# I'm rewatching every episode of Columbo **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted\ **Created:** [October 27, 2021, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-rewatching-every-episode-of-columbo/953309 "2021-10-27T12:45:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2021, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-rewatching-every-episode-of-columbo/953309/81 "2021-11-04T21:50:18Z")
> [@Author\_Balk](#): > > I mentioned No Time to Die earlier in the thread. It’s one of two that I skip. The story is from an Ed McBain novel. The other one I see from your earlier post is Undercover, which I have up next. Eh, I’ll watch it. I’m a completist. ---
**Author:** ![Author\_Balk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Author\_Balk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Author_Balk)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2021, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-rewatching-every-episode-of-columbo/953309/82 "2021-11-04T21:55:01Z")
Undercover is also from an Ed McBain book (note: the next book on my reading list is an Ed McBain book. I do like the books). It’s better than No Time to Die, but still one i skip. And personally I would never watch a whole series except for one or two episodes, so I understand the need to watch it. But, it’s not a typical Columbo episode. ---
**Author:** ![Author\_Balk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Author\_Balk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Author_Balk)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2021, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-rewatching-every-episode-of-columbo/953309/83 "2021-11-04T22:06:57Z")
I just thought of something about Undercover. You said you are watching from Tubi. I have the series on DVD. On DVD Shera Danese (Peter Falk’s wife in real life) says “bullshit”. It was edited out for network TV. I’m curious what version they have on Tubi. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2021, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-rewatching-every-episode-of-columbo/953309/84 "2021-11-05T01:23:18Z")
I’ll let you know! ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2021, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-rewatching-every-episode-of-columbo/953309/85 "2021-11-05T06:19:27Z")
The thing about Last Salute is that it actually had a strong central concept, which _could_ have made a great episode, but was ruined by poor execution. It was originally expected to be the last Columbo story. I guess they wanted to end with a story that completely turns the usual formula on its head. We _think_ we know who the killer is. We see him concealing the evidence of the crime, and assume he’s killer. We forget that we didn’t actually see the murder itself. After the usual cat and mouse, it turns out that (twist no 1) he isn’t guilty after all, he’s covering up for his wife, who (twist #2) isn’t guilty either. Then Columbo has to start again. I can see how they thought it would be a great finale which totally bamboozles the audience. Shame that the details are so forgettable. And I agree that the watch trick is dumb. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2021, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-rewatching-every-episode-of-columbo/953309/86 "2021-11-05T15:50:20Z")
Just wanted to share with everyone a picture of Columbo’s fancy hairdo he got while investigating a case in season 6. It only lasted about one scene until I guess he ruffled it up again but it made me laugh! [[Album] imgur.com ![](https://i.imgur.com/8FKht90.jpeg?fb "imgur.com") ](https://imgur.com/a/2SGVCcX) ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2021, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-rewatching-every-episode-of-columbo/953309/87 "2021-11-05T16:25:25Z")
That’s some '70s hair, alright. Even better than Bill Shatner’s. 🤭 Isn’t that Ross Martin he’s talking to? Even when he was Artemus Gordon in _ **Wild, Wild, West** _, it was obvious he wore a toupe too. A couple of personal anecdotes about “Forgotten Lady”: I watched it on Russian TV on a Saturday night 20-odd years ago. (_ **Columbo** _ is very popular in Russia, BTW. They’ve been showing it here since the mid-90s at least.) Soon afterward (maybe the same night, or on Sunday), they pulled this flick out of the vaults: > **[Sun Valley Serenade](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Valley_Serenade)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > Sun Valley Serenade is a 1941 musical film directed by H. Bruce Humberstone and starring Sonja Henie, John Payne, Glenn Miller, Milton Berle, and Lynn Bari. It features the Glenn Miller Orchestra as well as dancing by the Nicholas Brothers. It also features Dorothy Dandridge, performing "Chattanooga Choo Choo", which was nominated for an Oscar for Best Song, was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1996, and was awarded the first Gold Record ... Both shows, of course, featured the actor John Payne. In December 2008 (my first Christmas in Canada), my daughter and I watched “Forgotten Lady” and _ **Miracle on 34th Street** _ in quick succession. Again, both featured John Payne. Synchronicity strikes again! ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2021, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-rewatching-every-episode-of-columbo/953309/88 "2021-11-05T18:54:57Z")
> [@Author\_Balk](#): > > On DVD Shera Danese (Peter Falk’s wife in real life) says “bullshit”. It was edited out for network TV. I’m curious what version they have on Tubi. I can confirm that Tubi showed the PG-rated version in which Shera Danese utters an unexpurgerated ‘bullshit’. Yeah, the Ed McBain-inspired ‘Undercover’ is another Columbo genre-breaker that didn’t really do it for me, though I agree it was better than ‘No Time to Die’. It was kind of enjoyable watching Falk as Columbo play an undercover hard-boiled underworld type. But I watch for the cat-and-mouse games with the murderers. ETA: not to hijack my own thread, but I noticed Tubi also carries all of the original Fantasy Islands. I have no desire to rewatch that, other than maybe a couple episodes as a nostalgia / irony watch, but I was hoping it also included the original pilot. It looks like it doesn’t though. The first FI ep that Tubi shows is 40-some minutes long, but I distinctly remember a FI ‘Movie of the Week’ that was 1 1/2 hours, similar to a Columbo episode, which was more gritty and realistic than what the series would become. The fantasies were all stage illusions in the pilot, not actual magic, and one of the guests kept having dangerous close calls. It finally turned out one of Mr. Roarke’s workers behind the scenes had a grudge against the guest and had been trying to kill him. At the end the worker was about to kill the guest in person, saying ‘the hell with you’ and suddenly Roarke flies in on a helicopter with a shotgun, casually hops out and says in his rich Corinthian accent “no, Mr. \_\_\_\_, the hell with _ **you** _”. I’d love to find that original pilot MOTW ep. Anybody else remember that? ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2021, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-rewatching-every-episode-of-columbo/953309/89 "2021-11-05T19:16:52Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > ( _ **Columbo** _ is very popular in Russia, BTW. That figures. My dad always compared Columbo to a KGB agent. Hound someone, guilty or innocent\* until they break down. \* fortunately, in the series, they were all guilty. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2021, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-rewatching-every-episode-of-columbo/953309/90 "2021-11-05T19:37:53Z")
