NBC Sunday Mystery Movie

[jake1966]

Does anyone remember the old promo for the NBC Sunday Mystery Movie? Is there any post that may have that opening? I seem to recall it was a guy with a flashlight. I could be wrong, just wondering if any one has any onfo on it.

 

[KMRichards]

> Does anyone remember the old promo for the NBC Sunday
> Mystery Movie? Is there any post that may have that opening?
> I seem to recall it was a guy with a flashlight. I could be
> wrong, just wondering if any one has any onfo on it.

Your memory is correct, although I would categorize it less as a "promo" than as an "umbrella intro". The "guy with a flashlight" was shown in silhouette, and each time the light flashed at the camera, one of the rotating elements of that night's Mystery Movie (the same intro was used for both nights) would be superimposed. All this while Henry Mancini's "Theme for the Mystery Movie" played.

BTW, courtesy of the Brooks & Marsh book, here are all the shows that appeared under the umbrella of Mystery Movie:

[*]Amy Prentiss (12/74-7/75, Sunday)
[*]Banacek (9/72-9/74, Wednesday*)
[*]Columbo (9/71-9/72, Wednesday; 9/72-9/77, Sunday; then as TV-movies on ABC starting 2/89)
[*]Cool Million (10/72-7/73, Wednesday)
[*]Faraday and Company (9/73-8/74, Wednesday*)
[*]Hec Ramsey (10/72-8/74, Sunday)
[*]Lanigan's Rabbi (1/77-7/77, Sunday)
[*]Madigan (9/72-8/73, Wednesday*)
[*]McCloud (9/70-8/72, Wednesday^; 9/72-8/77, Sunday)
[*]McCoy (10/75-3/76, Sunday)
[*]McMillan (12/76-8/77, Sunday)
[*]McMillan and Wife (9/71-8/72, Wednesday; 9/72-8/76, Sunday)
[*]Quincy, M.E. (10/76-11/76, Sunday; then as separate Friday series starting 2/77)
[*]Tenafly (10/73-8/74, Wednesday*)
[*]The Snoop Sisters (12/73-8/74, Wednesday*)

* - It should be noted that the shows that started the 1973-74 season on Wednesday were moved as a group to Tuesdays in January 1974.
^ - McCloud aired in the 1970-71 season in a one-hour format as part of Mystery Movie's predecessor Four-In-One. This makes McCloud the longest-running element as a series, even though Columbo had a longer span of life because of the later TV-movies.

All of the NBC Mystery Movies were 90 minutes in length, except for the 1975-76 season, which had two-hour episodes.

Note: I went back and edited this after the first reply, when I noticed I had failed to show McMillan and Wife moving from Wednesday to Sunday after the first season. Sorry about that.

<P ID="signature">______________


</P><P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by KMRichards on 04/14/06 12:28 AM.</FONT></P>

 

[nuzguy]

> > Does anyone remember the old promo for the NBC Sunday
> > Mystery Movie? Is there any post that may have that
> opening?
> > I seem to recall it was a guy with a flashlight. I could
> be
> > wrong, just wondering if any one has any onfo on it.
>
> Your memory is correct, although I would categorize it less
> as a "promo" than as an "umbrella intro". The "guy with a
> flashlight" was shown in silhouette, and each time the light
> flashed at the camera, one of the rotating elements of that
> night's Mystery Movie (the same intro was used for both
> nights) would be superimposed. All this while Henry
> Mancini's "Theme for the Mystery Movie" played.
>
> BTW, courtesy of the Brooks & Marsh book, here are all the
> shows that appeared under the umbrella of Mystery Movie:
>
> Amy Prentiss (12/74-7/75, Sunday)
> Banacek (9/72-9/74, Wednesday*)
> Columbo (9/71-9/72, Wednesday; 9/72-9/77, Sunday; then as
> TV-movies on ABC starting 2/89)
> Cool Million (10/72-7/73, Wednesday)
> Faraday and Company (9/73-8/74, Wednesday*)
> Hec Ramsey (10/72-8/74, Sunday)
> Lanigan's Rabbi (1/77-7/77, Sunday)
> Madigan (9/72-8/73, Wednesday*)
> McCloud (9/70-8/72, Wednesday^; 9/72-8/77, Sunday)
> McCoy (10/75-3/76, Sunday)
> McMillan (12/76-8/77, Sunday)
> McMillan and Wife (9/71-8/76, Wednesday)
> Quincy, M.E. (10/76-11/76, Sunday; then as separate Friday
> series starting 2/77)
> Tenafly (10/73-8/74, Wednesday*)
> The Snoop Sisters (12/73-8/74, Wednesday*)
>
> * - It should be noted that the shows that started the
> 1973-74 season on Wednesday were moved as a group to
> Tuesdays in January 1974.
> ^ - McCloud aired in the 1970-71 season in a one-hour format
> as part of Mystery Movie's predecessor Four-In-One. This
> makes McCloud the longest-running element as a series, even
> though Columbo had a longer span of life because of the
> later TV-movies.
>
> All of the NBC Mystery Movies were 90 minutes in length,
> except for the 1975-76 season, which had two-hour episodes.
>
Good movies, all. Now the only "mystery" lies in how many people will be killed violently before the show close. Very little investigating, no who-dun-it, just all shooting and violence all the time.

