Mrs. Columbo

I love "Mrs. Columbo". I know mine is a minority opinion, but the real reason I love this show is because I adore Kate Mulgrew. And I adore her mainly because she played the first - and best - Mary Ryan, on "Ryan's Hope". I enjoyed these mysteries, light, fun, frivolous - seventies television was formulaic but the formulas were soothing and enjoyable! The writing is always fine, direction sturdy, and solid strong guest stars - I think the show would have been better off not saying she was "Mrs. Columbo", since it was not believable that Columbo's wife would be this much younger than he is (Kate Mulgrew was only in her mid-twenties).

So this show is a light way to pass some time and just as enjoyable as any other formulaic mystery show from the 1970's, if not has well known or loved. (:

Although I am not going to spend the whole review comparing, I have to say Mrs Columbo is a real disappointment of a spin-off series. And this is coming from a big fan of the classic Columbo series with Peter Falk. As much as I did like the idea, it was one that didn't work out. I liked how the episodes looked, they are well shot and the production values are lovely, the music is often delightful and I like the quickly edited opening sequences. Against all this, I find Mrs Columbo herself annoying and not very easy to relate to. Also Kate Mulgrew does have a charming appearance, perhaps too charming, but she does overdo it a lot. It doesn't help that the writing is so forced, the pace often dull and the stories in general thin and formulaic. And while there are some great actors and decent guest stars, the stories, with a lack of realism in abundance one too many times, and writing let them down. All in all, a series I wanted to like but it doesn't work. 3/10 Bethany Cox

When it comes to Mrs. Columbo, we can play Good Idea/Bad Idea (you Animaniacs fans will understand the reference)...

BAD IDEA: The series in the first place! Columbo's wife should've stayed an imaginary character. Mrs. Columbo running around all over the place uncovering murders in her charming suburban neighborhood? She was better arguing with her hubby over the phone over what he should pick up at the supermarket on the way home or whatever, not getting in over her head as an amateur sleuth.

BAD IDEA: The casting of Kate Mulgrew. No disrespect to her as an actress, but she was too young and glamorous for the role. The producers wanted someone like Maureen Stapleton. One critic thought Brenda Vaccaro would have been better. Either one would have been a much better fit than Mulgrew.

GOOD IDEA: Pitting her against two of the better Columbo villains to start the series. In the first episode (pilot), it's Robert Culp, who hires Frederic Forrest to kill his wife. Unfortunately, Forrest also winds up killing Culp, which takes him out of the rest of the film, and now Kate has to deal with a maniacal killer who has no choice but to silence her. It goes from being a serviceable mystery to Panic Room at the drop of a hat.

The second episode features one of the better 'one-shot' killers from Columbo, Donald Pleasance, playing a very proper Englishman, an English police officer who turns out to be a killer on both sides of the ocean (albeit an unintentional killer in the crime in the Mrs. Columbo episode). Kate Mulgrew at least got decent guest actors to play off in those episodes.

GOOD IDEA: When the series returned for a second season, they dropped the Columbo angle and made her a divorcee, reverting to her maiden name of Callahan.

BAD IDEA: Bringing it back for a second season! Why couldn't they have just given up the ghost after the first five episodes?

It should be noted that this series was produced under the watch of the infamous Fred Silverman...the same guy who almost put the kibosh on Cannon when he was the head of CBS programming (fortunately, William Paley overruled him on that one) and the same guy who canceled the brilliant Harry O when he ran ABC. When he ran NBC, he green lighted a boat load of crap, not just this show, but Supertrain, to name another of his follies at NBC.

If you must torture yourself, the Mrs. Columbo episodes have turned up as extras on the individual season Columbo sets. After seeing the Lieutenant in action in his episodes, why would you want to bother with his wife's exploits?

"Mrs. Columbo" tries to make connections with the famous Peter Falk series in its opening titles, but it's unlikely the star if this series is the unseen wife Lt. Columbo always talks about (though the Lieutenant's chatter may be mere persiflage).

While sharing the "Columbo" backward way of telling the story by showing the murder first, it lacks the original series' splendid writing and sense of irony.

Furthermore, it lacks that endearing annoyance in Columbo that makes the viewer want to see the culprit punch him out. In a nice way.

I like to see detective stories where there is some reason for the detective to be there (as in Columbo being a policeman). Or in a sister show, "Ellery Queen," where Queen's father is a police inspector. The "Murder She Wrote" sort of show where amateur sleuths run into murders wherever they go interest me less.

"Mrs. Columbo" being a newspaper reporter (remember newspapers?) running into crime is a good idea for a series but not this one. I wonder how it would play with an internet troll in this day when newspapers and TV news both are so unreliable? It might be an international show.

In real life, a Lt. Columbo would have to be married to a shrewd woman, able to solve mysteries on her own, if lacking the gumption to join the cops herself. But Kate Mulgrew is an annoying actress, not a likeable Peter Falk type who plays a character with annoying qualities. As with Angela Lansbury, her very voice sets my teeth on edge. Like chalk on a blackboard. But that's a personal observation.

BTW, the cast list includes Henry Jones. He was a great supporting actor, if a little long in the tooth by the time this series came along.

What idiot came up with this spin off? Hats off to Peter Falk for denouncing this mess.

With Falks blessings, this may have worked if Cloris Leachman had been available for the part and get rid of the plucky little daughter. I believe Cloris and the Dog would have worked well together.