Mrs. Columbo

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.

Sorry, but this show didn't work at all, and a '2' is a generous vote. If you watch enough "Columbo", any time he is on the phone with her, she is given as a homemaker, not a reporter, and on top of that, she's not very bright. On "An Exercise in Fatality", she calls him at the office of the killer, and they discuss what to cook for the family guests for dinner. He then tells her what to do, i.e. call the Chinese restaurant, make the order and he would get it after work on the way home. Does that honestly sound like she has the wherewithal to find the answer to some caper? Not in my opinion, and I'm sure a majority of the readers of this would have to agree. She's just not that intelligent!

Normally I think it's very tough to introduce a character that is never shown on screen. But Bochco's writing (among others) was brilliant. It wasn't about the actual character of Mrs Columbo, it was a trait of Falk that went along with his cigar, trench coat and crappy car. Talking about Mrs Columbo wasn't about how she really was. It was a mechanism for him to work his observations about clues to the crime into a conversation that seemed to be innocent chit chat. He fooled people all the time setting up traps, maybe nothing he ever said about her was true. In the words of Hitchcock it was a type of Maguffin.

I think she appealed to everyone because everyone was free to see her in their minds eye, based on their own life's experiences. Nailing her down was a mistake, an insult to the original creation of her real purpose in the show. The many comments about "that's not how I saw her" speaks to that. This show has a better chance with people who are unfamiliar with the original Columbo.

As a side note, when Columbo was popular I was a police detective. I naively tried to say in interviews a few times: "you know when my wife..." It always fell flat.

Hi, I absolutely love watching Columbo it's been a family favourite for years. I love the character and the epsiodes are watchable again and again.

Now like everyone I always hoped to see Mrs Columbo, mainly out of curosity.

I have bought the Fith Season on DVD today and in that is a Mrs Columbo episode. I had no idea a series - spin-off from Columbo was ever made. I was at first glance a bit shocked as she is nothing like the Mrs Columbo I imagined. I didn't really think she would be old but older and more homely looking. The Mrs Columbo I have watched was average to below average. It is not on the same level as Columbo series. I actually found it really odd the way they make her come across like a female columbo as it doesn't really work. I know people pick-up each others characteristics of their husband/wife but this was just really odd.

She also gave no clue in that she was onto the person. It was really odd. At least you could see things ticking over in Columbo's face and going along with things. With this episode of Mrs Columbo it seemed really far-fetched.

It just didn't gel to me or come across as being realistic.

I actually think although people were curious, after so many episodes of Columbo it should have remained that Mrs C never appeared and everyone then kept their view of Mrs C or at least what feels like it's realistic enough to be.

Overall, I won't be going in search of the Mrs C series but as far as the Columbo series - they still rock!

Total POS. No Colombo connection in character, mystery format or entertainment attitude. If yr a Colombo fan- Skip it. Any praise for this is more of a mystery than what's in the show