"Just one more thing...": Rewatching Columbo

[Angela Channing]

Season Eight (1989)

Unlike the original run of Columbo, I've only seen episodes of the reboot series once, or in a few cases twice, so my memory of them isn't anywhere near as good so I won't be able to comment on them to the same extent as I have been able to previously. However, I still look forward to reading @Mel O'Drama excellent reviews of them and I'm sure they will jog my memory of some of the shows.

Columbo Goes To The Guillotine

I do remember this episode reasonably well. I thought Anthony Andrews made a good job of playing the murderer in what I thought would have been a great role for Jack Cassidy in the original run of the series.

He was fun to watch but lacked nuance, and there was very little to give me empathy for his character. He pretty much just went round screwing people over. In turn, this made the key relationship of the episode - that between Columbo and the killer - far less interesting than I’d hope for. I don’t really watch Columbo to boo and hiss the moustache-twirling villain like a pantomime. I expect more.

This is a really good point. As much as I like Anthony Andrews in this, his interactions with Columbo were not particularly memorable and this, as you say, they are a key part of episodes of Colombo and when they work well they can make even an average episode seems much better than it otherwise would.

It looks different. Sounds different. Feels different.

I agree. You could tell from the outset it was going to be very different, even the typeface of the titles was very different (a move to a serif typeface from the sans serif one of the 1970s). I thought taking a new approach was a good move as TV had moved on since the previous episode of Columbo was broadcast so I didn't mind the new vibe I was getting from this new episode. However...

I do feel the pacing throughout this episode felt a little plodding at times. This is true of the opening act as well, though the intriguing subject matter kept things the right side of watchable for me and held my interest. For me, the pacing became more of a problem as the episode progressed and there were a number of scenes that would have benefitted from a little brevity.

...this is also true which felt like a strange choice as TV in the 1980s and 90s was more fast paced and had shorter scenes.

Two of the longest scenes that I can remember is when Anthony Andrews is doing his hammy psychic stuff and when Columbo (equally hammy) does an almost exact replica of one of those scenes. They were so long I think could have gone to my kitchen, cooked dinner and got back before either was over. However, I did like those scenes. The over the top acting was in keeping with the nonsense that Anthony Andrews' character was trying to get people to believe and similarly when Columbo was trying to show it was all an act.

I can't imagine the Magic Circle was happy with how this episode revealed how a popular magic trick is done and several times I've subsequently seen magicians on shows like Britain's Got Talent do variations of this trick and I immediately know how it is done.

The ending was a load of poppycock. There was no way Columbo would have known that the murderer would have attempted to kill him and he wouldn't have risked his life on a hunch. The series was always best when it was rooted in believability and this was far from that. It was however memorable and as an entertaining piece of TV is did kind of work.

Columbo wrapping things up by shooting the prop gun that said "bang" was the kind of slightly humorous, slightly stagey conclusion that is more typical of a modern show than something you would see in the 1970s but I had to remind myself this isn't original Columbo but an updated version so I have to accept that there will be moments like this which seem a little ridiculous but they create a TV moment. This idea was taken even further in a future episode, so if you didn't like this, you ain't seen nothing yet!

And the less said about the "bang" at the end the better.

Well, I had to say something about it.

All the same, it’s going to take some adjustment to get fully on board with this Nineties era version of Columbo. Perhaps I never will.

Two episodes spring to mind (and there maybe more) which I think are as good as many in the original run of episodes. Both had a very different feel to the 1970s episodes and were much more in keeping with a 1990s series but in their own way had most of what you could want from a classic episode of Columbo but brought up to date. As I type this, I can think of another one, so that makes at least three!

By the way, great review @Mel O'Drama.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

I thought Anthony Andrews made a good job of playing the murderer in what I thought would have been a great role for Jack Cassidy in the original run of the series.

Oh yes, I can picture Jack Cassidy in the role. There are definite echoes of The Great Santini here.

You could tell from the outset it was going to be very different, even the typeface of the titles was very different (a move to a serif typeface from the sans serif one of the 1970s).

Oh yes, I forgot to comment on that. Funnily enough as I watched the opening titles I thought how the serif font sort of brought things full circle considering the American Typewriter font used in Prescription: Murder.

I thought taking a new approach was a good move as TV had moved on since the previous episode of Columbo was broadcast so I didn't mind the new vibe I was getting from this new episode.

Same here. I think it's good that they gave this new run of episodes its own distinct image.

