Editing Columbo (section)

==Development and character profile==
{{See also|Columbo (character)}}
[[File:Peter Falk - 1973.JPG|thumb|Peter Falk as Lt. Columbo, 1973]]
[[File:Case Study House No. 22.JPG|thumb|The first ''Columbo'' pilot, "[[List of Columbo episodes#Episodes|Prescription: Murder]]", guest starring Gene Barry, Nina Foch, and William Windom, was filmed at the [[Stahl House]].]]

The character of Columbo was created by the writing team of [[Richard Levinson]] and [[William Link]], who said that Columbo was partially inspired by [[Fyodor Dostoevsky]]'s ''[[Crime and Punishment]]'' character Porfiry Petrovich,<ref>{{Cite web |title=How We Created Columbo |url=http://www.columbo-site.freeuk.com/created.htm#:~:text=When%20we%20created%20Columbo,%20we,He%20also%20added%20the%20raincoat. |access-date=2025-03-21 |website=www.columbo-site.freeuk.com}}</ref><ref name="latimes1">{{Cite news |last=Sachs |first=Mark |date=January 28, 2003 |title=Dostoevsky, a touch of Columbo |language=en-US |work=Los Angeles Times |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-jan-28-et-tips28-story.html |url-status=live |access-date=August 18, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151103053655/http://articles.latimes.com/2003/jan/28/entertainment/et-tips28 |archive-date=November 3, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Berzsenyi |first=Christyne |date=2022 |title=''Crime and Punishment'' and ''Columbo'' |language=en-US |journal=Clues: A Journal of Detection |volume=40 |issue=2 |pages=92–104 |url=https://mcfarlandbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/10-Berzsenyi-Clu402.pdf |access-date=October 22, 2022}}</ref> as well as [[G. K. Chesterton]]'s humble cleric-detective [[Father Brown]]. Other sources claim Columbo's character is also influenced by Inspector Fichet from the French suspense-thriller film ''[[Les Diaboliques (film)|Les Diaboliques]]'' (1955).<ref>{{cite news |last=Ebert |first=Roger |date=February 17, 1995 |title=Diabolique |work=[[Chicago Sun-Times]] |url=http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F19950217%2FREVIEWS%2F502170302%2F1023 |url-status=dead |access-date=June 27, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121115083154/http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F19950217%2FREVIEWS%2F502170302%2F1023 |archive-date=November 15, 2012}}</ref>

The character first appeared in a 1960 episode of the television-anthology series ''[[The Chevy Mystery Show]]'', titled "Enough Rope". This was adapted by Levinson and Link from their short story "May I Come In", which had been published as "Dear Corpus Delicti" in the March 1960 issue of ''[[Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine]]''. The short story featured a police lieutenant then named Fisher.<ref>{{cite book |last=Lore |first=Elena |title=Alfred Hitchcock's A Choice of Evils |year=1983 |publisher=Dial Press |location=New York |isbn=9780385279529}}</ref> The first actor to portray Columbo, character actor [[Bert Freed]], was a stocky character actor with a thatch of gray hair.<ref>{{cite web |last=Jones |first=Steve |date=October 20, 2012 |title=Columbo: The Complete Series available in 34-disc set |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2012/10/20/columbo-peter-falk-boxed-set/1637909/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201020030926/https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2012/10/20/columbo-peter-falk-boxed-set/1637909/ |archive-date=October 20, 2020 |access-date=May 20, 2019 |website=USA Today |language=en}}</ref>

Freed's Columbo wore a rumpled suit and smoked a cigar; he otherwise had few of the other now-familiar Columbo mannerisms. The character is still recognizably Columbo and uses some of the same methods of misdirecting and distracting his suspects. During the course of the show, the increasingly frightened murderer brings pressure from the district attorney's office to have Columbo taken off the case, but the detective fights back with his own contacts.

