There’s nothing like a glitzy awards ceremony to bring folk together, amirite? And I can assure you that the following article is nothing like a glitzy awards ceremony, but I hope it will be a talking point for the Columbo community nevertheless.
Having recently completed my eight-year mega journey through all 69 of the dear Lieutenant’s televised escapades, I’m finally in a position to award gongs to the best aspects of Columbo’s ABC years, which comprised 24 episodes over a span of 14 years.
In lieu of said glitzy awards bash, you’ll have to put up with a simple list in which I present 15 virtual awards that recognise the best aspects of new Columbo’s chequered history. These include such accolades as Best Episode; Best Killer; Most Brilliant Crime; Most Sympathetic Killer and so on.
All selections are based purely on my personal preferences, not a public vote, so please don’t jeer too loudly if your favourites aren’t included. Now, let’s wish good luck to all our plucky nominees and get cracking with the awards…
Best Episode – Columbo Goes to College
When Columbo returned to the screen in 1989, a new generation of viewers was given the chance to uncover the charms of the Lieutenant for the first time: a generation perhaps entirely unfamiliar with the concept of the show. For this new audience, one can imagine them tuning into the comeback episodes at the behest of their parents, thinking to themselves: “Who is this clueless Columbo dude? How’s he ever gonna crack the case?”
This is precisely why Columbo Goes to College works. Our frat boy protagonists Justin and Cooper are the very embodiment of that new, skeptical viewer. They look scornfully at the bumbling Lieutenant because they’re young, fearless members of the cool club who believe in their own hype. No way is this doddery old fossil going to outsmart them.
Such a blinkered mindset is the perpetual curse of youth, and it brings our conceited villains down in glorious fashion. But a quality episode needs much more than just a riveting finale and, happily, Columbo Goes to College delivers the goods in just about every category that matters – including a punch-the-air-good appearance by Robert Culp.
A high-energy, hugely enjoyable inter-generational conflict between old hound and young upstarts, this isn’t just good by new Columbo standards – it’s an A-Grade episode regardless of era, and one that definitively proves how sharp and relevant the show and character could still be in this brave new world.
Read my full episode review here.
Highly Commended: Columbo Likes the Nightlife, Agenda for Murder
Most Watchable Killer – Leon Lamarr (Death Hits the Jackpot)
Rip Torn emerges from a messy episode opening to give us one of the most memorable, entertaining and diabolical antagonists of Columbo’s comeback era.
With his hypnotic southern drawl and craggy expressiveness, Torn’s Leon Lamarr is the most fun we’ve had with a killer since the impish Joe Devlin limericked and boozed his way into our hearts in 1978’s The Conspirators. A better comparison, however, would be Jack Cassidy as Riley Greenleaf in Publish or Perish. Both he and Torn were having an absolute scream filming their respective episodes and the joie de vivre is contagious.
Torn feels especially energising after the array of lacklustre killers encountered since the Lieutenant shambled back onto screens two and half years earlier. I doubt that any actor in Columbo’s proud history could have pulled off committing murder while dressed as King George III with such aplomb.
Highly Commended: Oscar Finch (Agenda for Murder), Justin & Coop (Columbo Goes to College)
Best Gotcha – Columbo Goes to College
Never you mind that it’s essentially a rehash of the gotcha from 1974’s A Friend in Deed – the exciting finale to Columbo Goes to College is terrific TV in its own right.
As gotchas go, it’s a bit of a double-whammy. Firstly, Columbo shows the crowd of criminology students how the murder was committed, with a car door remote firing a gun through the air vents on Coop’s rad Hilux hood to shatter a dummy’s head into a million pieces. This elicits not a flicker of a confession from the dastardly duo, of course, and the other dim-witted students seem strangely incapable of deducing that this experiment essentially totally proves they did it!
It’s not until Columbo reveals that the car Justin and Coop had planted the murder weapon in (to incriminate a hired goon) was really Mrs Columbo’s car that the wily Lieutenant had tricked the boys into using that their guilt is made crystal clear. Only Justin and Coop had information on the car, ergo only Justin and Coop could be guilty of the crime.
Given the context of the episode placing Columbo in a position of educator to would-be defence or prosecution lawyers, his falling back on to a method he used to trap his own boss in one of his most triumphant cases of the 70s seems entirely apt.
Highly Commended: Rest in Peace, Mrs Columbo, Agenda for Murder
Most Underrated Episode – Columbo Likes the Nightlife
An episode that’s easy to write off as a flashy attempt to compete with the CSIs of the world while appealing to a younger demographic, Columbo Likes the Nightlife’s underground rave scene backdrop and techno soundtrack is unlikely to appeal to purists.
