Every time I hear this I'm transported back to the early 70s and I'm watching this as my dad lays on the floor and I'm mesmerized. This 1 minute and 4 second movement moves me like no other tune.
My memory of this was Sunday night about 8:00 or 9:00pm this show came on and my parents watched them. What the theme meant to me was the weekend was over and I had to go back to school the next morning!!!
Boy, this takes me back a ways! I can always remember watching this show as a family. The parents would turn off the living room light and we'd watch it in the dark, like a theater. I'd be sitting on the floor in front of our big console RCA television just waiting for that cool (if a bit unnerving to a little kid) theme to come on. Some things really were better back in the "good old days"!
Still the one Tv in household . Yeah the 60s enjoyed watching Ed Sullivan show and Wonderful world of Disney. Then the 70s with mystery shows that were quite good . Hawaii 50 . We were lucky to be alive then .
This is and will always be the best opening MUSIC to any movie of the week. So many changes, so many moods it swings one through, Mancini created a masterpiece with 1 minute and 4 seconds.... Absolutely a gem that I'll be playing on my death bed.
When I was 9, in 1971, I remember lying in bed waiting for my parents to come home from a party. They were late, and I was worried. I could not sleep. And what did I hear playing on the radio coming from the living room? THIS MUSIC! They used to play the theme quite a bit back then. Total flashback hearing this again today!
So do I Julie Columbo was voted I believe number one detective in TV well one of the top and Peter Falk was named one of the top TV performers of the past century
Bad enough that Saturday mornings is not like it was wasn't bad enough, now we're informericaled to death on weekends. Except for college football Saturdays it's worse than ever!
Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, Wonderful World of Disney and even 60 minutes meant school the next day. At the time,I hated those weekend-ending reminders!!!!
i think of the same exact thing when i see these old videos!! but they were good times, one tv, all the family in one room, even though my dad would rush us off to bed before the mystery movie started.. thanks
Lawrence Welk was Saturday evenings although it gives a heads-up that the weekend is more than half-done. What's worse than anything else that school resumes is watching the Wizard Of Oz on Easter evenings telling me that school is the next day, 1 week of spring break is over! Awful!!
I've never cared much for living in the past, but there are times when I really miss yesterday. Listening to that theme song brought back memories of people, places and things I hadn't thought about in a long time. Funny how certain things can do that.
Those Mystery Movie Seasons with Hec Ramsey were when I was in college so I was one of the lucky ones who could enjoy Sunday night. And I loved the rookie show that preceded the Sunday Mystery Movie...MASH in its first season.
Susan St. James is the only one left from the Sunday Mystery Movie line-up now...Peter Falk, Dennis Weaver, Rock Hudson, Richard Boone, George Peppard and Jack Klugman are all gone now. Great memories.
David Young. Well you are right on the nail. But for those of who some big fan,s of these shows, they will never be forgotten. Peter Falk, Jack Klugman, Dennis Weaver, Richard Boone and Rock Hudson. R.I.P. We sure miss you guys.
I forgot that Quincy started out in the Mystery Movie franchise. Lasted a few seasons, but not as well remembered as "The Odd Couple" or even his four(?)episodes on "The Twilight Zone." Dropped by because "Have Gun, Will Travel" is running, Richard Boone's better known series.
Susan St. James was Sally McMillan on McMillan & Wife which was an update of the Thin Man movies. McCloud was based on a 1968 film called Coogan's Bluff with Clint Eastwood. My favorite is McCloud, McMillan & Wife, Banacek and The Snoop Sisters. In the 2000's Hallmark Channel aired reruns of the old NBC Mystery Movies. Columbo, McCloud, Banacek, McMillan and Wife, The Snoop Sisters. Inferentially, they use to air the show on Sundays.
I love this 70s TV opening and classic theme by Henry Mancini. It reminds me when my family took me to Universal Studios as a 9 year old in 1976 and opened up a whole new world of entertainment for me. This show opening and theme best represents classic Hollywood in the 70s with the likes of Dennis Weaver and of course, Rock Hudson.
I loved all those shows you knew your weekend was up when you heard that music . Back to school next day may be mom let you stay up till 11:00 to watch them .
I feel practically the same way , yet at the same time it was somewhat an upbeat opening even with that " back to school " mood . You still around Reginald ?