I can't imagine the Magic Circle was happy with how this episode revealed how a popular magic trick is done and several times I've subsequently seen magicians on shows like Britain's Got Talent do variations of this trick and I immediately know how it is done.

Oh yes. I wonder how that worked since I understand the Magic Circle isn't supposed to reveal any secrets at all, so it does seem a bit naughty. I wonder if it went through proper channels for permissions or if the trick was just shown informally to someone who knew someone involved in making the episode.

The ending was a load of poppycock. There was no way Columbo would have known that the murderer would have attempted to kill him and he wouldn't have risked his life on a hunch. The series was always best when it was rooted in believability and this was far from that.

Agreed. That scene really changed the way I look at the entire episode and I think I might have ranked it higher if not for this moment (not that I've really ranked it at all).

Columbo wrapping things up by shooting the prop gun that said "bang" was the kind of slightly humorous, slightly stagey conclusion that is more typical of a modern show than something you would see in the 1970s

I was reminded of a similar scene in Murder, She Wrote, which I seem to remember ended up in the credits. But of course that was a much more frivolous kind of series than Columbo.

Well, I had to say something about it.

Ha ha. Well, good. One of us had to.

Two episodes spring to mind (and there maybe more) which I think are as good as many in the original run of episodes. Both had a very different feel to the 1970s episodes and were much more in keeping with a 1990s series but in their own way had most of what you could want from a classic episode of Columbo but brought up to date. As I type this, I can think of another one, so that makes at least three!

Oh great. That gives me hope.

By the way, great review @Mel O'Drama.

Thanks again. I'm glad you like them and I'm really enjoying your input as someone who knows the series far better than I do.

I had thought I'd end up saying less with the new episodes and perhaps grouping a few episodes together, but it seems I found plenty to say about the first "New" Columbo. I suspect I'll watch a bit more slowly now since there are no more 70 minute episodes. There'll probably be no more double-bills, and I imagine there'll be some evenings where I haven't got time to watch even one, so I think I'll have the space to say something about most episodes. And what I end up saying depends on what's presented to me.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Murder, Smoke and Shadows

​

The Universal Backlot. We’ve been here a few times, haven’t we?

When used judiciously it can be highly effective. Overdo it and it can look lazy and cheap. In almost any long running Universal TV series there’s generally an episode or two where a plot is either built around a device on the lot (such as the Flash Flood or the Collapsing Bridge) or characters - for whatever reason - spend a great deal of time on sets from the lot. It’s a contrivance I associate with either budget, lack of focus or just plain shark jumping.

In the original series, the most blatant use of the lot and tour came in Fade In To Murder. But that was in the Sixth Season*. Here we are, not two episodes in to the new Columbo - a time when creative juices should be flowing - and we’re given an extensive tour of the lot and its attractions.

Our tour of the lot is so thorough, I almost feel as though I’ve done it. Why pay to visit it when I can just watch this episode? Bruce The Shark redux from The Jaws Ride even has a cameo in the opening montage (his second Columbo cameo, if we’re counting his carrot toothed predecessor as the same shark).

Even the murder takes place on Brownstone Street, which is named as such.






* It does seem appropriate that this episode should take the baton from Fade In To Murder, since Season Eight looks set to replace Season Six as my least favourite year to date.

continued...​

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Murder, Smoke and Shadows



continued


​

Another echo of episodes’ past comes in the surprising form of Fisher Stevens (best known to me for that Season One episode of Friends where his character psychoanalysed all the main characters, telling them what a dysfunctional mob they really are. And apparently Stevens did the same to the Friends cast and crew off-camera).

Fisher’s character - Alex Brady, a twenty-something hot young director - seems analogous with one Steven Spielberg. It’s all there, from the boyish enthusiasm to trendy clothes to the the round glasses and even the waterbed (Spielberg was known to sleep on a waterbed during the Seventies, infamously fuelling his post-Jaws nightmares about still being out at sea shooting the film, over time and over budget). Stevens even resembles a young Spielberg, and happens to be the same age he would have been when shooting Jaws.

It’s not the series’ first nod to its one-time director, and arguably not its cheekiest (Mind Over Mayhem’s child prodigy Steve Spelberg might take the prize there. All the same, there’s something heartwarming about the series’ fascination with its one-time director.

What he lacked in physical presence he made up for in having the arrogant insouciant air of someone who’s been given sudden success and wealth at a young age and believes they’re the centre of the universe. Even when his shouty moments seem more bratty than forceful, and his intimidation techniques just look like a childish pout, I could still believe that Brady believed himself and there were plenty of people willing to listen because of his power at the studio.

