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Waiting for Columbo (Once a Month or Longer)

posted 7 years ago by ecarle (14979)
10 replies | jump to latest

A little nostalgia about how one watched Columbo "back in the 70's."

After starting off as a 1968 TV movie based on a Broadway play("Prescription: Murder", with suave Gene Barry as the killer) which led to a second pilot three years later(!) in early 1971 called "Ransom for a Dead Man"(with the mature but sexy Lee Grant as the killer), NBC and Universal set to work to get Columbo on a regular weekly series in late 1971.

It turned out that Peter Falk wasn't interested in the grind of a weekly series, and producers Richard Levinson and William Link felt the show was "too rich a brew" for a weekly series -- the intelligent clue-ridden scripts needed time for preparation and the very "all talk/no action" nature of the show made it something that audiences might tire of on a weekly basis.

So "Columbo" ended up alternating with two other mystery series -- "McCloud"(starring Dennis Weaver) and "MacMillan and Wife"(starring once-a-superstar Rock Hudson) on the "NBC Sunday Night Mystery." This was called the "wheel" concept, and had already been used by NBC and Universal with a show called "The Name of the Game" and one called "Four in One." (Four rotating series.)

When The NBC Sunday Night Mystery started its run in the 1971/1972 season, I remember diligently trying to watch all three of the series. But as the season rolled on, it became clear that "Columbo" was the best of the three, and utterly unique. Whereas McCloud and MacMillan and Wife(a Thin Man derivative paring Hudson with Susan St. James) had to draw on the "usual weekly TV mystery writing" for their storylines (forgettable, for the most part, the stuff TV had to do weekly everywhere on Mannix and Cannon and Dan August)...Columbo had one story to tell and one story only, in every episode: a wealthy and powerful person commits the perfect murder, shambling Columbo shows up for some cat and mouse with the killer to solve the crime.

NBC quickly found out that the nation(and eventually the world) loved the familiarity of the Columbo formula and the wonderful eccentricity of Peter Falk as Columbo. NBC Sunday Mystery Movie ratings would shoot up anytime Columbo rotated in; and diehard Columbo fans came to wait with ever-less-patience for "the next Columbo" to turn up. You'd want to check that TV Guide(which listed next week's programming) to see if and when a Columbo was on deck.

And when there WAS a Columbo on...it was an event. In my case, Columbo was on partially during my college years, and there would be "dorm TV room gatherings" to watch Columbo as if it were a sporting event -- with laughs every time Columbo started breaking down the suspect, cheers and applause at the end, when he closed the trap.

Even when I didn't watch Columbo with a dorm group(which was also how we watched Saturday Night Live in those early years), if at home or visiting relatives, a "Columbo" was an event, something special.

All of which makes it "rather too easy" to have all the Columbos available on DVD at any time to put in. Watching two in a row that, on original release, were WEEKS apart is...well, quite a treat.

And no way how it felt to watch Columbos in the 70's. You had to WAIT for that shambling detective to show up. And when he did, it was as if "The NBC Sunday Mystery Movie" was suddenly an address of distinction, a special place to be.

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

The record shows that as the seventies went on, and Peter Falk started getting movie roles(Murder by Death, The Cheap Detective), and Falk started warring with Universal for more pay...a "Columbo" episode became even more rare to see.

In the sixth season, there were only THREE episodes for the entire season!

The William Shatner one.
The Theodore Bikel one
The Joyce Van Patten one?

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After the 70's Columbo went off the air in 1978 (with a final season of five episodes), 11 years passed and a miracle occurred: Peter Falk as Columbo came back. It seemed to be a once in a lifetime miracle, but that was before Raymond Burr came back as Perry Mason. Still, Burr as Mason came back a lot heavier and with a beard and with a different supporting cast(save Barbara Hale) than on his original show; Falk came back as "solo as Columbo always was" and looking older, but not too much different.

Still, we had to wait for our Columbos in the 90's, too. At first Columbo was put into "nostalgic rotation" with a Burt Reynolds series and a Lou Gossett series. But after a year or two, that idea was dropped and now Columbos turned up -- well, pretty much whenever they chose to. You had to keep out an Eagle Eye to know when one was coming.

