r/Columbo

I can’t tell you how much I dislike this episode.

The terrible acting of Andrew Stevens (who plays Wayne Jennings). The convoluted murder plot. The utter ridiculousness of Brenda Vaccaro’s character Jess McCurdy, when she is swept off her feet within days of her sister’s death.

It all adds up to a mess.

Finally, the big ick factor, the way Columbo says “panties” as he and the other policeman paw over the underwear on the mannequin. :)

We have Columbo in DVD and I really noticed how poor this episode is because it is on the same disc as Columbo Goes to College. Which is a great episode.

Got thinking the other day, although have always thought of this on and off. How Columbo is such a great show its become a comfort blanket.

Yes, it will be the memories of watching it as well that help. Being lucky and growing up in a safe household in the 80s and one day discovering Columbo at a weekend (I'd only ever see it on at a weekend in the UK). Columbo became a safe place. I hated school and more so high school so ended up finding comfort in certain shows.

Being in the safety of a warm home and then getting to watch Columbo. Its never worn off.

I thought of this again as was driving to one of our sites at work. Not far, about 30mins drive. Had been listening to an ebook but wanted something more comforting. Being in the car on your own already is a comfort. So with all my Columbo episodes already on my phone I start one up in VLC, put it into audio mode and headed out.

Its just nice.

Other comfort shows from growing up would be

Star Trek TNG and Voyager (enjoyed Deep Space Nine but doesn't get included in the comfort range). Voyager had started a couple of years after school and was now in college. But both get the comfort status because......the ships have carpets :o) just makes them feel so homely.

And Star Trek TNG started on BBC 2 (with no adverts) during high school years. So the Star Trek day would always been a great day as although school may have been crap that day, knowing would get to watch Columbo later helped.

LOOKED UP SUBLIMINAL CUTS

A subliminal cut is a video editing technique that inserts a single image or a few frames into footage so briefly (typically 1 to 2 frames, or about 42 milliseconds at 24 frames per second) that viewers perceive it below the level of conscious awarenes

Only of the original episodes. Not the 80’s shows!

I will compile the overall top and bottom next weekend!

https://www.reddit.com/r/Columbo/s/fVK0jz4Odm

I have tried many times, but I am not able to watch more than 10 minutes of this episode. It is truly revolting. What were they thinking? What were they trying to do?

Let’s talk about the best gotchas of Columbo.

I will start with my personal favorite from “Blueprint for Murder”, where he tricks the killer into bringing the dead body to the construction site, after the risk of humiliation to himself for wasting untold city money to dig up the pile!

My 10-year old daughter and I have recently gotten into watching Columbo episodes, and she loves them! It's been a very fun activity for the two of us to do together. But concurrently, she also will be applying soon to an arts-based middle school where they require a short acting audition in the form of a 1-2 minute monologue. Most kids will surely choose one of the sample ones on the school's website (Willy Wonka kids, A Little Princess, etc.), but I thought my daughter could really stand out if she used a Columbo confession instead (which surely NO other kid will use haha). She loves the idea, too!

My question to you all is -- what would be a good one for this purpose? Preferably something campy and fun, and preferably by a female killer (though not strictly required). Any help with this would be greatly appreciated!

There was one more episode, that was supposed to be finished that was supposed to have been the final sendoff to Columbo, sadly they couldn’t get studio approval, then Peter Falk’s health started to fail.

I would like to see what see what they were going to do with it.