I am tickled to see that episodes of *Columbo *are available on Netflix-on-Demand. I’ve been settling down with him for a few nights in a row now.
The On-Demand service actually lets you play one episode at a time, which is awesome. So I watched episodes 1, 2 and 3 of season 4. I’ll be watching episodes 5 and 6 later. But, Netflix says episode 4 (Troubled Waters") is not available on demand.
Any speculation as to why that is? Do you think Netflix has to get specific releases for each episode?
I don’t know, but per Wiki, it’s the only episode where anyone other than Columbo confirms seeing his wife. Also its one of two episodes directed by Ben Gazzara, so if the other (A Friend in Deed) is also unavailable, maybe that’s the reason…
Must … control … red … pen …
Just checked out Season 5 too. “Forgotten Lady,” “Mrs. Columbo: Caviar with everything” and “Identity Crisis” (1, 3 and 4) aren’t available either.
They all have different directors.
I’m not heartbroken - they ARE available on DVD through Netflix. But with this whole writer’s strike thing it’s interesting to think about the different kinds of releases that need to be signed and rules that need to be made up for different ways to show content.
KneadToKnow - educate me, baby. I won’t be offended.
I think he’s saying it’s a double negative. “Isn’t” plus “not.”
Right on, mobo85. My bad. I had a hard time coming up with the right short, descriptive sentence for my title, as you can see.
I apologize 
Correct, but it’s only a problem because the question you actually wanted the answer to was “Why is this episode of Columbo not available on Netflix-on-demand?”
I reported myself to the Mods, for being a dumbass. Maybe they’ll fix it for me. For all of us.
Title edited at the request of the OP.
A standard problem with old TV shows is music rights. (WKRP is the nightmare example of this.)
If there was music integral to the episode that couldn’t easily be overdubbed with generic (made for hire) music, then the cost of getting rights to re-air the episode (or redo the necessary parts) might be too high.
There can also be problems if there are clips from other things shown. E.g., an old movie on a TV in the background. But this is usually far less of a problem since the rights cost a lot less for clips than music.
Malcoml in the Middle is another great example of this. Only season one is on DVD because of the amount of sampled music they used.
Ah, yes, that would make sense. “Forgotten Lady” had Janet Leigh’s old movie Walkin’ My Baby Back Home, and “Troubled Waters” had the song “Volare” (is that still under copyright?). I forget what “Identity Crisis” had as far as movies or songs…
I had a feeling it had to do with use of third party copyrights, but I wasn’t sure how to figure it out. I also couldn’t recall if I’d ever seen any sort of thing in Columbo - usually the music is scored just for the episode IIRC.
The owners of Walkin’ My Baby Back Home were probably flummoxed when someone called and asked if they could use their movie in an episode of an old TV show to be shown online. “What? We already gave the rights for the goddamn DVD two years ago! Online whatnow? Let’s just say ‘No’ and leave it at that!”
is anyone willing to list all of the columbo episodes missing from netflix?