 

[Braves2005]

> > All of the NBC Mystery Movies were 90 minutes in length,
> > except for the 1975-76 season, which had two-hour
> episodes.

I have the 3rd season of Columbo(1973-1974) on DVD and one episode in particular,"Swan Song" with Johnny Cash was 2 hours long.

 

[KMRichards]

> > > All of the NBC Mystery Movies were 90 minutes in length,
>
> > > except for the 1975-76 season, which had two-hour
> > episodes.
>
> I have the 3rd season of Columbo(1973-1974) on DVD and
> one episode in particular,"Swan Song" with Johnny Cash was 2
> hours long.

According to epguides.com, that episode aired on March 3, 1974. Definitely a season three episode.

Brooks & Marsh say that the Columbo time slot was 8:30-10:00pm from September 1972 until July 1974 and 8:30-10:30pm from August 1974 until August 1975 (then 9:00-11:00pm for the 1975-76 season).

The NBC Mystery Movie is listed as 8:30-10:30pm for the 1974-75 season (I must have misread it when making my original post) and 9:00-11:00pm for the 1975-76 season.

Perhaps the "Swan Song" episode was intended for season four ... maybe Universal didn't have one of the 90-minute episodes ready but this one was? In any event, NBC likely extended the 8:30-10:00pm slot to 10:30 for that night.<P ID="signature">______________


</P>

 

[FreddyE1977]

> > > > All of the NBC Mystery Movies were 90 minutes in
> length,
> >
> > > > except for the 1975-76 season, which had two-hour
> > > episodes.
> >
> > I have the 3rd season of Columbo(1973-1974) on DVD and
>
> > one episode in particular,"Swan Song" with Johnny Cash was
> 2
> > hours long.
>
> According to epguides.com, that episode aired on March 3,
> 1974. Definitely a season three episode.
>
> Brooks & Marsh say that the Columbo time slot was
> 8:30-10:00pm from September 1972 until July 1974 and
> 8:30-10:30pm from August 1974 until August 1975 (then
> 9:00-11:00pm for the 1975-76 season).
>
> The NBC Mystery Movie is listed as 8:30-10:30pm for the
> 1974-75 season (I must have misread it when making my
> original post) and 9:00-11:00pm for the 1975-76 season.
>
> Perhaps the "Swan Song" episode was intended for season four
> ... maybe Universal didn't have one of the 90-minute
> episodes ready but this one was? In any event, NBC likely
> extended the 8:30-10:00pm slot to 10:30 for that night.


Yes, it was a guy in silouette walking thru the desert waving a flashlight back and forth. Theme music was ear splitting as I recall....high pitched and off-key whistling of some type.

 

[ThatManDan]

"Theme music was ear splitting as I recall....high pitched and off-key whistling of some type."
===========================================================================

"Mystery Movie Theme"...it's from Henry Mancini and is on an album/CD
entitled "Big Screen/Little Screen". Amazon sells it but offers no "listen" feature on this album.<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by ThatManDan on 04/14/06 05:48 PM.</FONT></P>

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

Braves 2005 wrote:

> I have the 3rd season of "Columbo" (1973-1974) on DVD and
> one episode in particular, "Swan Song" with Johnny Cash was
> 2 hours long.

K.M. Richards responded:

> According to epguides.com, that episode aired on March 3,
> 1974. Definitely a season three episode.

Perhaps the February, 1974 sweeps were still underway on March 3rd, and NBC decided to boost "Mystery Movie" by running a two-hour "Columbo" (which was by far the most popular of the series that rotated under the "Mystery Movie" banner) with a high-profile guest star (Johnny Cash).

After all, if you were running NBC's entertainment division in 1974 and had a two-hour "Columbo" episode available that featured Johnny Cash as a guest star, wouldn't you run it during sweeps??