Despite that, though, Nightlife successfully rolls back the years and cuts the gimmicks to deliver a fast-paced and taut murder mystery that plays is straight and reinstates Lieutenant Columbo as the razor-sharp lone wolf we knew and loved in the 70s.
It was Falk’s best performance in years and allowed the Columbo character to enter into televisual retirement with his head held high. If you’ve not watched this one for a while, it’s well worth revisiting with an open mind.
Highly Commended: Columbo Cries Wolf
Best Non-Gotcha Scene – Dimitri’s despair
Fast forward to 56.50 minutes into Rest in Peace, Mrs Columbo and you’ll encounter four remarkable minutes of television that put the plight of one of the series’ most ostensibly despicable killers into stunning perspective.
A quiet, slow-burner of a scene shows us that Vivian Dimitri – the woman who tries to kill Columbo and his wife – is so much more than a common-or-garden bunny boiler with vengeance issues. Instead, she’s a vulnerable, desperate creature who is riven with despair following the death of her husband in jail some years earlier.
In a rarity for the series, a pivotal character moment is given adequate time to breathe and to allow the viewer to see the villain laid bare to their very soul. First, she sheds lone tears as she watches a montage of images of her with her late husband during happier times. Then, after a phone bust-up with her current squeeze, the despondency within Vivian gushes forth as she sways rhythmically to a sax-laden rendition of It Had to Be You before crumpling to the floor in tears.
With gorgeous direction that has Vivian dancing in the light of a projected image of her husband, the scene has a cinematic majesty that is unique for the series, and which gives a startling – and disturbing – insight into the mental state of a woman who will never get over the cruel hand that life has dealt her.
Highly Commended: Agenda for Murder – ‘You call that a lining?’; Columbo Goes to College – Columbo crashes the frat party
Most Brilliant Crime – Columbo Goes to College
One can only imagine what Justin and Coop could have achieved had their used their incredible brain power for good, not evil. Cancer cures, world peace, faster-than-light travel were all within their grasp. Yet instead they turned their minds to committing remote controlled, televised murder. Ingenious? Yes. A positive contribution to society? Not so much…
Caught cheating on a test by their irascible but brilliant criminology professor, the best buds are facing an uncertain future. They’ll either be flunked out of the course, jeopardising their very futures, or dobbed into their folks, causing them no end of parental grief. Rather than being contrite, the lads decide to get even. So, staging a reason for the professor to head out to a fictional appointment – during a lecture by no less a dignitary than Lieutenant Columbo – their brilliant plot comes to fruition.
Turns out they’ve parked Coop’s rad Hilux truck millimeter-perfectly opposite the professor’s car in the faculty parking lot. A gun has been set to fire through the air vents of the hood at the professor’s exact height, which is fired by the car door remote control being activated once the professor’s head is in the gun sights – as viewed live from the lecture hall via Coop’s handheld TV!
It’s a scheme of breath-taking audacity, and if only the televised footage hadn’t freakishly been broadcast and recorded by a local viewer, they’d surely have gotten away with it. You don’t have to like Justin and Coop, but you’ve got to grudgingly admire their innovative approach to problem solving.
Highly Commended: Uneasy Lies the Crown; Sex and the Married Detective
Most Sympathetic Villain – Lauren Staton (It’s All in the Game)
Although Lauren Staton’s methods of trying to avoid police suspicions (i.e. smooching with the chief investigator) may alienate her from a proportion of viewers, her motives for murder are probably more relatable than any other murderer in the show’s 35-year run.
As an individual, she’s been used by charming, young Italian gigolo, Nick Franco, who is out for her money and nothing else. If that’s not bad enough, Nick is a two-timer whose other love interest is… Lauren’s own daughter Lisa. And, worst of all, he physically abused Lisa, slashed her neck with a razor and threatened to kill her if she revealed the situation to Lauren. We have little reason to doubt he would have carried out his threat, so when the two wronged women combine to put him out of the picture permanently, there can’t have been a damp eye in the house.
In assessing how much compassion we have for Lauren, it all boils down to what you’d be willing to do to protect your child. I’d argue that the vast majority of parents could empathise with her situation – even if the sight of her planting a smacker on Columbo makes us shake our fists at the screen.
Highly Commended: Vivian Dimitri (Rest in Peace Mrs Columbo), Dr Joan Allenby (Sex and the Married Detective)
Best Plot Twist – Columbo Cries Wolf
It’s not often we see Columbo completely floored and outmanoeuvred – but that’s exactly what we get in Columbo Cries Wolf when Dian Hunter makes a triumphant return to the LA media spotlight after being given up for dead.
