By Dawn's Early Light

Welcome to The Shabby Detective, yet another Colombo podcast. I'm your host, Mike White Jo and me, of course, is mister Chris Dashue. You're like a prisoner, Mike, You're like a prisoner. On this episode, we are talking about the third episode of the fourth season, By Dawn's Early Light. It is the first appearance of Patrick McGowin on Columbo, will not be the last one, and we'll be talking about that as we go through the rest of The Shabby Detective.

This one directed by Harvey Hart, written by Howard Burke, and it dropped on October twenty seventh, nineteen seventy four. This is the season of ninety some minutes episodes. Can feel it with this one, but at the same time, I feel like I'm watching two performers McGowen and fall just going at it, and I'm really a fan of this one. Chris, what did you think of by Dawn's Early Light. I don't think you oversold it when you talked about it on the last episode, you were like, this is gonna be a good one, and this a pivoting point for this show.

It was pretty good. But Patrick mcgoin jokes about the prisoner aside, he's a fantastic actor if he even if he himself was not necessarily the most exciting or entertaining person in the world. This is the same guy who said, I quote James Bond has too much sex for me, so I'm not interested in playing the role which is boy stodgy dude. I would say I think episodes fun. I'm not the biggest fan of a military academy setting.

I think it's a little I don't know, I get it. That's maybe my only quibble, but in terms of it being a quibble, it's a minor one. I think this is a pretty good episode. And the back and forth between Peter Falk and Patrick McGowan and is why you're here about you? Mike.

Yeah. I really like this one, and I like that it shifts so many times. There's this whole idea of who was the intended victim at one point, Colombo just these floating ideas out there, and he floats this idea of our main The pretty much the main character of this is Patrick McGowan as Colonel Lyles Rumford, and he is a very set in his ways military person. He's been running this military academy. We'll talk about his sexuality later on.

I'm sure, because there's some interesting stuff going on with that as well. He ends up meeting with this Board of Trustees president William Haynes, who is played by Tom Simcox, and he was a graduate of the academy. I believe that mcgoon was his instructor or just a fellow student, Yeah, something like that. And he does not like Rumford whatsoever. And Rumford is pretty much just a major prick.

We've talked on this series many times before as far as the unlikability of the criminals, and this one is very interesting because I dislike him, but at the same time I see him living by this code and he really respects this code, and the code is what gets him in trouble because he's such a stickler about things. He can't let things go. And even when Colombo is there floating these ideas of maybe Simcox or sorry, William Haynes got killed by accident and you were the intended victim, he almost immediately rejects that out of hand. And what are you doing. Columbo's almost handing you an excuse, an alibia reason for you to not be the suspect.

But at the same time, I'm pretty darn sure that Colombo knows exactly what's going on from the beginning. Yeah, this is one of those ones where I am with you on that Columbo shows up and he already knows. Predrick McGowan has a big target painted on his back the moment Colombo shows because he is I don't know. It's like Colombo has like an asshole meter or an asshole detector, and the assholeest character often is the one that he gravitates towards, and that character, even if we liked them in a Johnny Cash situation, an asshole, but charismatic asshole, this one is he's just an asshole. He's like a Robert Culp level asshole.

And it's fine. Like you said, this being a military military adjacent episode, with it being in a military academy, it makes a lot of sense to have this kind of character in the show and to have this kind of character interacting with Colombo, because for me, that's the draw of the episode obviously, or any of the episodes of Colombo, is the interactions between Colombo and the criminal. But when it's done well, it's done well, and in this episode it is done well. It's done as well as I think we've seen, but not a surprise with someone like Patrick Magoon. Patrick McGowan, who in his first interaction with Colombo is basically trying to shoot him away because he looks like a homeless person that's on the grounds this is a private institution, and that he talks to somebody.

This man here he's wandering around, is oh, you mean Lieutenant Colombo, and then he starts to sing a little bit of a different tune, but really he cannot hide his disdain for Colombo most of the time. There's even a moment where he's I wear a uniform and you wear I suppose that's a uniform, and just he's so pompous about everything. But they have that moment where they share the cigar, and I find that to be one of those moments where they could have cut that whole scene out very easily, but instead that's the moment that I'm talking about, when it is Magoon and Fulk just going at it and enjoying the scene together really makes a difference for me with an episode like this. And I think, to your point, these two actors together are giving it the room it needs.