Baby-faced Stevens is certainly a different kind of Columbo killer. If you can get past the contrivance of this slight and bookish kid physically intimidating his bigger, broader friend into position to kill him (and I could because Jeff Parry did a great job of making his character seem nervous and jumpy), Brady’s youthful innocent looks made him seem quite an unlikely killer (I kept seeing Daniel Radcliffe), and yet conversely I also found both the writing for Brady and Stevens’s performance a little too on the nose at times.

Incidentally, I love glasses-spotting in this series, and I adore the frames Fisher wore in this episode. I'm not sure what they are, but they look very similar to the Oliver Peoples O'Malley, which was the in-frame for American yuppie and luvvie types of the time (Patrick Bateman famously wore them in Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho). It's the perfect style for this self-consciously hip character.

continued...​

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Murder, Smoke and Shadows​

continued
​

One unfortunate (though presumably intentional) aspect of Fisher’s young age was to highlight how much older Peter Falk now is. It’s not something I’d care to see too often, but it’s well-played here. There’s a nice lighthearted moment when Columbo leans back in a bean bag and struggles to get back up. It creates a very different dynamic from what we’d have got in earlier episodes. Lady In Waiting’s Beth Chadwick was possibly even younger, but it was a non-issue then because Columbo himself was almost two decades younger.

There’s even a bit of a theme relating to age, perhaps best highlighted in one of my favourite scenes in the episode, a simple exchange Columbo has with Brady’s secretary, Rose Walker in which she laments about directors seeming so old when she was a young secretary, and how young they all seem now that she’s old. Empathy is writ large on Columbo’s face.

Rose is the standout character of the episode for me. It’s not a large role, but there’s a bit of an arc including a bit of blackmail (which, as it turns out is set up by Columbo à la Ransom For A Dead Man), and she’s snappily played with a nice edge by Nan Martin.

How funny that Molly Hagan should show up just three episodes after I mentioned that Kay Freestone had a Haganesque look to her. I know her best as young Miss Ellie on Dallas: The Early Years and her brief recurring role on Knots Landing as Meredith, the young researcher at Abby’s cable station PWC. She’s another of those comfortingly familiar faces and probably a qualifier for the “Actors that deserve a better career” thread. She does nice work with little material. Just as well, really.

I’ve already briefly mentioned Jeff Parry. He’s not an actor with whom I’m familiar, but he’s terrific here and sells his role as victim Lenny Fisher a man facing up to the friend he’s discovered was present when his sister died and covered it up. I really believed his anger and heartbreak. It’s particularly refreshing to see someone who isn’t comfortable with confrontation, but who is doing it because he has to face the truth, all the while hoping he’s somehow wrong. It all adds a vulnerability to him and makes the following murder completely believable. Sadly, he had too little screen time, and I found myself thinking that his intense desperation would have made Jeff a great Columbo killer.

continued...​

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Murder, Smoke and Shadows​

continued

​

As with the previous episode, this instalment suffers badly from filler, cheesy moments and an overuse of gimmickry which badly dilutes the story and makes viewing range from less interesting to downright dull.

The scene with Brady’s spiel about light and shadows while he pretends to walk past an endless fence is an example. Not only was it silly to begin with, but Columbo was immediately on board with the performance, making the whole thing far too contrived and theatrical. It helped not that it ended with Brady talking intensely about his power to kill while looking into Columbo’s eyes, all but confessing before the lights come on and he’s all smiley.

This echoed an earlier moment where he gravely “joked” to Lenny that he was going to kill him, before doing just that, which was another I found jarringly unbelievable. Perhaps because of his age, I don’t feel Fisher Stevens had the requisite gravitas to carry off either of those moments.

In fact the Brownstone Street scene leading up to the murder - in which Brady tap danced and swung round lampposts while talking about the magic of film was just embarrassing. It was just a set, for God’s sake. Even in 1989, viewers were far too sophisticated to be impressed by that alone. And that’s even putting aside the irony of the big talk about great filmmaking taking place in a sub-par episode that fails to deliver magic and surprises on any level.

Then there’s the endurance test scene of the episode: Brady taking Columbo up on the crane and having his crew move it up and down, back and forth until the Lieutenant is completely nauseated. It’s not a bad idea in principle, but it drags on and on - all to the tune of Strauss’s On The Beautiful Blue Danube. What could have been shown to us in fifteen seconds goes on for several minutes until it can’t feel like anything but tedious filler. It adds nothing to plot, has nothing in terms of character and doesn’t even interest visually. It’s a mediocre scene that, for reasons unknown, seems determined to thrust its mediocrity down the viewer’s throats until they gag.

