Columbo - S/D

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.