Columbo - S/D

Killing someone halfway between him faxing a bunch of jokes to his wife and then claiming it was suicide = dud.

HOOORAH FOR BERGERAC!

Or even, Diagnosis Moider starring Dick van Dyke!

I'd love to see a Columbo / Law & Order crossover when the DA in the second half sits there going "You call this evidence? This fine upstanding proffessional member of the community confessed, to you, when you were on your own in his office after persistent badgering him with just one question? Get out of here. And brush your hair."

but what stories really stand out?
I especially like the one where Donald Pleasance plays a vintner. But they're all good.

And is this the best detective telly ever or what?
Yes. It is.

(This is cruel to IB whom I don't hate at all, but still - what a put-down.)

Sarah - What are yr feelings abt Shoestring?

Best Columbo - the one w/ William Shatner, wherein Shatner has the world's first and biggest video recorder (the whole episode revolves around it)!

CAGNEY AND LACEY!

Bloody hell yeah! There is a bloke from Cagney and Lacey lined up for the husband list (if only I cd remember his name, perhaps I need another day off work to watch it so I can remember).

Cannon! Wasn't that the show w/William Conrad?

I loved Shoestring. 1979-80, BBC1 - dishy Trevor Eve is a mentally unstable computer op who gets fired after smashing up a hooj mainframe-type thing, and *somehow* ends up as Radio Bristol's 'Private Ear', solving foax call-in probs (this is years before Midnight Caller or whatever it was) in a quirky lovable aw-shucks-down-on-his-luck kinda way. It effectively spawned Bergerac, as the show's creator, Robert Banks Stewart, was allowed to do whatever he bloody liked once Eve quit after two series - so he came up with a neato reason to spend a financially advantageous chunk of each subsequent year in Jersey (NB to googling screenwriter: I am joshing; I'm sure you weren't hanging out with Jim and Liza anyhow).

Shoestring did have a daytime run on the Beeb last year.

Now hooked by (slightly rubbish) Waking The Dead because of looming Eve presence. No shots yet of yer man eating chips in a Cortina though. Shame.

Anyway, I remember one nicely written episode by Stephen "The A-Team" J. Cannell, starring (yep)...Robert Culp as the murderer. Culp was a scientist who murders a guy by inserting a thirst-inducing subliminal message into a film, getting the guy into the lobby where he shoots him (while the other people are inside watching the film).

Has anybody caught Law & Order: Criminal Intent? Vincent D'Onofrio is totally classic in that...very Columbo-ish.

The Shat as Ward Fowler as Detective Lucerne!

'Let. Us. Assoooomm, Looootenant - and I'mspeakingasDetectiveLucerneherenotasWardFowler' etc.

The one with Roddy McDowell as Galen as the murderer with the exploding cigars is also tops, as is the abovementioned Faster, Fido, Kill, Kill!

And wasn't one written by Mickey Spillane?

Man so enjoying the Johnny Cash EP right now. Love that he never gets angry w/him (probably playing off against a perception of Cash as a 'hellraiser' is my guess).

Netflix finally has the full lineup of series episodes up.

columbo = they are ALL THE SAME STORY!! (= "i wd rather confess than put up with this absurd little fellow for the rest of my life")

― mark s (mark s), Monday, September 9, 2002 11:32 AM (11 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

truthbomb!

That one story rules though

The salient thing about Columbo is that the basic premises entertained. It may have been the same story each time, but that's like going into a few dozen houses at Christmas and exclaiming, they are ALL THE SAME TREE!!

Girlfriend and I were watching these on Netflix a lot, loved season 1, kinda burned out though (or maybe just got our rhythm thrown by the extra-long season 2 opener, with John Cassavetes as the orchestra conductor). Should pick it back up though, Falk is just great. Love the vision of class here: the murderers lose to Columbo not because his method is so foolproof but because they're rich and underestimate this working-class schmoe who knows how to play up his schmoe signifiers. Also interesting how so many of the millionaire killers are old-school scions of wealthy families - dissipated dilettantes and socialites, or people after the inheritance of same. Nobody's ever a stockholder or arbitrageur. Columbo's effective because he's able to get access to these people (hard to really picture now) and everything about his mannerisms short-circuits their codes of conduct, leaves them struggling for the correct way to brush him off, which only tips their hands more thoroughly. Feel like that world has kind of disappeared... the singular personifications of wealth vs. the corporate system as a whole.

Gee, I dunno. It's just this theory I had - but you've had a very long day, it can wait. I'm sorry.

Often they don't confess though, they are often found out in the most ludcrous manner, or sometimes its downright nasty. The EP where he frames the murderer's son (he confesses because he is "a strange little fellow" who is unpredictable), for example.

Sat afternoons watching these, having a 20 min nap and still knowing you haven't missed much (you know who did it) as oposed to some other crime show where you'd miss a plot point that might be key in working it out is a pleasure for me. But I also like bcz it is such an anti-crime show. Morse, or Holmes, you get bored by it.

re: class. yeah its an excellent point. He also works much harder than other police officers. A few times where he orders chilli and doesn't eat it => sign of a lower middle class thing "well if I work harder than poeple who are supposedly smarter than me" type guff.

Also note his interactions with culture. One murderer he gets on a "he must be the one - there is no way anyone could like both country and classical music" tip, then where he visits the art gallery to ask questions and mistakes a radiator I think for an art object. He talks about his wife doing watercolours. Art -- one could say -- promotes attentiveness and a heightened awareness. But that isn't on Colombo's radar (unlike Morse where it is part of his make-up), its noise and a sideshow. He gets his killer by working hard. Somtimes he'll pick their version of culture or pretentiousness (learning about wine to trap Donald Pleasance), he shows he is thinking, or he'll pick up an enthusiasm, but with the end goal in mind. You never feel he has interests.

Above all Falk is just great to watch. Feel that a bit more after he passed away.

On the other hand, Columbo's inner life is basically kept a mystery by Columbo himself - the vague references to family and friends which he just made up on the spot. Sometimes he seems to know enough about the murderer's culture stuff to know what would annoy the shit out of them - like playing "Chopsticks" on the concert piano for Cassavetes, or bringing half-dead hardware store plants in to the orchid guy.