Although Freed received third billing, he wound up with almost as much screen time as the killer and appeared immediately after the first commercial. This delayed entry of the character into the narrative of the screenplay became a defining characteristic of the structure of the Columbo series. This teleplay is available for viewing in the archives of the [[Paley Center for Media]] in New York City and the Beverly Hills Public Library in Los Angeles.

Levinson and Link then adapted the TV drama into the stage play ''Prescription: Murder''. This was first performed at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco on January 2, 1962, with [[Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor|Oscar]]-winning character actor [[Thomas Mitchell (actor)|Thomas Mitchell]] in the role of Columbo. Mitchell was 70 years old at the time. The stage production starred [[Joseph Cotten]] as the murderer and [[Agnes Moorehead]] as the victim. Mitchell died of cancer while the play was touring in out-of-town tryouts; Columbo was his last role.

[[File:NBC Mystery Movie stars 1975 cropped.jpg|right|thumb|300px|''[[The NBC Mystery Movie]]'' program worked on a rotating basis – one per month from each of its shows. Top left: [[Dennis Weaver]] in ''[[McCloud (TV series)|McCloud]]''. Top right: [[Richard Boone]] in ''[[Hec Ramsey]]''. Bottom left: [[Peter Falk]] in ''Columbo''. Bottom right: [[Rock Hudson]] in ''[[McMillan & Wife]]'']]

In 1968, the same play was made into a two-hour television movie that aired on NBC. The writers suggested [[Lee J. Cobb]] and [[Bing Crosby]] for the role of Columbo, but Cobb was unavailable and Crosby turned it down because he felt it would take too much time away from golf. Director [[Richard Irving (director)|Richard Irving]] convinced Levinson and Link that Falk, who excitedly said he "would kill to play that cop", could pull it off even though he was much younger than the writers had in mind.<ref name=":0">{{cite book |last=Dawidziak |first=Mark |author-link=Mark Dawidziak |title=The Columbo Phile: A Casebook |url=https://archive.org/details/columbophilecas00dawi |url-access=limited |date=1989 |publisher=Mysterious Press |location=New York |isbn=0-89296-376-X |pages=[https://archive.org/details/columbophilecas00dawi/page/22 22]–23}}</ref>

Originally a one-off [[movie of the week]], ''Prescription: Murder'' has Falk's Columbo pitted against a psychiatrist ([[Gene Barry]]). In this movie, the psychiatrist gives the new audience a perfect description of Columbo's character. Due to the success of this film, NBC requested that a pilot for a potential series be made to see if the character could be sustained on a regular basis, leading to the 1971 ninety-minute television production, ''Ransom for a Dead Man'', with [[Lee Grant]] playing the killer. The popularity of the second film prompted the creation of a regular series on NBC, that premiered in September 1971 as part of ''[[The NBC Mystery Movie]]'' [[wheel series]] rotation: ''[[McCloud (TV series)|McCloud]]'', ''[[McMillan & Wife]]'', and other [[whodunit]]s.

According to ''TV Guide'', the original plan was that a new ''Columbo'' episode would air every week. However, Falk refused to commit to such a busy schedule given his steady work in motion pictures. As a result, the network decided to air ''Columbo'' segments once a month on Wednesday nights. The high quality of ''Columbo'', ''McMillan & Wife'', and ''McCloud'' was due in large part to the extra time spent on each episode. The term ''[[Wheel series|wheel show]]'' had been previously coined to describe this format, but no previous or subsequent wheel show achieved the longevity or success of ''The NBC Mystery Movie''.

''Columbo'' was an immediate hit in the [[Nielsen ratings]] and Falk won an [[Emmy Award]] for his role in the show's first season. In its second year the ''Mystery Movie'' series was moved to Sunday nights, where it then remained during its seven-season run. The show became the anchor of NBC's Sunday night lineup. ''Columbo'' aired regularly from 1971 to 1978. After NBC canceled it in 1978, ''Columbo'' was revived on [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] between 1989 and 2003 for two seasons as part of ''The ABC Mystery Movie'' followed by 14 made-for-TV movie "specials".

