Prime has an IMDB channel which is free but has commercials. I’m sure I saw a few EPs in the 70s but don’t remember. Just watched the first two EPS from 1968, both were pilots, very cool. In EP 2 Lee Grant kills her husband in a fake kidnapping. The morning after she drops off the money, she and her stepdaughter are seen watching Double Indemnity on TV.
The show wasn’t picked up until 1971. Didn’t realize they only made a handful of EPs each year
It was part of a larger series The NBC Mystery Movie that rotated through different detectives. Others included McCloud, and McMillan & Wife. So there were only a handful of each every season.
I’ve been slowly watching Columbo as well, when I just want to watch something lighthearted and easy to watch. Watching all the old technology is really interesting.
It was part of what they called “a wheel” with one of a few different detectives each week (“The NBC Friday Night Mystery” I think - MST3K called out that series whenever a character was using a flashlight outside
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If I recall correctly the very first ones were “Banacek” and “Madigan”, neither of which are particularly well-remembered. But they came up with some memorable winners after a few attempts. “Hec Ramsey” was pretty good, and the two you mentioned above. But the ones that folks remember best are “Columbo” and “Quincy ME”.
That one only had a few episodes as part of the rotation before earning it’s own weekly slot.
They show the reruns on Cozi and Metv at 8pm on Sat and Sun nights, respectively. The Metv ones started a while ago on the very first and work forward from there and the Cozi were doing some of the later ones.
They’re all on Peacock.
There were two different wheels, aired on different nights.
It started out on Wednesdays as The NBC Mystery Movie with Columbo, McCloud, and McMillan and Wife. All three of these series were popular and the show was a hit. It was moved to Sundays (Sundays were considered a better time slot than Wednesdays) and renamed The NBC Sunday Mystery Movie. This was when the fourth series, Hec Ramsey, was added.
A second show The NBC Wednesday Mystery Movie was started in the original Wednesday time slot. This show had three new series: Banacek, Cool Million, and Madigan. This show was not as successful as the original. Cool Million and Madigan were cancelled, Faraday & Company, The Snoop Sisters, and Tenafly were added, and the show was moved to Tuesdays. But this didn’t help and the show was cancelled.
The original series maintained its success on Sundays with the three original series. Hec Ramsey was cancelled. Amy Prentiss, McCoy (which meant that the rotation for that season was McCloud, McCoy, McMillan and Wife, and Columbo), Quincy ME, and Lanigan’s Rabbi, were all tried as the fourth series in the rotation. Quincy was the only success and that was spun off into its own series.
It appears the network was oversold on the wheel concept. The show’s original success was due to the individual quality of the three series rather than the unusual rotating format. They were unable to duplicate that original success with other series.
My understanding is Falk really pushed for quality on his show which is why it is probably the most remembered. He always wanted something where the good detective keeps pulling the noose tighter and tighter to where he looks like he got the murderer but then the murderer comes up with a great explanation that leaves Columbo investigating again.
Name your favorite: Mine is “A Friend in Deed” with Richard Kiley as the murderer, a deputy police commissioner and Columbo’s boss’s boss.
“Amy Prentiss” debuted as a back door pilot in two episodes of “Ironside” where Jessica Walter becomes chief of detectives (everyone thinks she will turn it down because she is a woman) to the consternation of other detectives, one of them being William Shatner
Another wheel was The Bold Ones.
My fave in the Columbo wheel was McCloud.
And don’t you diss Banacek! Utterer of such classic lines as “If you can’t tell borscht from potato soup, then a lot of little children are struggling in the mines.”
I liked Banacek. George Peppard was superb in the role.
I like McMillan and Wife because I still have a mad crush on Susan St James.
Keep an eye out for the Columbo episode Étude in Black, it has a very young Gwyneth Paltrow, but she’s unrecognizable.
I’ve caught some episodes of Banacek over the last couple years, one of which I even remember from decades ago because the resolution was so unusual. There are still a few I need to see. It’s fascinating to see Boston from the 1970s. Next time I’m strolling around Beacon Hill I want to try and find Banacek’s house and Mulholland’s Rare Books and Prints.
“Negative Reaction”: with Dick Van Dyke as the guy who’ll helpfully explain that, oh, hey, you don’t actually need to ask whodunit; I admit it!
No Time To Die from 1992. Columbo’s nephew’s bride disappears from their hotel room on their wedding night. Columbo abandons his scatterbrained persona and shows himself to be a focused tough as nails cop.
I believe you’re mistaken, unless Paltrow was in it as a child and went uncredited. The wife of the murderer was played by Blythe Danner, Gwyneth’s mother.
Who was pregnant at the time, is the joke.