And yeah, they're not all confessions - actually I like it best when he really does lay out the case at the end and explain what tipped him off, how he got the guy, etc. The nasty ones are cool too. I love the one where he makes Roddy McDowell think they're trapped in a ski lift with a bomb that's about to go off.

Recently watched The Great Race, which stars Falk alongside Natalie Wood, Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis, though unfortunately he's relegated to being Lemmon's "duh, okay boss" sidekick. But he wasn't famous yet, and actually Lemmon's talents aren't really exploited either. Always a pleasure to see him doing anything though, really. Growing up on The Princess Bride, I figured he was just some one-off guy that played the grandfather in that, and nothing else!

Falk was pretty much the only good thing in Wings of Desire.

He's allowed to be funny in the Frank Sinatra/Dean Martin vehicle Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964)

http://thecitydesk.net/justonemorething/

Well that's my life down the bin ;-)

http://thecitydesk.net/justonemorething/2014/10/thats-a-lot-of-fruit-salad/

Agreeing with Carolita on the way the divorcee is written up although I think Columbo is really nicer in the final dialogue than what this panel is given credit for - its more like a "shutting yourself off is what you don't do! you're gonna be ok" even if the niece was probably made up.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/30/nyregion/timothy-dowd-detective-who-led-son-of-sam-manhunt-dies-at-99.html

Obit for the detective in charge of Son of Sam case....he basically said all detective shows were bullshit except Columbo which got it exactly right

Podcast is tempting, though the first one I've just listened to (on the Roddy McDowall one) kinda bugged me - little too much unfocused chatter, awkward mix of people who know the show and don't know the show, meaning we don't really get any profound readings or connections made. But I may just be not well-suited to the group podcast format.

Also I loved that episode and they didn't. I mean Roddy's tailoring is so great!

i will CONFESS.... i have not listened to it

In the EP I've just heard it was def unstructured chat, it just happened to have a couple of interesting readings and then some info of the other actors and what else they did.

So yes it might not last. Also doubt I'll get to any of the 90s Columbo. Makes me angry just looking at it (like Simpsons after season 8 or so).

I'm conflicted on 90s Columbo mostly because that's when I started watching them (Rest in Peace, Mrs. Columbo) was my first episode), but obviously they are uneven, to say the least. The Silence of the Lambs wannabe episode was just flat-out wrong.

The ones with Patrick McGoohan as the murderer are especially worth seeking out, he's such a weird + powerful screen presence, he directed at least two so was able to slip in some Prisoner references ("Be seeing you"). Also there's a good one with Oskar Werner.

The digital watch! I love those bits where tech is shown off and it proves to be their undoing (the ward fowler ep with the vhs recorder).

I saw a similar one with Ian Buchanan as the murderer, the "tell-tale heart" was a grotesque gold-plated wrist-pager thing.

That reminds me of the Sherlock Holmes story where the crim describes what he did in a room where Sherls is next door playing the violin, but he's not he's hiding behind the curtain listening, and the violin is actually a "record" playing on a "Gramophone" ..

Modern Technology!

I saw the McGoohan spy episode ('Identity Crisis') pretty recently for the first time – really great, loved the opening third especially – builds with images, moments, rhythm more than usual – Nielsen & McGoohan at the fairground, the dark beach, Columbo's oddly paced chat with the ex-cop at the bar. Lot of silence, it felt like. Enjoyed the plot - not just the luxury/money/pride order that Columbo's gritting up, but phantom world of intrigue. Nice irresolution too.

90s Columbo has its moments, but they're really moments from what I've seen lately (and remember) - Falk and a good murderer will usually make it watchable, however shoddily built and appointed. They're sort of doomed by that comfortable "It's our old friend Detective Columbo" air – we all know what's coming, and want the references to Mrs Columbo etc. Nothing really odd or mesmerising.

where he visits the art gallery to ask questions and mistakes a radiator I think for an art object.

... it's a ventilator. This one was on this morning, Oskar Werner was the murderer, Gena Rowlands was his wife, it was all about video technology. Yesterday we had a McGoohan starring/directing one where Leslie Nielsen was the victim and McGoohan kept shoehorning little Prisoner references into the script. It's TV bliss.

... as discussed by woof in the post immediately preceding mine.

Obligatory

https://i.imgur.com/eYAQSU9.jpg

^This show had four titles in its 13-episode run, which I’d guess is a record

Thought this revive would be Wings of Desire-related.

It's always fun trying to spot when Columbo knows or at least suspects whodunnit. Maybe there isn't always an obvious moment but season 5 episode 5 Now You See Him (currently available on 5 USA) has a real humdinger of one.

Really great episode all round, Jack Cassidy as the stage magician villian doing legit sleight of hand himself, bar one scene with a hand double and a couple of disappointing edits; the final reveal has Columbo one-upping the showman and he does it with glee.

Yeah, that's a good one.

all the jack cassidy ones are classics. robert culp too iirc.

This one was on this morning, Oskar Werner was the murderer, Gena Rowlands was his wife, it was all about video technology. Yesterday we had a McGoohan starring/directing one where Leslie Nielsen was the victim and McGoohan kept shoehorning little Prisoner references into the script. It's TV bliss.

― Wee boats wobble but they don't fall down (Tom D.), Sunday, 17 February 2019 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I loved Gena Rowlands as the suffering wife and daughter - her acting in this is just superb.

The last scene on that McGoohan EP (one of three as the murderer) is also so re-watchable (even for me). Falk was great but its so often the case that he could create some great chemistry with so many co-stars who were there for the once. Seems like everyone was really enjoying themselves for that short period and that really shows up on the McGoohan EPs. Partly the acting chops but the EPs are so goofy script-wise (very little makes sense) and it just encourages that.

OTM on Gena Rowlands. I love how, in the very last scene, Columbo seems to realize that he's just contributed to ruining this woman's life and there's a freeze frame of him looking sad and remorseful. Love the freeze frame endings.

Saddened to report that I watched the final classic Columbo episode. It's not like there are no more lands to conquer; I still have 20+ specials from the revival era to tend to. Still, here's my top 10 Columbos I've seen thus far, listed by title and murderer. pic.twitter.com/kkRoq4XIlt

— Splat! Prigge (@mattprigge) October 7, 2019

Cute touch, giving the eight-year-old boy genius in Jose Ferrer's think tank the name 'Steven Spelberg' (sic).

