Press "Enter" to skip to content

Tag: Robert Culp

The Mind String and How to Pull It

The podcast has finally come around to its final Robert Culp episode, “Double Exposure.” In it, Culp plays Dr. Bart Kepple, an expert in psychological manipulation who uses subliminal filmmaking (with salty expensive snacks and a gun) to murder with his first victim. The second one? He just shoots the guy in a projection booth, nothing too fancy. Joining in is author Jeannie Vanasco (The Glass Eye), who also speaks about her personal experience with the series through her relationship with her father. And hey! Viewer Mail!

Daddy’s Here!

So, this pilot for Mrs. Columbo,  this “Word Games.” It has Kate Mulgrew. It has Robert Culp. It has Edie Adams. It has Bob Dishy. It has a host of other good people. It has the car. It has Dog. It does not have Columbo. But, it also has a great deal of unpleasantness. A great deal of missed opportunity. The whole thing is just odd and confounding, so much so that Jon and RJ actually go through an episode in chronological order FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER. Historian and author Amanda Reyes (Are You In The House Alone?: A TV Movie Compendium 1964-1999) is back on the program, to help sort through the whole mess. If you’d like to see for yourself, it’s on YouTube.

Hockey’s for Penguins

title_the-most-crucial-game

“The Most Crucial Game” has ace Columbo foe Robert Culp as the frustrated manager of a sports team empire. When he sees a chance to kill the heir to the family business, he dresses as an ice cream man and puts the party animal on ice. But, not for any real motive that we can actually determine. The episode has a lot of things going for it- beautiful direction, great performances, nice individual scenes, a good score, but the parts just don’t quite come together. Author Glen Erik Hamilton (Past CrimesHard Cold Winter) is on the program to pick out just why it all doesn’t seem to add up.

CRMNOLG

tumblr_nz04xxufPk1tgud0do1_1280

In the later episode, “Columbo Goes to College,”  Columbo goes to a college. There you go.

Wait, no, there’s more- while Columbo’s at the college, guest lecturing before a criminology course, the professor is murdered. Thankfully for justice, the Lieutenant was the one who drew the short straw to be there that night and get the case. Not so thankfully for the two rich frat guys who engineered the murder (Via a gun under the hood of a monster truck?), the Lieutenant was the one who drew the short straw to be there that night and get the case. Also, Robert Culp is sort of in this, but he doesn’t murder anyone, so that’s a bit of a wash. This was not an easy episode. Comedian Richard Massara returns to talk about the whole thing, along with murder cars, buckets of cocaine, and lots of imagined backstory.

It Happened

tumblr_nxlz5b4Fc31tgud0do1_1280

Robert Culp’s first outing as a killer is a really, really good one, the first season’s “Death Lends a Hand.” When an attempt at blackmailing newspaper publisher Ray Milland’s wife turns into murder, private detective Culp makes sure that his firm is involved in the investigation. Of course, he doesn’t count on Columbo being assigned to the case and his attempts to derail the inquiry never trick the Lt. for one second. Hollywood personality J.D. Ryznar (Yacht Rock, Drunk History) joins Jon and RJ to break it all down.