Put it all together and, whether it was the 70's, 1989, the 90s, or the early 2000s'(the final Columbo aired in 2003)...you had to wait for the crafty Lieutenant. The show was ALWAYS a "very rich brew," and you ALWAYS had to wait and wait and wait to see it.

I think I'll go put in a Columbo DVD right now....no, maybe I should wait three weeks...

[–] [email protected] (5871) 7 years ago

Your post brings back great memories! Columbo was a MAJOR viewing event in our house! My family really enjoyed MacMillan and Wife. We liked McCloud, but our mom didn't. She was never a fan of Dennis Weaver (don't know why).

But some of the Columbo episodes would air in the summer. Our family went on Sunday picnics at a nearby lake with the relatives. Usually the picnics would start to break up around eight thirty or later .

But if it was a "Columbo night", forget it! Mom, my sisters and I would start telling dad, "We have to go! Columbo is on tonight!"

We'd pack up in a hurry. We HAD to get home in time. First, we had to hang up the wet towels and bathing suits and put all the food away. We were a well oiled team. ha! Everything had to be done (including taking baths) , so we could settle down and watch Columbo. It was a MAJOR event in our house!

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

Your post brings back great memories! Columbo was a MAJOR viewing event in our house!

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I think Columbo was a major viewing event in many homes. "All in the Family" and "MASH" and "Happy Days" and "Mary Tyler Moore" and some other regular shows may have been in the Top Ten regularly, but Columbo was a big one whenever it came on. Reportedly, Columbo got some people to watch TV who generally didn't watch TV.

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My family really enjoyed MacMillan and Wife.

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I probably shouldn't have "upgraded" Columbo at the expense of the other shows in "the wheel." Its just that even as it is easy to remember how any given Columbo episode "played," (it was always the same formula), its hard to remember how the other mystery series played.

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We liked McCloud, but our mom didn't. She was never a fan of Dennis Weaver (don't know why).

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McCloud, with its "Fish out of water Western cop in New York City" premise was built off a Clint Eastwood movie called Coogan's Bluff. Dennis Weaver was more homespun and courtly than Eastwood, and made McCloud his own.

I recall McCloud developing its own "Columbo-like" gimmick after a few seasons: every episode would end with some sort of specific type of chase: by car, by bus, by helicopter, by boat, by horseback, by stagecoach...

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

Soon there was a "Wednesday Night Mystery Movie" to go with the Sunday one. The best "gimmick" show there was "George Peppard as Banacek." Every three weeks, Banacek would be assigned to figure out how something disappeared and where it disappeared TO. (Like a pro football player who disappeared under a pile-up, or an armored truck that disappeared in the desert.) A fun, clever show, with Peppard going all suave and charming.

Between the Sunday and Wednesday shows(though Wednesday eventually dropped out), all sorts of detectives got a monthly outing: MacMillan eventually dropped "Wife" and became a solo operator. Richard Boone did two years as an 1880s frontier detective called "Hec Ramsey." Tony Curtis had a show. Richard Widmark played his movie cop "Madigan"(even though Madigan got killed in the movie.) James MacEachan was a cool black cop named "Tenafly."

But only one of the rotating detectives really took off on his own: Jack Klugman as medical examiner Quincy. He got his own weekly show.

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

But some of the Columbo episodes would air in the summer.

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Yes.

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Our family went on Sunday picnics at a nearby lake with the relatives. Usually the picnics would start to break up around eight thirty or later .

But if it was a "Columbo night", forget it! Mom, my sisters and I would start telling dad, "We have to go! Columbo is on tonight!"

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Ha. Its nice to think of a "Columbo" airing on a warm summer night, with the sun still out as long as can be. There's a different feeling to watching a TV show in summer than in the dusky fall or cold winter.

Those picnics sound like family fun.

What you are speaking to here are the "days before video tapes and DVRs," when you had to watch a show WHEN IT AIRED. You couldn't tape and watch later. This gives many of us memories of our families -- or ourselves -- rushing from wherever we were to get in front of the TV in time to see the show. It was magnetic.

That said, even modernly with a DVR, I usually like to watch a favorite show when it airs. I want to see it as soon as possible. I think the nation does, too. Few people wait too long for a Game of Thrones or Walking Dead episode.

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We'd pack up in a hurry. We HAD to get home in time.

