 This is the SF Productions Podcast Network. Dennis Weaver stars as McLeod. From the Pop Culture Bunker, I'm Mindy. And I'm Mark. You can check out our audio podcast, How I Got My Wife to Read Comics on iTunes, or on our website, sfpodcastnetwork.com. While the movie industry tries to figure out how to operate in this new world, they will most likely fall back to their pre-pandemic positions, which include the already-owned intellectual property cinematic universe, the AOIPCU. Mark made that term up. Efforts outside of the comics book have generally not done well. I'm looking at you, classic monster, dark universe. But that's no reason not to try again. There's been a lot of reboots of TV series, Mission Impossible, Charlie's Angels, etc. But no real work has been done to form a shared cinematic universe of TV show IP. So we're going to do it for them. You're welcome. Our rules. IP that has already been used in a major film is out. We'll only include shows where the unifying element was a major part of it. The executive producer, star, creator, etc. Our second pitch involves a classic TV concept, the wheel. Marvel Studios and NBC took the idea of a made-for-TV movie, which Universal had previously invented, and expanded to a series composed of recurring TV movies, each involving a main character and shown in rotation, hence the wheel. The name of the game, from 1968 to 71, was the first iteration involving three different characters who all worked at the same publishing house. A crusading reporter, Tony Franciosa, an editor of a crime magazine, Robert Stack, and the publisher Gene Berry. Each would take the lead on a particular episode, with the others sometimes in cameos. This was followed by The Bold Ones, 1969 to 73. The new doctors with E.G. Marshall, David Hartman and John Saxon, the lawyers with Burl Ives, Joseph Campanella and James Farentino, the protectors with Leslie Nielsen and Harry Rhodes, and the senator with Hal Holbrook. By the end of the run, only the new doctors remained. Four in one from 70 to 71 included San Francisco International Airport with Lloyd Bridges, the pilot of which was riffed on MSD-3K, the psychiatrist with Roy Thins, Knight Gallery, the horror anthology from Rod Serling that went on to its own separate run until 1973, McLeod, which got transferred into our main topic, the NBC Mystery Movie, which we will transform into the NBC Mystery Movie, Cinematic Universe and MMCU. The series began with three series, all involving law enforcement. The aforementioned McLeod, 1970 to 77, starring Dennis Weaver as a deputy marshal in Taos, New Mexico, who winds up working in New York City, bringing his cowboy methods with him, was adapted from a Clint Eastwood film, Cougan's Bluff, the writer is credited as the creator of McLeod. It was best known for images of McLeod riding a horse down a busy New York street. McMillan and wife from 71 to 77 starred Rock Hudson as a San Francisco police commissioner and his younger wife, played by Susan St. James, who would solve mysteries together. James would leave the series in its last season when it was renamed McMillan. Colombo, 1971 to 78, 1989 to 98, 2002 to 2003, is by far the best known of the initial set. Peter Faulk stars as a disheveled but brilliant LA homicide detective. His unassuming and bumbling manner always makes the bad guy underestimate him, which leads to his downfall. The show switched out the idea of the who done it. The first part of the episode is watching the murder happen, with the murderer clearly in view to seeing how Lieutenant Colombo figures it out. This classic line, which always leaves the accuse on edge, is just one more thing. Generally, the suspect is convinced he, it's usually he, has pulled the wool over the lieutenant's eyes so he overplays his hand. After a long run, the show would return as the flagship of the ABC mystery movie a decade later with many TV movies to follow. A fourth show was added to the mix in season two. Heck Ramsey from 1972 to 74 starred Richard Boone in an early 20th century Western solving crimes in what producer Jack Webb called Dragnet meets John Wayne. The NBC Sunday mystery movie with its classic flashlight sweep opening was so successful that they made a copy of it on Wednesdays with three additional series. Benacheck from 72 to 74, starring George Pappard as a Boston insurance investigator. That was a common profession on TV action mystery series at the time. He made his money by solving impossible thefts and taking 10% of the value. Cool Million, 72 to 73 starring James Farentino as a former CIA agent and PI who was so successful he could charge $1 million for his services. Madigan from 72 to 73 starring Richard Widmark as a former New York police officer solving crimes in Europe. Since the shows ran in rotation with a different star and show each week, tonight Peter Faulk stars as Columbo. The producers could swap out new shows if a current one wasn't working. They did this on the Wednesday show with Cool Million and Madigan dropped in favor of... Meredith and Company from 73 to 74 starring Dan Daly as a PI who spent 28 years in a South American jail falsely accused of murdering his partner, now meeting his PI son James Naughton in L.A. Tenefly, 1973 to 74 starring James McEachin in an early example of an African-American drama series lead playing a former cop and