The Bye-Bye Sky High I.Q. Murder Case

Welcome to the Shabby Detective, yet another Columbo podcast. I'm your host Mike White, and joining me, of course, is mister Chris Tashue. They call me Bye Bye sky Hi, I you Murder Case. The name of the episode just makes me laugh. The long name, Bye Bye sky Hi.

So we had we didn't have a break, but Colombo had a little bit of a break. Old Fashioned Murderer came out November twenty eighth, nineteen seventy six. This came out May twenty second, nineteen seventy seven. I think that was like right around the time, but Star Wars was released. If memory serves, that might have been the twenty fifth.

Goddamn long long time. A lot of things were happening behind the scenes over at Colombo. They were trying to get at least two more episodes after Old Fashioned Murder, but they just got the one. They have a new showrunner, I believe at this point. Interesting choice of directors.

Sam Wanamaker, who is mostly known for being an actor, but here he is directing. He's directed before, actually was blacklisted and moved over to England when the blacklist was happening. Worked a lot with the Globe Theater over there did a lot of Shakespeare's stuff. I'm wondering if maybe that's where Samantha Egger comes into this episode. They might have worked together over there.

She's as British as they come. Theodore Bichael as Oliver Brandt Austrian actor, but he has gotten around quite a bit. I think somewhere around this time is when he was he was Meyer and Darker than Amber, the one that stars Rod Taylor. Yeah, I thought he did a great job as Meyer. You know, I'm bored the what was it?

The Keynes that was the book next door to Travis McGee's boat park there anyway, the Busted Flush Jesus, Why aren't we watching all of the movies that were based on John D McDonald books, Oh, because there's only fucking two. There was that one that was going to be with Johnny Depp, Don't forget Johnny Depp was Johnny Depp was going to do one for like a million years, Leo d Leo DiCaprio. At one point it. Was Chrissy b Robert Downey Junior, oh R DJ, but Chrissy b was also in there. Christian Bale was also in there as well.

Yeah, imagine Christian Bantlist, Travis McGee, no, thank you. I can't imagine Chris. I mean, Christian Bale is just like so singular and you know, can I ask you something? And you know, like this is a little bit of a digression, but I'm. Over a little bit.

I think we've already started the diagram and it's okay, who. Would you have played Colombo if Colombo were to be brought back? Oh? Mark Ruffalo? Okay?

Cool? Oh yeah? Which is one more thing. He's like Joe Org John c Riley, which I think is you know, like you know, I mean they sound the same. Natasha Leone also yeah, but.

That's I mean, like that's that's not fair because that's that's so its own thing and so good. It's like, I mean, I get it. I don't want to call I don't almost want to say Natasha Leo because I don't want to call poker face derivative of Colombo because it's not. No, it's it's it's really good. Yeah, it's so good.

Like honestly, I kind of wish we could cover poker face in a way. I mean, we could always do that. I mean, it's funny because I think some of the people that do Colombo podcasts beside ours, because there are a lot. I think some of those guys are doing poker face, which is funny. I mean, it makes sense.

But meanwhile, we're stuck all the way back here. Season six, episode three, the final episode of seasons And just so you know, Chris, this is the episode that inspired me to do this entire show because I was listening to a podcast about this episode and there's the moment when the character Susie comes over when there's one of the accountants who's at a singles club and Susie comes up and she goes. Hi, Hi'm Susie. Hi Susie. I've tried essling, primal screen, pyramid power, sending on a black Mass in San Francisco, open marriage, Yes, da DM, I'm okay, You're okay, and I'm still a target.

The guys who were hosting that podcast had no fucking idea what she was talking about. They had no idea what self help back in the nineteen seventies was like this whole quest for spiritualism and all this kind of stuff. And I heard that. I was just like, fuck, these guys, I need to be talking about Columbos. Oh wow, so you had like a father Malone moment, is what you're saying basically, yeah, yeah, yeah, fmm, where it's like this thing is this pushes this pushed me to the brink where I'm just like, I must, I must do something about this now.

But yeah, Father Malone, our dear friend always talks about listening to bad podcasts and being driven crazy by it because they don't do any research, Like how do how do you not know about that? In the seventies, like that's I mean to be fair, if you go to Sedona, Arizona, it's still that way right now. Written by Robert Malcolm Young. This was kicking around a while. There were a couple of different script ideas that were out there, and they ended up going with this one.

Changed it quite a bit from the original concept to what we ended up with, but basically we have murder at a mensa club. And I have to say I was really studying how this episode is shot when I was rewatching it the other day. This episode is shot like a horror movie. Most of there are a lot of the time, especially with the stuff around the sky High IQ Club what they called the Sigma Club here, not mensa, but Sigma, and when the whole episode starts with a car out on a street and then you get this hand grabbing the doorknob of this house and pulling it open. You just get to see the hand and that he's holding an umbrella, and then you see all these shots from like outside of the room where I think Kenneth Mars is talking, and like curtains are in the way a little bit.