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I remember the feeling. I can still get it, sometimes.

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First, we had to hang up the wet towels and bathing suits and put all the food away. We were a well oiled team. ha! Everything had to be done (including taking baths) , so we could settle down and watch Columbo. It was a MAJOR event in our house!

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Think about it. That shambling, crafty, fumbling but brilliant police lieutnenant had an effect on your family's behavior. Columbo MADE your family become "that well oiled team"(well, to become the well-oiled team they could always be when necessary) and to do things because you wanted to get in the house in time to see him, had to see him.

Its amazing how TV entertainment and TV characters can have that effect...on ALL of us. Me, too.

[–] [email protected] (5871) 7 years ago

We've become too spoiled. I can "dvr an episode " or tape it or whatever. Back then you had to get yourelf in front of the TV to see the show you loved. LOL That was true love.

I remember seeing some episodes when mom, my sisters and I had some big discussions during the episode.

One in particular, "Double Shock" with Martin Landau. WHICH twin offed their rich uncle???
We were ALL surprised at the ending. But I don't think Columbo was.

It was great family viewing in those days. Everyone settled down in front of the TV to watch some good entertainment. I get nostalgic for those days.

[–] ecarle (14979) 7 years ago

Those days were good. Having to rush home to watch TV with an assembled group of family or friends could be a real social experience. Those of us who are bit older "have that going for us."

But then every generation gets different memories....

[–] MaximRecoil (4613) 2 years ago

I was born in 1975 so I wasn't old enough for the original broadcasts. During the mid '80s I remember seeing Columbo reruns being aired occasionally on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon while flipping through the channels, but it didn't look interesting to my ~ten-year-old self so I never watched more than a few minutes of it.

In 1992 I was watching TV with Dad and Columbo Goes to College (1990) came on. I know for a fact it was 1992 so it must have been a rerun, but it was new to me. I loved it. I thought I'd stumbled upon a great TV series to watch, but when the next week rolled around, no Columbo, and the same for the week after that, and the week after that. I asked Dad about it but he didn't know.

I had no concept of the Columbo format at the time. I'd always assumed it was a normal, weekly, one-hour TV series like The Rockford Files or Hawaii Five-O (two other before-my-time shows that were often rerun on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon in the mid '80s). Columbo Goes to College filled a two-hour time slot, but I assumed it was just a two-hour special episode; lots of one-hour shows had an occasional two-hour episode. I never even considered the idea that it was always movie-length and it didn't have a weekly schedule, because that's not how TV worked during my time. Sure, I'd seen plenty of made-for-TV movies, but they were always one-offs, not a series featuring the same character(s).

It wasn't until I got internet access in 2001 that I was able to find out how the Columbo series worked. The Jesse Stone series of made-for-TV movies that began in 2005 worked the same way, but there was nothing like that (that I knew of) when I was a kid.

[–] davebuffalo (3456) 2 years ago

I also was first exposed to Columbo in 1992 when Columbo Goes to College premiered. I loved it!

Then I noticed that the 70s episodes aired weekly on AMC, so I would (literally) highlight them in the TV Guide. Yes the TV Guide! I was able to watch over half of the episodes over the next many years by doing this. It seems like "Port in any Storm" and "By Dawn's Early Light" aired way more than any of the other episodes.

Then years later I was gifted a season of Columbo on DVD every year for Christmas, followed by the ABC Special DVD sets. It was so enjoyable to be able to catch up on all 69 episodes! Now I have seen every one at least three times; it's like "comfort food" for me! 500 channels on TV and there's rarely something good on... so I pull out the Columbo DVDs, or search for it On-Demand.

Long Live Columbo!

[–] MaximRecoil (4613) 2 years ago

"Then I noticed that the 70s episodes aired weekly on AMC, so I would (literally) highlight them in the TV Guide. Yes the TV Guide! I was able to watch probably half of the episodes over the next few years of doing this. It seems like "Port in any Storm" and "By Dawn's Early Light" aired way more than any of the other episodes."

I didn't have cable TV in the early to mid 1990s, so my only option was to wait for an episode to show up on ABC. I only managed to catch several of them during that time period.

"it's like "comfort food" for me!"

Funny you should say that because I've said the same thing.