But then these two actors understand that they need to give each other room in the scene as well, and giving the scene room to breathe is one thing, but also giving each other enough room within the scene for each other's performances, especially when again I'm not going to say Falk's doing a lot of the heavy lifting, but Falk is doing a lot of the heavy lifting in this scenario because the character that Patrick McGowan is playing is such a specific kind of character, and it's such a specific kind of role, and like you already mentioned, you don't want to spend any time around him. But that's the intent. Patrick mcgoin is nailing the role exactly the way it's meant to be played, because he's just this stodgy asshole who, as like you said, he has no ability to bend the rules, even when he knows following the rules will get him caught.

I guess he's confident in his cover up enough, but at the same time, I don't know. That's what happens when you go to Toto with Colombo. Baby. Yeah, it's that obsession with stuff I mentioned to you offline. I was remembering Captain Quig from the Kane Mutiny.

When it comes to this character that he's playing, because he is that same kind of uptight, follow the rules type of person. He gets obsessed by strawberries. Who ate these strawberries? We had this tin of strawberries and he does this whole thing where he's measuring out the strawberries. Okay, if it was this many people, then it's these amount of strawberries.

Is measuring this whole thing out that still leaves two cups of strawberries. What happened to the strawberries? And it so reminds me of Magoa in here with the brandy that's being made, and I don't understand, and hopefully somebody can come into the comments and tell me what this is. I really did look this up. I was trying to figure out what the answer is.

I don't understand whether they're hanging the brandy from the ceiling and it's only visible from one spot, one particular time of day. It's very much like the Well of the Souls from Raiders at the last start, what's the stick down the canon looks over sees in that one particular spot this apple brandy or brandy that's hanging there, and then that becomes his whole like oh, I have to find this out, but I'll do that after I murdered this person. And I love Colombo's just oh you waited. That doesn't seem like you at Oh why would you wait to go after this? Because that's not your style?

Because he is studying Macgoin's character like he's got him under a microscope and just figuring out what makes the sky tick. And I love it so best. Second, tell the thing with the cider is I think that cider you need to have it freeze and thaw and freeze and thaw and freeze and thaw to get it. Is it like apple Jack? I think it's something like that, where it's like the concentration of the alcohol and freezing and thawing.

At least it's my interpretation of it. Maybe not. I mean I could be wrong, but the episode doesn't do a very good job explaining. Again, it's the least interesting part of the episode because it feels just YadA YadA and not YadA YadA. But it's definitely the part where Okay, I get it, this is a military academy and there's alcohol.

Okay, it's not okay, But did they really have to be making the alcohol couldn't they have just had alcohol that they were buying, or did we have to have this subplot at all. I get why it's in this episode, because again part and parcel, if it's a college episode, like a stodgy boarding school, you could have gotten away with the same thing. But I don't know. He felt just hanging on a little vestigial tale. And we've talked about this with Columbo before.

It's this is how he gets caught. Really in this one, however, I think to your point, when we sit here and talk about this kind of character gets himself caught the cider itself, they spend too much time on the specifics of it without giving enough information to explain anything. They didn't need to go that far into it to get us to understand why this kind of person would not be okay with this taking place where he works, because he's this kind of character who has zero tolerance for anything. I get all of that, as I'm sure you do. It's just part of this didn't need to be.

They're making me how gone, they're just bringing fucking beer in. This is a lot of hoops to jump through to get to the same spot. It didn't make as much sense as I think they thought. Unfortunately for them, they didn't have to do a whole lot of heavy lifting in this episode because the performances are so good. We can overlook it.

Though. If he just gave it up, if he just could not worry about that one violation of the rule's lip, he might have gotten away with it. But instead, every single time he just has to hold on to those rules and does things like the one cadet that he's I don't want to say he's torturing this guy, but it really feels like he's just picking on this one person. It's very great Santini to me, where he's just picking on this one kid the entire time, and he's cleaning this cannon supposed to be some sort of big honor but it's totally not, and that he Riley ends up running away. We've got that little side plot of Colombo tracking this kid down and seeing him on this boat and all this.

I'm like, all right, this is entertaining, and this kid is okay. He reminds me almost of a young Martin Sheen, though he's not Martin Sheen. Obviously. Next episode we're gonna get some more familiar faces coming back, but with this one, it's pretty much Bruce Kirby is the face that we see that we've seen before on the show. But I love that we have the introduction of Bruno Kirby and this I think this might be one of his first roles and he doesn't even go by Bruno Kirby.