"Columbo" was so popular that although the "Mystery Movie" concept ended in 1977, star Peter Falk continued to do occassional "Columbo" episodes for the next decade-and-a-half, such was the show's popularity.

 

[tlyle]

Re: Other NBC Promo's from 70's/80's

> Does anyone remember the old promo for the NBC Sunday
> Mystery Movie? Is there any post that may have that opening?
> I seem to recall it was a guy with a flashlight. I could be
> wrong, just wondering if any one has any onfo on it.
>
The website below has promos for NBC and the other networks from the 70's and 80's.

http://www.80stvthemes.com/promos/index.html

 

[KMRichards]

> Perhaps the February, 1974 sweeps were still underway on
> March 3rd, and NBC decided to boost "Mystery Movie" by
> running a two-hour "Columbo" (which was by far the most
> popular of the series that rotated under the "Mystery Movie"
> banner) with a high-profile guest star (Johnny Cash).
>
> After all, if you were running NBC's entertainment division
> in 1974 and had a two-hour "Columbo" episode available that
> featured Johnny Cash as a guest star, wouldn't you run it
> during sweeps??

Joseph, this is why you make people crazy. You restate something someone else said -- in this case, my statement that NBC ran a two-hour episode when the rest of the series was in a 90-minute format -- as if it is some new opinion that only you would have come up with.

> "Columbo" was so popular that although the "Mystery Movie"
> concept ended in 1977, star Peter Falk continued to do
> occassional "Columbo" episodes for the next
> decade-and-a-half, such was the show's popularity.

Again, if you will read my original post, you will see that I acknowledged this in my original listing of Mystery Movie segments. However, in this case the way you phrase it gives an incorrect interpretation. The Columbo character was not resurrected until 12 years after Mystery Movie ended (a gap between 1977 and 1989), and all of the TV-movies were done within a five year period after that (1993 was the last one). Hardly the way you describe it.

If you are going to insist on being here, at least try to (1) not restate other's opinions as your own, and (2) be accurate when stating something as fact.<P ID="signature">______________


</P>

 

[AuntPresident]

> "Theme music was ear splitting as I recall....high pitched
> and off-key whistling of some type."
===============> ============================================================
>
>
> "Mystery Movie Theme"...it's from Henry Mancini and is on an
> album/CD
> entitled "Big Screen/Little Screen". Amazon sells it but
> offers no "listen" feature on this album.
>
It wasn't really whistling...It was a a synth line that sounded like whistling.

One night a bunch of us kids were playing hide and seek outside and the person who was "it" got to use a flashlight. One of us, while shining the light from side to side, started whistling the "Mystery Movie" theme...Cracked everyone up, and gave away their hiding places to boot!

 

[mmb5]

> According to epguides.com, that episode aired on March 3,
> 1974. Definitely a season three episode.
>
> Brooks & Marsh say that the Columbo time slot was
> 8:30-10:00pm from September 1972 until July 1974 and
> 8:30-10:30pm from August 1974 until August 1975 (then
> 9:00-11:00pm for the 1975-76 season).
>
> The NBC Mystery Movie is listed as 8:30-10:30pm for the
> 1974-75 season (I must have misread it when making my
> original post) and 9:00-11:00pm for the 1975-76 season.
>
> Perhaps the "Swan Song" episode was intended for season four
> ... maybe Universal didn't have one of the 90-minute
> episodes ready but this one was? In any event, NBC likely
> extended the 8:30-10:00pm slot to 10:30 for that night.
>

This may be a case where Brooks and Marsh is not entirely correct (all from 1974):

10 February: ran 8:30-10:00 (Columbo), local from 10:00-
17 February: ran 8:30-10:30 (McMillan and Wife)
24 February: ran 8:30-10:00 (McCloud with John Denver), NBC News Special from 10-11 ("A report on the military buildup in Iran" Hmm...)
3 March: ran 8:30-10:30 (Columbo: Swan Song)
10 March: ran 8:30-10:30 (Hec Ramsey)
17 March: ran 8:30-10:00 (McMillan and Wife), NBC News Special from 10-11
24 March: ran 8:30-10:30 (Part 1 of the theatrical "Cleopatra")

Source: NewspaperArchive.com


--Mike

 

[KMRichards]

> This may be a case where Brooks and Marsh is not entirely
> correct (all from 1974):
>
> 10 February: ran 8:30-10:00 (Columbo), local from 10:00-
> 17 February: ran 8:30-10:30 (McMillan and Wife)
> 24 February: ran 8:30-10:00 (McCloud with John Denver), NBC
> News Special from 10-11 ("A report on the military buildup
> in Iran" Hmm...)
> 3 March: ran 8:30-10:30 (Columbo: Swan Song)
> 10 March: ran 8:30-10:30 (Hec Ramsey)
> 17 March: ran 8:30-10:00 (McMillan and Wife), NBC News
> Special from 10-11
> 24 March: ran 8:30-10:30 (Part 1 of the theatrical
> "Cleopatra")

Best guess again:

Three episodes had already been produced in the two-hour format for the following season, NBC decided to air those during sweeps, but summer was repeating the 90-minute episodes so Brooks & Marsh didn't pick up on those three exceptions?

