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There are many sources on the particular five-year contracts in television. For instance, Rock Hudson's initial McMillan & Wife contract was signed in April 1971. Five-years, almost to the day, he signed a new one. Peter Falk's deal would have been similiar. A link to the Hudson contract is in the tread. I believe this practice is still used today and I think David McCallum on NCIS was on a five-yr. contract that was renewed recently.

Are you referring to the scene at the end of season five, episode six ("Last Salute To The Commodore") where Columbo asks Sgt. Kramer (Bruce Kirby) for a match? Kramer says that he thought Columbo was quitting ... Columbo laughs, denies it in a strange way and rows away in the boat.

Yes, I think that scene pretty much sums up the whole mood of the film.

There are several contemporary 1976 news pieces on the "last" Columbo. Falk and others gave interviews and had journalists to the set, giving the impression that Last Salute was the final episode, or at least the final regular episode. Falk did seem open to the idea of one a year. He mentioned an idea he ascribed to McGoohan, to the effect of Columbo traveling the world, solving international crimes. His example is Columbo getting off a camel, taking off a scarf covering his face and asking for the nearest oasis. I leave it to you all to decide how serious they were.

Do you have precise references?

Yes, but I need to obtain them from a source to which I will have access tomorrow morning. I will provide them to you then.

Thank you.

There were a few other brief mentions of Columbo ending its run that year, but the big feature that had stuck in my mind was this one:

CLOSING OUT COLUMBO
Cecil Smith. Los Angeles Times Feb 15, 1976. p. T4 (2 pages)

Some telling quotes from Falk in this one, too:

A rich Falk leaves 'Columbo' behind
Chicago Tribune Mar 5, 1976. p. B12 (1 page)

And here is a little insight into how and why it returned for the sixth season:

MOVIE CALL SHEET; Columbo: To Be or Not to Be
MARY MURPHY. Los Angeles Times May 17, 1976. p. F11 (1 page)

I take it that is a good thing?

Always when I use 14 smileys.
I was looking for such articles, and I'll read them as soon as I have laid my hands on them.
You've been a great help.

If you make your e-mail address available on here somehow, I think I can send them to you, if that's easier.

Sure. Here it is.

"For $100,000 you don't kill off Rock Hudson."

But I also agree that Peter Falk was not responsible for the overall death of the Mystery Movie. I remember reading somewhere that by the later seasons the popularity of "Columbo" was such that it kept the other Mystery Movie elements from being canceled a little earlier than they may have otherwise been.

I have also always questioned how popular "McCloud" actually was. For example, in 1972-73 (the highest rated year for the Mystery Movie) there were 8 "Columbo" movies, 7 "McMillan and Wife" movies, but only 5 "McCloud" movies. So it didn't appear to be valued too highly by the network, and I myself have only been able to sit through about two or three episodes.

Here is what I found...(Some telecasts are missing and others are rated vaguely, as in Not in Top 20, because I just used the LA Times archives and there was inconsistent reportage of the Nielsens.)

First season of the NBC Mystery Movie:
Columbo's first six telecasts placed 5th, 5th, 6th, 9th, 17th and 5th among their respective week's programs. Couldn't find the ratings for Blueprint for Murder.

McCloud: 13th, Not in the Top 20, Not in the Top 10, 15th, 20th, 20th and again, no info for the last episode.

McMillan: 10th, Not in the Top 20, 19th, 20th, Not in the Top 20, 19th, Not in the Top 20.

Columbo is clearly the most popular here.

Second Season:

Columbo: 14th, 2nd, 4th, 3rd, 6th, 2nd, 5th, Double Shock was N/A

McCloud: Not in the Top 20, 5th, N/A, 6th, 33rd. The first rerun in April, however, was 5th for the week.

McMillan: 16th, 10th, 26th, 36th (aired on Wednesday), 12th, 22nd, N/A

Hec Ramsey: 17th, 13th, 11th, 40th, 50th

Third Season (Many weeks were not listed for some reason):

Columbo: 18th, 7th, 4th, 13th, 11th, 1st (Swan Song was the only Mystery Movie episode in the 6 years to rate first of the week), N/A

McCloud: 8th, 6th, 13th, 6th, 12th

McMillan: 22nd, 10th, 58th, N/A, N/A, N/A

Hec Ramsey: 12th, N/A, N/A, Not Top 20, Not Top 20

Even with the missing data, it is pretty clear why McCloud saw its next season order nearly double. It's average (bearing in mind the ratings for A Friend in Deed are not available) is the same as Columbo's.

Fourth Season:

Columbo: 9th, 10th, Not top 20, N/A, N/A, N/A

McCloud: Not top 10, Not top 10 but in the top 40, 20th, Not top 20, N/A, N/A, 18th, Not Top 20, N/A

McMillan: 18th, N/A, 16th, 7th, Not top 10, N/A

Amy Prentiss: 18th, N/A, N/A

So much missing data here that it is hard to generalize, except McMillan has certainly picked up.

