Prescription: Murder — The Doctor Will Deceive You Now

Abby, I have a little intro for us.

Uh, so do you know when Columbo first started?

What, what year?

Yeah.

19- Oh, the year you were born, 1968, right?

That's when this episode came out, but I have a little background for you.

All right.

So Columbo-

I'm excited

... was created by Richard Levinson and William Link.

They're the two writers, and they said that Columbo was partially inspired by Crime and Punishment, the Dostoevsky book.

But also-

Oh, really?

Yeah.

Also G.K. Chesterton's, uh, Father Brown.

But so the Columbo character started as a mystery series on TV back in 1960, and it wasn't Peter Falk, it wasn't the Columbo we know, but they turned that into a theater production, and it was a stage play called Prescription: Murder, which debuted in San Francisco at the Curran Theater in 1962.

So I did a little, I did a little snooping.

I did a little Columbo-ing for us on this one.

And then in 1968, that play was made into what we're talking about today, which was a two-hour television movie for NBC.

And do you know who they originally wanted to play Columbo?

I do not.

I didn't know any of this.

Yeah, I, I thought it was fun.

Who did they want?

They wanted Bing Crosby for the role of Columbo, but he turned it down because he felt-