Rank Your NBC Mystery Movie In Order

Cafe Society
1

Me:

  1. Columbo
  2. McMillan and Wife
  3. Banacek
  4. McCloud
2

My top four would be:

  1. Columbo
  2. Hec Ramsey
  3. Lannigan’s Rabbi
  4. McMillan and Wife
3

Columbo
McCloud (I’m a sucker for “fish out of water” stories)
**McMillan and Wife **(No love for his solo outings)
Banacek
Hec Ramsey
Cool Million

I’d love to rate Hec Ramsey higher, loved the premise of a frontier lawman using modern scientific techniques, but I don’t recall any episodes after the pilot. It sounds almost Steampunk, though!

4

The 14 selections from the original run and the 8 from the 1993 revival can be found here.

5

Columbo
McCloud
Quincy, M.E.*
Amy Prentiss

*Quincy is a cheat, because there were only four episodes before it was turned into a one-hour weekly series. But I liked it in the early seasons, so it’s on my list, by gosh.

6

McMillan and Wife because I had and still do have a mad crush on Susan St James
McCloud Loved the chemistry between McCloud and Clifford and there was humor
Columbo If quality was the criterea this would be #1 but I enjoyed the first two more
Banachek
The Snoop Sisters

7

***Columbo ***was the only one I ever watched.

8

I was only a kid when the series aired, I used to be afraid the that Ominous Man slowly coming toward you in the opening credits.

Columbo Banachek Cool Million Hec Ramsey
9

Banacek
McCloud
McMillan and Wife

Never watched the others much, and I hated Colombo.
Thomas Banacek: A duck with three wings and a loaf of bread is brother to the turkey.

10

Me too.

11

Banacek
Columbo
McCloud
McMillan & Wife

Banacek was my favorite show at the time. The football player disappearing in the tackle is a classic.

I didn’t appreciate Columbo as much as I should have when it first aired. Only later going back and rewatching helped me realize what a great show it was. Indeed Columbo wasn’t a mystery at all. It was something else, new and different. It was a battle of wits.

12

Columbo
McCloud
MacMillan and Wife
Banacek

Honorable mentions: Quincy, M.E. and Hec Ramsey

These were all satirized in MAD Magazine as Clodumbo, McClod, MakeMillions and Wife, Banapole, Queezy, M.E., and Hack Ramsnose.

13

**Colombo **was the only one worth watching.

14

The one that no one remembers is Madigan. I seem to recall that when the show made its debut, they alternated Madigan and Banacek; the others came later.

McCloud
Hec Ramsey
Banacek
Columbo
Madigan

  • if Quincy ME counts, Quincy goes top of the list.
15

MacMillan, With or without Wife
Banacek
Cool Million

I loved McCLOUD when I was a kid, but boy they don’t hold up at all.The stories are incredibly stupid, and McClod is a real asshole, actually.

Despite my love of the show, Banacek is not a “fair play” detective show. Often, the first time we see the crime, the scene does not match the “here’s how it happened” explanation at the end. Important clues are changed or omitted. The show was not written for repeat viewing, that’s for sure.

Colombo bugs me. Most, but not all, cases would never go to trial if the perps just SHUTUP. My dad used to compare him to the KGB - he finds a person he thinks is guilty, and hounds him. until he confesses. ( Yes, yes, we the audience know the killer is guilty, but Columbo doesn’t have the benefit of seeing the show opening.)

16

I still watch pieces of Columbo. It’s OK.

17

I was going to say Kolchak (the old Darren McGavin series), but it wasn’t one of this series.