Mon 27 Apr 2015
A TV Series Review by Michael Shonk: MRS. COLUMBO / KATE LOVES A MYSTERY (1979).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV mysteries[21] Comments
MRS. COLUMBO. NBC / Universal Television / Gambit Productions. 26 February 1979 to 9 March 1979 and 9 August 1979 to 6 September 6 1979; 5 episodes. Cast: Kate Mulgrew as Kate Columbo, Lili Haydn as Jenny Columbo, and Henry Jones as Josh Alden. Executive Producer: Richard Alan Simmons.
KATE LOVES A MYSTERY. NBC / Universal Television. 18 October 1979 to 6 December 1979; 8 episodes (one not aired). Cast: Kate Mulgrew as Kate Callahan, Lili Haydn as Jenny Callahan, Henry Jones as Josh Alden, and Don Stroud as Sgt. Mike Varrick. Executive Producer: Bill Driskill
* Credits above from Variety reviews and website “Totally Kate.”
Perhaps the most infamous TV mystery series ever made was MRS. COLUMBO. The story behind MRS. COLUMBO and KATE LOVES A MYSTERY is an epic farce of clueless decisions, confusion among the involved, and the ineptness of a troubled TV network that could not stop shooting itself in the foot.
COLUMBO time on NBC was ending. As for why, that depends on who you are asking. Let the confusion begin!
Variety in its review of MRS COLUMBO first episode “Word Games†(which can currently be viewed below) claimed Peter Falk had walked off the series to enjoy his growing theatrical career. But according to an article in American Film Institute (June 1979), Falk as well as COLUMBO creators Richard Levinson and William Link claim all were still interested in continuing the series. One point of view claimed NBC and Universal had grown weary of Falk’s demands and the rising costs of the series. Another view was NBC no longer wanted the series. Note, NBC was now run by the same TV network executive that had cancelled HARRY O before its time.
It was the 1970s, a decade when the name Fred Silverman meant genius TV programmer. Silverman had run CBS while it was number one in the ratings. He left CBS for ABC and quickly made the network that had been the laughing stock of television since the DuMont network left the air and made ABC number one in the ratings. NBC hired Silverman in 1978 with hopes Freddie could go three for three.
From all accounts it was Silverman’s idea to do a TV series featuring Lt. Columbo’s never seen wife. The AFI article linked above goes into great detail about what was happening in pre-production and the involvement of Link, Levinson, and Peter Fischer (the three who would end up creating MURDER SHE WROTE in 1984). A script was written, but the problem was who would play Mrs. Columbo.
Silverman had turned ABC around by aiming its programs at the younger audience. So it was no surprise he preferred a younger actress. Silverman’s choices varied from Carol Wayne to Brenda Vaccaro. Vaccaro would have been my choice but she turned the role down and ended up doing DEAR DETECTIVE (CBS, 1979). As for Levinson, Link and Fischer, they wanted a woman Peter Falk’s age, mid-forties to fifties and ethic looking such as Maureen Stapleton or Zohra Lampert. Ugh.
And that is why the series was doomed. Silverman never understood the magic of Mrs. Columbo was: she could exist in whatever form the viewer wanted.
The network ordered a six-hour five-episode long mini-series pilot from Universal, the studio that produced COLUMBO. NBC would air the mini-series pilot during the 1978-79 mid-season then decide if it wanted to add MRS. COLUMBO as a weekly series for the fall 1979-80 season.
The inverted mystery (where we know the killer and the drama is watching the detective catch the killer) is one of the hardest forms of television drama to write. Even COLUMBO run by Levinson and Link had scripts problems.
NBC and Fred Silverman continued to show a lack of understanding of the creative process and quickly drove the people behind the success of COLUMBO off the project. The network would eventually turn over the production to Richard Alan Simmons who produced the final season of COLUMBO on NBC (1978) and would executive produce COLUMBO return to TV on ABC in 1989.
The premise was not a bad one – a young mother tries to raise her child while her cop husband is always off screen. To fill her time she writes for a local throwaway newspaper and solves murders. But for the wife of our hero Lt. Columbo this was a terrible idea. The addition of the daughter ruined our view of the fun-loving marriage between two independent adults with their own lives but still devoted to the other.
Not surprisingly the audience was curious and eager to see the mysterious wife of its favorite detective. The two-hour episode “Word Games†aired February 26,1979 on NBC Monday Night Movies and did well with a 34 share opposite ABC’s HOW THE WEST WAS WON (26 share) and CBS lineup of MASH (38 share), WKRP IN CINNANTI (33) and LOU GRANT (29).
Robert Culp played a brilliant defense lawyer with a problem. He doesn’t love his wife, and she loves him too much. A divorce would destroy her, so he asks a killer he saved from a murder charge to kill his wife.
