Columbo - S/D

strange. people keep saying "probably a rights issue" but these were all-new commentaries, presumably commissioned by Kino-Lorber themselves

Weird

maybe they were just really shit lol

In a couple places, I've read it might be related to the current strikes. But that's just speculation.

ah I could believe that

Good news, shared in the BluRay forum:

All is not lost! I'm Jim Benson. When my writing partner Scott Skelton and I recently found out our months of exhaustive research, new interviews, and treasure trove of never-before-revealed facts we uncovered about Columbo were NOT going to appear on the new Blu-Ray release (due to a bizarre technicality) we were devastated. And so were the fans. How could all this amazing content be buried forever, never to see the light of day?

Which gave us an idea for just one more thing: What if we took all that incredible material, added even more that we couldn't fit in the commentaries, including behind-the-scenes photos, news clips, and more...and made it into the greatest TV book of all time? (Just like we did with our ultimate 800-page, nine pound, "Rod Serling's Night Gallery" hardcover coffee table book?)

By popular demand, we've decided to do it. You may not be able to listen to our content, but you WILL be able to read it, in The Ultimate Columbo book!

We did get the Hardy Boys and (my favourite) Alfred Hitchcock's Three Investigators in the UK, but have never even heard of Encyclopaedia Brown before!

― Ward Fowler

i was gratified to look up encyclopedia brown's sidekick, sally kimball, on wikipedia and find that one of the cites is to a work called _The Disappearing L: Erasure of Lesbian Spaces and Culture_. probably my first lesbian crush!

due to a bizarre technicality

I really need to know more about what the fuck this technicality is! It's starting to approach a 'if you name it, a demon sucks your soul away' territory, just say what it is.

*sees softball coming over the plate, takes a swing*
Is a bizarre technicality similar to a bizarre gardening accident?

These episodes are on 5USA tomorrow - any favourites?

10:05 Murder In Malibu (1990)
12:00 Murder - a Self Portrait (1989)
13:55 Short Fuse (1972)
15:25 Murder Under Glass (1978)
17:00 Grand Deceptions (1989)
19:00 Murder, Smoke and Shadows (1989)

Murder Under Glass is pretty fun.

That's the Demme one? It is wonderfully dated, with the worst 1970s food you can imagine.

I wouldn't bother with the ones from 1989+.

I have been known to enjoy some of the later ones, though 70s are generally better of course.

Short Fuse has Roddy McDowall and an unusually tense climax.

Started watching this with our kid, first episode we watched was MURDER BY THE BOOK, directed by Spielberg (!) and really good twisty story with a particularly nasty villain played by Jack Cassidy. Also co-starring Barbara Colby as a lovelorn store owner who blackmails the bad guy in an ill-advised scheme.

Within a few years, and real life, those two guest stars would be tragically killed in a fire and unsolved homicide, respectively, Colby murdered in a random double murder (three episodes into her new supporting role on the first season of the sitcom Phyllis.)

*in real life

have also been watching this, but only selected episodes, the Columbophile blog a good curator

All of the original run is pretty good, I don’t remember a bum episode.

Pretty sure there isn't one.

"Old Fashioned Murder" is pretty weak. Conceit is that the murderer acts older than her age, but Columbo always had old villains so it isn't obvious.

there's an episode set in a "think tank", back when that didn't have crackpot political connotations, with a kid named steve spielberg as a tribute to their boy genius director.

The one where he goes to Jolly Old England is bad

Oh yeah, that one isn't good.

the columbo-goes-to-a-rave episode is exactly as good as you'd expect

i.e. at least 10 times better than the Morse goes to a rave episode

That's right

also just recently started watching this for the first time. it rules so hard. crazy that every episode is over an hour long

^^It was originally presented as part of a series of weekly TV Mystery Movies, rotating in a shared time slot with similar film-length episodic shows like McMillan & Wife with Rock Hudson and Susan Saint James, and McCloud with Dennis Weaver. That's why the seasons seem so short.