YES!! I was in elementary & middle school, ya hung out on the block with the fellas but Sunday evening, in front of 📺 with parents watching before getting to bed for school!! GOD IS SO GOOD!! 👍👏🙏
I still remember Columbo. Peter Falk was sure one great actor. He was my favorite TV Detective. Oh pardon me Sir. My name is Lieutenant Columbo, LAPD. And the funniest one. Oh yes mam. Well there was one more thing. R.I.P. Peter Falk. And I believe his rain coat was donated the Smithsonian American History Museum.
This and Hawaii Five-0 were my mom's favorite show's. How I wish I could go back in time and watch them with her again. She has been gone now for almost 30 years. It is hard to believe. Everyone, please live every day like it is your last because you never know what tomorrow may bring. Thanks.
Hec was robbed,boone was robbed,I honestly believed his ideal would had worked but the stupid people at NBC didn't want to listen to anyone else's ideals( including boone's s ) but their own .they must had thought their ideal was the only think that matter and no one else's....wrong!!!!!!! It doesn't hurt to hear other people's ideals,but the big suits were stupid and didn't care.hec Ramsey has the least episodes of the group and he is still not on dvd!!??? Get going people hec Ramsey want to see results not stupid empty reasons which you have none at all.get hec Ramsey on dvd!!!!!!!!
Thanks! Its a beautiful theme. Makes me recall being five years old, laying on the living room floor wrapped in a blanket in front of the tv on Sunday night!
i get goose bumps just watching this opening clip. when i was a kid, i also had to go to bed early while mom and dad were in the living room watching the tube. one night i woke up, and it was only like 11 but still, it seemed real late. i wandered into the hallway and could hear the opening theme music coming from the living room. i'd sneak quietly and peek around the corner and watch as much as i could until i got caught. i miss those days. these days suck!
Fantastic! I never missed an episode when I was a little kid and I've loved this theme song that opened each show! Then, every character in the series had it's own theme. I especially loved the "Banachek" theme song (with George Peppard in Boston). I think Mancini wrote all of the themes for these shows. It was a better time in life. Television was awesome then. Not the same, nowadays...
Yeah I love George peppered to even in the a- team boy those sure were the days ,now the poor tv and poor us have crap to put up with what a crying shame!
wow, SO classic. I was whistling something which all of sudden triggered a memory of some t.v. movie theme from way back when, and for some reason I seemed to associate it with a cop in a cowboy hat on a horse and a flashlight moving around in the dark. Can't believe I found it so easily. That high pitched whistle has been ingrained in my psyche for decades, I'm 42 now. Thanks for posting, great memories!
I remember watching the mystery movie theater when I was younger . I love the theme and wish they would include the theme when Colombo and the other shows are played .
Hey Zilla1701, You nailed it. Those were the days. Just sit back and watch these old shows now and let them take you away back in time. Thank God for DVD sets.
Brings back great memories of the early '70s. Sunday night right after The Wonderful World of Disney...when this theme song came on, it was time for bed.
I was lucky enough to have this intro included on one of about 50 Columbo tapes I bought on Ebay. The theme, along with the original Columbo, McCloud and Mac & wife movies starting in 1971 was one of the greatest NBC productions ever. Thanks for posting!
Don't ask me why, but this credit sequence used to scare the LEMONADE out of me, but I still watched it! I was even luckier that my parents would allow me to stay up and watch the episodes, too! Not just on Sundays, but Wednesdays as well! BANACEK, THE SNOOP SISTERS, TENAFLY, MC MILLAN AND WIFE, HEC RAMSEY, MCCLOUD and of course COLUMBO. I will never forget those characters or their adventures. Thanks for this...
I watched this when it premiered until each of them were canceled.What memories...I was a child and a teenager, every Sunday visiting my grandparents at their farm, and we'd watch this on tv, whoever it focused on.A simple, pleasant time.
There are so many emotional movements through this instrumental tune. Country western, jazz, pop, romanticism, heroism,etc. It is definitely the most interesting tune I ever heard... As a child it moved me so emotionally and still does today.
An indelible memory. When you think about it -- each of the shows "stood out" in their own way. McMillan and Wife is one of my favorite shows. Rock/Susan as Nick/Nora really had an easygoing chemistry that seemed very natural. Plus they both had terrific spark individually. I also really loved Columbo (of course). Banacek had quite a clever spin on it's mysteries -- I still have never seen anything like it. I also loved Dennis Weaver, he just seemed like such a warm human being.