This scene from a 1990 episode gave me Twin Peaks flashbacks, although it was released a few months before TP's pilot.

https://i.ibb.co/7Jp4wM3/Wolf-Hunter-body.jpg

Good episode too, despite the person playing the villain being a terrible actor.

I see that the villain also played Dick Tremayne! I guess he performs all his parts like that.

There’s a 1990-ish one with Mike from Twin Peaks at college, too

Xpost he’s also a vampire in an all-time terrible episode of quantum leap

Still think that this was the most surprising Columbo scene, for UK viewers at least

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wY6r0QELBKY

Maybe it's early in the morning and my rational brain isn't awake yet, but lol.

Apparently, the second season episode "Dagger of the Mind" (probably saw, but can't remember) was sold as a theatrical release in Italy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGQZVRohrJg

A bit silly that one.

That’s probably my least favorite episode of the many I’ve seen. Columbo is irritatingly dumb in it and the travelogue material is boring.

Oh man the breakthrough clue in that one is such a dumb, leaky logical leap. Maybe the only one I've seen that's just a complete groaner.

The depiction of London and the Met Police is LOLz

Awesome, the Ward Fowler episode has just started.

I forgot Timothy Carey is in it!

... and Walter Koenig!

In the past year Columbo has become my comfort watch of choice. Folding clothes, or bored, or too drunk to focus on anything else. Most recently watched Publish or Perish, guesting Mickey Spillane. Love seeing Columbo in a fancy restaurant ordering Chili.

Dagger of the Mind has def been the worst so far.

“Do you have any chili? With ketchup? And crackers? I was hoping to get some of those saltines.”

The 100 greatest Columbo scenes of the 70s

My favourite is #11 - I really need to get my "watch all of columbo" project off the ground though.

Do it!
I’m on s3 e6
Free on peacock

I dove directly into Columbo after finishing Rockford Files and got a few seasons in before getting distracted but maybe I need to stop watching stupid movies and get back to this.

Does Columbo lose his cool with anyone but Nimoy over the course of the series?

He gets quite irate with the villain in "A Deadly State of Mind". Or rather his assistant:
https://columbophile.com/2018/11/18/episode-review-columbo-a-deadly-state-of-mind/

That's the one where Columbo's star witness at the end isn't blind.

On a massive tangent it strikes me that Aveleyman.com is one of those websites that seems to have been around forever, and always pops up a few pages down Google's search results, and it looks ancient, but I still have no idea what it is, what it's for, who runs it, why it's called Aveleyman etc. It seems to just have little pictures of actors.

It's like Hyperreal.org and Shillpages.com and... I can't think of another example because it's hard to remember things that aren't memorable. It just exists. Like the Glyph in Halo Jones. A little throwback to bygone era.

Chris Stark, not Clark

Stark and Mills have been on Radio 1 in the afternoon for more than 10 years. this autumn they’re moving to Radio 2. A lot of people like them. It’s extremely “LadBible” radio.

― Tracer Hand, Saturday, July 2, 2022 10:11 AM (two weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

The one I always used to dread was FIGHTING TALK with Colin Murray, which is basically LadBantz: The Radio Show. Ostensibly a discussion with a panel of guests which just consists of them exchanging "witty" remarks about topical (usually football-related) things and the other guests always laugh in a really lame, dry way like "uh her her her her", and also the guests score points for doing the best BANTS, or something (they never bother to explain this part of the show so I've never had any idea what they're actually being scored on). It's been on for years and has always been mystifyingly unfunny shit.

Oops, wrong thread

I just started Rockford Files after finishing the classic Columbo run. It's different enough but definitely darker. It makes me realize how restrained Columbo really was. No guns, no car chases, everybody is cool as a cucumber for the most part.

Is there any episode at all when Columbo takes a fist to the face? Rockford gets pummeled half to death in his own trailer every other week.

My favourite is #11 - I really need to get my "watch all of columbo" project off the ground though.

― dear confusion the catastrophe waitress (ledge), Sunday, July 17, 2022 3:33 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

We're up to the final 70s episode, The Conspirators, which looks like it's going to be very silly indeed. Then we're on to the 80s episodes which I've seen very few of, I think we're probably in for a very mixed bag.

very very very

Man the Johnny Cash as malicious Cessna pilot episode takes forever to get through

I quite enjoyed that one, Cash does an entertaining job

It's good!

I mean it's a fairly low-stakes episode, even by the standards of Columbo, but there's plenty of fun to be had with Cash's costumes and the bizarre 70s interiors, and Cash is relatively sympathetic by the standards of Columbo murderers

Yes, it's one of those ones where Columbo is most apologetic for catching the murderer. Good ending too.

I think that ep would be in the top 10 for me. Love the last scene in the car.

(xp) almost apologetic not most apologetic!

Is there any episode at all when Columbo takes a fist to the face?

Yes, there are at least two such incidents in the 1990s. Columbo and George Wendt get roughed up by Rod Steiger's henchmen at the end of the disappointingly flat Strange Bedfellows episode, although all is not as it seems.

Columbo gets a proper fist to the face when posing a small-time crook in the Undercover episode, which was an adaptation of an Ed McBain 87th Precinct novel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pdjZgnMLqc

Thank you, I appreciate your research

Going to rep a new-ish podcast that’s both rewatched the show but also had really good interviews with writers and scholars about the show.

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/53-the-shabby-detective-91672189/

It’s done by Chris Stachiw (from The Kulturecast) and Mike White (from The Projection Booth and the Cashiets du Cinemart zine)

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rude tbh

In the episode I’m up to (s4?), the lieutenant is first seen looking in the back seat of the police commissioners car (which he had to borrow because his was in the shop) looking for his signature green cigar (why is it green)

Just watched “a friend in deed” and it seemed kind of …sad? that C brakes up the conspiracy between the two friends. Like let them just live with what they did, that’s punishment enough, isn’t it?

I’m starting to think I can skip the usually belabored opening sequences and just start watching when C arrives at the scene of the crime

wtf, no.

