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Mrs. Columbo (later called Kate Columbo, Kate the Detective, and Kate Loves a Mystery) is an American crime drama television series, initially based on the wife of Lieutenant Columbo, the title character from the television series Columbo.
- Bing Crosby Was Originally Eyed For The role.
- Peter Falk Was An Unexpected Sex Symbol.
- Falk Was A Government Worker Before Becoming An Actor.
- Columbo's Dog Wasn't A Welcome Sight at first.
- Falk's Real-Life Wife Played A Role in The Series.
- The Character's Trademark Raincoat Came from Falk's Closet.
- Steven Spielberg Got An Early Break on Columbo.
- Columbo's First Name Wound Up The Subject of A Lawsuit.
- The Series Didn't Follow A Standard Mystery Format.
- There Was A Spinoff That Kind of Was But Then wasn't.
Columbo creators Richard Levinson and William Link's first choice to play their low-key detective was crooner Bing Crosby. Der Bingle loved the script and the character, but he feared that a TV series commitment would interfere with his true passion—golf. It was probably providential that Crosby turned the role down, since his death in 1977 occurre...
Character actor Lee J. Cobb was also consideredfor the role, until Peter Falk phoned co-creator William Link. Falk had gotten a copy of the script from his agents at William Morris and told Link that he’d “kill to play that cop.” Link and Levinson knew the actor back from their days of working in New York, and even though he was the opposite of eve...
Peter Falk wasn’t too far removed from the character he played. In real life he tended to be rumpled and disheveled and was forever misplacing things (he was famous for losing his car keys and having to be driven home from the studio by someone else). He was also intelligent, having earned a master’s degree in Public Administration from Syracuse Un...
When Columbo was renewed for a second season, NBC brass had a request: They wanted the lieutenant to have a sidekick. Perhaps a young rookie detective just learning the ropes. Link and Levinson were resistant to the idea, but the network was pressuring them. They conferred with Steven Bochco, who was writing the script for the season opener, “Etude...
Falk first met Shera Danese, the woman who would become his second wife, on the set of his 1976 film Mikey & Nicky. The movie was being filmed in Danese’s hometown of Philadelphia, and the aspiring actress had landed work as an extra. They were married in 1977, and she was able to pad out her resume by appearing on several episodes of Columbo. Her ...
The initial wardrobe proposed for Columbo struck Peter Falk as completely wrong for the character. To get closer to what he wanted for Columbo, the actor went into his closet and found a beat-up coat he had bought years earlier when caught in a rainstorm on 57th Street. And he ordered one of the blue suits chosen for him to be dyed brown. The drab ...
“Murder by the Book” was the second Columbo episode filmed, but it was the first one to air after the show was picked up as a series. Filming was delayed for a month, though, when Falk refused to sign off on this “kid”—a 25-year-old named Steven Spielberg—to direct the episode. Finally he watched a few of Spielberg’s previous credits (all of them T...
Fred L. Worth, author of several books of trivia facts, had a sneaking feeling that other folks were using his meticulously researched facts without crediting him. He set a “copyright trap” and mentioned in one of his books that Lt. Columbo’s first name was “Philip,” although he had completely fabricated that so-called fact. Sure enough, a 1984 edi...
The premise of Columbo was the “inverted mystery,” or a “HowCatchEm” instead of a “WhoDunIt.” Every episode began with the actual crime being played out in full view of the audience, meaning viewers already knew “WhodunIt.” What they wanted to know is how Lt. Columbo would slowly zero in on the perpetrator. This sort of story was particularly chall...
The 1979 TV series entitled Mrs. Columbo was not technically related to the original Peter Falk series. In fact, Levinson and Link opposed the entire concept of the series; it was NBC honcho Fred Silverman who gave the OK to use the Columboname and imply that Kate Mulgrew was the widowed/divorced wife (the series changed names and backstories sever...
Oct 10, 2022 · Mrs. Columbo was not a police detective, but an investigative reporter, and was most certainly not slovenly. She still had a laidback and straightforward demeanor, but Mrs. Columbo was...
- Witney Seibold
The series was originally executed as following the exploits of the crime reporter wife of Lt. Columbo, but when the series couldn't capitalize on the popular earlier series, producers changed Mrs. Columbo's name to "Callahan" and soon, all references to the fictional cop were removed.
- (556)
- 1979-02-26
- Crime, Drama, Mystery
- 60
Lt. Columbo was never seen on Mrs. Columbo; each episode featured the resourceful Mrs. Columbo, here given the first name Kate, solving a murder mystery she encountered in her work as a newspaper reporter. Connections with the original Columbo series were made obvious: the glaring presence of Columbo's car in the driveway, the dog and Mrs ...
From its pilot in 1968 to its curtain call in 2003, Columbo ran for 35 years and comprised 69 episodes. The full list of Columbo episodes in chronological order can be viewed below. Click on the links to read my reviews of the episodes.
S1.E1 ∙ Word Games. Mon, Feb 26, 1979. Kate Columbo, the elusive wife of the famous L.A. homicide detective, mother of their loving little daughter, hard-working reporter and master snoop in her own right, overhears the neighbor plotting the death of his wife. The game's afoot.
