Mme Columbo

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.

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?

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. (:

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!