This show is so screenshot worthy that I’m going to have to stop watching on peecock and pirate instead

I watch Columbo on Tubi and Chrome won't let me screenshot but Firefox will.

Haha outsmarted that Detective Columbo, dude has no idea I’m the murderer. He’s just got one more question for me and then I’m off the hook

— Dolphin Pilot (@TheAmitie) August 7, 2022

At the same time as this show encourages the love for the titular character it does the same inversely in equal measure to loathe the criminal. That’s just not reality and that’s what makes the show a bit unreal and uncomfortable. Who isn’t worthy of mercy?

That's not always true though, some of the murderers are presented fairly sympathetically. Not often but it does happen.

Obviously the worst thing about the murderers is not their murdering but their arrogant and condescending attitudes.

Definitely. Not all of them are Jack Cassidy or Robert Culp though.

Cash and Pleasance eg are wildly likeable / empathetic within the text

but those episodes wouldn't work the same way unless MOST of the other murderers were presented as being cunce tho!

McGoohan is a tragic figure in "By Dawn's Early Light".

The show is basically class warfare, the schlubby blue collar working class guy against the snobby elites who use their wealth and power to try and conceal their crimes. It's not always necessary to portray his opponents as sympathetic IMO, because with a few exceptions, they are The Worst.

yah, but the tragedy is largely bcz he’s willfully signed on to a system that will never value or support him iirc? (obv the not-very-hidden moral is that it will treat his charges / trainees worse…)

((McGoohan having way more fun in at least two of the later eps he also directs, but with much less sympathy for sure)

(xp to tom)

yah, but the tragedy is largely bcz he’s willfully signed on to a system that will never value or support him iirc? (obv the not-very-hidden moral is that it will treat his charges / trainees worse…)

i read this as talking about Columbo and the police force at first...

Paul Verhoeven OTM

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/aug/10/a-sweet-simple-salt-of-the-earth-scruffball-why-i-love-columbo

That's given me a warm fuzzy feeling inside.

Love Falk’s physical comedy - the early episode where he stumbles down a hill to get to a car wreck in the Hollywood hills. And in “exercise in fatality” where we see our hero in a blue tracksuit on a treadmill, jogging tiredly while he questions the suspect

Making his way from the crowd to the stage in ‘74 to accept some award, he trips coming up the stairs and then rights himself using his arms like plane wings.

It’s not that Paul Verhoven

Unless you already thought that an article on Guardian Australia that talks about what streaming service carries Columbo in Australia would be by the Australian film critic Paul Verhoeven, in which case it is

Must you shatter our hopes and dreams

RoboColumbo, make it so...

Showcolumbos

Starship Columbos

Spotted a young Bruno Kirby in the cadet academy episode

His dad's character in that episode recurs (nearly all in eps directed by the cadet academy episode's guest star)

Every episode has such a wealth of character actors, I watched Murder Under Glass yesterday which featured Louis Jourdan, Michael Gazzo (who played Frank Pentangeli in The Godfather Part II), Alan Alda's brother Antony Alda, and Shera Danese who was married to Peter Falk, among others. Part of the pleasure is spotting actors you (semi) recognise then looking them up to see what else they appeared in.

Yes, I remember watching the Eric Rohmer film "La Collectionneuse" and the lead actor in it turned up as the murderer in a (not very good) later Columbo not long after.

Blink and you'll miss it, but Jamie Lee Curtis confiscates Columbo's contraband doughnut in 'The Bye-Bye Sky High IQ Murder Case'

Brilliant comic seen from The Bye-Bye Sky High IQ Murder Case sees a surly @jamieleecurtis confiscate #Columbo’s contraband donut! Love it! 🍩😄♥️ pic.twitter.com/j4tHeakVNx

— Lieutenant Columbo (@columbophile) September 11, 2019

saw that one just recently. i got the sneaking suspicion that the writer(s) had a ADC Accutrac 4000 and then reverse engineered a convoluted way it could be used to commit murder.

couldn't help myself and looked up info on the turntable. apart from the clever programmability, it's pretty much a cheap plastic toy. i would hope a person of means who is a member of a mensa-like society would pride themselves on having some high-end audiophile shit. this guy had two of these bad boys, one at home, one at the club. anyway, can't buy taste i guess.

That episode alone has Theodore Bikel, Samantha Eggar and Kenneth Mars in it!

Dean Stockwell just showed up in the cruise ship Episode
I thought he was murdered back in season 2 lol

It would have been nice if sometimes they presented a couple of suspects and then we shadowed C as he determined whodunnit instead of always letting the audience in and C always having a sixth sense about who the perp is

Wasn't there an episode where the suspect had a twin brother, and there was a bit of misdirection as to which of them dunnit?

Apparently it was "Double Shock", with Martin Landau and Martin Landau:
https://columbo.fandom.com/wiki/Double_Shock

And Julie Newmar. In a leotard! Sadly not wearing the devil ears from that episode of The Twilight Zone that she was in, so that's only two of my three fetishes covered. I could have written that sentence better but I'm still thinking about Julie Newmar. In a leotard. Not wearing devil ears. It was "Of Late I Think of Cliffordville" by the way. She was Ms Devlin:

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-m7mK5CdQWwY/Xj7tKRtq_eI/AAAAAAAAF8U/1z9pq5Mls-wO1nyn_Xz9bEMxSv-ncXzUwCLcBGAsYHQ/s800/Commentary.jpg

Which of the twins did it? Martin Landau.

It would have been nice if sometimes they presented a couple of suspects and then we shadowed C as he determined whodunnit instead of always letting the audience in and C always having a sixth sense about who the perp is

"Last Salute To The Commodore" (directed by Patrick McGoohan) is kind of like this, if I recall - the audience doesn't see the murder, Columbo is certain whoddunit and then that guy suddenly turns up dead himself!

I want to take screen shots of all the show titles of each episode and turn them into graphics for one of our massive poll countdowns

it's the inverted mystery structure. they could have fucked around with it more often.

Watched the Ruth Gordon one tonight. Lot more winking nods in this one, including how you see the car and the cigar butts before the detective.

Also, Dog!