He's great, but he does factor into the cider of it all as it were. It's great to see him. I mean, obviously he's a fantastic actor, and both him and his dad are fantastic actor. It's I don't know. I would say he's not used enough, but obviously he's not.

But again at the same time, and that's fine because Patrick McGowan and Peter falk are this in a lot of ways. It doesn't feel like much happens in this episode. It just feels like Columbo's following Patrick mcgo around for a day, is what it feels like. It's a very weird episode, I think, on top of everything else, because it almost feels like it's happening in real time because it's only over a day, right, not even we see Columbo's sleep and that's it one night and then the next day, next morning he catches him. I think it's two nights.

I think he's in that bunk two nights. Yeah, because there's the one night where he gets woken up, well and early in the morning he gets woken up by the guy who slaps him on the ass. Come on, let's go. And then the next night is when the surprise inspection happens. That's right, that's right, okay, But still most of these episodes we can't even tell how long it takes place over this one is.

Yeah, where two nights, So that's strange for Lumbo. And also again this is Columbo on location as well. It feels like a bottle episode in a lot of ways, which, again, if you're gonna do this kind of episode at this kind of place, it does make sense to not have Columbo leave because then it's just that there's no opportunity for anything else other than Patrick Rigoan and Peter Falk to interact, which is obviously the benefit of the episodes. In a lot of ways, this might be one of the best episodes of the show just by the design alone, just essentially saying we are going to hang the hat on. We understand what the benefit of having a great actor in the main role is because you just want to see the two of them go back and forth.

So let's just give the fucking people what they want and just give it to you for an hour. So it's an hour and a half episode. It takes about twenty minutes to get to the point where Columbo shows up, which is fast too for this show, because in an hour and forty episode with normally is another ten minutes. Normally hits about half an hour before we get to Columbo, and Columbo shows up in the first twenty I think it's twenty minutes he's in the episode. On top of everything else, the episode itself and the writers know that this is going to be one worth getting to the relationship between the two warring parties quicker than not.

So yeah, rest by this episode's commitment to the back and forth between the two of them. I just think it's crazy as it sounds. I think they could have done more with it. I don't necessarily mean just more Peter Falk and Magoon hawking, but push it in a different direction or give it some other flavor for a little bit longer. Just keep pushing it and massaging it and seeing what comes out of it.

Because they are. Like I said, they're making a really great case for this being one of the best episodes we've seen in the show so far in terms of the interactions between the main people. And it's shot in a very good way as well. The direction is top match for me on this. I'd love the setup with the cannon and how we have the explosion happen.

We see a little bit of the explosion, we cut away right as it happens, and then you see Magoon in the distance and the camera just move moves in on him and we get that nice tight close up of him while people are screaming in terror because this horrible thing just happened in front of them. But yet there's no emotion on this face other than perhaps satisfaction and just this is what this person deserved. He was going to try to take my academy away from me. And I don't care what anybody says, this is my place. There's not going to be any women at this place.

We are not going co ed. We're not going to become some sort of community college or institution around that. This is a military institution, God damn it, and this is my place. You do not come into my turf and start to put what's the line from Patrick Games barking me like a junkyard dog, this is my thing. Yeah, the thing is like they don't show it because it would have been awful, But essentially, a human being is blown up next to a cannon, blown up while standing next to a military anti aircraft gun.

Really, Patrick mcgoon essentially loads the shell and makes the shell more explosive than it needed to be. And this guy's standing next to it and his explode. Yeah, and he shoves that rag down the thing so it'll backfire on him. Yeah. And even with that, they're like, well, this was an old cannon was bound to happen, so they could have tried to just play it off as natural causes.

So yeah, no, sorry, I think at one point they say it was from World War One, No big deal. Columbo finds that rag on the ground and I love him there with the rag and sweeping his foot around the grass and just you're pulling that through. And then Kirby, Ruce Kirby talking with the other detective and just what do you want from me? Look at what I had to deal with, Look at this guy over here in the fucking grass. Sweeping his leg around, getting down on all fours and finding this stuff.

