Columbo: Bad Lieutenant

[shiftwork2]

On a slightly related note, I do find myself nodding along with DI Regan and his '70s policing methods' whenever I watch The Sweeney on ITV4.  We're The Sweeney son, and we haven't had any trousers.

[mothman]

I do wonder how many of the killers recanted their confessions as soon as they were properly lawyered up. Few if any were seen to be Mirandaised, onscreen anyway.

[Jerzy Bondov]

What's the best Columbo to start with if you want to watch Columbo?

[pigamus]

Murder by the Book

[Mr Banlon]

Now You See Him

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

What's the best Columbo to start with if you want to watch Columbo?

Columbo 1

[mothman]

Il Giovane Columbano.

[El Unicornio, mang]

If you want to really be completist, start with the 1960 episode of The Chevy Mystery Show featuring Bert Freed as Columbo

[pigamus]

If you want to really be completist, start with the 1960 episode of The Chevy Mystery Show featuring Bert Freed as Columbo

"Oh before the gods that made the gods were born..."

[gmoney]

What's the best Columbo to start with if you want to watch Columbo?

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Columbo

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

1492.

[Sebastian Cobb]

What's the best Columbo to start with if you want to watch Columbo?

Any Old Port in a Storm or Fade Into Murder

[Sonny_Jim]

Any old port in the storm would be my recommendation too.  It's got snooty Donald Pleasance and a good 'pop' clue.

Although the one set in London is quite fun, if only for the ridiculously hammy acting from the two leads.  'Dagger of the mind'.  Stay away from the 90's revival episodes, they are mostly shit.

[phantom_power]

The first one is pretty good as it introduces the character, without much fuss or fanfare, and pretty much sets its stall out from the start, even having the suspect explaining Columbo's methods. It is a bit long maybe at 90ish minutes but never drags

[Sebastian Cobb]

Although the one set in London is quite fun, if only for the ridiculously hammy acting from the two leads.  'Dagger of the mind'.  Stay away from the 90's revival episodes, they are mostly shit.

I found that one too camp, and the constant over-the-top 'left-tenant Columbo'.

The one with Leonard Nimoy as the murderer is good too.

[Sonny_Jim]

And the one with Dick Van Dyke as a photographer.  The early Shatner one is ok, the later one I thought was shit.

EDIT: Also one of the first episodes (maybe the first?) was directed by shark enthusiast Steven Spielberg

EDIT2:  Also the episode on the cruise ship is a great one for Columbo fans.  Plenty of 'hey it's that guy', decent pop clue and it confirms

Spoiler alert

that Columbos wife does actually exist

[close]

[Sebastian Cobb]

The early Shatner one is ok, the later one I thought was shit.

I think that's Fade To Black, the one with the then-new video machine as a plot device. If so, I think it's great.

I think I've only seen part of his other appearance but I think it must be one of the newer 90's ones as he has a mobile phone that's big but not 80's big.

I always get mixed up and think it was Columbo that featured Jack Klugman as a murdering doctor as well but think it was actually Diagnois Murder that pulled that rather on the nose stunt.

[petril]

To be fair, that's most police series. They may not follow the rules but they get results.

same with most series about criminals really

[phantom_power]

EDIT: Also one of the first episodes (maybe the first?) was directed by shark enthusiast Steven Spielberg

It is the first "proper" episode, Murder By the Book, after the Initial one-off and a pilot

[Ignatius_S]

What's the best Columbo to start with if you want to watch Columbo?

You might already be aware of this, but 5USA always show several episodes of Columbo on Sundays. One or two of the ITV channels show them a fair bit as well.

With the best place to start, pretty much any of the 1970s ones are a safe bet but I would recommend not starting with three of these:

Last Salute to The Commodore and Double Shock both play around with the established format and the audience doesn't know who is the villain until the end. Because it's tinkering with the format (as some later episodes need), I would say stick with the classic Columbo structure. As Last Salute, is little more like a traditional murder mystery (e.g. getting together the suspects together before Columbo reveals who done it); personally, I like it a lot but I know others aren't so keen because what they did.

Murder Under Glass was directed by Jonathan Demme, but sadly, I think it's one of the weakest Columbo episodes.  The interaction between Falk and the murderer is weak and and there is too much of the episode where Columbo is going to one posh restaurant after another, being given food to which he says stuff like 'Oh boy, caviar! That's what rich people eat.' The murder is clever but the motive isn't very convincing - this wouldn't really bother me too much normally, but so much of the episode doesn't work that well, it just adds to the list of making it 'okay'.