Very nostalgic. My parents used to watch this when I was a boy and we lived in the Bay Area. That and McMillan and Wife's San Francisco setting bring back such memories.
I've been whistling this darn tune since I was a kid. I used to lay in bed and my parents would watch tv in the next room. I could see the reflection in the mirror and this opening creeped me out. The fog, spooky music, something about it stuck with me. I've wondered for 40 years what it was, I finally googled it. Now I'm creeped out again
My wife and I were in a home improvement store and the theme music came over the intercom. I hadnt heard the music since I was maybe six years old. It brought back alot of great memories, thanks for posting.
In those days the networks had great television. greta production values and theme songs.Thanks for posting for those who are old enought o remember these great Universal Studios production
Yea, this music scare me too when I was a kid. Mom would be watching this and I would pull the covers over my head till it was over. A few years as I got older, the fear was gone, and I appreciated it more. One of the great classics!
This was another great TV series in the 1970s. I remember hearing this music too - my Mom liked the show, and my Dad would watch it, too - when he was taking a break from the road. He was a truckdriver.
Me-tv now runs McMillan and Wife, McCloud, and Baneckeck (the latter part of the Wed/Tue. Mystery Movie weeknights at 12:30 ET. They alternate weeks, with one series airing one week. Plus Columbo still airs Sundays at 8 ET.
+David Wiseman MeTV sounds great. Like the old Nick at Nite and TV Land when they actually showed great TV and cared about the network to run specials like that.
Me TV has been showing the newer Columbo shows that were on ABC. They're okay just different. The problem is they show the same few episodes over and over.
@@SchushThe set-up of the crime takes too long on the new ones and the shows just aren't of the same quality. Not that many big name guest stars, either, except Faye Dunaway.
Indeed, it was a magical time, I totally understand, I was there too. This intro actually transports you back in time for a moment. Dad, Mom, my brother and I sharing family time watching quality TV. We didn't know we were living in a golden age of television. People don't spend time with each other any more. What a shame!
Great memories here too. I would have to go to bed but I could hear this eerie music downstairs. If it was Columbo during summer vacation Mom would sometimes let me stay up late and watch it. RIP Mr Falk.
I watched all of these when new, including Hec Ramsey. McCloud was my fave. I was a child in early 1970s, when I watched this, and also watched it new as a teen. Columbo was the character who lasted the most years. Makes me think of great, innocent times. Columbo is on MeTv, Sunday evenings.
You can't judge these shows by comparing them to today's. It was a different time, and unless you lived through it, you can't appreciate it. They wouldn't even show blood then. I watch these shows with my wife, and every time a baddie gets shot up, I yell out," Could you at least BLEED?" These shows are fun to watch, and are not to be taken seriously. I'm 49, and I can remember my folks watching the Mystery Movie after my brothers and I were sent to bed. This theme brings back good memories.
My mother and I watched these revolving detective who-done-its. Our fav was McMillan and Wife, followed by Columbo. The music was always top-notch (as heard here in the intro) Those were the days my friend. (Miss you Mama
Thank you so much for this. I absolutely loved the music and truly could not wait until this came on - whether it be McMillan & Wife, Columbo or McCloud. Thanks again for my favorite period in my life.
Wow! This brings back so many memories from the early 70s. I was in college when these shows aired. McMillan and Wife was my absolute favorite. And the music/theme by Henry Mancini was excellent. Thanks for posting.
Makes you kind of think we were better off with 3 channels only.lucky if you could get another channel that was out of range and far away and didn't fade in and out.just turn the channel knobs on the tv and get up again to change it or turn it off,right!? Nowadays we should just turn the tv off anyway with all of this garbage they've been showing now
Peter Falk as Columbo was the best ( right up there with Sherlock Holmes and Phillip Marlow as the greatest fictional detectives ever), but Dennis Weaver ( McCloud), George Peppard ( Banacek), and Richard Boone ( Hec Ramsey) were excellent as well ( especially Peppard).
Imagine putting all of these tv detectives on a team together .they would never lose with brains like theirs .they would solve all the cases all the time.that would be an unbeatable team
Amazing! Hadn't seen this in a long long time. Great music and graphics. Loved watching whichever of the recurring shows aired.thanks for posting this!