So clever was the plotting between Dian and business partner Sean Brantley that the Lieutenant firmly believed she had been bumped off. Her reappearance was a genuine stunner for Columbo – as much as it was for the first-time viewer so used to seeing the detective correctly decipher what’s going on behind the scenes. They played him like a fiddle – and he ain’t in the least pleased about it.
Not just a jaw-dropping twist by new Columbo standards, this arguably sits alongside Charles Clay showing up dead in Last Salute to the Commodore as the greatest sleight of hand in the entire series.
Highly commended: Lauren and Lisa’s true relationship revealed (It’s All in the Game); Dolores being the hit-and-run killer of Big Fred (A Bird in the Hand…)
Most Sympathetic Victim – Fernando (A Bird in the Hand…)
There’s simply no more heart-wrenching new Columbo killing than that than of dear, sweet Fernando – the entirely innocent and blameless victim of attempted avunculicide gone wrong.
The Mexican gardener was just trying to be helpful when he produced a spare set of car keys and cheerfully jalloped off to move hit-and-run victim Big Fred’s Rolls Royce out of the way of a queue of cop cars. Little did the groundskeeper realise that a home-made pipe bomb, planted under the car by Big Fred’s good-for-nothing nephew Harold McCain, would send him to a fiery death as soon as he turned the ignition.
The senselessness of Fernando’s death was made all the harder for kind-hearted viewers to accept by the fact that none of the episode’s significant characters mourn his loss, and Columbo never even mentions him again. That’s rough justice.
Highly Commended: Gabe McEnery (Murder With Too Many Notes), Freddie Brower (Death Hits the Jackpot)
Best Supporting Male – Robert Culp as Jordan Rowe (Columbo Goes to College)
How good was it to see Culp back as a bad guy – if not a killer – in this satisfying romp from 1990? In short, very, very good!
Columbo’s ABC years were decidedly hit and miss, but with a seething Culp back, essentially validating the reincarnation of the show, all seemed right with the world. As menacing and short-tempered as ever, Culp stole the show here, while reminding long-term fans of Columbo‘s awesome heritage.
If anything, the episode could have used a few more minutes of him, but just having Culp sharing the screen with Peter Falk again is reward enough for most.
Highly Commended: Vito Scotti as Vito (Murder, A Self Portrait); Harrison Page as Sergeant Brown (Undercover)
Best Supporting Female – Tyne Daly as Dorothea McNally (Undercover)
The best of the bunch when it comes to women supporting stars in the new Columbo catalog is QUEEN Tyne Daly, who steals the show in Undercover despite having only 8 minutes of screen time.
Cast as down-on-her-luck floozy Dorothea McNally, Daly has that rare gift of endearing herself to viewers and co-stars alike and she’s such fun to watch. Her scenes with Falk were all shot in a single day and it’s a testament to the rapport between them that they are amongst the most watchable and enjoyable of the whole episode. Viva Tyne, she’s a global treasure!
Highly Commended: Dian Hunter (Columbo Cries Wolf), Vicky Chase (Butterfly in Shades of Grey)
Most Able Sidekick – Sergeant Brown (Undercover)
One of the very few positive take-outs from the debacle that is Undercover is the presence of Harrison Page as Sergeant Arthur Brown, who swiftly establishes himself as one of Columbo’s most capable and agreeable sidekicks – ever!
Time and again I’ve had reason to lament that Columbo has had very few significant black characters, and Brown is just the tonic. His relationship with the Lieutenant seems genuine. The two cops seem to ‘get’ each other and are sufficiently at ease with one another for Brown to poke some gentle fun at Columbo’s appearance and smirk away during some of the older man’s more eccentric moments. He also has a heart, showing genuine concern for Columbo’s wellbeing after finding him unconscious in a trashed apartment, and later in breaking him out of the hospital after discovering the corpse of Mo Weinberg.
Yes folks, Sergeant Brown is a keeper, one of the few ‘new Columbo’ characters to treasure and a guy I’d have very happily seen return to the series in a future instalment. I’d go so far as to say he’s second only to Bob Dishy’s lovable Sergeant Wilson in my list of favourite Columbo colleagues – high praise indeed.
Highly Commended: Sergeant Kramer (Agenda for Murder); Sergeant Goodman (No Time to Die)
Hottest Female – Vanessa Farrow (Columbo Likes the Nightlife)
Former model Jennifer Sky made a predictably eye-catching addition to Columbo’s farewell outing, with the svelte blonde’s strappy tops and knee-length boots making her the apple of many a red-blooded viewer’s eye.