And don’t think the plot can’t get worse. Mrs. Columbo had installed a new intercom system that picks up the intercom of an unknown neighbor (guess who). As Mrs. Columbo listens into her neighbors’ private conversations, she hears the lawyer and killer discuss the wife’s murder.
All of the episodes of the mini-series are currently on YouTube minus opening themes and closing credits. “Word Games†is shown in two parts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ad5p70SJtoo
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IliYxEXBTc
Much of the audience was not pleased. This was not the Mrs. Columbo they knew and loved. Beyond the fans feelings of disappointment and betrayal was the fact the show was not very good.
“Murder is a Parlor Game†aired March 1, 1979 in its regular timeslot of Thursday at 10pm to a rating share of 27 opposite of ABC’s FAMILY 33 share and CBS’ BARNABY JONES 31 share. While “Word Games†finished 18th in the ratings that week, “Murder is a Parlor Game†was 45th.
The audience had tried and rejected MRS. COLUMBO. The reported refusal of Peter Falk to get involved even in a guest appearance made it apparent one would hope to even NBC that the series link to COLUMBO was a mistake.
And now the farce truly began. The mini-series pilot had ended. It was unlikely MRS. COLUMBO would be picked up for the fall season. In fact, according to the AFI article above, on March 8th NBC announced it had “dropped†MRS. COLUMBO. Did that mean the show was cancelled or at least in the terms of the day “not renewed�
But NBC was desperate for programs to fill its upcoming fall 1979-80 Schedule. Silverman decided to add KATE COLUMBO to the fall schedule in the same Thursday at 10pm time slot. There it would go up against ABC’s 20/20 and CBS’ BARNABY JONES.
NBC decided to rerun MRS. COLUMBO in August and September. Why NBC reminded everyone of the mini-series hated by so many is probably the same reason NBC was in such ratings trouble.
NBC continued down it epic path of self-destruction. This time thanks to its bungling promotional department who couldn’t decide on the series title and sent out promotional materials using the different titles (KATE COLUMBO or KATE THE DETECTIVE) and character’s name (Kate Columbo) for KATE LOVES A MYSTERY with character Kate Callahan. The promos can be seen here.
By now the press was having too much fun with NBC bumbling behavior to not add public ridicule to the situation. And NBC press department helped. Note the name differences on promotional material continued into the run of KATE LOVES A MYSTERY.
Without on air titles and credits it is difficult to confirm what changes, if any, were made in the production staff. But changes were made to the series. The most important was the change made in the mystery format as KATE LOVES A MYSTERY abandoned the inverted mystery used in COLUMBO and MRS. COLUMBO for the average action TV whodunit format.
Kate divorced someone whose name is never mentioned and called herself by her maiden name Callahan. She and Kate Columbo shared the same young daughter and the same boss who now ran a daily newspaper Valley Advocate. The change that best showed how much the creative side tried to flush COLUMBO out of KATE LOVES A MYSTERY was the addition of Sgt. Mike Varrick (Don Stroud) as Kate’s police contact and potential boyfriend.
The changes in the opening themes reflected the different styles of the two series – Kate Columbo as Mom and amateur detective in MRS COLUMBO versus Kate Callahan as Mom and serious reporter in action mystery KATE LOVES A MYSTERY.
From MRS. COLUMBO episode “A Puzzle For Prophetsâ€
From KATE LOVES A MYSTERY episode “Feelings Can Be Murderâ€
All of the KATE LOVES A MYSTERY are currently available to watch on YouTube minus its openings and closing credits.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1b7LSUgQzqI
“Ladies of the Afternoon†was the first episode of the new weekly series with all the different titles and aired 10/18/79 opposite of ABC 20/20 and CBS Barnaby Jones.
Fearless reporter Kate tries to uncover who is behind the group of housewives turned hookers and how it was connected to the murder of a women Kate knew from the PTA. How far away from COLUMBO is this show? How about a long pointless car chase with Kate and the cops to end the episode?
Here is a link to the Variety review.
Deservedly, KATE LOVES A MYSTERY quickly made itself home in the bottom ten of the ratings. In December (Broadcasting, 10 December 1979) NBC cancelled KATE LOVES A MYSTERY.
Today there are some COLUMBO fans still in denial who claim Lt. Columbo’s wife has never been seen, that the series featured a woman married to another Lt. Columbo.
But check out the NBC ads promoting the first three episodes of the mini-series pilot that left no doubt this was the Mrs. Columbo and wife of the character played by Peter Falk.
However, despite NBC’s mishandling of the two series and popular character Columbo, we can claim the mini-series pilot failed and ended MRS. COLUMBO. While we can’t explain why Kate Callahan and Kate Columbo shared the same daughter and home we can see the intent of those producing KATE LOVES A MYSTERY (except for NBC which wanted it both ways) was to remove all COLUMBO connections from KATE LOVES A MYSTERY including Mrs. Columbo.