Not even the Gotcha is spared such guff. Setting the antagonist up up by using Brady’s colleagues as bait and a bunch of Columbo’s colleagues as extras-cum-witnesses is extravagant, but in character for Columbo. So is projecting footage of Brady’s original sin onto the screen as he lowers the boom. But then the officers then take bows under in the spotlight as canned applause rings out, with Columbo briefly being shown in a ringmaster’s costume as he takes his. The lily is well and truly gilded. And it leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

I can't help feeling these new episodes would be so much better if they were half an hour shorter and they stopped trying so hard to be clever.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Sex And The Married Detective

​

It’s interesting that two of the three new titles so far have referenced Columbo; the first one by name and this one by occupation and relationship status. The original series avoided this trap completely, with all of the titles cleverly referring to the crime or the episode’s backdrop. A much better option, as far as I’m concerned. I know the revival series drops Columbo’s name into the titles quite a bit and I’m not a fan. “Columbo Does This” or “Columbo Loves That” not only sound like the titles of children’s books, there’s a degree of conceit behind it that doesn’t suit what good Columbo is about. It’s almost like someone speaking about themselves in the third person because they think they’re important. Never a good look.

Between that, the sex therapy backdrop and the disappointment of the previous two episodes it’s fair to say I didn’t hold out a great deal of hope for this episode. Which meant I was very pleasantly surprised.

The opening act is by far my favourite of the three, and actually pretty good even by the standards of the original series. These twenty four minutes delivered a story in which I became invested. Along the way that story gave the killer not only a clear motive, but one that the audience can get behind with empathy for the killer. This is one of the few killings in the series where I felt a degree of satisfaction as the killer pulled the trigger. I liked that the killing was specifically engineered to mirror his sin in many ways, from the sex therapy room setting with its roaring fire to the line Joan said to David before pulling the trigger, which was verbatim what she’d heard her secretary saying to him as Joan covertly watched him cheating on her. The stunned look on his face drove home the sense of poetic justice she felt.

The story of Joan creating “Lisa” as part of her sex game with David and ensuring they were seen in public with David handing Lisa money was quite convoluted, but it didn’t feel at all gimmicky. It was just well-written and it was compelling to watch Joan switching between identities, attending a public event as herself as her alibi while stashing clothes in a hiding place.

It was so compelling, I was able to turn a blind eye to the small matter of Joan leaving fingerprints everywhere - from Lisa’s cigarettes to the victim himself - due to wearing only ONE glove for her crime.

continued...​

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Sex And The Married Detective​

continued​

As Dr. Joan Allenby, Lindsay Crouse is by some margin the most compelling killer of the new series so far. She’s far less obvious than Elliot Blake or Alex Brady. In place of chewing up the scenery or arch villainy we get someone who’s fairly level. She has a great first scene with Columbo in which they take a silent ride in the lift: him carefully looking at her and noticing a store label hanging from her smart new overcoat. Her looking at this dishevelled man with disdain and discomfort. She makes a show of fanning his smoke away and he suddenly spots the no smoking sign and - after looking round unsuccessfully for somewhere to extinguish it, plops it into his coffee (I suppose Nineties Columbo will suffer less from morning fatigue now that there’s a Starbucks on every corner).

She’s initially shaken-but-stoic (she does a nice little swoon when David’s body is removed, but then does the chin up, life goes on thing. For much of the episode she’s calm and level, before the archetypal Columbo journey of gradually becoming increasingly frustrated at Columbo’s doggedness.

And it’s easy to see her point of view. As entertaining as they used to be, Columbo’s “just one more thing”s and multiple re-entries to the room have lost all subtlety by this point. There’s one scene in which he bursts back into Joan’s home two or even three times in rapid succession after “leaving” and rather than enjoyably frustrating and entertaining it just feels incredibly tiresome and rude.

It’s sad to say, but actually most of the scenes that dragged this episode down were Columbo ones. Peter Falk’s performance continues to be broad and mannered, but it’s not all down to him. He had a lot of help in delivering a few of the episode’s low points.

First, there’s the tuba/fountain scene already mentioned in this thread by @Angela Channing (thanks again for the warning). It was dull and unnecessary. And it’s also so late in the day to be discovering Columbo’s hidden talents that it felt out of character. The direction with the fountains going in time with the music was just silly. The episode would have been better without it. Fortunately, it was over reasonably quickly.