A natural stunner, Sky’s Vanessa Farrow oozed casual sex appeal in a distinctly early 2000s style without the episode ever going overboard and objectifying her in the manner of the nymphs from 1989’s Columbo Cries Wolf. Such admirable restraint is to be applauded.
Highly Commended: Melissa Hayes (No Time to Die), Nancy Brower (Death Hits the Jackpot)
Hottest Male – Andy Parma (No Time to Die)
Shortly before being cast in his most iconic role of Michael Mancini in Melrose Place, Thomas Calabro was honing his trade as clean-cut, hunky cop Andy Parma – nephew of the one and only Lieutenant Columbo – in 1992’s No Time To Die.
The episode may be considered amongst the very worst Columbo outings, but if you’re so inclined the sight of Calabro wandering shirtless while wrapped only in a towel – as well as looking resplendent in his wedding tuxedo – might just offset some of the disappointment the episode’s crazy plot and off-brand storytelling brings about.
Highly Commended: Harold McCain (A Bird in the Hand…); Max Barsini (Murder, A Self Portrait)
Best Easter Egg for 70s fans – Name checking Superintendent Durk
One of the biggest disappointments of the ABC years was the lack of references to Columbo’s classic cases. Whether this was due to copyright issues is unknown, but it seems to me that the writers and directors of new Columbo missed countless glorious chances to provide long-term fans with some subtle yet rewarding Easter Eggs.
Episodes like Agenda for Murder, Columbo Goes to College and Murder of a Rock Star were simply begging to namecheck the likes of Nelson Hayward, Ken Franklin or Abigail Mitchell – yet the only true callback to the Lieutenant’s golden age was an easy-to-miss aside during the events of Columbo Cries Wolf.
After Dian Hunter goes missing during a trip to the UK, there’s no reason whatsoever for Columbo to be investigating her disappearance as an LA-based homicide detective. To get around this, writers cleverly inserted a reference to an old acquaintance from Columbo’s trip to London in 1972’s Dagger of the Mind – the stiff-upper-lipped Chief Superintendent Durk, played by quintessential Brit Bernard Fox.
According to Columbo himself, the reason he’s asking questions of Sean Brantley is because Durk is leading the investigation into Dian’s whereabouts, and he wants a reliable source in LA to check up on her possible location with her business partners. It’s a lovely moment that ties Columbo’s two televisual eras together and a few more examples like it scattered throughout the show’s remaining run would have done it a lot of good.
Highly Commended: The return of Sergeant Kramer (Columbo Cries Wolf); Eric Prince’s likeness to Steinmetz (Ashes to Ashes)
That’s all I got, gang, so now I’ll turn the floor over to you. What would your equivalent winners be in the same categories? And what other awards would you put forward that I haven’t considered here? Have some fun with your answers, because none of this is meant to be taken too seriously.
Naturally, and because for every light there is a dark, there will be another article of this ilk considering the very worst aspects of new Columbo, which will hand out virtual Razzies to the most wretched, the most stupid and the most bungled elements from the ABC years. If you have any suggestions for award categories, stick ’em in the comments section below!
Until then, keep fighting the good fight! Mwah!
If you rate this site, please donate to its upkeep – from just $3
I would just give a summary of the change in thoughts about the Columbo series as when I originally viewed the first years episodes – I recalled that I thought shows were great – then as I saw reruns when older, I changed my view – many later year episodes were infantile nonsense, overacting, touchy touchy as Falk probably had more influence on direction – then I though, how could so many actors on the show be so overacting. I then realized they must have had parties during production imbibing whatever. The Last Salure of the Commodore was the worse episode of any detective story I ever saw since a teen in the 1960’s – cramming in space, touching others, pushing his body into the woman on the dock with all the unnecessary noise you do not even hear on a reall dock. I get sick of the overacting – Arms up, one more thing, plots of nonsense fill-ins from Chili to my wife is doing this and that and you never see the woman. I could write a book on the sad episodes – nutty plots, and just now, I turned off an episode as Falk gets his Hot Dog and tells some little 6 year old girls they are pretty. What, is he a sick Uncle or Joe? Later episodes to sick to write about as many are stupidity episodes. Some sick hands on women.
Thanks for stirring it up again. Though the motive in Goes to College is absurd, it’s easily overlooked, and one can still see its top position justified, though readily interchangeable with Cries Wolf, which has a better and one of the best gotchas of all time. Hottest females are everywhere in Cries Wolf.