The two movie pilots are excellent - particularly, Prescription Murder, which was adapted from a stage play (adapted from the television play that had Bert Freed as Columbo).  A 'few' years ago, I saw a production with Dirk Benedict as Columbo and it was easy to see why the play was so successful.

Murder by the Book, which has been mentioned, is the first episode in earnest and as pigamus says, it's a brilliant one. Jack Cassidy (who is in other episodes) is one of my favourite murderers in the series and this episode was directed by Steven Spielberg (in another episode, they use his name for a boy genius).

Although there is some disparaging of when Columbo came back in the tail end of the 1980s), there are some genuinely excellent episodes and overall, the show in those years is better than opinion often indicates. Personally, I've found quite a few better than I first thought and some criticism (e.g. playing with the format) isn't unique to that period.

That said, some later episodes do feel padded and I feel losing certain scenes, such as when Columbo plays the tuba, wouldn't have been an awful decision. Also it's hard not to compare the murderous actors with the ones from the 1970s and wanting a few more starry ones - also, the characters can feel a little bland in comparison. Funnily enough, the later ones look and feel more dated to me than the 1970s. Partly because of the way things were edited and elements that technology (e.g. pagers) that were very 'now' and being part of the plot,  it now are a curiosity.

[Icehaven]

You might already be aware of this, but 5USA always show several episodes of Columbo on Sundays. One or two of the ITV channels show them a fair bit as well.

That's where I've been watching them, but my god the adverts are annoying and drag it all out to 2 hours. Not that Columbo itself drags, but it's a big commitment when there's 3 or 4 in a row, you can literally sit there for 6+ hours. Dunno if they're on Channel Five's catchup service, they might be.

[Natnar]

Try and Catch Me is my favourite Columbo episode. It's the one with Ruth Gorden and the walk in safe. The murderer is quite sympathetic and there's the added backstory of the victim being a possible murderer too.

[pigamus]

Yes - she's brilliant and Falk visibly ups his game when they're together, a brilliant episode.

My favourites are probably A Stitch in Crime, Playback and How to Dial a Murder. Blueprint for Murder is underrated too.

[An tSaoi]

I could never be one of those people who remembers the proper titles of episodes. More power to you.

I like the wine one with Blofeld. And the chess one. And the one where yer man from the Prisoner is an Army officer. Can't remember what happened, but something to do with a cannon. He was in a few of them wasn't he? I think he was Irish in one. Wasn't impressed. I don't like the one where you don't see whodunnit at the start, as mentioned earlier.

Speaking of Spielberg, I vaguely remember one were the murderer is a young film director. Were they having a go at him, or was it an affectionate piss-take?

[pigamus]

No I know what you mean, I had to look them up.

The Leonard Nimoy one
The mad German clapping his hands to open doors one
The 'Rosebud' one
The architect one
The I'm a mad Oirish poet Lieutenant so I am one
The chess one

[chveik]

now I wish there was an episode where he smokes heroin with prostitutes and blackmails drug dealers

[El Unicornio, mang]

EDIT2:  Also the episode on the cruise ship is a great one for Columbo fans.  Plenty of 'hey it's that guy', decent pop clue and it confirms

Spoiler alert

that Columbos wife does actually exist

[close]

Not canon, but
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mrs._Columbo

It has been speculated that an additional reason for the character revision is the fact that Mulgrew was aged only 23 when the first season was broadcast (and perhaps younger still when it was filmed), meaning that when Columbo originally premiered in 1968, the detective was married to a 12 year old who immediately conceived a daughter.

Also the fan theory that Columbo murdered his wife, that would have made a pretty dark final episode of the series.

[pigamus]

There's a scene in one episode where he's talking to an underage girl and she says to him something like, 'Do you want me for my body or my mind?'

It's fairly horrible

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

And the one where yer man from the Prisoner is an Army officer. Can't remember what happened, but something to do with a cannon. He was in a few of them wasn't he? I think he was Irish in one. Wasn't impressed.

You weren't impressed with the Irish-American actor Patrick McGoohan's Irish accent?

But yeah, he guest-starred as the killer on a record four occasions.

[Sebastian Cobb]

There's a scene in one episode where he's talking to an underage girl and she says to him something like, 'Do you want me for my body or my mind?'

It's fairly horrible

That's grim. Most of the time he talks about Mrs Columbo with the sort of genuine affection that implied even if he knew the love was unrequited and the marriage was a sham, he'd still stand by her.