I got to deal with this shit. Everything else is so easy in my life other than this guy. Did you notice on Patrick mcgowin's outfit that he has the first Infantry division patch, the big red He has the big red one on one of his shoulder. I believe it's on his right shoulders. Is that like the longest serving division in the regular Army is the big red one, the first Infantry.

So the characterization of him is interesting because, like you mentioned, there is a little there's a little bit of it that's don't know. What were they going for, Mike? You tell me, Mike White, what were they going for with this character who's not married, who works at a military. Academy surrounded by young co eds? Yeah?

Oh yeah? What were they going for here, Mike White? I mean, I think there's even this idea of he's got a girlfriend, or there's a woman off campus or something. He's just like the disdain in his voice around women. He lives with his roommate.

Yeah, okay. And McGowan always did a great job when it came to his physicality as an actor and what choices he make when it came to not necessarily costuming, though I imagine he had a hand in it. And I know we'll talk a little bit about some of the controversy around this episode as far as who wrote it, and McGoohan claims that he gave a pass to the script. But his short blonde hair that he we see him brushing this it's very particular, and he is sweating so much of the time, Like when he's doing the stuff with the bomb at the beginning, he's just completely covered in sweat, and he's got those little wire rim glasses that he wears, and he's just so prim and proper the whole damn time. It is great.

I love the way that he will change his look in order to make the best appearance. For the character joking about the prisoner. Another thing that I mean, did he I don't remember. Is there controversy surrounding him getting involved in that show. I don't remember, mostly around the end of it.

Yeah, that show has its own fucking problems. Those problems being that show. When a show does any when the show has four different orders, it can be watched in and effectively none of the matter because the end of the show is such a bed shitting moment that it is up there with Dexter, which has shit in its own bed twice, and Game of Thrones, which is shit the bed once. Maybe we'll do it again, who knows. Yeah, I don't know.

The Prisoner. I mean he's the actor he is for a lot of people, and he's well known for The Prisoner to a lot of people. But even before that, with what was a Danger Man or Agent danger Man? I think so yeah. And then also the Avengers, right was that someone?

I think that was Patrick McNee who will be in next week's or next month's episode. We're with just one episode behind. I get yeah, But I mean in The Prisoner, he's yeah, that's such a strange show, but he's so good in it, and so I was. I hadn't seen him in anything else, and so coming to this, I was like, Oh, is he gonna bring that level of weirdo ass intensity? Patrick Greegwins just strikes me as a weird, really intense guy.

And then if you do again, like I mentioned the j Bond story, I mentioned it when we did it last episode, that is an intense guy. That is an intense feeling to have. Because this was not like, oh, I don't want to play James Bond at the beginning pre Sean Connery. This is no, I don't want to play James Bond after I already know what's making a fuck ton of money here. Pretty sure it was like they approached him after Connery wanted to leave the role, or it was early on enough where you're going to be getting on the gravy trained baby all the way to cog Heaven and you just don't want to because of your deeply intringed English Protestant morals.

I don't know. That's what it feels like. Patrick McGowan just really intense, dude. He did some interesting things, like he directed this movie called Catch My Soul with Richie Havens, where it was a retelling of Othello. He did one called Kings and Desperate Men, which I covered on the Projection Booth quite a few years ago, where it's basically terrorist ticking over a radio station and he's the controversial DJ.

Those are the biggest things I know him from. Of course, he showed up in the seventies like crazy things like Silver Streak or Man in the Iron Mask. Playing this role also reminded me a lot of the warden that he played in Escape from Alcatraz, who is also just straight shooter. This is the way that it goes, and if you don't follow my rules, then you will be punished here on Alcatraz. And he makes a great bad guy in that.

And then of course Scanners, I think, is the other thing where I always think of him and that, But yeah, not otherwise. Dad, He's them's Dad, Billy's aim. It's weird because after the early eighties, I just don't remember him and being in much of anything other than Columbos and where he also directed a bunch of episodes too, so that this started this whole friendship between Falcon and Magoin It just is such strange bedfellows to me, and especially I think really it's that they're such great actors and can really buy over the craft, which is hilarious to me because of the way that they're playing these two characters. And of course Magoon will show up as different characters throughout this, but just to see this real Mutton Jeff of these two characters, the tall one who's all dapper and everything in his uniform and not a button out of place, clean collar, everything going on with this guy.

