Columbo!!

[RobertScorpio]

I now have the entire series of Columbo on DVD. One of my favorite shows that I didn't really start watching until later on in life. I just love this show, so does my wife. We love to watch the long teaser that shows the killer setting up the crime, and going through great lengths to cover it up.

And then, arriving in his crumpy little car, Columbo (expertly played by Falk) arrives to start his antics.

Both of the WILLIAM SHATNER episodes are great, but the one from the 70s, when he plays an actor on a TV show, is the best of the two.

But my favorite Columbo is with Leonard Nimoy. Nimoy plays a doctor who has some real sinister plans. And since I see Nimoy as Spock (and this was the early 70 when it was made) its cool to watch our favorite Vulcan match wits with Columbo....

What are some of your COLUMBO mysteris???

Rob
Scorpio

 

[Aquehonga]

3 of my favorites, Mr. Scorpio, are the 2 T.J. Hooker ones you mentioned & the 1 with Agent Paris you mentioned also.

Others that spring to mind are the one with the late Mr. Roarke. The episodes with the late Number 6. The episodes with Robert Culp. The one with Dean Spockwell.

Tim O'Connor & Martin Landau were in some memorable ones also.

An episode with Lee Grant is another one.

I could go on & on

Shame on A&E and other cable/satellite networks for not showing COLUMBO anymore

Until very recently COLUMBO aired daily & semi-daily.

BANACEK is a similar show which aired in rotation with COLUMBO back in the 70's.

If you like COLUMBO you'd probably like BANACEK.

A channel based near me I get on my cable system airs BANACEK intermittently. Usually at 12:04am on a weeknight. Sometimes, rarely, on Sunday night at 8: pm.

They also air McMILLAN & WIFE reruns, usually at 12:04am on a weeknight.

Sometimes McCLOUD too, I think

Anyway, if you love COLUMBO {like me}, I think you might like BANACEK, McMILLAN & WIFE and McCLOUD as well

thread

PS: These shows are full of actors & actresses who were on the TZ & TOS

 

[bigdaddy]

I'm pissed off at ABC for not making the final movie that Peter Falk wanted to do several years back to be the finale.

 

[Christopher]

I'm pissed off at ABC for not making the final movie that Peter Falk wanted to do several years back to be the finale.

I'm just glad they made the last one they did make. The one before it, Murder with Too Many Notes, was one of the worst installments of the entire series (which is sad to say since it was Patrick McGoohan's last as a director). Luckily, Columbo Loves the Nightlife was much, much better. It wasn't a finale in any real sense, but at least the series went out on a reasonably high note.

 

[RobertScorpio]

I'm pissed off at ABC for not making the final movie that Peter Falk wanted to do several years back to be the finale.

I'm just glad they made the last one they did make. The one before it, Murder with Too Many Notes, was one of the worst installments of the entire series (which is sad to say since it was Patrick McGoohan's last as a director). Luckily, Columbo Loves the Nightlife was much, much better. It wasn't a finale in any real sense, but at least the series went out on a reasonably high note.

I used to think that CAPTAIN KIRK would never be recasted, and it is for the new movie. Do you think COLUMBO could ever be recasted? Or did FALK create a character that no one could ever take over for???

Rob

 

[bigdaddy]

I think someday we will see a son or grandson of Columbo, did he ever have kids through? Not that would ever stop them.

 

[RobertScorpio]

I think someday we will see a son or grandson of Columbo, did he ever have kids through? Not that would ever stop them.

His wife was Janeway..so maybe...
Rob

 

[Aquehonga]

^, Rob beat me to it bigdaddy!

Arrrrrgggghhhhhh!!!!!

Yup! Kate Mulgrew played Mrs. Columbo. All the details at imdb.com

 

[bigdaddy]

No way?!

I'm a fan of the show, watched it when I was young, but I don't remember a lot of it. She is like 30 years younger than he is!

 

[Christopher]

I used to think that CAPTAIN KIRK would never be recasted, and it is for the new movie. Do you think COLUMBO could ever be recasted? Or did FALK create a character that no one could ever take over for???

Well, Falk was not the first Lt. Columbo. The character originally appeared in "Enough Rope," a 1960 episode of a mystery anthology show, and was played by Bert Freed. "Enough Rope" was expanded into the stage play Prescription: Murder, with elderly character actor Thomas Mitchell in the role of Columbo. When the play was turned into a TV movie, Falk got the job despite the creators' reluctance; they felt he was too young for the role, and would've preferred Lee J. Cobb or Bing Crosby.

Still, Falk made Columbo his own, and it's hard to imagine anyone taking over the character. Any attempt to do so would result in a different character tailored to the new actor's personality and quirks, so they might as well just give the character a different name. (One could make a case that Monk is an inheritor of the Columbo mantle, a mystery series revolving around an eccentric lead character, except that Columbo's a slob and Monk's a neat freak. Also Monk's mysteries generally aren't as good.)

I think someday we will see a son or grandson of Columbo, did he ever have kids through? Not that would ever stop them.

His wife was Janeway..so maybe...

No, she wasn't. The "Mrs. Columbo" played by Kate Mulgrew was way too young and thin to be the wife Lt. Columbo described. It was an idea so bad that even the Mrs. Columbo series itself abandoned it after just five episodes, putting the show on hiatus and retooling it as Kate the Detective (soon changed to Kate Loves a Mystery), with Mulgrew's character becoming the divorced Kate Callahan and all references to Lt. Columbo being dropped. (Eight episodes were made in this format, and only seven were aired.) Needless to say, the real Lt. Columbo was still married to the same woman decades after this in the revival series. It's universally accepted among Columbo fans and creators that Mulgrew's Kate Columbo/Callahan either didn't exist at all or was married to some other LA police lieutenant named Columbo.