My hands-down guiltiest pleasure is watch Rip Torn tear through “Death Hits The Jackpot”. His ham-handed way of playing Leon Lamarr is the only way to do the episode justice. There’s something about watching his self-assuredness being eaten away as Columbo slowly closes in that is so choice and makes this so watchable.
My Best Gotcha would be Columbo Cries Wolf, mostly because I saw it live and thus was completely caught by surprise by where the body was.
Yes it is regretful that Columbo didn’t mention earlier cases but also I wish they would have brought back Sgt. Wilson for an episode or two. Bob Dishy was appearing in shows like Golden Girls, Father Dowling Mysteries, Law & Order, and Matlock during that time so why not Columbo?
I agree with the award choices. Columbo Likes The Night Life is really modern. Columbo looked and acted like a tough guy detective. It got rid of the 1990s canned orchestration replaced with hipster rave music. The plot twist in Columbo Cries Wolf is good. RIp Torn was one of the 1990s best Columbo villains. Cheers.
I hate tyne dalys charachter in undercover and the whole episode im suprised CP rates it
Tha
Nkfully it was short as for underaed new ones
I have 3 death hits the jackpot mostly because mr lemar isenjoyable plus a deent plot a
Nd gotcha
Caution murder can be hazardous to your health hamilton is
Good and amam dcent script
And uneasy lies the crown wich has some good cluesand a backbone
Best episode for me goes to Ag
enda for murder
But i do agree its a
Crying shame the didnt refer to Nelson haywards arest cendidate for crime 73 ill never know
Columbophile writes that “[o]ne of the biggest disappointments of the ABC years was the lack of references to Columbo’s classic cases” and adds that “[w]hether this was due to copyright issues is unknown[.]”
I’ve discussed the lack of references to Columbo’s other cases before and believe that omitting references to other cases is actually one of the unwritten rules of the series, requiring that each episode be a standalone teleplay. (As with many “rules,” there are some exceptions, but they tended to be rare in the series.)
The rule is helpful dramatically for the writers because it effectively means that the murderer isn’t going to be aware of earlier crimes and Columbo’s successful investigations of them, accomplished by means of his exceptional intelligence and instincts. The murderers are thus placed in a position to underestimate him. Even many officers of the LAPD and judges don’t know who Columbo is in most episodes.
I believe this facet of the series to be an essential part of the Columbo “formula” for the writers.
That’s why this fascinating and eccentric character Columbo–who successfully caught such high-profile individuals as Ray Fleming, a prominent psychiatrist, Ken Franklin, a best-selling “co-author” of detective books, Dale Kingston, a prominent art critic widely seen on TV, and Alex Benedict, a respected orchestra conductor who performed regularly at the Hollywood Bowl–is largely unknown to the general public in the show.
James, I’d propose that your post is half-right.
It’s quite amusing that an obscure Mexican comandante (“A Matter of Honor”) seems to know more about Columbo than anyone stateside. But in the Columboverse, that’s the point. If the killers are going drop their vigilance, the belief that Columbo is a nobody-working-class stiff plays to the lieutenant’s advantage. The more famous Columbo becomes, the more the villains are on guard, and the psychological ploys that Columbo uses to get them talking would be ineffective. Forget the 15 minutes of fame, Columbo doesn’t want 15 seconds of fame, so in the fictional Columbo world, that inevitability is simply ignored. So yes, this is essential in Columbo-land.
But that shouldn’t have precluded Columbo from dropping references to his cases. He just shouldn’t be dropping them to the current killer-of-the-month. He chatters at length to Riley Greenleaf about the Hayward case, but that comes right before Columbo is about to spring the Gotcha, so by that time it’s moot.
Nothing prevented him from slipping in occasional mentions from the Columbo Canon to Sgt. Kramer or Sgt. Wilson.
But I also think that in the seventies, it was highly unusual for writers of any TV show to indulge in the Easter Eggs or references that are now almost de rigueur in continuing series. These allusions – verbal or visual – are a way for writers to tip their hat to the hard-core viewers and reward their continued fandom. [Star Trek fans will relate]. Television watching in Columbo’s Classic Era simply didn’t work like that. There was no bingeing, no DVDs, no streaming, no sub-Reddits. Each episode was generally treated as a separate viewing event, with but few exceptions. Not even Columbo.
It would have been nice if the Lieutenant would have occasionally mentioned past allies, like Sgt. Wilson. Even tho he drove Columbo nuts with the ugly raincoat, I liked how the sarge still impressed him with the electric typewritter!
