Any love for Columbo?

I'll happily sit and watch Columbo repeats if I'm in on a Sunday afternoon, it's great couch-potato TV.

Stephen Fry says he thinks it's "the greatest television series ever made" in this short clip from QI (a UK comedy/quiz panel show) which is also interesting for Frank Skinners comment about whether or not Lt. Columbo has one eye...

 

A couple of months ago they showed an old "Tonight Show" and Peter Falk appeared to promote this episode and they showed a three minute clip and he said he thought it was the best one ever at that time.

Another sympathetic one is "Forgotten Lady" where Columbo purposefully allows the friend of the terminally ill murderer to be arrested for a month so she can pass away freely.

 

great picks! but Columbo really pushed the limits with Donald, doesn't he break in to his wine cellar to take a bottle? a good lawyer would have a field day with that one, but im sure Donald confesses (-:

I love the old Columbo so much I cant bare to watch the 1980's version....just seems wrong with older Columbo talking to the 80's stars with the shoulder pads and frizzed out hair. I cant do it.

 

What I find "wrong" about these is the way Falk plays his character; he fails to instill fear and/or respect in his suspect at no point in the process. There is no such suspense, from the murderer's POV.

The incidental music is pretty boring too in the "modern" episodes... In the 70s episodes, several good compositions get recycled here and there (some more than others, yes!), written by big jazz names like Oliver Nelson, Gil Mellé and Dave Grusin... For atmosphere, you can't go wrong with these!

 

I would never consider Columbo as a guilty pleasure. Far from it. The early seasons were some of the best television in history imho. I just don't see the intelligence in writing and plot in many other television shows.

One thing I haven't read here is that the very early episodes also have a psychedelic edge, in particular, the intros coupled with music by great jazz composers.

After being introduced to the show by my lady, we go back and watch the original run every couple years after the memory fades a bit...one of the few shows that draws me back.

Vidiot's and Trashman's post along with a few others really nailed it, earlier in the thread.

 

I'm glad to read that because I agree with him, about his Columbo one. I almost can't watch it. Salvaged only by Cassidy (the murderer), who is his usual slick and splendid one. Falk tries too hard to be nice, with that scene where he cooks a complete breakfast for that yapping widow... On top of being shot with too much gimmickry for the sake of the story (what Spielberg himself says above), it's not very well written IMO. Why a tough one like this guy would crack down over a scribbled book of matches is still beyond me...

 

Were you thinking in particular of the opening scene from Short Fuse, with Roddy McDowall (the explosive cigar box)? A fantastic visual composition with circular props, enhanced by one of the best incidental scores I have ever heard on classic suspense television, written by Gil Mellé. A piece mixing Zappa-like electric violin (or regular violin processed with some echo chamber), various "liquid" electronic noises, which evoke the lab environment, and the coolest acoustic jazz groove ever heard on TV...

 

Producers Levinson & Link were huge jazz fans, so I would bet that was the reason for the score.

 

That explains it!

 

Yes that one is a great example! Death Lends a Hand with Robert Culp is another where we watch his murder cover up in his sunglasses. There was another one involving a car and crazy, colorful visuals from the lights...can't remember.

 

It's a classic show, no doubt. I've watched it from time to time.

 

Wow. That is my favorite episode and I kinda like the fun camera angles. I agree that Jack is a huge reason it all works though.

 

3 episodes on UK TV this afternoon.
Murder by the book,Murder Under glass, and Death lends a hand................all of them were on [and I viewed them] a couple of months ago.
Which leads me to ask.........how many were made from the original episode [Gene Barry? episode late '60's] into the '70's?

 

That (DLaH) is one with the qualities/dynamic I was trying to make a point out of upthread, where Columbo doesn't need to play dumb all the way up to the final curtain. Instead, the murderer recognizes openly and deals with the detective's intelligence early on in the story. He doesn't carry a gun, but can and does instill fear nevertheless. Great "creepy" chiaroscuro when we realize simultaneously with the playboy-golf instructor that Columbo was waiting for him in the car... I love that!

...But I don't understand your last question.

 

Any love? Columbo's just about the best series in its genre ever - and by no small margin to the next best. I regularly revisit all the episodes from the initial production run. There really is nothing quite like them.

 

ps is Columbo streaming anywhere? checked Netflix and couldn't find it, not on hulu/amazon......I might have to get my old dvds out

 

Lotsa love! I usually don't like this genre but think the early seasons are brilliant.

 

Love it.

 

Apparently the producers objected to the show being extended to 2 hours airing time, on the grounds that the format or concept wouldn't support it, or so is my interpretation of what I've read. I think they were right.

A Friend in Deed (policeman kills his wife and gets covered up then blackmailed by Deputy Commissioner) is such an episode that, had it been reduced by half an hour of chopper chase and time-killing stuff like that, would have been one of the very best titles from the entire run!

Watch the tilting camera when DC Halperin gets cornered in the end, going up from Columbo's face slowly down to Halperin's, who is busy searching under the mattress for evidence. It's timed perfectly with the accusatory words pronounced by Columbo (from memory: "...which places the death just around the time you came home, Sir."). Directed by Ben Gazzara.

Richard Kiley, as evil and devilish Halperin...
Michael McGuire, as vulnerable, pessimistic and melancholic 1st murderer policeman Hugh Caldwell...
Val Avery, as burglar Artie Jessup...

...a perfectly cast and played trio!

 

Yes, a great episode that was probably extended beyond need. The burglar character Jessup was excellent! His line to the Commissioner "You're crazy, this isn't even my apartment" was a classic Columbo moment for me.

 

To answer your question. I believe that 45 Columbo episodes were produced from 1968, 1971-1978. Peter Falk came back in 1989 and did 24 additional episodes. The last episode premiered in 2003. I loved the original series very much. I like the revival, but I wish that some of the original villains would have come back. Robert Culp came back but he did not play the murderer. Leonard Nimoy was another one who could have come back.

 

William Shatner did return and had a nice turn as the murderer in the 80-90s episodes. He was the exception.

 

Patrick McGoohan did come back, as a funeral director, in a later episode. I think he played the murderer...

 

You are so right. It's funny in that you can almost always tell which episodes were padded. The producers knew their material well and were absolutely right that it could not support 2 hour episodes. My worst example: the one with Faye Dunaway where they make the fountains at the fundraiser facility "dance" and he plays the trumpet. Terrible and an obvious pad. And they did the same thing in "Make Me a Perfect Murder" where the engineer sitting in the chair let's Columbo sit down and he plays with the console and makes the test signal "dance". Another terrible one. But the rest of the eps are so good you just kinda give it a pass.

 

He did. One of my least favorite episodes, but it's the script, not him, imo. He was great in others!