[It’s criminal how little I’ve written in this space about one of my favorite characters and cultural works. Well that changed this week, as I’ve AmericanStudied a handful of the most contextually compelling—ie, not necessarily the most memorable, but the most connected to historical and cultural contexts—of Columbo’s murderers, leading up to this special weekend post!]
[NB. Some inevitable SPOILERS in each of these posts!]
Or rather, because as any true Columbo fan knows there’s never just one more thing, just three more things: three reasons why the late 1980s through 2003 revival of the show is well worth checking out, even if it didn’t quite measure up to the 1970s era.
- Old and New Guest Stars: One of the joys of the Columbo revival was seeing how they brought back prior guest starts to play murderers in parts that were often quite different and very contemporary: William Shatner as a Rush Limbaugh-esque talk radio bully; George Hamilton as the slick host of an America’s Most Wanted-style TV show; Patrick McGoohan as a political fixer angling his candidate for a future presidential nomination. But the later episodes also featured some truly iconic actors who were new to the show, from Dabney Coleman and Rip Torn to Faye Dunaway and George Wendt, among others. The best Columbo episodes feature top-notch scripts and clues and climactic gotcha scenes and etc.; but there’s something to be said for a charismatic guest star matching up with the Lieutenant, and the revival episodes featured some of the best, both old and new.
- Formula-shifting Plots: The writing in the revival episodes wasn’t usually quite as tight as in the best of the 70s era—or at least the batting average was a good bit lower, let’s say—but the later episodes did occasionally try to twist the show’s very familiar formula in interesting new ways. That didn’t always work (I’m looking at you, psycho kidnapper thriller and frustratingly non-Columbo episode “No Time to Die”), but when it did, it really allowed for both the show and its titular detective to tread compellingly new ground. I’m thinking of two episodes in particular: “Columbo Cries Wolf,” in which the original murder may or may not have even happened at all and so Columbo has to figure out multiple potential mysteries; and “It’s All in the Game,” in which murderer Faye Dunaway decides to flirt her way into Columbo’s good graces and it’s not at all clear whether she’s succeeding or not (and seriously, who could blame him?). Both of those hyperlinked clips above spoil their respective episodes, so if you’re interested and haven’t seen them already I recommend watching them in full, as they really do push the show’s envelope in fascinating ways.
- Mrs. Columbo: I suppose fans who truly believe that there’s no Mrs. Columbo, that the detective just invented his wife (as he seems to many other family members) as a ploy to talk about various things with the suspects he’s hounding, won’t be able to be convinced by any evidence. But for the rest of us, who do believe that she’s out there but found the show’s consistent ability to keep us from meeting her—even in episodes where it would seem impossible to do so—the revival featured a strikingly unique and powerful episode. I’m talking about “Rest in Peace, Mrs. Columbo,” in which Helen Shaver’s deeply troubled murderer Vivian Dimitri blames Columbo for her husband’s arrest and death in prison, and so seeks to return the favor by killing the detective’s wife amidst his investigation into another revenge murder she’s committed. (Again, serious SPOILERS in that climactic clip.) It’s not just that the episode makes Mrs. Columbo for the first and only time not just a conversation piece, but a vital part of the unfolding part. It’s also that it leads to by far the sweetest ending of a Columbo episode, a moment that truly affirms not just Mrs. Columbo’s existence, but how much she and their marriage mean to our beloved Lieutenant.
Next series starts Monday,
Ben
PS. What do you think? Columbo takeaways you’d share?
Leave a Reply