Three episodes from the mini-series MRS. COLUMBO are available on DVD, “Murder Is A Parlor Game†is on COLUMBO COMPLETE THIRD SEASON, “Riddle For Puppets†is on COLUMBO COMPLETE FOURTH SEASON and “Cavier With Everything†is on COLUMBO COMPLETE FIFTH SEASON.
April 27th, 2015 at 11:30 pm
I remember all of the hoopla that went on before the first episode aired. I watched it, and you can’t imagine what a disappointment it was. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one. What a disaster.
I’ve promised Michael that when I find my bootleg copies of the series, he can borrow them to check out the credits. But since I don’t know how long that will take me, if anyone knows more, please don’t hesitate to say so.
April 28th, 2015 at 1:03 am
Frankly, I don’t trust “Variety” credits, especially Bill Driskill involvement in KATE LOVES A MYSTERY.
As you all can tell I enjoy research. This was a fun one to write. Every time I thought I had finished with this Columbo would show up with “one more question” and lead me to something new and or different to add.
April 28th, 2015 at 8:10 am
MRS. COLUMBO is one of several series (like MADIGAN, The SIXTH SENSE, etc) released on DVD in France by a company called Elephant films. Online comments note the soundtrack is in English and the picture quality is OK but of course it’s in PAL format so most US DVD players will not work, a “universal” model is required.
April 28th, 2015 at 11:02 am
david gideon, do you know how many episodes are available on the MRS COLUMBO DVD? The five MRS COLUMBO plus the eight KATE LOVES A MYSTERY?
I was surprised to see three of the five MRS. COLUMBO have been released officially on COLUMBO DVD. Yet I don’t remember seeing the two-hour MRS. COLUMBO episode ever syndicated like most two-hour TV Movie pilots were at that time.
April 28th, 2015 at 3:47 pm
I suspect that this is one more example that just because something can be done, it doesn’t follow that it should be done. Television shows must be littered with characters who are mentioned, but are never intended to be seen. It spoils the joke. I am pretty certain I never saw any of the shows at the time.
April 28th, 2015 at 5:00 pm
Zohra Lampert, “ugh”? Not by me. https://classictvhistory.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/queenlampert.png
April 28th, 2015 at 5:59 pm
Actually, I could see Columbo being married to a woman who’d be attractive, but not the prettiest one at the party.
April 28th, 2015 at 6:48 pm
Everyone on the creative side tried to explain to those on the business side that Mrs. Columbo was impossible to cast since everyone had their own image of her.
Todd, it was the “ethnic” side Levinson, Link and Fischer was looking for was what bothered me about Zohra Lampert with her heavy accent. She was a better actress than casting ever allowed her to be, type-casted as the female Jewish New Yorker.
It was laughable how they tried to make Kate Mulgrew a frumpy older woman with a hair style and clothes of a grandmother.
When I saw Mrs. Columbo she was a pretty (not beauty queen) brunette in a thirties. A woman attracted to her older husband for his mind and person not his looks. She would look great but not like a model instead slightly overweight. She would be supportive, independent and childless. I can’t think of an actress in 1979 that matches that.
What did Columbo’s wife look like in your imagination?
April 28th, 2015 at 7:48 pm
When they did the disasterous Spirit movie they made the mistake of showing Samuel L. Jackson as The Octopus, a character who was never shown save as a pair of gloves in the comic. No one really wanted to see Sam’s face on RICHARD DIAMOND. We really didn’t want the Lone Ranger to take off his mask. Fibber McGee and Molly’s closet could never be as magnificent in reality. Jack Benny’s Maxwell was never was as impressive when it was real and not Mel Blanc (even though he still did the sound effects).
Mrs. Columbo was an impossible character because she was never meant to be seen. She could be attractive to Michael, ethnic to someone else, frumpy to another, and all were correct. I remember one theory that Columbo had never married and she didn’t really exist — and it was as legitimate as any other.
What she could not be was Peter Falk in female form.
I’m sure it sounded brilliant when presented, but it was an idea doomed from the beginning.
Some people think creativity can overcome anything. It doesn’t. You can’t save a bad idea with it. No casting would have made this series work as a spin off of Columbo. It might have worked as Kate Jones, but it was doomed to failure when people turned in expecting what the Columbo name meant. Had either been literary characters it would be different, but television characters didn’t have the depth for that kind of creativity.
April 28th, 2015 at 8:07 pm
David, I’m glad you brought up those examples from Old Time Radio as things that were never meant to be seen and should never have been seen.