And then you've got Colombo, who looks even more shabby than usual on this episode, and especially after a day or two at the academy where he's not shaving. I mean him at the end of this episode, where it looks like he just got out of bed. He looks such a mess, and I love it. Big shabby energy. Oh yeah, yeah, bs.

Big, big shabby now coming to the ring, big shabby Peter fully yeah this again. That's the other thing that I liked about this episode is by setting it at a place, we get to see Colombo's nighttime routine and then we get to see mourning Colombo. The Patrick mcgoon of it all is interesting. You mentioned he just disappears the Prisoners like the Prisoner is the last thing he does before this, and then it's Colombo and something called Rafferty, which he was in thirteen episodes of. But in terms of the biggest profile thing, it's Colombo, and like you said, he directed some of it as well.

But yeah, Patrick McGowan just he had his I feel like once he was in the Prisoner, I don't know, people didn't seem as interested in being on the Patrick McGowan train, which is unfortunate because I like him as an actor. I think the intensity that he has is well used by him, at least in the roles that I've seen, because it's not like Number six and The Prisoners a very likable character at all. He's an asshole in it of his own right, and memory serves he hits women in that show as well, and if he doesn't, I wouldn't be surprised if he's supported it. He seems like that old school kind of guy. Sean Connery adjacent might would say.

But he was in the episode of The Simpsons playing Number six, which. Is always done. Yeah, I forgot about that where Homers running way from spot or whatever. They would call it the white Ball. Yeah, the computer wore menace shoes.

It's one of the weirder episodes of the Simpsons, but it does do like an odd tribute to the Prisoner in the third act after the third commercial break, and it's again Patrick McGowan made a big impact with that show. I think just recently they were releasing toys from the Prisoners like seven remake. Yeah, we had thought about covering it in tandem when we did the Prisoner on the one season show, which can be found over weirdingwaymdia dot com. But we never got around to it. We never did what you and I did with Colechek.

We never covered it because I think it was just like by the time we got to the end of The Prisoner, we were pretty well done for good reason. So at least this episode has cleared my palette with Patrick McGowan. When given the opportunity to be in something that someone else is writing or maybe not, he is still like quality actors, so his quality isn't dictated by the quality of the writing as much as I thought, because he's still good here even though there is some controversy. Yeah, and I remember there being a lot of controversy around that finale of The Prisoner. I don't know if this is true, but I heard some of the makers had to go in hiding afterwards because people were so upset about it.

And it's funny because I watched it in conjunction with Lost, because I remember people saying, oh, Loss is very similar to The Prisoner. So I checked out The Prisoner saw that finale, and which is like, Wow, what a mess? And then Lost finale came out, and you want to talk about shitting in the bed. There you go. That turned me off of a lot of prestige television where it's just I don't want to be burned again.

I'm not going to even start this show because I got burned so hard. I see you from the creators have lost click. That's the way that would be. If someone like from the creators of The Prisoner, I'd be like, oh, yikes, I'm good. I don't know.

Yeah, it's Patrick mcgoon. Also seems like a Stalloon type. I think I know what's best for this because I'm an actor. That was when we talked about Cliffhanger recently. That was the whole question of like actors interjecting themselves into the script writing process.

And look, there are plenty of times with something as recent as Long Legs coming out and you hear Osgod Perkins talking about Nick Cage and I worked on the role and he was part and parcel to the process. And there are some actors I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Patrick McGowin is one of them. Clearly that again, if you are an actor who has aspirations to be a director, it would lead me to believe you might also have aspirations to have some sort of writing ability or you believe you have writing ability. None of that would surprise me. Again, given that we are talking about Colombo with Patrick McGowin, and he directed two episodes, three episodes three.

And plus start in at least one more. I know he's three more than ones he directed, and I think he's in one or two that he didn't direct, like this one. He's clearly someone who and again he's also a theater guys. He's an actor with a capital A. You get those other actors who they may not have the writing chops, but they will pair up with writers.

I know Malcolm McDowell had a playwright that he would work with. I'm trying to remember the gentleman's name, but he would bring him in on projects even like Caligula or Tom Cruise is famous for basically having Robert Town for a long time would do uncredited rewrites on anything that Cruise was involved in. If you want to have somebody on speed dial, well in the nineties it was what JJ Abrams and josswed who were doing a lot of like polish up for people, just like those were the guys. But yeah, for certain actors have a guy I think is much more impressive for me. If you're an actor who thinks that you can write.

