Mrs. Columbo

Mrs. Columbo
Title card for earliest episodes
Also known asKate Columbo
Kate the Detective
Kate Loves a Mystery
GenreCrime drama
Created byRichard Alan Simmons
StarringKate Mulgrew
Lili Haydn
Henry Jones
Don Stroud
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons2
No. of episodes13
Production
ProducersFred Silverman
Richard Alan Simmons
Running time60 minutes
Production companiesUniversal Television
Gambit Productions
Original release
NetworkNBC
ReleaseFebruary 26, 1979 (1979-02-26) –
March 19, 1980 (1980-03-19)
Related
Columbo
(1968–2003)
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview)

Mrs. Columbo (later called Kate Columbo, Kate the Detective, and Kate Loves a Mystery) is an American crime drama television series, initially based on the wife of Lieutenant Columbo, the title character from the television series Columbo. It was created and produced by Richard Alan Simmons and Universal Television for NBC, and stars Kate Mulgrew as a news reporter helping to solve crimes while raising her daughter.[citation needed]

The series debuted in February 1979 as a spin-off to the mystery crime drama series Columbo, focusing on Lieutenant Columbo's wife, who is never given a first name in the original Columbo series but was named Kate in this series. After poor ratings and reception from both audiences and the original producers of Columbo, both the series and the eponymous character herself were renamed in an attempt to change direction, but this did not help ratings and the series ended with a run of just 13 episodes. Neither Peter Falk nor the character of Lieutenant Columbo ever appeared on the show.