I was sure he was going to name the dog Maestro after the Cassavetes episode

The Ruth Gordon episode is top three of the entire series, for sure. I love that Polanski’s The Ghost Writer basically stole the ending of the episode for its own conclusion.

Can’t remember if it was mentioned here but Columbo was popular enough in Japan that his “son” Bolonco shows up in Lupin III.

https://lupin.fandom.com/wiki/Bolonco

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfztK_2H4EI

I dream a mash-up of Columbo and Bladerunner, maybe Falk vs. Ford: "Excuse me, sir: u-unicorns---?"

Lol

Flying Peugeot

Hercule Peugeot.

Okay so:

https://www.facebook.com/KinoLorberStudioClassics/posts/pfbid02bzYemurgtnuNxgk9JZHgwJAdXG4LegMvisPLzeHov4keTwTWtcE3zMEC4f61LmjRl

Coming November 21st on Blu-ray!
COLUMBO: THE 1970s
SEASONS 1-7
• RESTORED IN 4K BY UNIVERSAL PICTURES
• Includes the 1968 Movie-of-the-Week "Prescription: Murder" and the 1971 Pilot "Ransom for a Dead Man"
• NEW Audio Commentaries for PRESCRIPTION: MURDER/BLUEPRINT FOR MURDER/A STITCH IN CRIME/A FRIEND IN DEED/TROUBLED WATERS/LAST SALUTE TO THE COMMODORE/TRY AND CATCH ME by Author Mark Dawidziak
• NEW Audio Commentaries for RANSOM FOR A DEAD MAN/DEATH LENDS A HAND/THE MOST DANGEROUS MATCH/DOUBLE SHOCK/PUBLISH OR PERISH/BY DAWN'S EARLY LIGHT/PLAYBACK/A DEADLY STATE OF MIND by Author/Historian Scott Skelton
• NEW Audio Commentaries for MURDER BY THE BOOK/LADY IN WAITING/REQUIEM FOR A FALLING STAR/LOVELY BUT LETHAL/CANDIDATE FOR CRIME/NEGATIVE REACTION/IDENTITY CRISIS/THE BYE-BYE SKY HIGH IQ MURDER CASE/MAKE ME A PERFECT MURDER/HOW TO DIAL A MURDER by Author/Historian Jim Benson
• NEW Audio Commentaries for RANSOM FOR A DEAD MAN/MURDER BY THE BOOK by Screenwriter/Historian Gary Gerani
• NEW Audio Commentaries for DEAD WEIGHT/DAGGER OF THE MIND/ANY OLD PORT IN A STORM/DOUBLE EXPOSURE/SWAN SONG/AN EXERCISE IN FATALITY/FORGOTTEN LADY/NOW YOU SEE HIM.../OLD FASHIONED MURDER by Author/Historian David Koenig
• NEW Audio Commentary for ÉTUDE IN BLACK by Authors/Historians David Koenig and Scott Skelton
• NEW Audio Commentaries for SHORT FUSE/THE GREENHOUSE JUNGLE/THE MOST CRUCIAL GAME/A CASE OF IMMUNITY/MURDER UNDER GLASS by Writers/Authors Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson
• NEW Audio Commentary for A MATTER OF HONOR by Author/Historian Amanda Reyes
• NEW Audio Commentary for FADE IN TO MURDER by Author/Historian Amanda Reyes and Author/Podcaster Daniel R. Budnik
• NEW Audio Commentary for MIND OVER MAYHEM by Historian/Filmmaker Craig Bream with Special Guest Bill Malone
• NEW Audio Commentary for THE CONSPIRATORS by Television Music Historian Reba Wissner
• Selected Commentaries Include Excerpted Interviews with Peter Falk, Dick Van Dyke, Patrick McGoohan, Vincent Price, Martin Sheen, Richard Levinson, William Link, Lee Grant, Steven Bochco, Suzanne Pleshette, Norman Lloyd, Robert Butler, Stanley Ralph Ross and Many More!
• Shorter 71 Minute-Cut of ÉTUDE IN BLACK
• Booklet with Essay by Author Mark Dawidziak and Episode Guide
• Optional Music and Effects Audio Tracks for Every Episode
• Newly Commissioned Slipcase Cover Illustration by Tony Stella
• Optional English Subtitles
1968-1978 Color Approx. 3800 Minutes (20 Discs) 1.33:1 Not Rated
Restored in 4K by Universal Pictures! Columbo is the landmark series that set the standard for the murder mystery genre. Remastered in 4K by Universal, Columbo: The 1970s includes the first seven seasons of this enduring classic on Blu-ray! Starring Peter Falk in his four-time Emmy-winning role as the cigar-chomping, trenchcoat-wearing police lieutenant, this 20-disc collection includes every criminally entertaining episode from the series’ first seven seasons.

I bet those are some sweet commentaries. I rarely buy movies/tv series, but i’m tempted.

Wow! I haven't bought a Blu-ray in years -- I think my last was a Doctor Who set in 2020 -- but that looks great. I'm surprised that the streaming services don't usually have commentaries or special features.

I would consider buying a Blu Ray player for this!
Let’s sort out Rockford Files too then I’m sold

Rockford Files got issued in a cheapie no-frills R1 Blu set years ago by cheapie no-frills R1 kings Mill Creek.

Last year I watched through Ellery Queen, another series that Link and Levinson made in the 70s. The first 10 or so episodes all end with some "dying clue" revealing the murderer -- a concept that was made fun of in the first Sherlock Holmes story. Not surprisingly, the show only lasted one season. There's one episode about a murdered police witness that is a level of quality higher than any of the others. There's also one where Betty White did it. Worth a watch for those into un-serialized old detective shows.

https://scontent.fman1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/368632896_6690091751072318_6240273778573187035_n.jpg?_nc_cat=103&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=8bfeb9&_nc_ohc=UXpHP7cn4eAAX9MlPux&_nc_ht=scontent.fman1-1.fna&oh=00_AfCIk03pkXJRp2hbIOhznSs5bO4S-xzlyrZvlEnu6bCCgA&oe=64E6B6B4

Was that the Ellery Queen with Jim Hutton and David Wayne as his dad? Watched it during its original run. I remember not caring either way about the plot but liking those two characters. Did hate his enemy/rival who was like a stuffed shirt parent on The Little Rascals or something.

