Peter Falk’s Prize-Winning Tomatoes

It’s hard to imagine Peter Falk on TV without that rumpled raincoat and nasty old cigar. But he did have a prime time on television long before “Columbo.”

His first Emmy-winning work-for “Price of Tomatoes,” a 1962 episode of the anthology series The Dick Powell Show-can be seen Saturday at 3 p.m. on KDOC.

Falk plays Aristide Fresco, a partner in his father’s produce firm and the opposite of the thoughtful, slow-talking Lt. Columbo. Fresco talks-or yells-first and thinks later.

And he’s got a lot to think about-a truckload of Mexican tomatoes that will make him thousands of dollars if he can get them to Cincinnati and beat the competition. He’s got a good head start in Texas, until he gives a lift to a pregnant Romanian (Inger Stevens) who’s illegally in the United States but determined that her baby be born in America.

Also up for the Emmy that Falk won were Lee Marvin, for a role in an “Alcoa Premiere,” and Mickey Rooney and Milton Berle, who starred in their own episodes of “The Dick Powell Show.” Stevens was nominated for a best-actress Emmy for her performance. “The Dick Powell Show” is one of the few dramatic anthologies from yesteryear that still plays on television. In the ‘50s and early ‘60s, you could watch at least one almost every night.