Year: 1968
Director: Various
This is a box set of perhaps the greatest ongoing detective of all time along with only the various Sherlocks, Poirot and Morse that match the quality and sheer enjoyment of this series.
Columbo was created by William Link and Richard Levinson and played wonderfully by Peter Falk who provided his own raincoat and chose the car and dog that appeared in some episodes.
Starting in 1968 with Perscription:Murder the first of two pilots, the second three years later. The fist season proper started the same year with a new upcoming director Steven Spielberg at the helm. It was an part of a strand of police programmes on NBC with McCloud and MacMillan and Wife and because of this there would only be ten or so episodes a series so the writers could keep the quality high and produce slightly longer and more in depth shows.
Columbo’s investigations mainly involved the rich and famous which the writers deliberately did to play the scruffy, dishevelled Columbo off against them, in fact writers said their ideal murderer would have been Noel Coward. Always coming out on top against his supposed betters Columbo has been described as the most Marxist detective on US television.
The other stand out reason to watch this is the cabire of the guest stars. Johnny Cash, Donald Pleasance, William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Lawrence Harvey, Vea Miles, Ray Milland, Dick Van Dyke and many others played the murderer but perhaps best of all was Patrick McGoohan who appeared in four episodes. But Peter Falk is the outstanding actor and no body has made a part so much his own, Falk inhabits Columbo totally and plays him beautifully never losing that slight bewilderment and ramshackle nature of the detective and the disappointment when he catches the murderer who sometimes has almost become a friend. Columbo is basically a good, decent man who sometimes can’t quite understand why people resort to murder.
This box set has all the original NBC episodes which ran from 1971 to 1978 and the 1988 return on ABC which ran off and on to 2003. The original NBC series is the pinnacle of the series with the later run only occasionally reaching the heights of the seventies episodes.
The best detective series? After watching this I would probably say yes. It is beautifully acted, the plots are fantastically realised and it’s one of the most watchable TV series ever.
Might appeal to people who enjoyed:
The ITV Sherlock Holmes, Morse, Lewis, Endeavor. And fans of film stars from the 50s and 60s who appear throughout.
For some reason I don’t think I’ve ever seen a complete episode of Columbo. I might have got it into my head when I was a kid that they boring for some reason, and never caught up. Anyway, can you think of a particularly good episode that I could use as a gateway drug to the world of Columbo?
There are plenty of complete episodes on Youtube that I could try (there are also loads of complete episodes of Department S and Jason King. Yes, yes – I understand that you have to go and watch one right now. That’s OK. You can thank me later.)
Try ‘Etude in Black’ starring John Cassavetes who was Peter Falk’s best friend, they play off each other brilliantly. Or ‘Any Old Port in a Storm with Donald Pleasance and the Johnny Cash episode ‘Swan Song’ which is excellent fun. And any of the Patrick McGoohan ones.
I caught a bit of the Johnny Cash one at lunchtime. But then I realised Calamity Jane was just starting on the other side…..
Whipcrack away ….
In the early series I thought Columbo was great, but I later tired of the sight of Columbo visiting the crime scene, immediately sussing who the murderer was, on no more apparently than gut instinct, and then working to find the fatal flaw, which inevitably had to be exposed through Colombo luring the perpetrator revealing it himself through sheer hubris.
As the Parkmeister says, it’s basically the same plot in almost every episode, isn’t it? Though I do recall seeing one episode (from the 70s run, I think) which had a twist in it – half way through, Columbo accuses someone and it turns out he’s wrong, and has to rethink. I haven’t imagined this, have I?
Oh, and weren’t there several episodes in which the bad guy was the same actor – a smarmy guy with white nylon-ish hair and thin moustache? Or have I somehow seen the same episode periodically repeated over 40 years?
No. Patrick McGoohan played the murderer four times. Robert Culp and Jack Cassidy three times each.
Oh. Maybe I wo t follow your advice above regarding watching the Patrick McGoohan ones then ?
Jack Cassidy – just checked pics online: that’s the guy.
Spooky just talking about Clodumbo as Mad magazine parodied him with Mrs Wells.
Nice review.
Best ever … Have to think about that.
The Clodumbo parody had Angelo Torres drawing Robert Culp as the villain…they certainly liked to get the details right!
I liked Columbo as a nip. Much better than rival “Cannon”. But my favourite was “Public Eye” with Alfred Burke as anti hero Frank Marker, all 70s threadbare, hollow eyed and always one step away from the slammer (he was framed in an early episode and did time). The opening music is enough – it’s not a jazz record though, apparently it was knocked up by Beeb musos as a genre piece for the intro.
https://youtu.be/iFMUx5ncn0s?list=PLLh1usqLUofJNMqgBsK_A3Yr3q2TdDOqc
Columbo starts by showing you the murder. This can create an interesting dynamic as we are used to adopting the POV of the protagonist (when we are right in the midst of watching some villains pull of a blag with shooters we often lose our good citizen “I do hope the boys in blue apprehend these brigands” head and instead find ourselves looking at the clock over Tommy’s shoulder and shouting “hurry up the rozzers will be here soon”).
There’s an episode of Columbo where the murderer is an older lady who has killed her daughter’s git husband in an act of revenge and, as much as you love the guy in the creased coat, and as inevitable as it is he will prevail and, y’know, murder – still a crime, there’s a large part of you wanting the lady to get away with it. As ip33 says in his review, when Old One Eye takes her away it’s done with all the resignation of Denis Law back heeling his goal that dooms Manchester United to relegation: why, oh why did you do that, so now I have to do this…?
Never knowingly watched an episode unless stoned, circa 68 – 75. When stoned I thought it was one of the funniest series ever – I may well have been Wrong….
Columbo is pretty hard to beat. I’m a fan of the genre, and where this won is the focus on the motives. It was a “whydunnit”!
My personal pick is the barely-remembered Bulman. The brilliant Don Henderson played George Kitchener Bulman across a variety of series (The XYY Man, Strangers, and Bulman), an eccentric copper with a permanent cold, a love of Shakespeare, a penchant for mending clocks and solving a variety of cases from very minor (The Chicken of the Baskervilles) to very major (Sins of Omission). His co-star in the self-titled series was Siobhan Redmond, in her first major role after the forgotten comedy series Alfresco – I always thought she was utterly wonderful in this – a match for Henderson and that’s saying quite a lot…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOI2bS-uyMM
…which reminds me… Siobhan is a great singer. Here she is doing some Difford and Tilbrook:
https://vk.com/video27031181_144593042
I remember Bulman. Wonderful series. Miss Redmond is rather wonderful, too. *sighs*.
She was most excellent in Between the Lines.
I’ve never seen her do anything less than excellent. Fortunate to see her in King Lear and Midsummer Nights Dream with Renaissance Theatre Company. Beautiful for sure, but more importantly, properly talented.
Kudos to the OP for mentioning Endeavour – that’s a great series, especially thanks to Roger Allam who never lets you down.
I always like a series that has a recurring character that you never ever see (e.g. Mrs Columbo).
I think Len Mangel may be the greatest of such characters.
There was a thread on those who never appear – Maris Crane, ‘Er Indoors etc – on the old site. ‘Course, you can’t see it now, so you’ll have to take my word I’m not making it up, writes Remington Steele
I think it was Stephen Fry who said that a bad “Columbo” is better than pretty much any other good television programme. Despite any reservations re Saint Steve I’d agree: nothing better, really, when back home, after a long evening away, with a drink and my feet up on he couch.
The “business” with his dog irritates; the constant variations on “Three Blind Mice” bug me…but it’s still great television: witty, clever and fun.