There are plenty of actors that do. I mean to re mention Stallone, he did write the script for Rocky and he did get nominated. Going back to that scene with those two sharing the cigar, and yeah's talk about. The cigar, the phallic cigar between two men. And that whole thing too, how like Colombo's do I chew the end off of this thing?

I'm not really sure. Oh, we'll try this. And I'm like that little moment where he hands them the little cutter, I was just like, that's really nice. That's a really nice moment between them. And then also where he asks Columbo if he's got a first name.

I think one of the few people that have asked if he has a first name is just yeah, but only my wife uses it. I'm like, oh, okay, that's nice. She calls me daddy, Daddy Colombo. But that whole thing too, where they're talking about the this is a different scene, but when they're at the eating scene and he's talking about butter and. Yeah, my wife doesn't Margarine.

Yeah, And Magoon's trying to get information out of him about why was your talk with that cadet unsatisfactory? And he's just like, oh, can I have the butter because this and it tells this whole winding story. And then finally gets back and he'say, yeah, but what about the contents. Columbo's really shagging it up with the dog. He's shaggy dog in it there.

And this is something we probably haven't really touched on. But in a lot of ways, if these people hadn't been murderers, I think they probably would be Columbo's intellectual equals, because again, like the way all these villains are being positioned is they're smart, but Columbo's smarter. Again. I don't know if people need to hear this for their own self satisfaction, but people who murder people in reality are fucking dumb, because in this day and age, if you don't have a ring doorbell, your neighbor probably does and you're fucking hoes should you be doing anything like that. Just keep that in mind.

However, in the world of fiction, these characters have to be written in a certain way to be believably nasty and get out and have to get away with it, which means they have to be somewhat smart. I wouldn't actually say any of the villains in Columbo have been dumb. For the most part. They're like titans of industry or well off or or in positions of power that they didn't just get there by accident if they hadn't been people that were willing to commit murder for power or money or whatever. The likelihood it does is that they're Columbo's intellectual equal.

They might be someone that Columbo would want to be around, but because they're willing to commit murder, Colombo's just a bloodhound on their trail. But because of the way the show is written, we do get to see those character moments between the two of them. But yeah, Miguel Ferrer is the same thing. These guys would be intellectually stimulating each other. As probably an understatement for the way it's being written, but you almost feel a level of melancholy with Colombo having to catch these people because they'd be lost to their community in a way.

Unfortunately, with Donald Pleasants, he's an amazing winemaker. With Robert Kulp, he's an amazing psychologist. Their character flaw is their inability to accept reality, and Colombo is reality bearing down on them from all directions. But again, if one angle were different, if it were just five degrees to the left, these two people would be intellectual engaging in a way that they would probably both appreciate. I love Colombo too.

We've talked about this so many times, the fake humility that feels like genuine humility when he's asking questions and Magoon and he's, Oh, that's because of this and this. Don't worry, lieutenant, there's no reason why you should know this information. It's really obscure. And then Columbus just like, oh, I'm so sorry. It's it's it's not me, it's my mind.

I'm very slow, he says, I have to pin everything down. And then McGowan it's just like I can totally understand. I'm like, ah, yeah, I'm amazing, thank you, so superior. And there's Columbo's just already running circles around you. Yeah.

Now, And this episode is again we get to see the full cat. This is a cat and mouse big time. This episode, the back and forth, and it's again every frame that Patrick McGowan is in after the initial murder is just Colombo is bearing down on him, either literally or off screen just here he comes walking in, stumbling and fumbling in oh. Yeah, and we do some classic Columba things like there's a great walk and talk between those guys, and at one point mcgoons, okay, i'll see you later or whatever, and he starts to walk away, and then Columba does the whole hand up thing, Oh wait a minute, sir, just one more thing, and then has to start asking those questions and just basically everything you just told me is full of shit.

I know it, and I'm about to call you out on it right here until you can come up with another bullshit excuse that I will then pull apart in about five minutes. I'm surprised neither one of us have mentioned. I think the most on the nose set piece in the entire episode, possibly in the entire show, is Patrick mcgoin and Peter falk walking around on a giant chessboard, a giant chess board. Did so on the fucking nose. It's great, I get it show.