Who was the lead LAPD detective in the “Black Dahlia” murder investigation? In the RFK assassination case? In the Tate-LaBianca murders? Until the televising of the O.J. trial, lead detectives were not widely known, particularly in the circles frequented by Columbo murderers (Mark Halperin excluded). That’s even true of Columbo’s lawyer-murderers: Leslie Williams, Oscar Finch, and Hugh Creighton. Williams was a civil litigator; Finch had transitioned from defense attorney to political fixer; and Creighton was a celebrity lawyer — the type who handles a couple of cases a year all around the country. No L.A. County criminal courtroom regular was ever a Columbo murderer. In fact, the Columbo murderer most likely to have known Columbo was Brimmer in “Death Lends a Hand.” But that was written to be the first series episode, not a great candidate for references to past cases.
While I’ll go along with your view that, for the most part, the writers wanted each case to stand on its own, I can’t agree that this was necessary to explain why Columbo wasn’t already known by the killers he was after.
Yeah, and it wouldn’t surprise me if Columbo deliberately downplayed his role in many of the cases – he doesn’t seem to care about or even want promotion, after all.
Strange Bedfellows .. Murder Smoke and Shadows and Murder by the Book (very 1st episode) are all super entertaining.. plus all episodes with Robert Culp or Jack Cassidy are always fun to watch… their great acting puts any episode near the top.. i really enjoy the use of Universal’s backlot and back stage scenes thru out MURDER SMOKE and SHADOWS..
I would rate Murder Smoke and Shadows and Sex and the Married Detective as the two best of the ABC entries. They adhered most closely to the formula of the original series, with a doggedly persistent Columbo. I doubt a remote starter would have the range to pass through the concrete garage and fire the gun in Columbo Goes to College, and it’s a stretch to believe that the video footage would be somehow intercepted via satellite for broadcast on the nightly news. Plus, we must endure a seemingly age-compromised Columbo being the butt of jokes for arrogant college students for the first hour. It’s a highly enjoyable, entertaining episode, but, coupled with its retreaded ending, not deserving of number one status.
Agreed. I love both of those episodes. MS and S is a great episode. Alot of people hate the ending, as being hokey. I agree with this criticism to a certain extent. Nonetheless, it is, until that point, an excellent episode.
In the “Hottest Female” category, I would also nominate Theresa Ganzel as the secretary in “Rest In Peace, Mrs. Columbo.”
(I don’t know why there’s bad feeling here about the character, but I can’t imagine it being about Ganzel herself.)
I agree with most all of your observations. I am very fond of the second series run, believing it unnecessarily maligned. My least favorite moment in the whole 68-93 series though is columbo’s playing the tuba scene. I think his interactions with billy Connelly are quite good though, especially when he has Connelly follow him in his car. Excellent frustration and humor
Most Gruesome Murder has to be Columbo Goes to the Guillotine, with honourable mentions to Columbo Goes to College and Columbo Cries Wolf.
Very entertaining thanks for doing this. Contender for hottest female is the lovely, feisty nude model/concubine from Murder a Self Portrait. Hottest male is Tubby Comfort. He was in a sauna throughout, after all.
Enjoyed this. Whilst I like Columbo Goes to College, I wouldn’t put it at the top simply because of the plot flaws (e.g., satellite dish picking up transmission of the murder, being able to unlock a car from such a distance) and how far fetched it is (getting a perfect gun shot from a remote trigger via a tiny screen). Maybe if they’d shown some backstory developing/rehearsing the murder, it might have seemed a bit more credible, but it doesn’t stand up to much scrutiny. Good fun though. Not sure what I’d put as top though, maybe Nightlife.
Going off the board with categories, I would propose that Best Act Two Switcheroo of the entire series, 70s included, is Columbo Cries Wolf. The plot is really well-executed, even if the follow-up murder and its investigation is rushed. The villain was the most vain since Milo Janis, resulting in a truly fist-raising comeuppance.
That’s an entirely valid category that I should have thought to include – and now I have! Yes, Cries Wolf’s twist is extremely well done – arguably the best in the show’s entire 35-year run.
Couldn’t agree more!
“making her the apple of many a red-blooded viewer’s eye.”
Great line, CP. Indeed such restraint is to be applauded.
Suggested worst categories:
Worst clothing or costume worn by Columbo
Worst intervention by “the mob”
Worst episode for Mrs. Columbo
Worst performance by Peter Falk
This Awards article is an excellent idea, the categories are each well-conceived, and the selections are well supported, even if we don’t agree with them all. (With a readership with so many intelligent, diverse, and passionate Columbo fans, we’re never going to agree on a lot of things.)
