Shatner/Koenig/Columbo

[RobertScorpio]

I recently got seasons six and seven of Columbo. I watched the episode with Shatner as the actor who kills his producer lady friend. I had seen this years and years ago. But I totally forgot that Koenig appears in this episode, along with a couple others, as Columbo's side kick or something like that.

Koenig did not have a scene with Shatner. But in one of the scenes at Shatner's characters house you can see a sketch drawing of Kirk just behind Shatner's character at one point.

Though it is an okay episode, it was not nearly as good as Nimoy's Columbo episode. He plays a doctor who trys to kill his doctor friend (played by Grandpa Walton)

SCORPIO

 

[EnsignHarper]

Is that the one where the whole episode revolves around that new fangled invention, the video cassette recorder?

 

[The Laughing Vulcan]

There's another Shatner appearance as a murderer in nu-Columbo, where the Shat appears as a shock-jock. Ithink it was made in 1998 or 99.

 

[Crewman47]

Didn't Shatner around a half dozen characters in Columbo, and weren't they all bad guy characters who had all killed someone?

It's kind of funny knowing that in the world of Columbo there are nearly a half dozen criminals in jail who all look like the same due to the fact they were all portrayed by Bill Shatner.

 

[Michael]

^ According to IMDB Shatner made only two appearances on Columbo. In "Fade in to Murder" (1976) and "Butterfly in Shades of Grey" (1993).

 

[The Squire of Gothos]

Is that the one where the whole episode revolves around that new fangled invention, the video cassette recorder?

Yup, I remember thinking how it was incredibly bulky looking when I saw it first as a kid in my grandfather's house.

 

[Christopher]

I recently got seasons six and seven of Columbo. I watched the episode with Shatner as the actor who kills his producer lady friend. I had seen this years and years ago. But I totally forgot that Koenig appears in this episode, along with a couple others, as Columbo's side kick or something like that.

Koenig plays "Sgt. Johnson," a very minor role, not Columbo's sidekick at all. There were a couple of episodes where they tried to give Columbo a sidekick character, but this wasn't one of them (although the immediately preceding one, the fifth-season finale, was).

Though it is an okay episode, it was not nearly as good as Nimoy's Columbo episode.

Oh, I think "Fade in to Murder" is fantastic, one of the best. The Nimoy episode was good, but not this good.

Didn't Shatner around a half dozen characters in Columbo, and weren't they all bad guy characters who had all killed someone?

No, only two. The actor who played the most Columbo villains was Patrick McGoohan (2 in the original series, 2 in the revival), followed by Robert Culp (3 killers in the original, plus a killer's father in the revival) and Jack Cassidy (3 killers, all in the original). But Shatner and George Hamilton are the only 2-time killers in Columbo (once in each series in both cases). Although Falk's wife Shera Danese, who appeared 6 times in the series overall, twice played an accomplice of the killer.

 

[cooleddie74]

Is that the one where the whole episode revolves around that new fangled invention, the video cassette recorder?

Yep. That one. Shatner's actor character has one of those big metal top-loading VCRs from the mid-to-late '70s in his trailer or home.

 

[RobertScorpio]

yes..the big old VCR. I wonder if it was beta. I hope they release his later appearence on Columbo too. I think, maybe I'm wrong, but is he the only person to have played the bad guy twice on Columbo?

Rob

 

[Michael]

I think, maybe I'm wrong, but is he the only person to have played the bad guy twice on Columbo?

Voilà:

The actor who played the most Columbo villains was Patrick McGoohan (2 in the original series, 2 in the revival), followed by Robert Culp (3 killers in the original, plus a killer's father in the revival) and Jack Cassidy (3 killers, all in the original). But Shatner and George Hamilton are the only 2-time killers in Columbo (once in each series in both cases).

 

[cooleddie74]

yes..the big old VCR. I wonder if it was beta. I hope they release his later appearence on Columbo too. I think, maybe I'm wrong, but is he the only person to have played the bad guy twice on Columbo?

