Any love for Columbo?

Columbo is a guilty pleasure and I've always kind of liked it. I really liked the Columbo character and I think Peter Falk (RIP) was perfect in the role. But was it -- is it -- great television? I'm not sure.

Netflix has most (all?) of the episodes available for streaming, and I've re-visited some lately. Peter Falk still makes me smile in nearly every scene, but the plots seem maddeningly simple, and about as sophisticated as your average Lost In Space episode. Since the criminal and his/her method are revealed in the opening of each show there's little for the viewer to figure out but still, the plots were paper thin. and there wasn't much there there.

On the plus side the show had a high camp factor, and somehow to me it stands the test of time. I love the cars, hair styles, furniture, decor, and clothing. A lot of the guest stars were really good and it has the look of a big budget show (though I'm not sure it really was). I moved to L.A. in the 70's and to me, the characterizations of all those crooked, superficial upper class types actually kind of ring true.

I wish the stories had more depth and complexity. It wasn't Hitchcock, to say the least. But I'll probably watch another episode tonight. (BTW, the picture quality on Netflix is amazingly good!)

Anybody?

 

I have been a huge fan for years, and couldnt wait for each season to come out on dvd. What I find with most of the episodes is that you get drawn into act 1, setting up the plot, and then you grin when Peter Falk comes out in Act 2. The plots, or lack of plot, is really irrevelant to some degree as its simply an excuse to spend some time with the bumbling Columbo. So, I think for that reason it was good television. There is probably 25 percent of the episodes I dont watch, but the other 75 make owning all the seasons worth it. I had the good fortune of meeting Mr Falk in LA when they did a television workshop about the Columbo series. He spoke a bit, and then played for us an hour long montage of the Columbo highlights. Great fun! William Shatner was there and they took questions as he guest starred in, I believe, three episodes. There were other guests but I forget who. His wife Sherise did talk a bit too, and she of course was in multiple episodes. People kept trying to get Shatner to talk about Star Trek but he kept reminding everyone it was Falks night. He signed autographs and I got my ols laserdisc box set signed by him! Still have it.

 

I love Columbo. Peter Falk is great in it. Some of my friends would always tell me there was no point in watching the show because you knew who did it right from the beginning but that was never the point.

I eventually bought the entire series on DVD and what I did was watch one episode a week. Every Sunday around 2 or 3pm I'd put on an episode. Started with the first and did that till the end. I had to sell those dvds are they were R2 and I was moving back to Canada. I need to get another one for R1 though.

One of my favourite episodes is when is goes to the London. It's so full of cliches.

One of the best weekends ever was the weekend that the Hallmark channel (now defunct in the UK) had a Columbo marathon.

 

I really like Columbo and it's a pleasure without any guilt attached. To me Columbo was one of the best TV characters of the seventies. For some reason I link it with Monk, another great detective show.

In both shows the villain would invariably be smug, superior and overconfident. They would underestimate the detectives and assume they were smarter. I used to love the look on the villains' faces when they got caught and realised they'd totally misjudged the detectives.

 

Wonderful series. Peter Falk is PHENOMENAL in it. One of the best actors ever.

 

Great series and its one of the series I grew up on watching it on tv along with some other good ones.

Im not sure how much I have seen of this series, there surely have to be some episodes that I have missed.
I suppose some later episodes from 90's werent too good, as I remember my father telling so, I guess the earlier seasons were the best stuff. Essential 70's tv for me.
My parents have the whole series on dvd (allthough its still shown on reruns on cable network here) and I might have to watch this series once again.

Peter Falk is so good actor in the role.
Everytime the villain who thinks he's cleared out on the current murder etc and then Columbo just handles things right.
First he gives impression that that he's sort of out of the thing and so the villain thinks he isnt caught. Clearly Columbo knows or guesses the suspect right from the start.

Haha, brilliant stuff.

 

Tought it was great when i was young. Now its dated and boring or maybe i've seen them all to many times.

 

My favorites are the ones where Patrick McGoohan guest stars. In one of them, he chokes out "One more time, Be Seeing You!"

Oh, and one more thing....

 

Thats the thing, that I always remember Columbo from.

 

I make that same Monk connection - I always thought the writers/creators had the idea "lets try a new take on Columbo" in mind when they started the show. I find the old Columbo episodes great to watch while I'm doing my workouts, I've seen them enough that I don't need to hear every word but they still keep me interested enough to keep up with the workout.

 

Love the show...have all the seasons on DVD. Favorite villian would have to be Jack Cassidy....his arrogance was palpable.