I wouldn't expect Brooks & Marsh to show the kind of exceptions you noted above ... 90, 120, 90, 120, 120, 90, pre-empted ...<P ID="signature">______________


</P>

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

I had posted what I posted because I thought that there had been occassional episodes of "Columbo" produced on a regular basis from 1977 all the way through the early 1990's, when in fact, there were no new episodes for several years.

I stand corrected.

Thanks for pointing this out to me.

"Columbo" was one of the most popular (and best) shows of it's kind. It was very entertaining to see how the character, skillfully played by Peter Falk, would find out "who done it".

 

[mmb5]

> Best guess again:
>
> Three episodes had already been produced in the two-hour
> format for the following season, NBC decided to air those
> during sweeps, but summer was repeating the 90-minute
> episodes so Brooks & Marsh didn't pick up on those three
> exceptions?
>
> I wouldn't expect Brooks & Marsh to show the kind of
> exceptions you noted above ... 90, 120, 90, 120, 120, 90,
> pre-empted ...
>
I'm not saying they should have, but 8:30-conclusion (which they do in other instances) would probably be more accurate.

My guess on this situation is I believe you were allowed at the time as a network to break the Prime-Time Access Rule every once in a while if the show was of a public affairs nature. I have TV listings from the first week of Feb 1975 where Amy Prentiss runs only 90 minutes followed by a 60 minute news special. B&M at that point has Mystery Wheel running 120 minutes. For those of you who are too young or don't remember, prime time for NBC was 7:30-10:30 EDT for the 73-74 and 74-75 seasons on Sunday.


--Mike
<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by mmb5 on 04/15/06 08:03 PM.</FONT></P>

 

[KMRichards]

> I'm not saying they should have, but 8:30-conclusion (which
> they do in other instances) would probably be more accurate.

If memory serves, Brooks & Marsh only use that for listings of open-ended programming, such as Monday Night Football.

As I said, three exceptions to the time slot don't, in my mind, justify making an exception to the rule. (Apparently not in Tim and Earle's minds, either.)<P ID="signature">______________


</P>

 

[FreddyE1977]

> "Theme music was ear splitting as I recall....high pitched
> and off-key whistling of some type."
===============> ============================================================
>
>
> "Mystery Movie Theme"...it's from Henry Mancini and is on an
> album/CD
> entitled "Big Screen/Little Screen". Amazon sells it but
> offers no "listen" feature on this album.
>

Wow! That was Henry Mancini?? Not one of his good ones apparently.

 

[rugrats1]

> >
> > "Mystery Movie Theme"...it's from Henry Mancini ...
>
> Wow! That was Henry Mancini?? Not one of his good ones
> apparently.
>
You should hear one of his last compositions before his death -- the themfe from the 1990 version of "Tic Tac Dough", which sounds more like a kiddie show.

Personally, I like the "Mystery Movie" theme -- been eons since I last heard it, but I still can recall it today, especially the "whistling".

 

[FreddyE1977]

> > >
> > > "Mystery Movie Theme"...it's from Henry Mancini ...
> >
> > Wow! That was Henry Mancini?? Not one of his good ones
> > apparently.
> >
> You should hear one of his last compositions before his
> death -- the themfe from the 1990 version of "Tic Tac
> Dough", which sounds more like a kiddie show.
>
> Personally, I like the "Mystery Movie" theme -- been eons
> since I last heard it, but I still can recall it today,
> especially the "whistling".
>

He was from the Pittsburgh area and I know he was in ill health for
some time before his death. I am sure he was not doing his best work
at that point.

 

[KMRichards]

Henry Mancini

> He was from the Pittsburgh area and I know he was in ill
> health for
> some time before his death. I am sure he was not doing his
> best work
> at that point.

Mancini died in 1994. I presume that the above comment was a reference to the 1990 "Tic Tac Dough" theme, and not for the "Mystery Movie" theme from 15+ years earlier?<P ID="signature">______________


</P>