Another example from early TV is their neighbor Pete Porter’s never-seen wife on DECEMBER BRIDE. They made it through two seasons as PETE AND GLADYS, but to me Gladys was a whole lot funnier when she was referred to, mostly disparagingly (but not in a mean way) than when she showed up in person, totally unlike I ever imagined her.
As to whom Mrs Columbo looked like, I see her now as the wife and co-owner of the local Greek-Italian restaurant I go to a couple of times a week, Yanni’s. I’ll take you there anytime you’re in town, not that she’s there all the time, but the food is good.
April 28th, 2015 at 8:47 pm
michael’s comment#8: hmmm. How about Brenda Vacarro?
April 28th, 2015 at 9:57 pm
Rick, Vaccarro was on the network’s list and would have been my choice. I thought she was in her late twenties then but I just looked it up and she was 40 in 1979. So yeah, she would have been my image of Mrs. Columbo.
If I remember the AFI article she was offered the part but chose DEAR DETECTIVE, a much better show but with a shorter life span.
I had even forgotten I had reviewed DEAR DETECTIVE
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=17564
Comment 8 was not one of my brighter ones. 🙂
April 28th, 2015 at 11:31 pm
Here’s one of the photos of Brenda Vaccaro that I used in that earlier review:
I agree. She would have been an excellent choice. But I’m confused, Michael. Comment #8 is mine.
April 29th, 2015 at 1:13 am
In FRASIER, Niles’ wife Maris is all the more funny for never being seen. Apparently the creative staff considered showing her on screen, but by the time the idea was finally suggested, the writers had built up such a monster that no actress could possibly match up to the other character’s descriptions of her.
The thing about Columbo is that he is all the more effective for not being seen outside of his job. To an extent we always see his from the point of view of the other characters. We don’t even see his co-workers or his boss or even his office. He’s simply there. When someone came up with the idea of a series about Mrs Columbo they should have laughed and forgotten about it. This being TV, they went and made the show.
April 29th, 2015 at 1:15 am
Really? Has the comment bot attacked its Master?
8. Was where I agreed with 5 Randy Cox and 7. Gary R. and discussed Zohra Lampert with Todd #6 (where I should have added Eastern European/ Italian/ to Jewish/ New Yorker roles Lampert was usually trapped in).
April 29th, 2015 at 1:38 am
Bradstreet, I reviewed one of the later COLUMBO episode where he has a partner, a boss and a desk he shares in the squad room.
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=28118
The YouTube episode is gone but hopefully the review will give you an idea about how wrong it all was.
The real villain here was Fred Silverman who had left his ego run wild after he turned ABC into the Number One rated network. His work at NBC was the beginning of his fall. He micromanaged all creative decisions and made impossible production demands. This was the same time he gave the World SUPERTRAIN a series so bad, so over budget it nearly ruined NBC and is a mainstay on lists of worst TV shows ever.
The AFI link in the review really goes into detail about the insanity of working with NBC and Silverman.
I would love to read the Peter Fischer script (approved by Levinson and Link) for the first episode before Silverman forced Richard Alan Simmons to update it due to casting. Did the Columbos have a daughter? Who made that decision?
As hopeless as the idea of casting a Mrs. Columbo was, it might have been a forgivable idea if it had not added a child. It change Columbo from a man devoted to his work, to a neglecting Father.
April 29th, 2015 at 9:33 am
Michael
Your comment about comment #8 in comment #12 followed immediately after the link to your DEAR DETECTIVE review. It was late at night, and I thought you were referring to Comment #8 of the earlier post.
I wasn’t asleep but I was nodding off.
April 30th, 2015 at 10:32 am
Here is the official website for the French DVD release of Mrs Columbo:
http://www.elephantfilms.com/madame-columbo-saisons-1-2.html
April 30th, 2015 at 12:54 pm
Thanks david gideon. It has both the mini-series pilot MRS. COLUMBO and the multi-aliased weekly series KATE LOVES A MYSTERY including the final eighth episode that apparently never aired in the U.S.
That DVD cover is great and totally clueless. Kate Mulgrew looking over her shoulder in a sexy pose, and behind her is Columbo’s car and the typical Palm Trees of Hollywood.
July 6th, 2016 at 12:49 pm
A series based on the un-seen Mrs Columbo, makes about as much sense as a series based on Vera, Norms wife from Cheers. Although, we did get to meet Vera in one episode, but the actress had a face full of pie…
July 6th, 2016 at 4:17 pm
Even at the time nearly everyone agreed with you Tim – except Network executive Freddie Silverman. The mini-series was a pilot and as such an experiment. It was the idea to pick it up as a series that was the big mistake. NBC was in trouble then with ratings and a lack of good programs to air so they reworked the series hoping people would forget the Mrs Columbo despite the network’s promotional promoting the Columbo angle. But even without the Columbo connection this was an awful TV series.