That’s more than I can say for the scene in which Columbo is leaving Joan’s offices when he is accosted one-by-one by three different colleagues of Joan seeking his advice. Two of them tell Columbo about their feelings for Joan. The third is the slutty receptionist who asks him if she should tell Joan about David’s feelings for her. It’s a terrible sequence with some godawful acting as the actors portraying the colleagues do their limited best to appear quirky and wacky. It’s a sledgehammer attempt at David E. Kelley type humour. Not only is it a terrible fit for Columbo, it’s also painfully unfunny and as a viewer it’s an uncomfortable feeling I’d equate to watching a bad stand-up comic dying on stage: a mixture of pity for their humiliation and anger for subjecting me to it.

continued...​

 

[Mel O'Drama]

Sex And The Married Detective​

continued​

Fortunately, with this episode it’s more good news than bad.

It’s great to see Stephen Macht in a memorable role as ill-fated lothario David Kincaid. He’s most familiar to me from two of his Eighties roles: as Karen’s brother Joe Cooper in Knots Landing, and as Chris’s lover David Keeler in Cagney & Lacey. He’s always engaging and I find his natural style of acting quite fascinating. Every word feels spontaneous. Going on his appearance here, he also seems to get better looking with each passing year. It’s just a shame he was doomed to die in the first act here.

Patrick Williams is on scoring duties and while he must take some of the blame for his part in the indulgent tuba scene (blame he shares with Falk, director James Frawley and writer Jerry Ludwig), he more than redeems himself with the rest of the score which feels like it would fit a Forties film noir. It’s quite different in tone from other Columbos, but not jarringly so as it fits the episode’s tone. There’s a fair bit of saxophone, which feels right for the female antagonist and the subject of sex which (it you’ll pardon the expression) comes up a fair bit. The key theme of the episode is especially good. It seems to use minor chords to make it sound more phantasmagoric and haunting and is incredibly effective. I’ve taken to calling it Lisa’s Theme as it’s used mostly in scenes where she appears, or in scenes when Joan is channelling her in some way.

The theme of duality was interesting. At times it was almost getting into Val Ewing/Verna Ellers or Lisa Galloway/Jaime Sommers territory, with a pretended identity starting to become real in order to allow someone to behave and speak as they wouldn’t normally. There was an implicit question over Joan’s mental state, which could be an interesting angle (doctor, heal thyself).

There was a little suspense with Joan carrying Lisa’s clothing round in her briefcase before trying to burn it. Columbo keeps finding reasons to pick up said briefcase, or to appear just as she’s about to throw the contents on to her fire. It was nicely written, but I feel could have been directed a little more effectively.

Overall, the cinematography was nice in this episode, particularly in the final scenes which took place in the sex therapy room with its opulent colours (such an improvement from the bland pastels everywhere else this era), the roaring fire, low lights, and storm going on outside, with venetian blinds casting atmospheric shadows onto faces.

The Gotcha was fine. While it may not have been the series’ finest, it did at least involve some common sense detective work from Columbo. And once the now-obligatory theatrics were over (this time involving a female police officer dressed as Lisa who vanished before Joan’s eyes. And a mannequin also dressed as Lisa), I appreciated the final conversation between Lisa and Columbo as they reached a moment of understanding. It was a nice moment for both.

The difference between a good and bad Columbo episode can hinge on nothing more than the relationship between Columbo and the killer. And on that level, despite its flaws, this was a good one.

 

[Angela Channing]

Murder, Smoke and Shadows

That was superb and comprehensive review of the episode and it's hard to disagree with any of it.

I kind of remember liking this episode but felt the gimmicks and the padding scenes brought the whole thing down.

Incidentally, I love glasses-spotting in this series, and I adore the frames Fisher wore in this episode. I'm not sure what they are, but they look very similar to the Oliver Peoples O'Malley, which was the in-frame for American yuppie and luvvie types of the time (Patrick Bateman famously wore them in Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho). It's the perfect style for this self-consciously hip character.

I'm guessing you wear glasses. I never used to notice anything about glasses until I was prescribed my first pair around 5 years ago and now I'm often looking at other people's eyewear thinking do they suit them or not (Keir Stamer's glasses are awful, by the way) or how would they look on me. However, I'm impressed that you've taken it to another level that you can identify the make and model of other people's spectacles.