 

i still watch it. always enjoyed the show and peter falk was perfect in that role.

 

Really, all the original "Mystery Movies" were awesome shows. Don' forget that Columbo was a part of a rotating package that included McMillan And Wife and McCloud.

 

I never got into COLUMBO. As I recall, it was always on against something else I wanted to watch, so it's one of those shows that slipped by unnoticed. I don't think I've ever seen a single frame of the show.

Even today, it airs on Sunday nights on MeTV, but the 9:00 hour is given to THE GOOD WIFE, so I STILL am missing COLUMBO.

Harry

 

Great show....OK a bit formulaic, but it's great entertainment.

 

I've watched most of the early stuff, repeatedly. Peter Falk was great in it. You really believed he was the character.

And I like the format - the reverse whodunnit. It's all about watching Columbo put the pieces together and the interaction between him and the villain of day.

 

I like it. Why is it a "guilty pleasure"? I don't think it was any more "camp" than any other show of the time.

 

never missed an episode! I own a few of the season box sets...Peter Falk was perfect for the role...fine actor and I always enjoyed every movie he was in...enjoyed him in Corky Romano, Next, Pocketful Of Miracles...just to name a few.

 

I have no guilty pleasures...no guilt about anything I like!

 

This made me think how cool it would be for a Columbo/Tom Baker era Doctor Who. Only because these two actors brought a shambling joy to their roles. Or maybe a two man play.

 

I recall flipping through the channels years ago and tuning into "A Woman Under the Influence". Not the kind of movie I would usually sit through, but
I enjoyed it.

 

he even made a dull movie cool! he was a pro indeed!

 

I would like to see that.

 

I agree, Bill Link and Richard Levinson did an incredible job turning the detective show format on its ear by revealing the criminal and the crime at the very beginning, and then showing the cop working out how to prove who did the crime, and why. The thing that made the show work so well was that the criminals were almost always terribly smug and arrogant, convinced they were always two steps ahead of Columbo. And of course, Columbo's conceit was that he appeared to be a rumpled, slightly out-of-it guy who actually was sharply focused and brilliant in his own way. I think the show lost something over time, but the first three or four seasons were dynamite, as were several of the made-for-TV movies.

The episodes with Patrick McGoohan, Robert Culp, and Jack Cassidy were all exceptional; all three actors could play smug, rich, arrogant guys with aplomb. The first episode with Jack Cassidy was directed by Steven Spielberg (then I think 22 years old), and was particularly good.

 

Columbo did indeed have a very established formula, but I think it's a mistake by some to say that it had a thin plot. Yes, we knew who the killer was at the beginning of most episodes, but the plot wasn't to figure out whodunnit, the plot was to watch Columbo slowly exploit the personality flaws of the murderers...and make the murderer ultimately indict themselves through their own actions (or reactions). The way the writers did this was often very clever and the plot lies within the details of how it was done. True, Columbo often became a constant pest to the murderer, trying their patience with his apparent bumbling and seemingly innocent "just one more thing" questions. But that's part of the brilliance of the character (and the way Peter Falk played him). He could disguise a detailed and thorough investigation in the manner that put the murderer into a false sense of ease. Repeatedly, the murderer was led to believe they got away with the crime, only to see Columbo show up yet again to "wrap up" some seemingly inconsequential loose end for his report. The reaction of the murderer to seeing Columbo return was often classic...as each guest actor had a unique way of expressing their irritation.

While the writers did ultimately milk the successful formula for all that it was worth, it was a testament to that formula that it remained so entertaining for so long. I can't think of many other murder-mystery programs that had similar success, even though there really was no "mystery" about who the killer was. Indeed, the program also had very little suspense, as you often saw the end result coming far in advance. Would anyone dare produce a murder-mystery program today that lacked mystery and suspense?

Having said that, the original series run from 1971-1978 is by far the most important era of the program. The later episodes from 1989-2003, while containing some fun moments, sometimes lack some of the charm and wit of the original series.

For me, personally, the episode with Johnny Cash as the murderer ("Swan Song") is one of the series highlights. Not only does it appeal to me because I'm a huge fan of both Johnny Cash and Peter Falk, but Cash had some of the best reactions to Columbo's investigation methods. At the end of the story, I get the sense that Columbo almost felt sorry for the Johnny Cash character and seemingly regretted that he had to arrest him.

(Edit: I see Vidiot and I were composing some similar thoughts at roughly the same time. I agree with him that the McGoohan, Culp, and Cassidy episodes were wonderfully done.)