Prescription Murder

The first pilot for the Columbo TV series was a TV movie called Prescription Murder, which aired for the first time on February 20th, 1968.

Gene Barry plays Dr. Ray Fleming, a philandering psychiatrist in an unhappy marriage to wife Carol, played by Nina Foch. Dr. Fleming's current side piece is a young actress, who is a patient of his, named Joan Hudson (played by Katherine Justice). 

One can't help but wonder if Dr. Flemming's attraction to Ms. Hudson is not just how she looks in a bikini, but the fact that she bears a passable resemblance to the ill-fated Mrs. Fleming...which comes in handy when Dr. Fleming is trying to set up his alibi. With Dr. Fleming's penchant for careful planning it stands to reason that he may have planned to kill his wife for quite a while and had been on the lookout for a suitable accomplice.

Watch it for free at IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/tv/watch/tt0061496 (Might not be available in all regions)

What to watch for

(This section is interesting tidbits to look for as you watch the show.)

Party on Ray!

Ray is showing off his intellect at the party, Dr. Fleming has a superiority complex and feels compelled to always be the smartest person in the room. This plays well into Columbo's approach. The person he's portraying in their little game is Josef Breuer who is probably not very familiar to people who haven't studied the history of psychoanalysis.

Living beyond her means?

Joan lives at Stahl House, which is a Hollywood icon. It's never made clear how a small time actress could afford to live alone in a house that is worth about $3 million in today's dollars.

Familiar taste in art

Nod to the prop department - hanging on the wall in Fleming's office is a painting of trees and white houses with red roofs. 

This same painting appears, with a different matte, on the wall just a few episodes later as part of Uncle Rudy's art collection in Columbo: Suitable for Framing.

How bad was the first one?

Carol's last words (on camera, at least) are: "Our second honeymoon might be better than our first."

Honey, I'm home!

Columbo makes his first appearance approximately 32 minutes and 19 seconds into the episode. This is Peter Falk's debut as Columbo.

Bonus: There's a tape outline on the floor where Carol was laying...but it's not clear why they'd tape an outline of a victim who survived.

...it's also not clear why a homicide detective would be assigned when the victim lived (at least initially).

The glass?

Ray broke the glass on the patio door after strangling Carol and with her body laying pretty close to the door. Lucky that no bits of broken glass ended up on top of the body (proving that Carol was strangled BEFORE the door was broken).

The Raincoat

Even though the Columbo of Prescription Murder is more dapper and smooth than the Columbo we grow to love in the rest of the series, we do get our first look at his now trademark raincoat in this episode. When he enters at the 32:19 mark he's not wearing it, but he is carrying it over his arm. And he continues to carry it for almost 12 more minutes...until the scene where Columbo and Dr. Fleming arrive at his office, around the 43:50 mark. There we get our first look at Columbo wearing the famous raincoat.

Wry sense of humor

Columbo delivers a hilarious line, completely deadpan in this episode. Talking about furniture in Dr. Fleming's office.

You know my sister she has a living room; it's very modern but the minute you sit down  in it you can't open your mouth. You know she's got this big kidney-shaped coffee table. It upsets me just to look at it. Her husband, he doesn't say anything and I figure the coffee table got to him years ago.

From stage to screen

Actors on stage, or screen, rarely actually turn lights on or off. They generally just mime it and the stage crew turn the light on and off for them (in no small part because there are usually a LOT more lights on the scene than just the lights that would be controlled by the switch. And on stage, when the audience is 50 feet away and doesn't have instant replay, actors don't have to pay a lot of attention to how they mime the light switch, usually.

Just over an hour into this episode, Fleming is leaving his office and as he goes out he pushes the light switch up to turn off the lights. Columbo is sitting in the waiting room. As they go back into Flemings private office, Fleming pushes the light switch up again to "turn on" the lights. But when he leaves the office after he and Columbo have their chat the switch is already in the down position. He tells Columbo to turn the lights off when he leaves.

Columbo does that...by pushing the already down switch, down again.

The to-go glass

While Columbo and Fleming are having their battle of wits in his office Fleming pours them each a drink.

"Of course one thing we have going for us, we're professionals. I mean, you take our friend here, the murderer he's very smart, but he's an amateur. I mean he's got just one time to learn, just one. With us, well with us it's a business. You see we do this a hundred times a year. I tell you Doc, that's a lot of practice."

Fleming leaves first and invites Columbo to stay a while, even have another drink. Columbo lingers for a few moments, then follows him out...and takes Fleming's glass with him.

Just a few more things...

• Not clear to me how the imaginary burglar(s) would have gotten onto the balcony of the Fleming's apartment, given they lived in the penthouse of a tall building. #Spiderman
• The "Flemings" didn't take very many suitcases on their trip, given that Carol was fashion-conscious enough to wear gloves and send dresses out for dry-cleaning regularly.
• Ray and Carol have separate beds. That's very 1968 where even married couples didn't share a bed on television.
• Dr. Fleming has a fireplace in his office, but given that his office is probably in a tower full of officers I assume the fireplace is fake.