Gimmick of the Ellery Queen books was that about two thirds of the way through, they'd say, 'Dear readers, you have now been presented with all the clues necessary to solve this case' - it's been so long since I've seen one of the TV shows that I can't remember if they also had this 'clue break'.

Feel like I tried reading some of those but maybe they seemed only one or two steps above Encyclopedia Brown, who was already in my rear view mirror by that time.

We did get the Hardy Boys and (my favourite) Alfred Hitchcock's Three Investigators in the UK, but have never even heard of Encyclopaedia Brown before!

I remember enjoying a late Ellery Queen, The Player on the Other Side, that was actually written by Theodore Sturgeon. And Avram Davidson also ghosted a few of them, probably p dece too. The early novs, dating back to the 1920s, are tough going these days.

We did get the Hardy Boys and (my favourite) Alfred Hitchcock's Three Investigators in the UK, but have never even heard of Encyclopaedia Brown before!

"Except for viewers in Scotland, who have their own programme..."

Sorry Tom D, I could well be missing the gag here - but I'm talking about juvenile mystery books, not TV shows now? I've certainly seen 70s Three Investigators books in Glasgow charity shops since I've been up here (2006 on).

I don't think there was ever a Three Investigators TV show - I would've watched!

Oh right, I thought those were TV shows. "Hardy Boys" was definitely a TV show.

... plus a reference to the Armando Iannucci sketch, of course.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7scMC7YSDQ

Should note for UK viewers, 5USA is doing Columbo marathons every Sunday, love to have it on in the background as no need to pay close attention and not that many characters to keep up with.

Was that the Ellery Queen with Jim Hutton and David Wayne as his dad? Watched it during its original run. I remember not caring either way about the plot but liking those two characters. Did hate his enemy/rival who was like a stuffed shirt parent on The Little Rascals or something.

― Zing Harvest (Has Surely Come) (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, August 20, 2023 1:23 PM (nine hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

David Wayne was the real star of the show, elevating it with more charm than any of the writing had. The radio host rival was decent in the pilot but becomes Flanderized into a pompous idiot soon afterward.

Gimmick of the Ellery Queen books was that about two thirds of the way through, they'd say, 'Dear readers, you have now been presented with all the clues necessary to solve this case' - it's been so long since I've seen one of the TV shows that I can't remember if they also had this 'clue break'.

― Ward Fowler, Sunday, August 20, 2023 1:27 PM (nine hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

They did, with Hutton looking directly into the camera! I liked that part. Cheesy fun.

Yes, I remember enjoying the Ellery Queen TV series as a kid, as it had the same light-hearted emphasis on puzzle-solving as ITV's 'Whodunnit'.

Always wondered why no-one revived the latter format, as - say - Pemberton & Shearsmith (who once referenced 'Whodunnit' in an episode of Inside No. 9) could have a field day misleading the studio panel and the TV audience with red herrings.

•• Due to unforeseen issues, we can no longer include all the new audio commentaries, essay and other extras we had produced for our upcoming Columbo: 1970s boxed set ••

Coming November 21st on Blu-ray!
COLUMBO: THE 1970s
SEASONS 1-7 pic.twitter.com/Y6lm1IYnj3

— KLStudioClassics (@KLStudioClassic) August 25, 2023

What, that’s crazy. I was looking forward to two commentaries by Amanda Reyes from the podcast “Made for TV Mayhem”

That IS nuts. Like throw us a bone, how exactly could something like that happen? I've seen the occasional bonus here and there promised for a release not come through, but literally all that extra stuff was why I wanted to buy the set in the first place!

I was initially mildly lamenting the fact that I already owned the DVDs and couldn't really justify rebuying the series just for the commentaries but welp. Super weird stuff, though.

Transfers & packaging elements aside, they've lost the everything that separated this from being a Mill Creek-style budget release.

KL like “just one more thing…”

strange. people keep saying "probably a rights issue" but these were all-new commentaries, presumably commissioned by Kino-Lorber themselves

Weird

maybe they were just really shit lol

In a couple places, I've read it might be related to the current strikes. But that's just speculation.

ah I could believe that

Good news, shared in the BluRay forum:

All is not lost! I'm Jim Benson. When my writing partner Scott Skelton and I recently found out our months of exhaustive research, new interviews, and treasure trove of never-before-revealed facts we uncovered about Columbo were NOT going to appear on the new Blu-Ray release (due to a bizarre technicality) we were devastated. And so were the fans. How could all this amazing content be buried forever, never to see the light of day?

Which gave us an idea for just one more thing: What if we took all that incredible material, added even more that we couldn't fit in the commentaries, including behind-the-scenes photos, news clips, and more...and made it into the greatest TV book of all time? (Just like we did with our ultimate 800-page, nine pound, "Rod Serling's Night Gallery" hardcover coffee table book?)

By popular demand, we've decided to do it. You may not be able to listen to our content, but you WILL be able to read it, in The Ultimate Columbo book!

We did get the Hardy Boys and (my favourite) Alfred Hitchcock's Three Investigators in the UK, but have never even heard of Encyclopaedia Brown before!

― Ward Fowler

i was gratified to look up encyclopedia brown's sidekick, sally kimball, on wikipedia and find that one of the cites is to a work called _The Disappearing L: Erasure of Lesbian Spaces and Culture_. probably my first lesbian crush!

due to a bizarre technicality

I really need to know more about what the fuck this technicality is! It's starting to approach a 'if you name it, a demon sucks your soul away' territory, just say what it is.

*sees softball coming over the plate, takes a swing*
Is a bizarre technicality similar to a bizarre gardening accident?

These episodes are on 5USA tomorrow - any favourites?

10:05 Murder In Malibu (1990)
12:00 Murder - a Self Portrait (1989)
13:55 Short Fuse (1972)
15:25 Murder Under Glass (1978)
17:00 Grand Deceptions (1989)
19:00 Murder, Smoke and Shadows (1989)

Murder Under Glass is pretty fun.

That's the Demme one? It is wonderfully dated, with the worst 1970s food you can imagine.

