The NBC Mystery Movie
The NBC Mystery Movie is an American television anthology series produced by Universal Pictures, that NBC broadcast from 1971 to 1977. Devoted to a rotating series of mystery episodes, it was sometimes split into two subsets broadcast on different nights of the week: "The NBC Sunday Mystery Movie" and "The NBC Wednesday Mystery Movie". "The NBC Mystery Movie" was a "wheel series", or "umbrella program" that rotated several programs within the same period throughout each of its seasons. In its first, 1971–72, it rotated three detective dramas that were broadcast on Wednesday nights from 8:30–10:00 p.m.  in the Eastern and Pacific time zones (7:30–9:00 p.m. Central and Mountain time). Background. The origin of the "wheel" format was a joint programming and creative production agreement between the NBC Television Network and Universal Studios Television and Motion Pictures in 1966, in accord with which NBC ordered a multi-year series of dramatic anthology productions from Universal that NBC would broadcast in the United States (both as originals and re-runs), with Universal retaining exclusive rights to overseas release of these productions as feature-length films, while NBC could not offer them as TV re-runs internationally. The first  series created under this agreement was "The Name of the Game", a drama with three rotating stars. It was followed by "The Bold Ones" and "Four in One" (the similar "The Men" was produced for ABC and involved series from three studios, although one of them was Universal). While it was a long and profitable collaboration, it finally succumbed to the changes of the commercial broadcast market regarding both structure and content by the end of the decade. By the late 1970s, the increasing popularity of situation comedies, coupled with their lower production costs and much greater scheduling flexibility and  resale opportunities, surpassed that of these feature-length (90–120 minute) drama anthologies. The anthologies could not reasonably be reduced for shorter broadcast times for the re-run market. They were not designed for casual or short-term viewers, who would have little interest in the characters or the story of an individual episode. Each episode and each series were of widely varying quality, making package re-sale difficult. However, by the early 1980s, various movie episodes from the former "Mystery Movie" series were rebroadcast on late night's "The CBS Late Movie" as a package with an earlier half-hour  situation comedy series rerun. While they lasted, the best of them employed the finest actors, writers and production standards available. Production history. Inaugural programs. The three original 1971–1972 season shows of "The NBC Mystery Movie" were: The umbrella series was counted a great success in its first season and finished at number 14 in the Nielsen ratings for the 1971–1972 season. "Columbo" was nominated for eight Emmy Awards and won four categories. This success prompted NBC to move the series to the competitive 8:30-10:00 Sunday evening time period for the second season as "The NBC Sunday Mystery Movie". In  addition, a fourth show was added to the rotation, lasting two seasons (1972–1974): Section::::"The NBC Wednesday Mystery Movie" programs. Inaugural. NBC also launched a clone of the umbrella series, "The NBC Wednesday Mystery Movie", which debuted in the original time period and featured three new programs: Subsequent. During the 1973–1974 season, the programs rotating on Sunday remained the same, while on Wednesday, "Cool Million" and "Madigan" were canceled and "Banacek" rotated with three new series: Rescheduling to Tuesday nights as "The NBC Tuesday Mystery Movie" during January 1974 was not enough to help boost ratings, and the midweek series was  canceled. The Sunday series continued, anchored by the popular trio of "Columbo", "McCloud", and "McMillan and Wife". Later changes. During subsequent years, these rotated with a fourth series, which changed each year (1972–1977), including: Of all the wheel series, only the original three — "Columbo", "McCloud" and "McMillan & Wife" — survived for the entire run of the "Mystery Movie". Most of the others were very short-lived, and, with the exception of "Hec Ramsey" and "Banacek", were all only on the air for one season. "Quincy, M.E.", which was the next to last new "Mystery Movie" series to premiere, ended up outlasting  the parent series itself; midway through the final "Mystery Movie" season, "Quincy" was taken out of the wheel lineup and retooled into a one-hour weekly series that ran for seven more seasons, coming to an end in 1983. Although the "Mystery Movie" series was cancelled at the end of the 1976–1977 season, NBC kept "Columbo" in production and a seventh season consisting of five films premiered on November 21, 1977. After the fifth film aired in May 1978, NBC cancelled "Columbo" as well. Presentation. The "NBC" "Mystery Movie" theme music was composed by Henry Mancini. The opening credits consisted  of a shadowed figure carrying a flashlight slowly walking toward the camera in a desert landscape under dramatically lit clouds, as images of the various rotating series appeared sequentially on the screen; at the end, an announcer (Hank Simms) presented the night's main actors and series "(example: "tonight, starring Peter Falk as Columbo")". Some syndicated episodes of "Columbo" retain this opening credit sequence, though slowed toward the end to avoid showing the title caption which includes "NBC" and (after the first season), a day of the week. The "NBC Wednesday Mystery Movie" theme was composed by Quincy Jones for  its first season and had an animated open to show the lineup. Post-series. In 1989, Universal Television and ABC teamed to launch a revival of the mystery wheel, titled the ABC Monday Mystery Movie. The network brought back original "Mystery Movie" series "Columbo" to be part of the wheel, with Peter Falk returning in the title role. Two new series joined Columbo in its first year, "Gideon Oliver", starring Louis Gossett Jr. as a crime solving anthropologist, and "B.L. Stryker", which featured Burt Reynolds as a South Florida private investigator. "Columbo" and "B.L. Stryker" continued in the wheel's  second season on Saturday (as "ABC Saturday Mystery Movie") with two other series in August 1989: the new "Christine Cromwell", a San Francisco based mystery starring Jaclyn Smith, and a revival of CBS' 1970s crime drama "Kojak". The wheel series ran irregularly from February 1989 until August 1990. After the "ABC Saturday Mystery Movie" ended, ABC kept "Columbo" in production and Falk starred in an additional fourteen episodes before the network discontinued the series in 2003. NBC, meanwhile, brought "McCloud" back for a reunion film in 1989. The film, titled "The Return of Sam McCloud", featured Dennis Weaver in the  role of United States Senator Sam McCloud. The "ABC Mystery Movie" theme was composed by Mike Post. Section::::"Friday Night Mystery". In the fall of 1993, NBC made an attempt to revive the wheel format, this time called "The NBC Friday Night Mystery". As originally conceived, this rotation was supposed to include: U.S. television ratings. "The NBC Mystery Movie" maintained high ratings finishing in the top 30 of shows for the first four seasons. The show rated as the following: