*Columbo has 43 episodes (plus 2 pilots) in its 1970s run on NBC and 24 in its second stint on ABC from 1989-2003. It was part of the NBC Mystery Movie on NBC from 1971-1978, starting as a Wednesday show and moving to Sunday.
*The series won 13 Emmy awards, including 4 for peter Falk as Outstanding Lead Actor (3 were for Drama Series, but 1 was from a year Columbo was classified as a Limited Series).
*Thanks to The Consummate Culp for this Mad scan of Mort Drucker's rendition of Falk as Columbo (as well as frequent and beloved guest star Robert Culp:
*A Stitch in Crime premiered February 11, 1973. It was preceded on NBC by part 1 of Rascal (a 1969 movie with Billy Mumy and a pet raccoon) on The Wonderful World of Disney and followed by the premiere of Jack Webb's Escape.
ABC offered an episode of The F.B.I. and part 1 of 1962 WWII epic The Longest Day, while CBS started the night with Play It Again, Charile Brown and The Flintstones on Ice (!). At 9:00 CBS presented Duke Ellington...We Love You Madly, a tribute starring Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Sarah Vaughan, and more.
*The Dick Van Dyke episode we mention is season 2's "Negative Reaction."
*Leonard Nimoy is the star of this episode, but William Shatner was in season 6's opener "Fade in to Murder" and 1994's "Butterfly in Shades of Gray." Walter Koenig appears in the former.
*Mrs. Columbo lasted two seasons and 13 installments on NBC, becoming Kate Loves a Mystery midway through as the network tried to retool it by changing the lead character to a divorcee named Kate Callahan and shedding references to Columbo. One possible reason (besides the fact that people hated the very idea of a spinoff of the unseen character) for the change is here. Hint: Mike totally got the problem and pointed it out on the podcast.
*Check out our discussion of The Waltons and Will Geer right here!
*Moviemaps.org lists Sharaton Universal Hotel in L.A. as a location for exterior hospital shots in the episode. The locale is not listed on IMDB as one of the exterior locations used for Medical Center.
*Charlie, is the pressure OK? Just thought we'd ask one more time to be on the safe side.
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