The Universal Backlot. We’ve been here a few times, haven’t we?

Yes, they seemed to regularly return to the theme of murders or victims who are either writers or connected with the film or TV industry, probably because they the scripts were written by writers who were connected with the film or TV industry. It's not the last time they do this although I don't think they use the Universal back lot again but I could be wrong as I've forgotten the details of many of the new episodes (deliberately in some cases).

Baby-faced Stevens is certainly a different kind of Columbo killer. If you can get past the contrivance of this slight and bookish kid physically intimidating his bigger, broader friend into position to kill him (and I could because Jeff Parry did a great job of making his character seem nervous and jumpy), Brady’s youthful innocent looks made him seem quite an unlikely killer (I kept seeing Daniel Radcliffe), and yet conversely I also found both the writing for Brady and Stevens’s performance a little too on the nose at times.

I really liked the character, and Fisher Stevens' performance, for the reason you gave: he was a different type of Columbo killer. Younger than most murderers on the show and he had a child like innocent appearance which contrasted nicely with him being determined killer.

Rose is the standout character of the episode for me. It’s not a large role, but there’s a bit of an arc including a bit of blackmail (which, as it turns out is set up by Columbo à la Ransom For A Dead Man), and she’s snappily played with a nice edge by Nan Martin.

Yes, she was great. I love when some of these small roles are so well cast with an actor who makes the most of their screen time to create an interesting, believable and memorable character.

Then there’s the endurance test scene of the episode: Brady taking Columbo up on the crane and having his crew move it up and down, back and forth until the Lieutenant is completely nauseated. It’s not a bad idea in principle, but it drags on and on - all to the tune of Strauss’s On The Beautiful Blue Danube. What could have been shown to us in fifteen seconds goes on for several minutes until it can’t feel like anything but tedious filler. It adds nothing to plot, has nothing in terms of character and doesn’t even interest visually. It’s a mediocre scene that, for reasons unknown, seems determined to thrust its mediocrity down the viewer’s throats until they gag.

Spot on! Whenever I see a scene like this I always refer to it as being "parenchyma" which are plant cells whose only function is to serve as packing material in plants. If there was ever a good example of parenchyma in an episode of Columbo this is it. It was mildly amusing for 10 seconds but boy did they try to milk the humour out of this set up even though the joke wasn't funny enough to warrant the amount of time they spent on it.

Not even the Gotcha is spared such guff. Setting the antagonist up up by using Brady’s colleagues as bait and a bunch of Columbo’s colleagues as extras-cum-witnesses is extravagant, but in character for Columbo. So is projecting footage of Brady’s original sin onto the screen as he lowers the boom. But then the officers then take bows under in the spotlight as canned applause rings out, with Columbo briefly being shown in a ringmaster’s costume as he takes his. The lily is well and truly gilded. And it leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

If anyone thought the prop gun that revealed the word "bang" at the end of Columbo Goes To The Guillotine was a contrived, stagey ending to that episode, that was nothing compared with what they did here. Modern TV likes to be very visual and contain a lot of action rather than being dialogue heavy but this takes it too far and even worse, it trivialises the whole show, taking it away from the the kind of series that fans became attached to.

 

[Angela Channing]

Sex And The Married Detective

I don't remember this episode that well because I've only seen it the once when it was first broadcast so I've not got much to say on this one other than I enjoyed reading your review.

The tuba scene for me is one of the lowest points in any episode of Columbo. What the hell were they thinking to inflict that crock of excrement on viewers? It was nothing short of horrible.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

I kind of remember liking this episode but felt the gimmicks and the padding scenes brought the whole thing down.

Yes, that sums it up perfectly.

I'm guessing you wear glasses.

Ha ha. Yes, I do... and I love wearing them. They've become a key part of my visual character.

I never used to notice anything about glasses until I was prescribed my first pair around 5 years ago and now I'm often looking at other people's eyewear thinking do they suit them or not (Keir Stamer's glasses are awful, by the way) or how would they look on me.

Oh, same here. I've worn glasses for over thirty years, but it's more in recent years that I've become more interested in different styles and noticing what style frames others are wearing.

It's amazing how different the same frame can look on two different people and as you say, it's worth exploring which styles suit the features.

This series has been great fun on that level. There's been some great eyewear, but I'm also horrified at how some of it gets treated. My heart sank when Dean Stockwell lobbed his cool sunglasses out of the swimming pool onto the hard surface in The Most Crucial Game.

However, I'm impressed that you've taken it to another level that you can identify the make and model of other people's spectacles.

