Press "Enter" to skip to content

Category: Episode

These People, They Go To Bed Here?

Episode24_SexAndTheMarriedDetective

Have you ever thought about what kind of dessert you are? No? Perhaps that’s for the best, because the answer to that question drives sex therapist Lindsay Crouse (rice pudding) to murder her business partner/lover and develop a bit of a split personality in “Sex and the Married Detective.” It’s the third episode of Columbo‘s 80s-90s run and, well, it isn’t the best example of the series. Goodness, that tuba scene. Thankfully, guest “Hollywood” Steve Huey (Yacht Rock, VH1) was more than game to watch Lt. Columbo visit a sex room multiple times.

Look How Dr. Irving Is Sewing up That Colon

Episode Card_A Stitch In Crime

“A Stitch in Crime” features Leonard Nimoy as Dr. Barry Mayfield, who commits two murders and purposefully botches a heart operation, all to get some revolutionary surgical technique out to the world before someone else does. Columbo has to work past his fear of hospitals and people’s open guts in order to figure out how to trap the doc in the act. Zack Handlen (AV Club) is on the show for some deep analysis and to help Jon and RJ figure out what kind of murderers they look like.

I’m Your Hairy Little Teddy Bear

Episode Card_Lovely But Lethal

In “Lovely But Lethal,” Vera Miles is Viveca Scott, a cosmetics magnate who needs a miracle product to keep her company from going under. When researcher Martin Sheen is discovered taking the formula to the competition, she murders him with the most deadly weapon known to mankind – a microscope. Throw in an alkie chemist, some Vincent Price, a little Bruce Kirby and oh, hey, another killing (this time, by poisoned cigarette) and no amount of foundation can cover up the blemishes of subterfuge and murder. Maybe Columbo’s some sort of cold cream of justice? Sure, let’s go with that. Elle Collins (Into It) helps Jon and RJ sort the whole thing out.

You Must Belong in Some Pig Sty!

Episode Card_Double Shock

You get twice the Martin Landau for the price of one admission, as he plays murderous twin brothers in “Double Shock.” One’s a devil-may-care host of a TV cooking show, the other’s a staid banker with a crippling gambling addiction. It’s up to Columbo to figure out how they’re tag teaming their killings. Along the way, he also has to deal with a cantankerous housekeeper and an awfully weird Julie Newmar. Abed Gheith (Rick and Morty, Channel 101) joins Jon and RJ to talk about the episode and many, many other digressions.

A Blue Horse

 

TitleCard_Suitable For FramingIn “Suitable For Framing,” Ross Martin is an art critic who kills his uncle in an elaborate plot to gain control of the old man’s valuable art collection. Jon did not like this. Returning guest Manning Krull and RJ did. It is sometimes odd and Don Ameche’s voice is like smooth, smooth velvet. Anyway, this edition of the podcast reveals both Jon and RJ’s depressing origins for knowing about all of this pop culture junk! Fun!

Let’s Go to the Party, Carl

TitleCard_Make Me A Perfect Murder

In “Make Me a Perfect Murder,” Trish Van Devere is a network TV up-and-comer who figures she’ll get her big break once her boss/special night friend is put in charge of the entire joint. That does not happen, so she shoots him dead and concocts a plan for escaping discovery with far too many moving parts. Fighting through a case of whiplash, Columbo is able to figure through the whole thing. Also, Lainie Kazan plays some Judy Garland analogue? Donna Bowman (The AV Club) and Noel Murray (The DissolveThe AV Club) join Jon and RJ for the hugs and neck rubs.

Shall We Compare Poverty Stories?

ep18_titlecard

Ruth Gordon is mystery novelist and playwright Abigail Mitchell, in season seven’s “Try and Catch Me.” When Mitchell’s beloved niece dies in a boating incident, she suspects murder. When the police fail to find evidence of foul play, she does the next natural thing- killing the niece’s husband by locking him in a vault. Everyone does that, right? Myke Chilian (Uncle Grandpa, Rick and Morty, Channel 101) joins Jon and RJ to see how Columbo could find such a sweet old lady to be such a cold-blooded killer.

Artie Stokes. Salt Lake City.

EP17_titlecard

“Undercover” is not a typical Columbo, by any stretch of the imagination. Columbo carries a gun. The mystery (such as it is) isn’t solved until the end. There’s no one central murder. He kind of has a partner. A lot of this is due to it being based on an Ed McBain 87th Precinct novel. But still, why on earth…? And the whole Tyne Daly thing? Anyway, Jon, RJ and returning guest Leonard Pierce (leonardpierce.com) try to figure out why this season 12 episode happened. It is a very, very strange thing.

A Black Mass in San Francisco

Ep16_TitleCard-2

From season six, it’s “The Bye-Bye Sky High I.Q. Murder Case,” in which Columbo has to solve a murder committed at a club for some of the world’s foremost minds that isn’t Mensa. Comedian and podcaster Richard Massara (facebook.com/comedyrich) joins us from the UK to talk about the episode, as well as why the heck Columbo never left their TV sets over the years. Also- Jamie Lee Curtis? Quincy? Jon’s I.Q. at age 11?

I’m Just Another Cop

Episode 15 (Murder By The Book)

For our latest, we go back to Columbo‘s first episode (yes, yes- there was the TV movie and then the pilot, but this is the first episode), directed by a young go-getter named Steven Spielberg. It’s Jack Cassidy’s first turn as a murderous creep, killing his writing partner (Martin Milner), rather than letting him break up the team. Joining us is The AV Club‘s Gwen Ihnat, who wrote a wonderful column about Columbo‘s best episodes a little while ago.