The ABC Mystery Movie

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

The ABC Mystery Movie was a revival of the original Wheel Program which ran on NBC in the 1970s. The new wheel was far less successful, running for one and a half seasons. The theme music was written by Mike Post, who also wrote or co-wrote the themes for two of the new components. This is the intro.

In order of debut:

For its second and final season the series was moved to Saturdays and retitled ABC Saturday Mystery. Columbo and B.L. Stryker were retained, and joined by:

  • Christine Cromwell (1989-1990): Jaclyn Smith as an independently wealthy attorney in San Francisco.
  • Kojak (1989-1990): Already brought back earlier in the decade in two successful TV movies, ABC added Inspector Kojak (again played by Telly Savalas) to the wheel when a rerun of the second movie did well in the ratings.

Although this Wheel Program ended in 1990, Columbo continued to air in the form of occasional TV movies until 2003, and Kojak was the subject of another short-lived Revival in 2005 by the USA Network with Ving Rhames as the hair-challenged cop.

Tropes used in The ABC Mystery Movie include: