For a very long time, you would inform simply how profitable a TV present was based mostly on the variety of spin-offs it impressed. That idea is as true now because it was a long time in the past, what with the huge quantity of “NCIS” and Dick Wolf spin-offs that litter the community airways 12 months after 12 months. However whereas spin-offs may be a simple signal of whether or not or not a sequence is fashionable, the spin-offs themselves aren’t all the time profitable, even relating to procedurals like cop dramas and mysteries. Certainly, simply because viewers will all the time flock to crime dramas doesn’t suggest that each a type of reveals is assured to be successful. Should you want an instance, merely have a look at the short-lived spin-off of one of the crucial beloved TV sequence of all time.
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One of many all-time nice thriller TV reveals, “Columbo” remodeled Peter Falk from an immensely proficient actor into an immensely proficient actor and worldwide star. “Columbo” was sensible as a TV sequence for a lot of causes, not least of which was the way it upended the standard whodunit sub-genre of crime drama. Right here, whereas the present itself targeted on a preternaturally clever detective within the Los Angeles Police Division and his means to determine who had killed another person, the construction of the sequence was a “howcatchem” wherein the viewers all the time knew whodunit within the first quarter-hour. However though “Columbo” was a large hit within the Nielsen rankings, the spin-off it impressed, “Mrs. Columbo,” was sufficient of a flop that it tried to section Columbo himself out of its existence.
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Mrs. Columbo launched Columbo’s never-seen spouse
The one constant side of “Columbo” was the person himself, as he would put on a rumpled raincoat and stumble by a given crime scene as a solution to throw off his eventual quarry. Falk was in each episode, however the one different particulars that may echo throughout a number of episodes had been issues Columbo talked about to his numerous suspects. Past that, Columbo form of saved to himself; “Columbo” the present was not the kind of program to provide its viewers a substantial amount of private details about the character. Though eagle-eyed viewers might have famous that his first identify was Frank because of a well-placed glimpse of his police badge, Columbo was by no means even referred to by his first identify. And whereas Columbo would typically invoke his spouse, we by no means knew her identify or met her inside the confines of any episode of “Columbo.”
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That modified with “Mrs. Columbo,” which launched us not solely to Kate Columbo (Kate Mulgrew) but in addition the Columbos’ daughter Jenny (Lili Haydn). Kate is a information reporter who raises her daughter whereas additionally fixing crimes in her off-duty time. The present premiered in February of 1979, which was, curiously sufficient, only a few months after “Columbo” stopped airing new episodes on NBC. (Though “Columbo” was revived on the finish of the Eighties and aired new episodes by to 2003, it did so on ABC.) If the spin-off’s premise appears a bit of shaky to you, know that you just’re not alone in feeling that method. In actual fact, the creators of “Columbo,” writers Richard Levinson and William Hyperlink, felt the identical method.
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Because it had been, Levinson and Hyperlink had been vociferously been in opposition to the spin-off (in addition to the casting of a then-24-year outdated Mulgrew to play the spouse of Columbo, who would have been 52 when the present started). However, NBC executives selected to proceed ahead. Levinson and Hyperlink had the proper notion, although: The mid-season substitute aired simply 5 very low-rated episodes within the spring of 1979. So, when it got here again that fall, Kate not referred to as herself Mrs. Columbo and as a substitute used her obvious maiden identify of Callahan. In the meantime, the present itself was renamed twice, beginning with “Kate the Detective” after which “Kate Loves a Thriller.” It is no shock that the sequence solely lasted eight extra episodes (totaling 13 in all) earlier than swiftly vanishing from the airwaves.
Mrs. Columbo’s failure is a reminder of the pitfalls of spin-offs
For each profitable spin-off like “Frasier,” there are 10 of them like “Mrs. Columbo.” When, for instance, “Frasier” was spun off from the 11-season comedy smash “Cheers,” it was a danger, however the Boston-set sitcom had no less than created so many memorable characters that spinning “Cheers” off made sense. There wasn’t going to be any sense of the brand new present abandoning what the outdated sequence had finished, a lot much less what had made it so particular.
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Spinning off “Columbo,” alternatively, made no sense apart from ’70s-era executives desirous to make the most of a well-known mental property after it had stopped making new episodes. “Columbo” was not a present with a wealthy or huge ensemble; the title implied what was apparent, that this was basically a one-man sequence. Falk wasn’t, to be truthful, the one particular a part of the old-school procedural; the setup was additionally distinctive, and the quantity of visitor stars was genuinely spectacular. (The administrators could possibly be, too; one early episode was helmed by a younger Steven Spielberg.) However audiences did thrill to Lt. Columbo himself, so making a spin-off about an unseen character was, at greatest, a calculated gamble.
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At worst, the result’s what we obtained with “Mrs. Columbo.” It is a present so unwilling to face by its preliminary premise that it not solely renamed its heroine, but it surely additionally pretended as if Columbo had by no means existed in Kate’s previous. “Mrs. Columbo” itself sounds, actually, like a parody title of a foul TV spin-off, so the actual fact it truly existed — and tried to memory-hole Columbo no much less — is as wild as it’s laughable. Columbo himself, as talked about earlier, would ultimately get one other crack at issues with the ABC revival years later, guaranteeing that audiences would kind of memory-hole “Mrs. Columbo” in return.