TV.com doesn't even list it as Mrs. Columbo, since it had that title so briefly. It's listed under Kate Loves a Mystery.

Interesting, though, how many Columbo guest stars did turns in early Mrs. Columbo. Bob Dishy, Robert Culp, and Donald Pleasance all appeared in the first two episodes. And there are a number of future (and past) Star Trek cast members appearing along with Mulgrew in her multiply-titled show: Rene Auberjonois (twice, as different characters), Ian Abercrombie, Joseph Ruskin, Bibi Besch, Andrew Robinson, Nicholas Coster, Joanne Linville, and Rudy Solari.

 

[Takeru]

Do you think COLUMBO could ever be recasted?

Peter Falk was the third actor to play Columbo, so I have to say yes.

 

[RobertScorpio]

Do you think COLUMBO could ever be recasted?

Peter Falk was the third actor to play Columbo, so I have to say yes.

Okay..you can't just drop that bomb and scurry away..do tell!!!

Rob

 

[Christopher]

^^Err, I already explained that in the post just above Takeru's.

 

[bigdaddy]

Do you think COLUMBO could ever be recasted?

Peter Falk was the third actor to play Columbo, so I have to say yes.

Okay..you can't just drop that bomb and scurry away..do tell!!!

Rob

OK...

I used to think that CAPTAIN KIRK would never be recasted, and it is for the new movie. Do you think COLUMBO could ever be recasted? Or did FALK create a character that no one could ever take over for???

Well, Falk was not the first Lt. Columbo. The character originally appeared in "Enough Rope," a 1960 episode of a mystery anthology show, and was played by Bert Freed. "Enough Rope" was expanded into the stage play Prescription: Murder, with elderly character actor Thomas Mitchell in the role of Columbo. When the play was turned into a TV movie, Falk got the job despite the creators' reluctance; they felt he was too young for the role, and would've preferred Lee J. Cobb or Bing Crosby.

Still, Falk made Columbo his own, and it's hard to imagine anyone taking over the character. Any attempt to do so would result in a different character tailored to the new actor's personality and quirks, so they might as well just give the character a different name. (One could make a case that Monk is an inheritor of the Columbo mantle, a mystery series revolving around an eccentric lead character, except that Columbo's a slob and Monk's a neat freak. Also Monk's mysteries generally aren't as good.)

I think someday we will see a son or grandson of Columbo, did he ever have kids through? Not that would ever stop them.

His wife was Janeway..so maybe...

No, she wasn't. The "Mrs. Columbo" played by Kate Mulgrew was way too young and thin to be the wife Lt. Columbo described. It was an idea so bad that even the Mrs. Columbo series itself abandoned it after just five episodes, putting the show on hiatus and retooling it as Kate the Detective (soon changed to Kate Loves a Mystery), with Mulgrew's character becoming the divorced Kate Callahan and all references to Lt. Columbo being dropped. (Eight episodes were made in this format, and only seven were aired.) Needless to say, the real Lt. Columbo was still married to the same woman decades after this in the revival series. It's universally accepted among Columbo fans and creators that Mulgrew's Kate Columbo/Callahan either didn't exist at all or was married to some other LA police lieutenant named Columbo.

TV.com doesn't even list it as Mrs. Columbo, since it had that title so briefly. It's listed under Kate Loves a Mystery.

Interesting, though, how many Columbo guest stars did turns in early Mrs. Columbo. Bob Dishy, Robert Culp, and Donald Pleasance all appeared in the first two episodes. And there are a number of future (and past) Star Trek cast members appearing along with Mulgrew in her multiply-titled show: Rene Auberjonois (twice, as different characters), Ian Abercrombie, Joseph Ruskin, Bibi Besch, Andrew Robinson, Nicholas Coster, Joanne Linville, and Rudy Solari.

 

[RobertScorpio]

^^Err, I already explained that in the post just above Takeru's.

Sorry Chris, indeed you did. When I ever I come to a thread it defaults to the last post and I didn't see yours...

Isn't LEE COBB the guy who played captain tracey on TREK? He is a great character actor from the time, and would have been interesting as Columbo...

Rob

 

[cooleddie74]

My favorite cop/detective show of ALL TIME.


Got hooked on COLUMBO while in high school when A&E started airing reruns and am still a fanatic to this day(though the original 1968-78 NBC episodes and movies remain my all-time favorite and the late 80s/90s stories on ABC are marginally less entertaining for the most part).

 

[Christopher]

Isn't LEE COBB the guy who played captain tracey on TREK?

No, that was Morgan Woodward. Cobb never appeared on ST, though he had major roles in films like On the Waterfront, 12 Angry Men, and The Exorcist, and he co-starred with William Shatner in 1958's The Brothers Karamazov.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_J._Cobb

 

[Borgminister]

Maybe Steve Martin as the new Columbo, given how well he's handled Peter Seller's old Clouseau role?

 

[cooleddie74]

The actor who played Lee Kelso in "WNMHGB" was in the second COLUMBO movie/episode. The one with Lee Grant. I have several years of the series on disc and the first year had a lot of gems.

I've always been very fond of the Roddy McDowall episode where he's a MENSA-level chemist who concocts the exploding cigar case.

 

[RobertScorpio]

The actor who played Lee Kelso in "WNMHGB" was in the second COLUMBO movie/episode. The one with Lee Grant. I have several years of the series on disc and the first year had a lot of gems.

I've always been very fond of the Roddy McDowall episode where he's a MENSA-level chemist who concocts the exploding cigar case.

walter koenig shows up on a few, and actually does a pretty good bit IMO...

Rob