Somebody was like, and then they're on a giant check your chessboard. Set get it, and I get it. I think it works, but it is a little on the nose. But that's Okay, it's primetime television in the seventies. Fuck it, let's we have a great practical set, a real location.

Let's use it. But it's not lost on us what you're getting at show. We get it. Yeah, that they used this location that they were able to get. I'm trying to remember which school it was, because I want to say it was over in South Carolina.

It was Citizen A La South Carolina. Yea, they were able to film there. That they moved all of their equipment across the country or like hired equipment down in South Carolina to shoot this. I'm trying to think if we've had the London episode and this season feels like they're going to start to branch out a little bit more with some of those things. We both talked about how the London episode was a waste, and you just get that one sequence of him running around with the camera and everything, and the rest of it's just all southern California.

Oh wow, Mary old englad and looks a lot like southern California. Yeah, or the back clod at Universal and that either it looks fantastic. Some of these shots of the two wings of the school with that big chessboard pattern that you're talking about, and I love that it's like a red and gray pattern that you have as they're walking around on there. I was thinking of either Agnes Varda's The Creatures or even the earlier episode with oh, the main cheering candidate, the one that was all focused. On chest the most Dangerous match, thank.

You, because I always get that mixed up with the football one with Dean Stockwell. The one that's the same season. Yeah, this water isn't chlorinated. I think it was that, so that's the most crucial game, and then the other one is the most dangerous match close. Yeah, Whereas with this one, I love that you've got the play of by Dawn's early light.

For both seeing that liquor as well as it being right there from the national anthem. I thought it was wonderful. I play Revel a bunch of times too in this episode, Oh. Yeah, to hear all the music that's going on, And you'll get a lot of that in the next episode too, where there's a band and they're on a ship. And I only know that because I came in the other day and Andreo's watching the next episode and I said, oh, that's funny.

We're going to be talking about that next month. We're talking about the one with Mago in this month, and she goes, oh, I just watched that because they were doing a Marasol nice. Like, sorry, honey, you're going to watch it again. On next episode of Colombo. Is there going to be a werewolf on this boat?

There's no werewolf, though I know you really wish that there was. Yeah, especially if it was played by Eric Brayden, then, oh you baby. Braiden would be a really good villain for Columbus. I'm surprised to learn that he wasn't in this show. I think he would be better because not spoilers for two months from now, but the episode with Oscar Werner as Harold von Wick, I think that Brayden would have played it better.

But we'll talk about it. I can't wait. I'm on a boat. I'm on a boat and I've got a glass eye, and I'm annoying people with my questions. And yeah, at all Colombo.

And the next one is not a mgoon one. We don't see mcgooon again for quite some time. I don't think. Yeah, I can't remember when that next one is where it's the return of Leslie. Nielsen, Frank Drebin, everybody.

Yeah, so he's back and he has a I believe a bigger role of memory serves. I want to say it's next season where it's McGowen and Nielsen and McGowen directing. Yeah, that would be the third episode of the fifth season Identity Crisis to do with Superman and Batman. No, nothing to do with those two. Nobody's named Martha in that.

Episode, were so why would you say that name? Yeah? I thought that they used the location beautifully, even just using the little dorm rooms and everything was nice, and Colombo being so impressed by the size of the dorm rooms and just how different it is. Because I do like too. He talks about his military experience a lot in this episode, and yeah, that's great that you're doing this, but I was in the real military and it's not this way.

It's not like this though. Yeah, we played grab ass and knew when it was time to fair respects and everything. Can you imagine Colombo and the military, like he was probably peeling fucking potatoes, knew more than all the generals combined. I'm just I guess the other thing I was disappointed by in this episode is Patrick would going at no points at baising you? That was the fucking thing from the prisoner, wasn't it basing?

As they would always say to each other, is that one number five or number three would say? Or I just remember that who is number one? You are number four? And yeah he's number one. Yeah, it's a monkey and it's a mask the monkey.

That actually is Patrick going in a monkey misk. God, wow, none of that on Colombo, thank Christ. Yeah the Lord. At the very end of this episode, he runs away from Colombo, jumps on a bus and you never see him again. At the end, he just goes to the island.

And it's just anything with Patrick mcgoon is just in fact number six getting away in the be number six. We've got you back once again. That was always the joke with David d'coveny. I'd be like, it's just Fox Molder, he just lost his mind and everything that is and just Jillian Anderson walks in at the end, Molder, what are you doing? And the show is a writer in California named Hey Mody, are you doing?

