Many dramatic shows in the 1950s and 1960s aired as part of an anthology series: a series that aired under a single title (and often using the same host or group of actors), but which ultimately presented different stories about different characters each week. It was therefore not so out of the ordinary when so called “wheel series” of mystery crime dramas began to be introduced in the early 1970s.
These series were significant in the history of TV detectives — many of the most memorable mystery shows of that era either had their origins in these wheel series, or ran as part of these series in their entirety.
As many modern detective show fans may not be aware of the circumstances behind these classic series, I wanted to take a moment to outline their history.
Four in One (1970-1971)
Four in One was the umbrella title for an NBC wheel series that was comprised of four distinct shows that were aired in alternating order on Wednesday evenings during the 1970-1971 season. The four shows in question were: McCloud; San Francisco International Airport; Night Gallery; and The Psychiatrist.
Notably, McCloud was the first show of this era to have aired as part of a wheel series rather than a stand-alone. The show, starring Dennis Weaver, followed the cases of a rural police officer who was temporarily stationed at the New York City Police Department. (Apparently, the show was inspired by the 1968 Clint Eastwood movie Coogan’s Bluff.)
Even though only one of the shows in the series was a detective show (i.e. McCloud) and the other three were other types of dramas, it was nonetheless significant in the history of mystery wheel series. Namely, although Four in One along with two of its component shows would be cancelled at the end of the season, Night Gallery ended up being picked up as a stand-alone series, while McCloud would continue on as part of the new NBC Mystery Movie wheel series that premiered the following year.
NBC Mystery Movie (1971-1972)
Following up on the Four in One wheel series from the previous year, the NBC Mystery Movie wheel series also aired on Wednesday nights. During its first season, it comprised of three shows:
- McCloud (which premiered the previous year as part of Four in One)
- Columbo (which starred Peter Falk as a Los Angeles homicide detective). The show premiered as part of the wheel series after two successful made-for-tv movie pilots were produced and aired in 1968 (“Prescription: Murder”) and earlier in 1971 (“Ransom for a Dead Man”).
- McMillan & Wife (which starred Rock Hudson as a San Francisco police commissioner and Susan Saint James as his young wife).
NBC mystery movies two nights a week (1972-1974)
Subsequently, due to the success of the NBC Mystery Movie, the wheel series idea was expanded so that there would be mystery movies two nights per week on NBC. Thus, “The NBC Sunday Mystery Movie” and “The NBC Wednesday Mystery Movie” were born.
The three established NBC Mystery Movie shows (McCloud, Columbo, and McMillan & Wife) were moved to Sunday nights and were joined by new show Hec Ramsey (a Western starring Richard Boone as a lawman with an interest in forensics). This lineup lasted throughout the 1972-1973 and the 1973-1974 seasons.
The Wednesday night lineup on the other hand featured Banacek (which starred George Peppard as a Polish-American private investigator based in Boston). While Banacek lasted for two seasons, the other shows that aired during the Wednesday lineup at that time only lasted for one season.
Thus, during the 1972-1973 season, Banacek was joined by Cool Million (which starred James Farentino as a former CIA agent turned private investigator who charged one million dollars per case) and Madigan (a reboot of a 1968 movie starring Richard Widmark).
During the 1973-1974 season, on the other hand, Banacek was joined by Faraday & Company (a series about a private investigator who had escaped after being confined for 28 years in a South American prison), Tenafly (which starred James McEachin as a former cop turned private investigator who balances work with family life), and The Snoop Sisters (which starred Helen Hayes and Mildred Natwick as two elderly sisters who solve crimes).
While the NBC Sunday Mystery Movie maintained its popularity, the NBC Wednesday Mystery Movie series floundered. It was moved to Tuesdays and renamed The NBC Tuesday Mystery Movie in January 1974 but it was ultimately cancelled.
CBS tries to get in on the action (1973-1974)
NBC wasn’t the only network that tried its hand at mystery wheel series. During the 1973-1974 season, CBS also tried to get in on the action with The New CBS Tuesday Night Movies. While CBS had previously had evenings where TV movies would be aired, during this particular season they experimented with regular series during those same timeslots.
Thus, they alternated episodes of Shaft (based on the movie starring Richard Roundtree as a private detective), with episodes of Hawkins (which starred Jimmy Stewart as a small-town lawyer), and stand-alone television movies every third week.
However, the shows were cancelled after a single season and CBS did not attempt to produce any mystery wheel series afterwards.
NBC Sunday Mystery Movie (1974-1977)
While mystery movie wheel series on other nights of the week did not last very long, the NBC Sunday Mystery Movie continued for several more seasons.