Fifth Season:

The NBC Mystery Movie as a whole plummeted in the fifth season. Except for the last two telecasts (McCloud and Columbo), there was data for every week. The only episode in the Top 20 was McCloud on October 19, 1975, when it placed 6th for the week. McCoy premiered at 56th place. Also, contrary to Dawidziak's statement that Columbo beat Kojak in all six "cigar-to-lollipop" confrontations, A Matter of Honor was rated lower than Kojak that night. The other five occasions are not determinable from the news reports.

Sixth Season:

The Columbo premiere rated 3rd for the week, and the subsequent Quincy episode the same night was 4th. The McMillan premiere was 12th for the week. No other episodes made the top 20 this year and Lanigan's Rabbi actually premiered at 62.

Seventh Season:

No NBC Mystery Movie, but the only one of the five Columbos to make the Top 20 was Try and Catch Me, at 15th for the week.

The ratings from the fifth year onward were not necessarily bad, just not very distinguished, especially considering the cost of the shows. My guess is that there would not have been a sixth season, or those five additional Columbos, had the shows been airing on CBS or ABC. NBC was in serious ratings trouble, so the middling Mystery Movie numbers were probably the best they thought they could do. In fact, the sixth season McMillan premiere (12th place for the week) was NBC's highest rated program all week.

But to get back to the original point, McCloud was comparably popular to McMillan and Wife at the beginning of the series, and eventually eclipsed it, approaching Columbo in its popularity.

I'll keep looking, but if anyone can get more data, either the missing weeks or the actual numbers when all I found was the top 10 or 20, that would be very helpful.

Oops! I forgot to add in that Publish or Perish, which aired in the third season on a Friday night, did not place in the top 20 of the week, meaning that in the third season, McCloud actually had the best average rating place of any of the Mystery Movies.

Great statistics, Lee! I was a pretty big McCloud fan. The episodes, in my opinion, were pretty consistent. Aside from 'Barefoot Stewardesses Caper', which re-ran over and over when I was a kid, I don't think there was an episode I really disliked.

Dennis Weaver was pretty well paid towards the end of his run on Gunsmoke. I'm just speculating because I have read absolutely nothing about his Mystery Movie deal, but Universal must have paid him a decent wage to get him to do McCloud.

I like McCloud, too. Not as much as Columbo certainly, or even McMillan, but definitely a very good show. I'm sure Weaver was well-paid, at least as much as Peter Falk got for Columbo at the beginning.

Happy New Year, by the way, to Carsini and anyone else who has stuck with this discussion this long!

Happy New Year to you too, Lee and everyone else. Thanks for all your contribution. I discovered this forum only a few weeks ago, but it has been very enjoyable already.

I've found this thread very interesting, and enlightening. Although I had (somewhat vaguely) recalled old news articles referring to Peter Falk as the "highest-paid actor in prime time TV" (overlapping with some other recollections of articles citing Dean Martin -- yes, Dino! -- as the highest-paid person on TV), I didn't have any historical data on the specific numbers. So, thanks again for the research.

I believe it was reported (although, again, I don't have the numbers), either toward the end of the "Mystery Movie" series or (more likely) into the ABC Specials, that Peter was getting more than $1 MILLION per episode. That's the figure that I now cannot find documentation for, although I do recall it, and that there were wails and cries from the network that was (OBVIOUSLY!) earning much more than the expenses of "Columbo", for the privilege of broadcasting it.

Anyway, as Peter has often said about getting cast as Columbo --"It's not like getting cancer." Which, as a cancer victim, he ought to know. I think it's fantastic that, in a world where most big-shot actors find it convenient to either disavow, or to morbidly exploit their youthful problems, Peter always was forward-looking, or funny, or just dismissive about such a profound physical problem.

Dean Martin was unquestionably the highest paid performer in television for most of the nine years of his regular series. At the same time, depending on what stage of the series you examine, he shared between 10 and 50 percent with Executive Producer Greg Garrison, so his net pay was a bit less than it appeared. But the bigger distinction is in the number of episodes. Dean Martin surely made more money per year than Rock Hudson in 1971, say, but Hudson made much more per episode. By the time Peter Falk would have been earning more than Rock Hudson, Dean Martin was not on the air every week anymore. But Carroll O'Connor was in the same position. He made more money per year from the show, but far less per episode.

As for the wailing and crying, I don't think NBC ever really cared about the salaries because, as you say, they were making a very good advertising profit on it. Universal, however, had to pay the salaries and, as was usual in television by the 1970s, was probably running at a loss on each episode.

I don't remember exact figures either, but I think the ABC years were VERY lucrative for Peter Falk, even compared to the later NBC years.