Columbo's wardrobe was provided by Falk; they were his clothes, including the high-topped shoes and the shabby raincoat, which made its first appearance in ''Prescription: Murder''.<ref name=JustOneMoreThing/> Falk said of the raincoat, "I just felt comfortable in it."<ref>{{cite news |url=https://parade.com/tv/greatest-tv-cops |title=The Greatest TV Cops of All Time |last=Reinstein |first=Mara |work=[[Parade (magazine)|Parade]]|date=August 13, 2023|page=10}}</ref> Falk often [[ad lib]]bed his character's quirky behaviors—fumbling through his pockets and finding a grocery list, asking to borrow a pencil, or getting distracted by something irrelevant in the room during a tense moment with a suspect. He inserted these idiosyncrasies into his performance to keep his fellow actors off-balance. He felt it helped to make their confused and impatient reactions to Columbo's antics more genuine.<ref name=JustOneMoreThing>{{cite book |last= Falk | first= Peter | date= August 24, 2007 | title= Just One More Thing |publisher= Da Capo Press | isbn= 978-0-7867-1939-6}}</ref> According to Levinson, the catchphrase "one more thing" was conceived when he and Link were writing the play: "we had a scene that was too short, and we had already had Columbo make his exit. We were too lazy to retype the scene, so we had him come back and say, 'Oh, just one more thing.' It was never planned."<ref name=":0" />

A few years before his death, Falk expressed interest in returning to the role. In 2007, he claimed he had chosen a script for one last Columbo episode, "Columbo: Hear No Evil". The script was renamed "Columbo's Last Case". ABC declined the project. In response, producers for the series announced that they were attempting to shop the project to foreign production companies.<ref>{{cite news |last=Walstad |first=David |date=March 27, 2007 |title=With aging Falk, 'Columbo' looks like a closed case |work=[[New York Daily News]] |url=http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/2007/03/27/2007-03-27_with_aging_falk_columbo_looks_like_close.html |url-status=live |access-date=June 27, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629165105/http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/2007/03/27/2007-03-27_with_aging_falk_columbo_looks_like_close.html |archive-date=June 29, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Dawidziak |first=Mark |date=May 6, 2007 |title=A mystery Columbo can't seem to crack |url=https://www.twincities.com/2007/05/06/a-mystery-columbo-cant-seem-to-crack/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220922014914/https://www.twincities.com/2007/05/06/a-mystery-columbo-cant-seem-to-crack/ |archive-date=September 22, 2022 |access-date=June 27, 2011 |website=twincities.com |publisher=[[Pioneer Press]]}}</ref> Falk was diagnosed with [[dementia]] in late 2007. During a 2009 trial over his care, physician Stephen Read stated that Falk's condition had deteriorated so badly that he could no longer remember playing a character named Columbo, nor could he identify Columbo. Falk died on June 23, 2011, aged 83.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Krystal |first=Becky |date=2011-06-24 |title=Peter Falk of 'Columbo' dies at 83 |language=en-US |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/peter-falk-star-of-columbo-dies-at-83/2011/06/24/AG58mJjH_story.html |access-date=2022-10-07 |issn=0190-8286 |archive-date=March 8, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160308123439/https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/peter-falk-star-of-columbo-dies-at-83/2011/06/24/AG58mJjH_story.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Marikar |first=Sheila |date=June 24, 2011 |title=Peter Falk, 'Columbo' Actor, Dies at 83 |url=https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/columbo-star-peter-falk-dies-83/story?id=13922090 |access-date=2022-10-07 |publisher=[[ABC News (United States)|ABC News]] |language=en |archive-date=July 12, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110712175753/https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/columbo-star-peter-falk-dies-83/story?id=13922090 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Peter Falk |url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/59425%7C123907/Peter-Falk/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211227091156/https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/59425%7C123907/Peter-Falk/ |archive-date=December 27, 2021 |access-date=2022-10-07 |publisher=[[Turner Classic Movies]] |language=en}}</ref>