For future articles, maybe consider traditional awards categories, such as best story, best direction, best music, and some more novel categories, such as best comic relief performance.
And for another commendable performance in the best sidekick category, I’d add Paul Shenar as Sergeant Young in “Publish or Perish.” Paul Shenar, a versatile actor and director who performed in Shakespeare plays and a broad variety of roles in film and television. But he will always be remembered for his terrific portrayal of the Bolivian drug lord Alejandro Sosa in “Scarface” (1983), with Al Pacino as Tony Montana.
Actually, I remember him best as Orson Welles in the 1975 TV movie “The Night That Panicked America.” He was the first in a string of actors cast as Welles in various films (Liev Schreiber, Christian McKay, Tom Burke). None got the voice right. Shenar came close. Never realized he died so young (at age 53 in 1989, an AIDS victim).
You love Columbo Goes to College but I’m convinced it’s down to Robert Culp and Robert Culp alone. He was good here but so much better as Dr. Kepple in Double Exposure. The projectionist who tries to blackmail him? Surely, that is one of the most underrated performances of the 70s. To get back to the ABC years, there are so many more episodes that I feel are better than this. Like Sex and the Married Detective, Caution: Murder Can Be Hazardous to your Health and Ashes to Ashes. I also feel Fisher Stevens deserves a underrated nod as director Alex Brady in Murder Smoke and Shadows.
Culp as Keppel is my favorite performance as a killer. He’s just so perfect. For a long time the top spot was Pleasance as Adrian Carsini, but after watching “Double Exposure” He got usurped by Culp. Paul Hanlon is a top five or maybe top three performance also.
For Best Supporting Actress–
The one and only fabulous Janis Page as Goldy, first wife of tycoon Forrest Tucker, in Blueprint for Murder.
She’s the only pleasure in the entire episode, yet you gave her not so much as an Honorable Mention.
Shame!!!
This article was only about Columbo’s comeback era from 1989-2003. Janis appeared in 1971. She actually won the Best Supporting Character award in the equivalent article for the 70s series: https://columbophile.com/2020/03/08/awards-time-recognising-the-very-best-of-70s-columbo/
Great, I love these “list” articles. Here’d be my choices:
Best episode: Sex and the married detective
Most watchable killer: Oscar Finch (Agenda for Murder)
Best gotcha: Columbo goes to college
Most underrated episode: Grand deceptions
Best nongotcha scene: Columbo and dr. Alleby sitting by her fireplace talking about the crime, while is holding the bag that contains the Lisa outfit that dr. Alleby wore when she killed David Kincaid. (Sex and the married detective)
Most brilliant crime: Uneasy lies the crown
Most sympathetic killer: Dr. Joan Allenby (Sex and the married detective)
Most sympathetic victim: Fernando (A bird in the hand)
Best supporting male: Robert Culp (College)
Best supporting female: Molly Hagan (Butterfly in shades of grey)
Most able sidekick: Sergeant Kramer (Agenda for murder)
Hottest female: Jennifer Sky (Columbo likes the nightlife)
Hottest male: Patrick Bauchau (Murder: A self portrait)
Best easteregg for 70’s fans (lovely category and couldn’t agree more on your choice, CP): Name checking superintendant Burke (Columbo cries Wolf)
Actually the most able sidekick should be Tommy from Columbo goes to the guillotine. His assistance was vital in cracking the way Elliott Blake had managed to swindle the FBI.
“It’s a trick. You remember it’s a trick and never forget it’s a trick. And then you can start figuring it out.”
Good post, though I am an “Agenda for Murder” fan all the way…
As for 70s references …In “College” the students do quiz Columbo about old cases of his…Nelson Hayward is mentioned…Strangely, Columbo claimed not to remember the Delvin case.
Columbo loves talking about Nelson Hayward. He did it in “Double Exposure” and “Publish or Perish”. Alas, he does not do so in “College”. He does reference “Agenda For Murder”, probably because it and “College” were both written by Jeffrey Bloom. The Devlin case mentioned in “College” is, oddly, a totally different plot than the one of “The Conspirators”.
While he may not mention Fernando by name, he does force Delores to view video of muder more than once, afterward so she can see Harold flinched.
Thomas Calabro is very handsome, but seniors Dabney Coleman, Rip Torn and George Hamilton are all sizzling in their Golden Years, as well as our mature Lieutenant.
I have an idea for your blog- Last words of the episode. Some spoken by the villains, other by Columbo. It is meatier than it sounds.
No. 1: “You wanna know the irony of all this? That is my idea. The only really good one I ever had. I must’ve told it to Jim over five years ago. Whoever thought that idiot would write it down?”