I think it’s his shabby clothes and junkyard car that appeal to Russians. Those and his dog. A family in my building had a basset hound they used to take walkies every evening. The mutt stank to high heaven and fouled the air in the elevator. Phew! 🤢 ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2021, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-rewatching-every-episode-of-columbo/953309/91 "2021-11-05T19:44:00Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I think it’s his shabby clothes and junkyard car that appeal to Russians. Perhaps also the connection with the Dostoevsky character Porfiry Petrovitch, as discussed earlier in this thread, no? ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2021, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-rewatching-every-episode-of-columbo/953309/92 "2021-11-05T19:46:56Z")
I’m sure they see that connection too. The movie in the link up above is a classic. I have an article on _ **Columbo** _ that I photocopied from a Russian paper or magazine ages ago. I’ll dig it out and see if there are any bits worth posting here. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2021, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-rewatching-every-episode-of-columbo/953309/93 "2021-11-05T20:37:10Z")
Found it! It’s from the 13 February 1998 issue of _ **Komsomol’skaya pravda** _, the youth edition of _ **Pravda** _ that allegedly published the review of _ **Star Trek** _ which led to the introduction of a Russian crew member (Chekov) on the _Enterprise_ (I’d have to get into the Lenin Library to confirm that). It’s only a page long, but in very small type. One section is labeled “The Main Attributes of Lieutenant Columbo.” Very briefly, these are: - Columbo’s cigar, cheap and foul-smelling. - Columbo’s wife, a woman whom no one has ever seen. - Columbo’s raincoat—a simple raincoat, but very old and rumpled. Clearly inspired by the _Film Noir_ genre. - Columbo’s car, a Peugot 403 that Falk chose himself after seeing the top sticking out from among other automobiles’. - Columbo’s dog, a basset named “Dog.” The original died while the series was being filmed, and his replacement was so much younger he had to have make-up applied. - Columbo’s eye–or, rather, Peter Falk’s. Falk lost his eye to cancer while still a young child. He said the glass eye was uncomfortable at first, but he got used to it. (There’s also a story about when Falk was in the Merchant Marine and someone asked why a such a young man chose to become a sailor. He told the man it was because of problems with his health—he was falling to pieces! He then pulled out his dental bridgework and glass eye and put them on the table. When he offered (as a joke) to unscrew his wooden leg, the guy ran away.) Falk apparently did not want either the car or the dog—he thought Columbo had enough gimmicks already. But he changed his mind when he saw both. When I have time, I’ll see if I can post this article somewhere for those who read Russian. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2021, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-rewatching-every-episode-of-columbo/953309/94 "2021-11-05T20:53:28Z")
I just realized he article is titled “Columbo: The Sword of Justice.” Good one , that! 👍 ---
**Author:** ![abcdefghij](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/43a26b/32.png) [@abcdefghij](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abcdefghij)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2021, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-rewatching-every-episode-of-columbo/953309/95 "2021-11-06T01:32:02Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > That figures. My dad always compared Columbo to a KGB agent. Hound someone, guilty or innocent\* until they break down. In Soviet Russia, guilt hounds **you** ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2021, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-rewatching-every-episode-of-columbo/953309/96 "2021-11-06T18:22:35Z")
We have to remember the great opening music and credits for the original mystery series. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/8VI9mUyG_f0/hqdefault.jpg ""NBC Sunday Mystery Movie" TV Intro") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VI9mUyG_f0) ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2021, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-rewatching-every-episode-of-columbo/953309/97 "2021-11-07T17:18:16Z")
Wow, that takes me back. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2021, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-rewatching-every-episode-of-columbo/953309/98 "2021-11-08T14:51:03Z")
I just watched two episodes in which a suspect in one episode had the same last name as the actual murderer in the next episode, and it is my last name! I had remembered about the first episode, but I don’t think I’d ever seen the one where the murderer had my last name. Columbo said it over and over again. Weird! ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2021, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-rewatching-every-episode-of-columbo/953309/99 "2021-11-08T15:31:59Z")
Ahhhh, excuse me ZipperJJ, just one more thing… ---
**Author:** ![ch51](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ch51/32/3111_2.png) [@ch51](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ch51)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2021, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-rewatching-every-episode-of-columbo/953309/100 "2021-11-08T18:44:39Z")
I assume that’s just Mr. JJ. Uh, Mr. JJ, just one more thing … [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-rewatching-every-episode-of-columbo/953309.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-rewatching-every-episode-of-columbo/953309.md?page=6)