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Tag: Stephen Bochco

Steven Spelberg

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?

Murder is Bad, but Suicide is Sadder

Episode Card_S01E03 (Ep 3)

Mallory Ortberg (the-toast.net) joins Jon and RJ to discuss “Etude in Black,” which features John Cassavetes as an orchestra conductor who murders his mistress/concert pianist. It’s up to Columbo to unravel how and why the maestro staged the woman’s death as an apparent suicide. Also involved- his long-suffering wife, Blythe Danner; her very, very wealthy mother, Myrna Loy; a precocious neighbor kid; and a drunk, hothead trumpeter.

Also discussed (among other things):

– Mallory’s wonderful essay, The Case For Making Columbo America’s Doctor Who.

– That time Cassavetes, Falk and Ben Gazarra went on The Dick Cavett show in 1970 and were kind of drunk jerks.