Great one indeed. My personal favourite: “Columbo, I wish you’d been a chef.”
‘I guess you see my point’-Columbo to Riley Greenleaf in PoP.
For “Highly Commended” at least, I would have included these, both from A Trace of Murder:
Best Non-Gotcha Scene – Columbo and Clifford Calvert talking cigars.
Most Sympathetic Victim – Howard Seltzer, who was murdered while trying to help a stranger.
We will never agree on “Columbo Goes to College.” I’m resigned to that. The reasons you give for why its murder was “brilliant”: Coop’s truck parked “millimeter-perfectly opposite the professor’s car”; the gun positioned “to fire through the air vents of the hood at the professor’s exact height” — I see as hallmarks of absurdity. And if its Xeroxed gotcha is to be excused on the grounds that it was aimed at a new generation of Columbo viewers, why not recycle all the old favorites? Shove Columbo’s gloved hands back in his coat pockets. Bring back a blind witness’s sighted brother. (Not that the gotcha in “Agenda for Murder” was especially original either. Falk stole it, quite literally, from a magazine he swiped from his dentist’s office.)
But I’d like to propose an additional category: Best Episode If You Don’t Count the Gotcha. And the winner is: “A Bird in the Hand … “ What a clever, twisty plot. Jackson Gillis at his best. First, it’s Harold. Then it’s Dolores. We begin with one murderer; we end with another. Not two people working together (like in “Double Shock”), but two working at cross purposes.
If only Gillis had found a cleverer ending. And a better title.
That scene in the car with Dolores and Harold when one realises who’s really calling the shots is indeed a wonderful twist. As for the ending, I too concur it comes off as rather convoluted.
Worst Episode Titles: “Butterfly in Shades of Grey”; ”Murder in Malibu”
Best Episode Title: “Caution Murder Can Be Hazardous to Your Health”
Best Attorney: Oscar Finch
Worst Attorney: Hugh Creighton
Worst Shera Danese performance: “Murder, A Self-Portrait”; “A Trace of Murder”; “Rock Star”
Comparatively Acceptable Shera Danese performance: “Undercover”
Least Watchable Killer: Wayne Jennings (Andrew Stevens); Wesley Corman (James Read)
Nuts and Gum, Together At Last: George Wendt with Rod Steiger, “Undercover”
Best Mustache: Sergeant Degarmo, “Too Many Notes”
Worst Mustache(s): You know the answer
Ooops, brain fart – “Strange Bedfellows” for the Nuts and Gum category.
Nice additions but why the Shera Danese hate? I’d like her to be able to visit and enjoy this great blog about her late husband’s life work without getting bashed all the time. Sorry, but I think it’s easy and cheap.
David, we’ll agree to disagree on whether my critique is cheap, but we seem to concur that it is easy. I would also call it fair, based solely on her acting skills.
One of my gripes with the squandered opportunities of New Columbo are the casting decisions, and the continued presence of Shera Danese in key roles is a perfect illustration. Beyond nepotism, what got her more callbacks than Robert Culp, Jack Cassidy, and Patrick McGoohan? If a small, one-note performance is needed, sure, she’s quite acceptable. But for a show that historically celebrated great roles for a wide variety of actresses, Danese seemed to have first crack at them every couple of years. Probably audition-free.
Wives have often married into plum casting opportunities. How much of actress Rebecca Pidgeon’s film career is due to her marriage to David Mamet? Or Sarah Brightman’s stage career when she was married to Andrew Lloyd Webber? In the case of Shera and Columbo, however, Glenn makes a very important point beyond Shera receiving questionable preferential treatment. At one time, some of these supporting roles went to such luminaries as Julie Harris and Kim Hunter. Can anyone put Shera Danese in their class acting-wise?
If only they’d got Robert Culp back to play a killer again!
Of course you’re right when it comes to your point about nepotism. But the producers made good judgement calls, in my opinion, when it comes to the parts they gave her. Never a part as the killer and I like her part in A Teace of Murder very much, it suits her. But alright, point taken, we’ll agree to disagree.
I agree hugh creighton just dosent convince convince as a top high paid laweyer and does naff all to grlp columbo the episode is very average overall
Excellent article as usual. One minor reference error I believe. Under “Most Sympathetic Villian” “Highly Commended”, you list Vivian Dimitri in “Try and Catch Me”. I’m sure you meant to say Abigail Mitchell.
It is meant to say Vivian Dimitri, but the episode title should have said ‘Rest In Peace Mrs Columbo’, which I have now updated. Well spotted!
lol, half of these are just the same episode