Line #6 Series/MrsColumbo


1	[[quoteright:290:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mrs_columbo.jpeg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:290:Creator/DonaldPleasence with Kate Mulgrew as Mrs. Columbo.]]
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4	This is the short-lived SpinOff of MysteryOfTheWeek series ''Series/{{Columbo}}''. It is unusual for spinning off [[TheGhost a character who hadn't appeared on-camera on the parent series]]. It starred Creator/KateMulgrew (later of ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'') as Kate Columbo, the heretofore unseen wife of Lieutenant Columbo and an AmateurSleuth in her own right.
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6	When ''Mrs. Columbo'' failed to perform as hoped, the show was {{retool}}ed: Kate divorced her husband, changed her surname to Callahan, and carried out her amateur sleuthing under the auspices of her new job as a small-town newspaper reporter.
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8	The series also changed its title three times during its run, from ''Mrs. Columbo'' to ''Kate Columbo'' and then to ''Kate the Detective'' and finally to ''Kate Loves a Mystery'', before getting canceled. In all, only one season (1979–80) of about a dozen episodes aired on Creator/{{NBC}}, giving the show quite possibly the highest titles-to-episodes ratio in TV history.
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10	Creator/LevinsonAndLink (the creators of ''Columbo'') have [[WordOfGod emphatically maintained]] that Kate Columbo was ''[[CanonDiscontinuity not]]'' the unseen wife of their character, but the wife of some other detective of the same name (who just happens to also have a beat-up Peugeot convertible and a basset hound named "Dog").
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12	!!''Mrs. Columbo'' provides examples of the following tropes:
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14	* ActionMom: Working mom Kate gets into plenty of scrapes throughout the series, whether it's fighting with assassins or getting into car chases.
15	* AfterShow
16	* AssholeVictim: The episode "Caviar with Everything" manages to put the lid on this. In short, the only character in this episode to ''not'' be an asshole is Kate Columbo herself.
17	** The murder victim, Patty, [[spoiler: wooed her best friend Sybil's husband, Richard, away from her without her knowledge--at first. When we first hear Patty suggesting that Sybil cater her wedding, we first think it's a friendly offer. When we watch the entire episode a second time, it almost sounds like Patty is ''taunting'' her.]]
18	** Richard, Sybil's husband who divorced her shortly before the events of the episode. [[spoiler: He claimed to have left Sybil because he [[BlatantLies couldn't stand being given everything he wanted, finding it humiliating.]] In reality, he found it inconvenient that he was forced to sign an agreement that would keep him away from Sybil's money she made in the catering business. He then decided to court Patty, his wife's business partner and best friend, who presumably would share her money with him post-retirement, and is far younger and more beautiful. After Patty's death, he immediately returns to Sybil under the guise that he was too in love with her to leave her. However, he inadvertently makes it clear that he's definitely ''not'' over Patty.]]
19	** The murderer Sybil, while we can certainly understand her fury upon discovering that her [[spoiler: best friend took her husband away from her,]] there may have been a less [[spoiler: lethal way of dealing with the issue. And it would've been better if she simply called out Richard for his obvious greed and kicked him to the curb once again instead of trying to bludgeon him with a fire poker, or throwing him off a balcony.]]
20	* DeadlyBath: In the pilot episode, "Word Games", the murder victim (played by Edie Adams) is killed when an intruder in her house (the man hired to kill her, played by Creator/FredericForrest) forces her at gunpoint to take a plugged-in hair dryer while she's in the bathtub, causing her death by electrocution.
21	* FriendOnTheForce: Sgt. Mike Varick, played by Don Stroud, who joined the cast in the second season.
22	* TheGhost: Humorously, Mr. Columbo is on the receiving end of this trope. Mrs. Columbo and their daughter talk to him on the phone and he is said to be in a scene, but is never physically shown. Gets dropped in the second season.
23	%%* MysteryOfTheWeek
24	%%* PluckyGirl
25	* RelativeButton: In “Word Games”, Kate is faced with the fear of the murderer kidnapping her daughter and using her to lure Kate to the original murder location. Prior to Kate uncovering his identity, he eerily repeats “hickory dickory dock” over the intercom, causing her to rush to her daughter’s room to make sure Jenny is safe.
26	%%* {{Retool}}
27	* SurprisinglyCreepyMoment: The first episode seems like a typical 70's sitcom, with corny jokes and plotlines being set up. Then the killer arrives at the victim's house and orders her to remove all her clothing...
28	* WheelProgram: A&E aired this show as one spoke in a Mystery Wheel package in the early 90s when they lost the rights to air episodes of its first Wheel's shows including ''Series/McMillanAndWife'', ''Series/McCloud'', ''Series/{{Banacek}}'', and ironically, ''Series/{{Columbo}}''.

Context Series / MrsColumbo