Columbo: Difference between revisions

[[File:MWTMNcolumbo5.jpg|frame|~~[[Irregular Series]] [[Detective Drama]]~~]]

 

 

'''''Columbo''''': long-running [[Mystery of the Week]] series starring [[Academy Award|Oscar Nominee]] Peter Falk as Lieutenant Columbo, a blue-collar beat-down LA homicide detective whose [[Obfuscating Stupidity|clownish antics hide an exceptionally sharp wit.]] The series is composed of about thirty TV-movies, beginning with every third episode of the '70s ''NBC Mystery Movie'' and running through a '90s solo revival.

** This was lampshaded in ''Prescription: Murder'', when Columbo says that his superiors are well aware that a suspect is sweating when they call to complain about him. Any attempt to get him off the case, even by calling in favors, never seems to work well.

** The biggest example was ''Columbo Cries Wolf''- the case had already drawn massive media attention, and Columbo wanted to dig up a significant portion of a large estate to look for a body that may or may not have been buried there, and likely was not as the suspect had dared him to dig up the land. Columbo's reasonings for this were also rather thin(sound, maybe, but thin). Not to mention the massive expense of digging up that much land(which he apparently forgot about from such an endeavor in the first season's ''Blueprint for Murder''). The mayor of Los Angeles decides to approve of this anyway, even based on thin evidence, just because it's Columbo who wants it done.

* [[Canon Dis Continuity]]: Let us all just be very clear on this: ''[[Mrs. Columbo]]'' was ''not'' Mrs. Columbo.

* [[Catch Phrase]]: "Just one more thing..." before he asks the question that gives the offender away.

** This came very close in ''A Case Of Immunity'' where Hassan Salah was a foreign national with diplomatic immunity, and could have had Columbo fired. Of course, {{spoiler|Columbo didn't have to take any big risks to catch the guy... after all, Columbo was on good terms with the king of that particular foreign nation and merely got the guy to spill a confession while the king listened. In this case, the suspect wasn't undefeatable, just hard to touch.}}

* [[Directed By Cast Member]]: Peter Falk directed "Blueprint for Murder".

* [[Doesn't Like Guns]]: And is a notoriously bad shot. He appears to get other cops to take his shooting qualifications ("Forgotten Lady"). He'll carry a gun when the situation absolutely calls for it, but even then...

** He seemed to have no problem brandishing one on a man in "Undercover" though... but the guy did try to shoot him.

** ''Undercover'' is also an [[Eighty Seventh Precinct]] adaptation, of the novel ''Jigsaw''. Unlike the above, this version includes one of the characters from the 87th (Arthur Brown, who's also one of the cops investigating in the book).

* [[Precious Puppies]]: Dog is a sly subversion.

* [[Exasperated Perp]]: One of the great pleasures of the format is watching a smug perp kindly encouraging Columbo.

* [[Executive Meddling]]: An in universe example happens in ''Make Me A Perfect Murder''. Kate Freestone, a network assistant executive with high goals, dictates and practically directs a film that the network wants and guarantees it'll be a success. When she is told she can't have her boyfriend's hob after his promotion (as he doesn't feel she's qualified), she kills him to get the job. Afterwards, her plan to bring a former pill junkie and former star out of retirement for a TV special falls apart, and the film the network ordered is a massive bomb when it finally airs. As the head of the network told her, she "doesn't make decisions", she "makes guesses". Being arrested by Columbo didn't matter as her career was pretty much over with at this point.

* [[Real Life Relative]]: Bruce Kirby Jr. and Sr. in "By the Dawn's Early Light".

** Peter Falk and Shera Danese. They were married shortly after her first appearance in the series and remained so until Falk's death.

* [[Retcon]]: In "Columbo and the Murder of a Rock Star", Columbo takes down the top of his Peugot convertible and says it's the first time he's had the top down since buying the car. Except it WAS down in "Last Salute to the Commodore", and possibly other episodes.

** Yes, he was definitely driving around with the top down in ''The Most Dangerous Match''.

** A killer hiding his location by making a call from multi-line phone system.

** The final episode, ''Columbo Likes The Nightlife'', had the killer write out a fake suicide note on the victim's computer. It was easily discovered to be fake when Columbo gets immediately suspicious, has the forensics person check the keyboard and finds several keys have no prints on them.

* [[Throw It In]]: "Just one more thing..." In addition, many of Peter Falk's absent-minded moments were ad-libbed. He figured that if they were all scripted, it would be harder for his fellow cast members to react genuinely. So, in the middle of scenes with the suspect, Falk would unexpectedly start fumbling around for his shopping list or pretend to forget what he was talking about. The standard perp expression that seems to say "What is with this guy?" is thus usually very real.

* [[Too Clever By Half]]: If the criminal in "Etude in Black" didn't come back for his flower pin, or just not wear it at all after retrieving it from the crime scene, he probably would never have been caught.