I wouldn't bother with the ones from 1989+.

I have been known to enjoy some of the later ones, though 70s are generally better of course.

Short Fuse has Roddy McDowall and an unusually tense climax.

Started watching this with our kid, first episode we watched was MURDER BY THE BOOK, directed by Spielberg (!) and really good twisty story with a particularly nasty villain played by Jack Cassidy. Also co-starring Barbara Colby as a lovelorn store owner who blackmails the bad guy in an ill-advised scheme.

Within a few years, and real life, those two guest stars would be tragically killed in a fire and unsolved homicide, respectively, Colby murdered in a random double murder (three episodes into her new supporting role on the first season of the sitcom Phyllis.)

*in real life

have also been watching this, but only selected episodes, the Columbophile blog a good curator

All of the original run is pretty good, I don’t remember a bum episode.

Pretty sure there isn't one.

"Old Fashioned Murder" is pretty weak. Conceit is that the murderer acts older than her age, but Columbo always had old villains so it isn't obvious.

there's an episode set in a "think tank", back when that didn't have crackpot political connotations, with a kid named steve spielberg as a tribute to their boy genius director.

The one where he goes to Jolly Old England is bad

Oh yeah, that one isn't good.

the columbo-goes-to-a-rave episode is exactly as good as you'd expect

i.e. at least 10 times better than the Morse goes to a rave episode

That's right

also just recently started watching this for the first time. it rules so hard. crazy that every episode is over an hour long

^^It was originally presented as part of a series of weekly TV Mystery Movies, rotating in a shared time slot with similar film-length episodic shows like McMillan & Wife with Rock Hudson and Susan Saint James, and McCloud with Dennis Weaver. That's why the seasons seem so short.

Watched SUITABLE FOR FRAMING last night, which didn't waste much time on backstory before getting right to the murder. Aired during that particular era of time when your lead villain could be Ross Martin, with supporting roles filled by Don Ameche and Kim Hunter. This one featured an absolutely brilliant move by Columbo which was revealed at the end, the opening play in his endgame made much earlier, and somewhat hidden in plain sight.

Oh yeah, that one's essential viewing. Falk's facial expression in that final reveal!

Ross Martin was, incredibly, Peter Falk's camp counselor circa 1940. Falk's first stage appearance was in The Pirates of Penzance at said camp, so Martin is sometimes named as his bygone "acting teacher." They had also been in The Great Race together, though I can't remember if they share any scenes.

my favorite columbo ending. so clever.

https://i0.wp.com/columbophile.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/suitable-gloves-2.jpg

¯\(o_°)/¯

"By Dawn's Early Light" was just on. I knew Bruno Kirby was in it but didn't know Bruno Kirby Sr. was in it too. But then I didn't know there was a Bruno Kirby Sr. despite recognizing him from lots of other things.

Hadn't realized that he helped bankroll A Woman Under the Influance, which he is great in.

^ Peter Falk, not Bruce Kirby (who was a semi-regular on Columbo, both in one-offs and a recurring role, the latter mostly in McGoohan-related episodes.)

Right

Kino is moving along and doing a blu box of the revival movies from the '90s: https://kinolorber.com/product/columbo-the-return

Any updates on that Ultimate Columbo book?

So the Kino box of the later movies presents them all in 16:9 widescreen, even though only the final one originally aired that way. It does look like the earlier ones were shot protected for the possibility of widescreen.

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film10/blu-ray_review_145/columbo_the_return_blu-ray.htm

Columbo is so big in Japan that there’s a series of books and TV movies titled "Columbo of Shinano," featuring a detective who dresses and behaves like him. I've no idea what he's saying in this clip, but I can guess. pic.twitter.com/W2L4LgPpBX

— Stephen Gibbons (@Gibboanxious) September 25, 2024

Somehow I can imagine him being even more annoying to Japanese murderers.

furuhata is the true japanese columbo and is totally worth seeking out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furuhata_Ninzabur%C5%8D

https://columboxd.com/

V good

S01E05

https://i.imgur.com/bJvC4L3.jpeg

https://i.imgur.com/DduEelY.jpeg

not the strongest episode admittedly, but timothy carey's character's confidence in his chili was a bright spot

i should've posted this here, i've been getting a kick out of this channel's "deep dive reviews" of every columbo episode. they are very, very detailed, and serve a dual purpose if you need to put something on to help you get to sleep

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q62QOW_LF5g

not the strongest episode admittedly, but timothy carey's character's confidence in his chili was a bright spot

― budo jeru, Friday, 6 June 2025 bookmarkflaglink

Never enough scenes at the chilli bar.

"Last Salute To The Commodore" (directed by Patrick McGoohan) is kind of like this, if I recall - the audience doesn't see the murder, Columbo is certain whoddunit and then that guy suddenly turns up dead himself!

Apparently this was meant to be the last ever episode of Columbo - there was some contract dispute going on between Falk and NBC - and, just as he had with The Prisoner's last episode, McGoohan seems to have gone out his way to annoy and infuriate as many people as possible with it.

While it's by no means top tier Columbo, I have always found this episode underrated. Then again, I could watch John Dehner and Robert Vaughn in anything.

People seem to hate this episode, and I can think of at least three og Columbo episodes that are far more of a slog to sit through

I'm afraid I'm one of the ones who hates it, it's absolutely dire! Robert Vaughn is always good but he looks really uncomfortable in this, possibly because the rest of cast seem to be drunk.

Yes, they do! I definitely get why people dislike it, even beyond the fact that it breaks with the formula and Falk is more of a caricature than ever before (or since?), but for passive watching, I'll take it over, say, A Case For Immunity or Dagger of the Mind.

Is A Case For Immunity the Hector Elizondo one?

Yes, that's the one

Thought so. A unusually sour entry, with Columbo effectively threatening the villains life (in a roundabout way, but still).

Yeah, that one has definitely aged poorly. It's also not a particularly compelling episode imo. I think Elizonda does a fine job, though.

