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Tag: Season Three

Liquid Filth!

April 2, 2017
15 Comments

Poor Adrian Carsini (Donald Pleasance). When we meet him in “Any Old Port In a Storm,” all he wants is to run the family winery, play the big shot with his wine nerd friends and decant the days away. When Carsini’s playboy half-brother threatens to sell the winery’s land to the Two Buck Chucks up the road, he flies into a rage, mostly killing him with a solid blow to the head, then finishing the job by suffocating him in the wine cellar while jetting off to NYC for the weekend. Columbo coincidences his way into the case when it turns from a missing person gig into a homicide. Steven Goss (Drunk Columbo) joins in to talk about a solid episode from a solid season.

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Still a Lot of Wear in This Fella

December 17, 2016
7 Comments

Politics. No one’s tired of that yet, right? Ha. Ha. Ha. Yeah. So, in “Candidate for Crime,” Jackie Cooper is Nelson Hayward, a US Senate candidate who’s sick and tired of his campaign manager telling him what to do. Does he fire him? Nope, it’s a literal Saturday Night Massacre, as the pol kills him in cold blood, then tries to pin it on a mob assassination attempt. Of course, Columbo doesn’t buy this angle for a minute and engages in a one-man filibuster against…. murder. JD Ryznar (Beyond Yacht Rock) returns to the program to talk about the (rather uneven) episode, Dixieland jazz, the arcane world of writing credits, and oh so much more.

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Pocket-Sized Hemingway

September 10, 2016
10 Comments

title-card_publish-or-perish

When a best selling author tries to leave Riley Greenleaf’s (played by Jack Cassidy) publishing company, the smooth, smarmy operator sees no choice but to have the writer killed, then blow up the creep he hired to do the deed. “Publish or Perish” is the last Jack Cassidy Columbo episode we’ll be covering, and it’s a doozy. Mickey Spillane! Bomb-making books! Bad interior design! Chili with catsup! Alan Fudge! The Valley! Leonard Pierce (leonardpierce.com) returns to the podcast to give it all a good look-over.

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Quid Quo Pro

September 20, 2015
9 Comments

ep26card

In “A Friend in Deed,” (dir. Ben Gazzara!) Richard Kiley is an LA police commissioner who helps a pal cover up the murder of his wife. Then, on top of it, Kiley tries to crisscross-Strangers-on-A-Train the guy into helping with the murder of his wife! Not cool. How does Columbo manage the case when he suspects the boss’ boss’ boss? Pretty well, actually. Author and critic Ron Hogan (Beatrice.com, The Stewardess Is Flying the Plane!: American Films of the 1970s) talks about what is an awfully good episode and our odd meta theories (Did you know that television is an organism? It’s true, ask your pastor!). Plus, Jon & RJ address a recent serious item.

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I’m Your Hairy Little Teddy Bear

July 25, 2015
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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.

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Steven Spelberg

January 18, 2015
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Episode Card_S01E11 (Ep 11)

Think tank head Jose Ferrer applies his brainpower to the equation of murder in “Mind Over Mayhem,” which also sees Columbo assisted by Robby the Robot. No, wait- come back here, it works, it really does. Appropriately, Alex Knapp (who writes the “Robot Overlords” weblog for Forbes) joins Jon and RJ to dissect this tale of deceit, war games, natural gas-powered cars and misunderstood boy geniuses. Also discussed- Warriors gangs. Sure, why not?

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