Undercover? For seven seasons? You lost me on that one. Californi occasion that's like the only other show David to Copany's been ever Keiven an opportunity to lead for more than like a season or two. Unfortunately, or David to Cony.

But Patrick mcgoan, I just imagine he's always number six because he always tries to get away in that show and he never does. Love Columbo, Colin, Captain Loomis, Loomis is a great such a great name, McCall. Captain Loomis up in the middle of the night. The payphone becomes such a big thing in this episode. Between that and then later on it's Loomis calls up mcgowon and it's just, oh, hey, we found the found more about this apple cider.

Hurry up, then let's go, and just that whole finale, the reveal at the end and confronting him with everything, and I just love how everybody's coming down and mcgoon's just hurry up, get down here. And then Colombo steps in and just does again with the hand thing, hold on delay that order basically, and I'm just like, oh, this is the mutiny moment right here, when Colombo is going to stop mcgoon's order and then just starts to lay it all out for him classic reveal, which is wonderful. And I just like I said, I really liked this episode. I just find it very solid. I'm with you.

It's a well written episode, a well directed and yeah, the fact that it's on location I think helps it stand out. And again the fact that it's really the first Bottle episode we've had in a lot of ways. Also, I think great performance, great location, great writing, a little fuzzy from time to time in terms of the how catchum really being anything other than just it's fine, But the interactions between Magoon and Folk are so good that it just makes up for everything I think is probably underselling it. So mcgoon won an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor in the Drama Series, and he also won again for another Columbo episode called Agenda for Murder, which I can't remember what season that's in, but yeah, so we'll see more of him.

It's probably not going to win an Emmy for the one from season five. We'll talk about that once we get there, but until then next month we'll come back and talk about one that is directed by falks ol friend Ben Gazzara is a back behind the camera. I'm trying to remember if he was in front of the camera at all, on the chauffeur was always just behind it. I think it was just behind it at least to this point. I think you're right yeah, And that one is yes.

As you said, Columbo on a boat, on an MF. A boat, Patrick Meey, you were right yeah. And the return of Dean stockwell as well as the return of Bernard Fox aka Doctor Bombay from Bewitched, who is back from England and now he's on a cruise ship. And our friend Robert Vaughan, who I don't think I think this was his only villain. No, he comes back in the Commodore one.

He comes back in one of the worst episodes of Columbo. But we will give Oh yeah, I could really use someone to polish my chrome r What does he say? I need someone to help sand the floors, a lay some carpet. So good, until then, Chris, what are you up to these days? What I'm up to professionally can be found at weirdingwaymedia dot com, where everything that I work on is all the audio diversions that I work on, either producing or being a part of, can be found other than ranking on Bond, which can be found at Patreon dot com, slash or Injection Booth and Slash Culture cast at a ten dollars level or higher.

Once a month you get to hear Richard HadAM of Richard Adam's paranormal Bookshelf, Mike White and I talk about James Bond and right now we just released an episode about on Her Majesty's Secret Service? Is that right? Is correct? About Honor majesty Secret Service? And we were joined by Richard Adam's wife, Susan Lambert HadAM and her co host Sharon Johnson from eighties TV Ladies.

So if that's the thing you should be into, which it is, you know where to find it. What about you? Mike White? Yeah, pretty much the same thing all the way down to the ranking on Bond. So come on by Wordingwaymedia dot com and hear more of me talking about movies.

Barney Miller, I just released a bonus episode of our old colt Check tape show is out there talking with a writer Paul Terry, who recently wrote a short story collection of col check stories all for Moonstone Press. Remember how we tried to talk to somebody from Moonstone couldn't get anybody? Well, he finally did though I think Moonstone is going away and whatever. But yeah, this is a great book and Paul was really fun to talk with. So I hope you enjoy that.

Find that at Wheredoma Media dot com or Colchaktapes. Dot com Coljacktapes, The Podcast that Never Dies. I want to thank John Walker for our opening theme and Colin Gallagher for our closing theme, and I don't want to thank you the listeners for supporting us and continuing to listen to us. Jo On about Colombo. One of my favorite shows and I imagine it's one of yours as well.

Otherwise, why are you listening. An a gay bow, a gay boun