When I was a wee lad, a handful of television shows incentivized you to either go outside or catch some Zs. To this day, the intro for M.A.S.H is the auditory equivalent of Ambien for me. Seeing those helicopters start to come down forces my eyelids to do the same. However, every Millennials kid has at least one "old person show" that they inexplicably love. For me, that show is Columbo. Peter Falk's turn as the cigar-chomping detective helped establish my love for the mystery genre.
Throughout Columbo's run, the detective would frequently reference his perpetually off-screen wife while sly piecing together a case. Due to Columbo's popularity, few characters in television were as popular – yet paradoxically unknown- as Mrs. Columbo. When Columbo ended in 1978, NBC decided that it was time to introduce the world to the sleuth's unseen wife.
Mrs. Columbo has got to be one of the weirdest spin-offs ever conceived. First of all, Captain Janeway herself, Kate Mulgrew, helms the show in the titular role. Nothing wrong with that- except that Mulgrew was 23 at the time. For the show's premise to make sense, Kate Columbo- Mulgrew's character- would've been married at 12. Yeah, that's going to be a big old yikes from me, dog.
Although the show was later retooled and retitled as Kate Columbo, and later Kate Loves a Mystery, the show tanked after 13 episodes. Prior to the internet, it might've been impossible to catch an episode of Mrs. Columbo after its cancelation, but thanks to YouTube, we can all enjoy this curious footnote in television history together.