PI in Los Angeles. The Snoop sisters from 73 to 74 starred Helen Hayes and Mildred Natwick as senior ladies who happened to cross and solve crimes in a proto-murder she wrote. The addition of a second weekly series proved too far abridged across and so the mothership continued alone after 1974. More series moved into the Sunday slot over time. Amy Prentice, 74 to 75 starring Jessica Walter who sealed Bluth on Arrested Development and a mainstay of 70s and 80s dramas. As the first female chief of detectives in San Francisco, it replaced Heck Ramsey. She was replaced in turn by McCoy, 1975 to 76 starring Tony Curtis as a con man who would outcon others of his profession to return the money to its rightful owners. Any resemblance to the sting and CBS's switch are purely coincidental. He got kicked out in favor of Quincy M.E. from 76 to 83 starring Jack Clugman as a crusading LA medical examiner. While the police would be ready to close a case, Quincy would be convinced there was more to learn and would fight to do so. His series would quickly exit the wheel and get its own weekly time slot and the use of detailed forensic details would create an entire TV show industry and make real juries expect definitive DNA evidence in every case. Leningen's Rabbi 1977 starred Art Carney and Bruce Solomon as a small California town police chief and his Rabbi friend who solved crimes. The wheel finally lost momentum and shut down in 1977. Factors included the rising popularity of sitcoms leaving fewer time slots to fill, plus the show length which varied from 90 minutes to 2 hours depending upon the season and made any attempts at syndication difficult to sell it as a package. Keep in mind that, because of the rotating nature of these shows, many of them never generated that many episodes on their own. Over its sixth season run, for instance, McMillan & Wife slash McMillan only produced 40 episodes not nearly enough for later syndication. As mentioned earlier, ABC would try to resurrect the wheel format in the 90s, bringing Colombo back along with 70 series Kojak and 80 series Heart to Heart, along with the litany of other new shows, but it fell apart and ended up as a lot of separate TV movies. So here's what we have to work with for the NMMCU. We have Police Personnel, McLeod, Colombo, McMillan & Wife, Amy Prentice, Leningen's Rabbi, Private Investigators, Banachette, Cool Million, Madigan, Veridean Company, Antenna Fly, and the Snoop Sisters. And then there are the outliers, Heck Ramsey, a western, and McCoy, a con man, Quinn CME, a medical examiner. And now we present our elevator pitches for the NMMCU. A rich serial killer, the jet-setting Cool Million character, and his elderly accomplices, the Snoop Sisters, think a malevolent version of You Can't Take It With You, with the sisters poisoning their victims' tea, must be stopped by an elite team of cops and PIs. Colombo is the obvious flagship of the franchise, and the first film, the serial killer case, begins here. Colombo pulls in others, which generate the next few movies. I see McMillan & Wife reimagined as a South Asian couple in San Francisco, McLeod as a doomsday prepper forced to coming out of hiding, Leningen's Rabbi can be used more as comic relief, Amy Prentice and Quinn CEE run the overall operation back at HQ. Banachek, Madigan, Faraday and Tenefly are all special agents assigned to the case, each with their own expertise and films. Tech Ramsey might be using a flashback, explaining the events which led to the killer's spree. McCoy turns out to be working both sides, and has to be taken out, along with the killers, in the finale of the film series. I think I went a little different. I picture McMillan & Wife as a romantic comedy, a lot Ant-Man where McMillan moves as police commission to a new city and meets the chief of detectives, that would be Amy Prentice, and falls in love over a case involving stolen art. Madigan and Banachek make appearances over the phone while one of the other main characters are making calls to get info on the art they have found. Then you could have various movies regarding the thefts and New York art heist involving McLeod who investigates art stolen from the Snoop sisters, who are now just sisters, not detectives, but who get in his way all the time, and then another movie based on McCoy, which is really like the TV show Leverage as well, where he cons a billionaire out of some art because the billionaire was denying healthcare to his workers or something like that. All this leads to the final conclusion which I imagine involves the billionaire being found dead and the cool million PI is hired and he brings in Quincy who determines it was murder and they work together tying the strings of all the thefts to the billionaire who actually had most of the stolen art in his possession. It turns out that he was murdered by the Snoop sisters who are trying to recover their family's stolen art. Wow. I like that. I don't know. You could get a lot of movies out of different art thieves. Oh yeah. Yeah, sure. It would be a better wheel. Right. Okay, so think about how you might set up a cinematic universe and check out our audio podcast, How I Got My Wife 3 Comments on iTunes or on our website as apodgasnetwork.com. From the Pop Culture Bunker, I'm Mindy. And I'm Mark. Thanks for watching. Just one more thing, one more thing.