***As an aside: I find it interesting that Murder, She Wrote also aired on Sundays–and when it was moved to other weeknights during its final season, it ended up being cancelled.***
At this point in time, although Hec Ramsey was cancelled after just two seasons, the three original ‘wheel’ series (i.e. McCloud, Columbo, and McMillan & Wife) endured and were joined by a different fourth show each year. Thus, during the 1974-1975 season, they were joined by Amy Prentiss–a show starring Jessica Walter as a Chief of Detectives and originally a spin-off of Ironside. And in the 1975-1976 season, they were joined by McCoy–a show starry Tony Curtis as a conman.
The 1976-1977 season marked the end of the NBC Sunday Mystery Movie. McCloud finished off its final season that year, while McMillan & Wife underwent a title change to just McMillan before it too was ultimately cancelled after Susan Saint James left the show.
The fourth slot in the wheel series that year also underwent several changes. The season first started with 4 movie-length episodes of Quincy, M.E. before that show was retooled and spun-off into its own standalone series. The final addition to the NBC Sunday Mystery Movie was Lannigan’s Rabbi (based on the Rabbi Small books by Harry Kemelman).
The only one of the original three mystery movie series that survived beyond the demise of the wheel series in Spring 1977 was Columbo, which came back for the 1977-1978 season to air a final series of 5 TV movies.
1989 ABC revival
After over a decade of no mystery movie nights, ABC aimed to revive the wheel series.
The ABC Monday Mystery Movie premiered in February 1989 and brought back the ever-popular Columbo, along with two new series for it to alternate with. These included: Gideon Oliver — a series based on the novels by Aaron Elkins and starring Louis Gossett Jr. as an anthropology professor; and B. L. Stryker — starring Burt Reynolds as a private investigator based in Palm Beach, Florida.
For its second year, the wheel series moved to a different day of the week and was renamed the ABC Saturday Mystery Movie. Both Columbo and B.L. Stryker were brought back from the previous season. However, Gideon Oliver was cancelled after the initial few episodes, and during the 1989-1990 TV season was instead replaced with Christine Cromwell (a series starring Jaclyn Smith of Charlie’s Angels fame) and a revival of Kojak starring Telly Savalas (which originally ran from 1973 to 1978, and already had two TV movie sequels air in 1985 and 1987).
The ABC revival, however, was short-lived. Although TV movies featuring Columbo continued to be occasionally made in the following years, the Mystery Movie wheel series was cancelled after two seasons.
1993 NBC revival
One more attempt at reviving the Mystery Movie Wheel series was made by NBC in 1993 when they launched the “NBC Friday Night Mystery”. However, that too was short-lived and only lasted two seasons.
From what I could find out about the series, it appeared to have been plagued with problems right from the start. For instance, I was able to find some articles noting a few of the shows they were intending to include as part of the wheel series [link to references].1 But it appears that most of them either never ended up being made (e.g. due to a dispute with CBS, NBC was not able to go ahead with filming a revival of the Janek movies starring Richard Crenna)2 or didn’t make it beyond one or two movies (e.g. Staying Afloat starring Larry Hagman or MacShayne starring Kenny Rogers).
Additionally, it seemed that the NBC Friday Night Mystery was envisioned as less of a wheel series and more of a place to air TV pilots. For instance, the pilot for The Cosby Mysteries aired during the NBC Friday Night Mystery slot in January 1994 before being spun-off into its own series the following season.
There were even major problems among the series that did continue under the NBC Friday Night Mystery umbrella. For example, NBC planned to incorporate the revival of Perry Mason movies starring Raymond Burr into the wheel series, but this proved problematic when Raymond Burr died from cancer after filming only the first of six planned movies. Their ultimate solution was to fill out the schedule with mysteries starring purported friends of Perry Mason (similar to what was done for the so-called “bookend” episodes during Murder, She Wrote‘s sixth season).3
It appears that the only show that had any sort of continued success as part of this “wheel” series was a revival of Hart to Hart starring Robert Wagner and Stefanie Powers. Five TV movies aired under the NBC Friday Night Mystery umbrella, and (after the cancellation of this wheel series) three more movies aired on the Family Channel.
Summary chart:
The chart in the image below provides an at-a-glance summary of the series that ran between 1971 until 1990. Note: Arrows indicate whether a show is a continuation of a show that premiered in the preceding season (as was the case with McCloud initially starting as part of Four in One), or whether a show continued into the following season beyond the end of the wheel series (as was the case with Columbo and Quincy, M.E.).
I hope you have enjoyed this look back through the history of the weekly mystery movie wheel series, and (like me) found it interesting to learn of the many classic detective shows that aired in this way.
- http://articles.mcall.com/1993-05-23/entertainment/2916286_1_peacock-network-nbc-president-bob-wright-nbc-s-west-coast-president/2 ↩︎
- https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1993/07/22/feuding-networks/ ↩︎
- https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-orlando-sentinel/107075025/ ↩︎
Murder, She Watched 