The Lt. Columbo Forum

An area where fans from all over can ask each other questions and voice their own ideas and opinions on anything Columbo.

This Forum is fondly dedicated in memory of  "cassavetes45"  (Carleen Zink),
Columbo's greatest fan and a great friend to us all.
​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
The Lt. Columbo Forum
Start a New Topic 
Author
Comment
View Entire Thread
Re: Re: Re: The 1977-78 season

Many thanks for the info Lee.

Re: The 1977-78 season

From Mark Dawidziak's much sought after "The Columbo Phile: A Casebook - A Complete and Illustrated History of Television's Finest Mystery Series":

"NBC canceled its Mystery Movie in 1977. While Quincy had been spun off into a successful weekly series, McCloud and McMillan had come to the end of their prime-time careers. The day of the character cop was passing. Cannon, Banacek and Hec Ramsey had come and gone. Kojak and Baretta would be gone by the end of the following season."

"Still, even with the Mystery Movie gone after six seasons, NBC was desperate for more Columbos. By now deep in third place, the Peacock Network was willing to put up with long shooting schedules and zooming budget overruns if the lieutenant would just stick around.

"Universal didn't feel quite so kindly. The Columbo price tag was becoming less and less tolerable to studio executives. This was the moment when NBC offered to pick up the excess expenses.

"Columbo wasn't a regularly scheduled series during the 1977-78 season. Instead, NBC presented five Columbo mysteries as occasional specials. Under this arrangement, however, more episodes were produced than during the sixth season, when Columbo supposedly was a series in the Mystery Movie wheel."

"In early 1978, Peter Falk told a reporter that it was "a flip of the coin" as to whether there would be another season of Columbo. But the coin had been deemed too expensive by NBC, which no longer cared to pick up the budget overruns. There was no official cancellation notice. The series was just quietly discontinued.

"I wanted more time to do other things," Falk said, "but that was only part of the reason. Columbo just wasn't that important to the network anymore. When the Mystery Movie was around, I think it was important for the network to lock up Sunday nights for a season. When we were part of the wheel, Columbo helped nail down Sunday night. Five or six movies weren't as imporant to them. On its own, Columbo no longer was life and death to the network."

Re: Re: The 1977-78 season

Thanks for that, Headache2112

Re: The 1977-78 season

I am sorry, but I have now chosen a random post to answer. I just noticed that one doesn't have to watch this page in the threaded version, and I wonder if a thread can be bumped.

Re: The 1977-78 season

Lady said...
"I am sorry, but I have now chosen a random post to answer. I just noticed that one doesn't have to watch this page in the threaded version, and I wonder if a thread can be bumped."

hi again Lady.
i always use the 'board style'. i find it much easier and clearer to understand when a new post has been made.
and about bumping a thread....well, in the 'board style' if you post on a thread it will automatically 'bump' the thread up to the top of the page.