Rob

Nope.

Jack Cassidy(David's dad), Patrick McGoohan and Robert Culp all played killers in at least three apiece from the '70s through the '90s.

 

[RobertScorpio]

I didn't remember Koenig being on Columbo. How many did he do? What was your favorite Columbo? Mine is Nimoy's stint.

 

[flandry84]

Yup,actually remember The Shat's first Columbo foray....not bad at my age.
Columbo-"Yes,you wiped clean the gun,but you forgot the bullets" exellent.
Gee,Columbo must have the worst conviction rate in the entire LAPD.Los Angeles,where even DNA evidence can't secure a conviction,and here comes LT.Columbo,his evidence-some guy commits a murder,then forgets to reset the clock or something equally iffy.Priceless

 

[Christopher]

I didn't remember Koenig being on Columbo. How many did he do?

Just the one.

 

[The Squire of Gothos]

Gee,Columbo must have the worst conviction rate in the entire LAPD.Los Angeles,where even DNA evidence can't secure a conviction,and here comes LT.Columbo,his evidence-some guy commits a murder,then forgets to reset the clock or something equally iffy.Priceless

Columbo usually contrives to anger a confession out of a suspect, but half the time there wasn't someone else there to witness it, then I might suspect the confessions to be iffy.

Columbo also treats criminals extraordinarily well, for example offering the wine collector a glass of something he'd bought himself before taking him in.

 

[cooleddie74]

Gee,Columbo must have the worst conviction rate in the entire LAPD.Los Angeles,where even DNA evidence can't secure a conviction,and here comes LT.Columbo,his evidence-some guy commits a murder,then forgets to reset the clock or something equally iffy.Priceless

Columbo usually contrives to anger a confession out of a suspect, but half the time there wasn't someone else there to witness it, then I might suspect the confessions to be iffy.

Columbo also treats criminals extraordinarily well, for example offering the wine collector a glass of something he'd bought himself before taking him in.

COLUMBO always rocked because of the concept and format. We know at the start of each episode or movie who did it. The killer is obvious. We see them commit the crime. The fun is watching a dottering, rumpled middle-aged guy with a lazy eye and a stinking cigar break them down and unravel the cover-up.

 

[Christopher]

The original Columbo story, the play (later TV movie) Prescription Murder, was basically an exploration of how even a "perfect crime" turns out to have small imperfections that can make the whole thing unravel. Its central character was the doctor who committed the murder, with Columbo as a secondary character. Even though the lieutenant stole the show, the basic formula was laid down from the start -- it's not about what will hold up in court, it's about the battle of wits between an arrogant, overconfident killer and the deceptively unassuming little man who ferrets out all the tiny mistakes the killer made. Although sometimes the killers were made more sympathetic, allowing for a different kind of interplay between culprit and detective.

 

[The Squire of Gothos]

The fun is watching a dottering, rumpled middle-aged guy with a lazy eye and a stinking cigar break them down and unravel the cover-up.

True, the best bit always seems to be when Columbo turns on his heel at the last moment to ask that one last question that drives the killer to blunder and reveal himself. "Uh, one more thing sir..." always so damned polite

 

[Christopher]

^^Trivia... the whole "one more thing" business started as an accident. The writers had concluded the scene and then realized they'd forgotten to mention an important plot point. Rather than retyping the whole scene (a harder thing to do with a typewriter than a word processor), they just had Columbo come back in and mention it as an afterthought.

Peter Allan Fields, a former Columbo writer, had Odo use the "one more thing" mannerism when he was questioning a suspect in DS9: "Necessary Evil." Detective Goren on Law and Order: Criminal Intent also uses it frequently.

 

[The Laughing Vulcan]

I would have loved to have seen a crossover episode between Columbo and Perry Mason.

Or would that have meant the end of the universe?