 1.5 hour long episodes?
Episodes varied from 70 minutes up to 100 minutes in length.
With commercials added and editing, they aired:
- during a 1.5 hour time slot from 1971 through 1974 and from 1976 through 1978
- during a 2 hour time slot from 1974 through 1976