Oh, my knowledge is fairly limited, but I recognised this style having rewatched American Psycho recently. I don't think Fisher's glasses were exactly the same model, as the arm was slightly lower down the side, but they're certainly very similar.

Yes, they seemed to regularly return to the theme of murders or victims who are either writers or connected with the film or TV industry, probably because they the scripts were written by writers who were connected with the film or TV industry.

Yes, I'm sure it's partly a case of them writing what they know, but I also think it's a way of economising by having a studio setting. Not having to seek out locations and pay for hiring homes and venues will save a lot of time and money.

I love when some of these small roles are so well cast with an actor who makes the most of their screen time to create an interesting, believable and memorable character.

Oh definitely, and I forgot to mention a smaller role in Sex And The Married Detective: Marge Redmond as the killer's friend Helen Hendrix who literally bumped into "Lisa" without recognising her as Joan.

She had a nice moment at the beginning of the infamous tuba scene where Columbo tried to speak to her but she shushed him as she was watching the player.

​

It was a nice little character part. If it was a British show I could imagine someone like Patsy Rowlands playing the part. It's just a shame one of her biggest scenes was that one.

Whenever I see a scene like this I always refer to it as being "parenchyma" which are plant cells whose only function is to serve as packing material in plants.

Oh wow. That's my new word for today. What a perfect description of these filler scenes.

If anyone thought the prop gun that revealed the word "bang" at the end of Columbo Goes To The Guillotine was a contrived, stagey ending to that episode, that was nothing compared with what they did here. Modern TV likes to be very visual and contain a lot of action rather than being dialogue heavy but this takes it too far and even worse, it trivialises the whole show, taking it away from the the kind of series that fans became attached to.

Definitely. It feels like they're trying to appeal to a new, younger audience without really understanding how to pull it off, and it throws off the whole tone of the show. Like a square peg in a round hole.

I don't remember this episode that well because I've only seen it the once when it was first broadcast so I've not got much to say on this one other than I enjoyed reading your review.

I thought it was a step up from the previous two shows, and probably better than a few of the poorer Seventies episodes.

The tuba scene for me is one of the lowest points in any episode of Columbo. What the hell were they thinking to inflict that crock of excrement on viewers? It was nothing short of horrible.

It was agonising, but for me at least I'd been forewarned and it was shorter than I expected. I'd take this over the Blue Danube scene in the previous episode, and it's more tolerable for me than the dancing graphics in Make Me A Perfect Murder.

 

[Angela Channing]

Oh, my knowledge is fairly limited, but I recognised this style having rewatched American Psycho recently. I don't think Fisher's glasses were exactly the same model, as the arm was slightly lower down the side, but they're certainly very similar.

I wear glasses for reading so I don't need to wear them all the time. I bought a pair off the shelf with pre-fitted lenses for £3 in Lidl to use as a spare for my proper glasses with prescription lenses. They look remarkably similar to Oliver Peoples O'Malley so that's what I'm going to say they are now.

Yes, I'm sure it's partly a case of them writing what they know, but I also think it's a way of economising by having a studio setting. Not having to seek out locations and pay for hiring homes and venues will save a lot of time and money.

Yes, that too and it wouldn't matter so much if the savings they made on locations was put into paying for more script editing or employing higher profile actors or just generally improving the final result.

Definitely. It feels like they're trying to appeal to a new, younger audience without really understanding how to pull it off, and it throws off the whole tone of the show. Like a square peg in a round hole.

Yes, trying to broaden the appeal of the show without thinking about how it might alienate fans of the original series is never a good approach for rebooting a classic TV show.

Oh wow. That's my new word for today. What a perfect description of these filler scenes.

I think parenchyma is great word and conveys precisely what I mean. I have a scientific background so when I use the term with friends who work in the same field as I do, they get exactly what I mean without further explanation. It doesn't work quite so well with those that don't know a lot about biology.

I thought it was a step up from the previous two shows, and probably better than a few of the poorer Seventies episodes.

That's really interesting. I'm going to have to watch it again one day but that scene has always made me prefer to watch other episodes before thinking about viewing this one again.

It was agonising, but for me at least I'd been forewarned and it was shorter than I expected. I'd take this over the Blue Danube scene in the previous episode, and it's more tolerable for me than the dancing graphics in Make Me A Perfect Murder.