Lee, this ratings information is very interesting. Thank you for taking the time to do the research and post it.

After "Columbo," I always thought "McMillan and Wife" was the most entertaining of the remaining mystery movies. Maybe someday I will give "McCloud" another chance, if it ever makes it back to reruns.

Some additional tidbits...

In the TV Directory by Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh there is a listing of the highest rated movies on television. The 10/27/74 broadcast of "The Poseidon Adventure" and the 2/29/76 broadcast of "The Sound of Music" are on this list. 10/27/74 was also the original airdate for "By Dawn's Early Light," and 2/29/76 was the original airdate for "Now You See Him."

This may help explain why "Negative Reaction" made the top ten on 10/6/74, but "By Dawn's Early Light" didn't even make the top twenty. As for "Now You See Him," it aired during a period where the Mystery Movie was already losing steam and after a series of three really bizarre "Columbo" episodes, and I'm sure being up against "The Sound of Music" didn't help either!

It is funny, though, to think that some really highly regarded episodes like "By Dawn's Early Light" didn't attract huge audiences on their first airing, when lesser episodes like "Dead Weight" and "Fade in to Murder" made the top five. Of course, viewers had no way of knowing going into an episode if it was going to be a "good one" or a "bad one," and there are a wide variety of circumstances that result in one particular episode's rating.

McCloud, I think, was more interested in a realistic tone than the others. Ironically, the show with a guy chasing New York criminals around on a horse was the most down-to-earth show! Although, again, I do like McCloud and find it a refreshing counterpoint, I prefer the stylized art of Columbo and the light fantasy touch of McMillan and Wife.

I noticed the counterprogramming to Columbo, also. ABC and CBS were merciless, especially on premiere nights. If you look at all the season premieres forthe second through fifth seasons, you see that the ratings are lower than usual for Columbo. They would counterprogram big movies, and to some extent it worked. By the time of Now You See Him, it probably wouldn't have been in the Top 20 anyway, but I'll bet it made a big difference to By Dawn's Early Light.

Ted, I don't think Peter ever got near $1 million per episode for the ABC run. The most I've read about him getting was $500,000 in 1978 and that number only appears in one source. Most published sources suggest low $300,000 was his peak NBC salary. He might have gotten $500,000 per episode in the late-'80s on ABC.

Again, the actual salary he was making may only be $150-175,000. Just found in google books that Rock Hudson was on a six-episode, $1.6 million contract for 'McMillan' after Susan Saint James left. It works out to $266,667 per episode. His contract in reality only specified $125,000 per episode.

Lee, I found one source suggesting Dennis Weaver was making $200,000 per McCloud. The same source listed Rock Hudson at $350,000 per McMillan & Wife episode. I haven't seen these figures elsewhere, but it is the first time I have seen Weaver's salary even speculated on. Here is the source:

http://www.magicdragon.com/UltimateMystery/tv.html

I even saw one source that claimed Rock Hudson was making less money than "the well-connected" Susan Saint James!! Funny how things can get twisted. Nice find on the Dennis Weaver estimate, but since the same source quotes a very-hard-to-believe 350,000 for Rock Hudson, I wonder how true it is.

Until you brought this up, it never occurred to me that many of these reported salaries would include residual payments, but it seems pretty clear that is the case here. The contract you found is really valuable in setting the parameters. We KNOW Rock Hudson made 125,000 an episode, not including reruns, for the sixth season. We also know he was making less before that. What puzzles me is how the renegotiated SAG contract affects these estimates. With a guaranteed schedule of payments for 6-10 reruns, they could add that to the initial payment and come up with a total value to the actor. After the actors were entitled to indefinite residual payments, how could they come up with a per episode figure?

I've seen that "well-connected" Susan Saint James claim myself! Baffling. I have read Rock was nearly broke when he started to do TV, which I don't believe to be the case, but getting less than Susan is unbelievable.

I took the Dennis Weaver estimate with a huge grain of salt and I do eat a lot of salt in my diet to begin with! The highest estimate for Rock Hudson I've seen was published in a book about Martha Raye.

Some books claim Rock Hudson was paid $100,000 to $120,000 per episode right from the beginning of McMillan & Wife. Another estimated $75,000 for the pilot and $50,000 per episode for the series after it had been picked up. The sources that suggested $50,000 also mentioned he had a guarantee that his income for the season would not be less than $500,000, working about to around $83,000+ per episode. I think that is more believable, but perhaps the $100,000 or even $120,000 for '71 or '72 are roughly correct also.

Not sure about the infinite residuals and how it would be factored into the per episode pay. I would assume the total pay would be estimated based on the residuals paid to the star covering re-runs for that season only (or the studio's accounting fiscal year) then added to his fixed salary and recited by the press.