Looking back at 1978, It was like I was getting ready to escape from the pit of hell. Graduating soon, get the diploma, and join the service. - Now almost forty years later, I realize that I waste too much time thinking about that tour in hell. Abused kids grow old, but are never really free.
I remember this as a kid back in the early 70's...the "mysterious figure" shining their flashlight into the camera, with the "whistling" music was entrancing! Wish I could go back for a week or so...
are house was so small when i was bout 10 yrs old , i could hear the music and peek thru the door in our bedroom and watch the show, my dad could hear me and yell out, "get to bed....., i usually would watch the whole show,,,,i would always wait to hear the narrator and hope he would say,,,this week Columbo!.... RIP Peter Faulk, you were awesome....great memories.....
My Grandad loved this show! We'd watch it together (even though the story arcs were usually beyond me). Lotta tough memmories from the 70's... but you had to love the TV!
I loved this theme as a kid! If I remember correctly one of the shows was "The Snoop Sisters" and I loved watching that show because I got to sit next to my grandmother, the safest place in the world, and she would put butter and apple sause on Hollywood Bread. This theme song just takes me back.....
I loved this format. I'm sure the weekly episode was probably decribed in the TV Guide, but for me it was always a mystery which of the detectives would be on the episode until the announcer made the declaration. I think this was a great way to "pilot" several shows in a season to decide which would get a dedicated show slot of their own. We enjoyed them all but Columbo will always be a favorite.
I remember this Theme song from my childhood in Tucson, Arizona in 1970-71 when I was in Kindergarden. I remember this song to be hauntingly beautiful. I am so glad to find it again after all these years.
This was about the last regular prime time network TV show I ever watched, while I was in junior high school. Only used to watch the Columbo or Hec Ramsey shows, though. Didn't watch McCloud or MacMillan. Here in NY around that time, they used to show "Have Gun Will Travel" on WOR Channel 9 and I remember having a hard time believing that Paladin & Hec Ramsey were actually the same guy, though when you think of it now, those two shows were less than 15 years apart.
I think in a way hec and paladin were a lot a like.they were smart ,beat the daylights out of all of the bad guys and took them in to justice.those two guys you didn't want to make mad and you were sorry if you did.they both got the girls all the time.and so much more,including being good at fighting and with a gun he's gun had a shorter barrel on it and he drew the gun in reverse as paladin had a longer barrel gun that was lower down his was it and hip area and drew it with the gun butt facing behind him not like he's gun butt facing towards the front of him.both characters were very versatile in what they did and equality had talent .paladin was younger,hec was older .but it didn't matter they both kick butt and got the girls!.
excellent version, and we of course remember watching this Sun evening. Quality television is certainly remembered here, when the family would be around the one television in the house, and there was no arguing over what we would watch, I think Columbo was our favorite followed by McCloud.
Hey, I'm 43 too and I whistle the theme as well. This show was shown in Spain, too, but I think it was on Saturdays. These were great shows: "McCloud", "Banacek", "Colombo", "MacMillan and Wife". Wow, it's fantastic to see this intro. again. It brings back memories!
i remembered ( or thought i did) that the whistling theme song in the early 70s was mcmillan and wife but after listening...i see that my memories at age 4 were a bit tarnished...thanks for putting this on you tube..
I always thought it was too bad NBC could never get that fourth part of the wheel pinned down. Columbo, McCloud and McMillian and Wife were great. Unless, of course you count Quincy -- the only feature to get its own series.
MeTv is currently running a rotating feature they call "The MeTV Mystery Movie" featuring Columbo, McMillian and Wife, McCloud, Banacek and the Perry Mason TV-Movies. (A different one each week.) The PM movies, of course, have the built-in open with the "Park Avenue Beat" theme, so the mood is set for them. But, there is no "open" for the other four features, they simply "start". A pity they can't do something using this marvelous theme by Henry Mancini.
My dad would let me stay up long enough to watch the theme song and maybe a few minutes of the episode but when the first commercial break came on he said get to bed! Good memories.
Wow - thanks - can't believe the great memories brought back from your posting this. Made me remember there was a great Halloween episode of McMillan & Wife on this series, back in '72 to '74...anybody remember it or have a clip of it? I forget the details but recall that it was very frightening and good!
Super!! I remember I always had to go to bed when this show came on because I had school the next day. Now I can stay up as late as I want, but I just fall asleep in the chair! :P