Probably the three worst examples of ghastly padding scenes in Columbo, although there maybe others that are so bad that I've tried to forget them.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

I bought a pair off the shelf with pre-fitted lenses for £3 in Lidl to use as a spare for my proper glasses with prescription lenses. They look remarkably similar to Oliver Peoples O'Malley so that's what I'm going to say they are now.

Oh yes. Nobody will ever know. It's the perfect crime.

(Just make sure Columbo doesn't get suspicious).

Yes, that too and it wouldn't matter so much if the savings they made on locations was put into paying for more script editing or employing higher profile actors or just generally improving the final result.

Yes. I suspect in the case of newer episodes a lot of that saved money went on salaries. Peter Falk alone must have been raking it in by this point.

I think parenchyma is great word and conveys precisely what I mean. I have a scientific background so when I use the term with friends who work in the same field as I do, they get exactly what I mean without further explanation. It doesn't work quite so well with those that don't know a lot about biology.

Oh, that's great that you're able to use it in conversation and be understood. I'm definitely one of the people you described in the last sentence, but you explained it really clearly.

I'm going to have to watch it again one day but that scene has always made me prefer to watch other episodes before thinking about viewing this one again.

I can understand that. And there are so many truly great episodes I can understand how you could avoid rewatching it for so long. Hopefully you'll find some good things if you do get round to rewatching. I thought the first act leading up to the murder was really good.

Probably the three worst examples of ghastly padding scenes in Columbo, although there maybe others that are so bad that I've tried to forget them.

I have a feeling I'll still come up against one or two as the new episodes continue.

 

[darkshadows38]

to me they are tv movies not episodes because Generally if a program is 90 minutes long it's a movie though there are exceptions when it's a tv show that normally is an hr long and you have a Finale or a Season Premiere that is 2 hrs long.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

to me they are tv movies not episodes because Generally if a program is 90 minutes long it's a movie though there are exceptions when it's a tv show that normally is an hr long and you have a Finale or a Season Premiere that is 2 hrs long.

When I first started writing about the regular series I had a bit of a debate with myself over semantics. It felt strange to me at first to write about episodes, but now that I'm 70% of the way through, I've grown used to using it for simplicity's sake. I also did a bit of looking round, and sites like IMDb and Columbophile refer to "episodes".

Technically it may be a series of TV films, but then individual films in certain long-running film series can also be referred to as an episode. In Columbo's case, each is under a broader series title and shown on a regular day/time to fit in with regular TV seasons, so it fits the TV series umbrella, and that comes with a particular terminology.

Perhaps "instalment" might be more appropriate since it's used to describe both films and TV series episodes (and I've occasionally used that term her for Columbo), but at this point I'll probably keep referring to episodes for convenience.

 

[darkshadows38]

to me they are tv movies but if you did a show like Murder She wrote that's a show with episodes. and yes IMDB does consider them as episodes i wonder if they had trouble as well? so they just saw screw it we are doing it this way

 

[Mel O'Drama]

IMDB does consider them as episodes i wonder if they had trouble as well? so they just saw screw it we are doing it this way

Possibly. IMDb does have a specific language when it comes to this sort of thing.

It really bothers me that they describe all British shows as having "seasons" when very few British series use this term. Apart from those making a conscious bid to appeal to fans of American shows, most British productions are split up into "series" rather than "seasons".

 

[Angela Channing]

Although I can see why some people might think of Columbo episodes as being individual films, I generally think of TV movies as being a one off event rather than a group of productions shown in the same time slot over a number of weeks. For me it's more of a case of whether they were broadcast as a package over a fixed period of time rather than the length of the production. If Columbo was screened at random times with several months between episodes then they would feel more like individual films but because you could tune in at the same time every week to catch a new episode then I would argue it was broadcast as a series with individual episodes.

 

[Mel O'Drama]

For me it's more of a case of whether they were broadcast as a package over a fixed period of time rather than the length of the production. If Columbo was screened at random times with several months between episodes then they would feel more like individual films but because you could tune in at the same time every week to catch a new episode then I would argue it was broadcast as a series with individual episodes.

Yes. That's similar to my reasoning.

The feature-length and the fact that I first saw many of the Seventies episodes during random occasional repeats has always made them feel like films to me. Plus the quality of episodes gives it a cinematic flavour. But looking into the scheduling and the regular slot it had for new instalments means the "episode" description works.

Still, while I call them "episodes" for convenience, there's a really good argument for calling them films as well. Especially since many of the originals aired under the "Mystery Movie" banner.

I wonder what the split is among viewers of the series between calling them "films" and "episodes".