Oh yeah, Elizondos' always great--I'd say he's one of those actors who is incapable of delivering a bad performance, though I'm certainly not going to watch every Garry Marshall movie in order to verify. Just not a good episode, though.

oh this is so cool! thanks for pointing me to this channel. i watch pushinguproses' channel, she tends to do Murder She Wrote reviews but her latest is a review of a late-period Columbo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QH8I6mNKTE

i'd love to see a really thorough video essay deep dive on _last salute for the commodore_, why people hate it, why people like it. maybe Watch It For Days will do that!

I bet Watch it For Days gets to it eventually. That series is pretty addictive! I hope she keeps it up.

i've been subscribed to pushinguproses for years. she covers some sierra adventure games too.

Don't think I ever saw the episode discussed in that video, but I did see the other Ed McBain one, which is dreadful.

I rewatched the series a while back cause of this thread and yeah there’s a lot of dreck to sit through to get to the scenes and lines that really work. Had a similar experience with Miami vice

https://i.imgur.com/JAQdf6b.jpeg

gah forgot to crop

Is that when he's watching Cassavetes play piano at the Hollywood Bowl? Or watching Robert Culp warm up his football team?

watching Cassavetes play piano at the Hollywood Bowl?

classic!

xp it's from the Culp football episode. agree that the Cassavetes episode is classic, although i'm unsure if he ever plays piano. Columbo does, though!

I think he does play, very briefly, during the opening credits sequence iirc

Recently watched an astonishingly weird late Columbo episode where the killer is a sex therapist; the episode is almost all filler nonsense, very little storyline, but very surreal filler. At one point Columbo plays a lengthy tuba solo.

Oh yes, that tuba scene is legendary (not in a good way).

We just watched the ridiculous episode Columbo solves a murder on a cruise ship in which Robert Vaughn establishes his alibi by faking a heart attack by sniffing an amyl nitrate capsule. Columbo breaks the case by spotting a stray pillow feather when his sea sickness sends him to the infirmary. Columbo's wife is on board--she won the cruise in a raffle--but the episode initially goes to great lengths to keep Columbo and the Mrs. apart on the ship before forgetting about her entirely. Directed by Ben Gazzara!

Robert Vaughn was in more than one ridiculous episode directed by one of Falk's acting cronies then.

ha that cruise ship ep is my wife's favorite.

she watches a lot of columbo and i'll dip in and out with her, i'm often astonished at how slow the pacing is, it almost feels avant garde at times... there was one i saw recently where the scene was Columbo stopping into a bar to make a phone call, and it was all done in one locked-down wide shot: opening on the bar interior, then Columbo enters, asks the barman for the phone, the barman brings it to Columbo, he dials, asks for whoever he's calling, gets put on hold, and we stay with him in real time as he waits on hold for a minit, until he eventually has a brief phone convo, hangs up, thanks the barman, and ambles out...! maybe a four-minute scene that probably had 6 lines of dialogue total. it felt like it went beyond "filler" to almost being like Bresson or something, it was incredible. i didn't catch the director but man, they sure don't make em like that anymore.

I’ve tried with the newer Columbo episodes and I don’t think I made it through a single one. Rough going.

I like all of the initial run. The only episode I remember disliking was one where Columbo traveled somewhere (England?) and it didn’t flow well. Even Farewell To The Commodore was pretty good in its wack way. I hadn’t heard about that episode before and it sorta blew my kind. It felt like Columbo crossed with Lynch in the pacing and goofiness.

I just watched the other one Ben Gazzara directed, "A Friend in Deed," which is the one with a Strangers on a Train-type double murder plot. It has an uncharacteristic (for Columbo) grittiness to it, with much of the story taking place in grimy bars in LA's Skid Row area. Those scenes resemble films like Fat City from that era.

they sure don't make em like that anymore

I always feel like old whodunnits (on US and UK television) are weirdly full of scenes of cars arriving and parking. These are multiple minutes of dead, narrative-free time that go well beyond the bounds of scenesetting. In some Morse episodes, you hear the sounds of tires on a gravelly path more often than dialogue.

I like these shots - and I miss them! - and they can allow for a useful moment of quiet dissociation during a plot-packed story - time to fetch the biscuits. But we don't get those establishing shots at all, anymore -- or instead they're excuse for something arty, like the sunsets and sunrises in Breaking Bad.

Watching cars park is one of the fundamental forms of filler in TV and low-budget movies.

The Joseph Cotton episodes of Rockford Files were originally one TV movie-length episode. To pad it out for reruns, the second one begins with the insanely long credits sequence played over B-roll/stock footage of a battalion of emergency vehicles approaching a hotel--way more aid than necessary for the one guy who just got offed.

There's an episode where Columbo follows a clue to a soup kitchen, leading to a gag (later lifted by The Simpsons) where the nun mistakes him for homeless and offers to replace his trademark raincoat. There's an exterior shot where Columbo first approaches the kitchen, and the five or so seconds we get of Falk wandering through downtown L.A. have such a wonderfully grimy texture to them that I don't think ever really existed outside of 70s film and television.

First season of the revived Columbo is curiously terrible... Falk was clearly phoning it in. I worried it was a Matlock situation where the crew was struggling to get their main actor to even say the lines. Luckily Falk improved in later episodes. "Goes to College" is fine. The last one, "Likes the Nightlife", has an interesting twist.

I think the producers of Columbo and contemporaneous cop shows put in all those shots of cars parking so that viewers in 2025 would drool over vintage car models in perfect condition.

Part of the joy of Columbo is marveling at the background stuff and the time warp pleasures. The episode in which a chef dies and Columbo goes to a lot of fancy restaurants is pretty good. Lots of aspic!

There's an episode where Columbo follows a clue to a soup kitchen, leading to a gag (later lifted by The Simpsons) where the nun mistakes him for homeless and offers to replace his trademark raincoat.

The nun is played by none other than Joyce Van Patten, who also played the (double!) murderer in another episode, Old Fashioned Murder. The scene with the nun is brief but it's my favorite scene in an otherwise meh episode

the blu-ray set of the 1970s run has every episode with a music+effects track option so you can just have them play as 35mm LA wallpaper

my wife and i have been slowly watching columbo in between other things. we're using this list as a guide, starting at the top, so we haven't hit any dud episodes yet. i really love the donald pleasance episode (any old port in a storm) but mostly because donald pleasance is so much fun to watch hamming it up.

Liquid FILTH!