Does anyone know how the first two Columbo movies were originally presented? I know that Prescription - Murder was shown in the NBC World Premier Movie strand, but did those World Premieres have a special opening sequence? Also, was Ransom for a Deadman shown as part of a regular movie series? From what I can determine, the NBC Mystery Movie title wasn't in use yet even though this was a pilot for it.
Also, do the DVD's contain the original openings for the movies?
Thanks

I could be wrong, but as I understand, "Ransom for
a Dead Man" was the official "pilot" for the series, and was not broadcast in the regular series, just as many pilots are not. Note that it is not called "Columbo".

The Intro was first used on "Murder by the Book".

The two pilots were aired as NBC Movies.

The intros are not on the DVDs for seasons 1, 2 and 3.

If you're looking for the intro I have 2 versions of it. Did you know there were at least 23 variations of it?

Thanks Rex. I'd love to see the intros.

By 'intros' do you mean the little bit before the opening titles where they show clips from the episiode? Those are on the UK version of the Season 3 DVD.

No, I mean the generic NBC Mystery Movie opening. I've never seen it, but from what I remember of the description I read, it shows a man with a torch. As he moves the torch around, it shines in turn on the lead characters from the different shows that made up the Mystery Movie series e.g. the original would have shown pictures of Columbo, McCloud and McMillan. The sequence varied as new shows were added and older ones were dropped. I believe ITV showed it for a time in the 70s. Even now, some Columbo films show the end credits over a still picture of the man holding the torch.
Somebody please correct me if I've got any of this wrong! I would also like to know when the clips from the upcoming episode would go i.e. before or after the Mystery Movie intro?

As Rex stated, the Mystery Movie intros are not included on the DVD releases of seasons 1-3.

In case somebody is interested, there was an earlier DVD release in the UK with "Prescription Murder", "Fade in to Murder" and "Double Shock", where one episode ("Fade in to Murder") has the Mystery Movie intro in place. The DVD is still available (see amazon.co.uk, play.com). I think it also has the "teaser" (those little clips from the upcoming episode) - whether this comes before or after the Mystery Movie intro, I don't remember, as I haven't watched the episode for a while. (I'm not a big fan of this episode.)

Steve, I just checked and the teaser is on first, then comes the Mystery Movie intro.

As mentioned in the end credits of each episode, the Mystery Movie intro has a theme composed by the famous composer Henry Mancini (also the author of the Pink Panther theme, for one). It's quite a catchy tune.

Cheers Pete The Finn. I'll see if I can get that DVD. I always think it's a shame when these little bits of presentation get chopped off when old shows are released. They're not that important, but it's nice to have them on there.