Things are very obstructive. It's basically Michael Myers at the beginning of Halloween, like looking around the house and stuff, and that kind of shaky zoom in on Sorel Brook, who is going to be our victim in this episode. Second time we've seen Sorrel Brook, by the way, last time we saw him, he was Johnny Cash's manager wearing those amazing big round tinted lenses and he's like in the corner of the frame, like very big, and so seeing him here as this much more meek and demure character, and especially after I grew up with him as Boss Hog, where he has just fucking balls out all the time, I couldn't believe for years that Thorlbrook was both of those people, that he was this guy as well as boss Hog.

Yes, I was also surprised to learn that because he is not playing that in this episode at all. Was it with the tickling that was so weird? A man? Well, other than do you tickle the ivories? Do you tickle the funny bone?

No? No, neither. I haven't played piano in a long time. Tickling the date five yard penalty, first down? I don't get it.

It's so bizarre, like he just starts going damn. I'm like, what is he gonna start choking? I was like, no, it's just like this in a really homo erotic way, like you're putting your hands on another man. I'm not saying it don't but like I'm just saying, like I don't get the optics of it, Like it's such a specific thing to do that I don't understand why they did it, because there are all these other things you could do and that they didn't do that they did this instead. Why.

I just want to know why it was so. Soro Brook being famously bald. I mean, you just go up and start patting his head like the little guy on Benny Hills show, you know, but yeah, it's it's very strange. I read the woods X right up on it, and he's pretty down on this episode. He's just like, Yeah, the mystery isn't there.

It's not that great. It's solid so easily. It's basically Colombo comes in, figures it out like that, which is pretty typical for Colombo. But he figures it out like that and basically just bats around theater Bichel through the entire episode. I can see that.

I kind of agree with that, but at the same time kind of like it. And there's a lot of aspects of this episode I like, and there's a lot of episodes aspects that I dislike. But I'm curious, Chris, having been a first time viewer, what's your take on this episode. I feel like I've seen it before. It reminded me of the Robert Kulp episode at the Other Institute.

That's not the Mensa one. It reminded me of that where it's like this guy who's such an asshole and hates everybody else, and everybody else kind of hates him, and he's I mean, in that one, it's just like kind of an ego thing or is he blackmailing people? I forget what it is in now when he's blackmailing people right this one. There's no blackmail. It's just like I am embezzling money, which, by the way, what a good word for stealing money from a company?

Embezzle? You make so much and scrabble with that one. He's embezzling money. But the way you gel sorrow Brook is so fucking awful shoots him point blank twice, which with a silence revolver, which I'd like to point out once again, revolvers don't work. Though.

Whenever I say a silence revolver, I'm just like, Chris is gonna go crazy. Okay, I've come to accept it. Okay, okay, yeah every time. Well, because on top of everything else, like when you're using a revolver, that's not how this works. But here's the thing, Like I say that because part of the episode is about them hearing it.

So it's like, don't draw attention to the fact that you have this contrivance in your episode, a silence revolver on top of everything else, like it could have been like a silent semi automatic pistol, like this is seventy seven. But it's very it's very weird because the noises end up being part of the way the episode is solved. I want to lay out how he gets caught, and you tell me if I interpreted this correctly. Since you're asking as a first time viewer, Colombo knows it's him. Colombo catches him because Colombo knows that by pretending like he doesn't understand how things are happening, this guy will more than likely step in and correct him.

And then he baits him in with it by being like, oh, the guy who did this must have been a bubbling moron, like and he's like, I am not a moron, Like you're describing this guy to be an idiot. Here's the thing I don't understand. What is Columbo using to catch him? The record? Is it the marker falling?

Because this is like circumstantial, beyond belief. I'm asking all this because like this would be this is one of the hardest ones Columbu would ever have to prove in a court of law. Yeah. Absolutely, I mean other than I have this person's confession, but there's nobody else there when he gets the confession, which is the marker? Is the confession right?

The marker the the oh my, oh my, that's the confession him being surprised you know that he baited. He was baited into being so stupid. But it's like, again, like the thing that I would have a hard time believing is that they wouldn't just assume it's this guy anyways, because who else would do it? Columbo really, rather than it just being the Arker when he goes into that night club and says, you can't really get a promotion if you have a criminal record, and is calling him out right there and then saying, I know that you were involved in this embestlement. And I feel that the other guy and the only reason I'm saying guy rather than their names is because these two accountants, one who is getting the promotion and the other one who is now the secretary.

Oh my god, a male secretary. Oh my god, Oh oh, what the hell's going on here? Nurse? Oh what a male nurse? No, no, you can't have that.

What the hell? And he's straight having those two characters, and I think, what onence Arthur and the other one's George or something. I'm just like, I'm having the worst time keeping these two apart their names anyway, their face is not so much, and that they're both seventies dudes, you know, hanging out at this place and like, all right, great, So anyway, I think Columbo would get him from that rather than from the marker. But the thing, and I don't think it's Columbo is saying that whoever did this was an idiot. I think he's saying that the other people have helped him figure this stuff out.

And Bichael as Brand, wants to be so smart, he wants to be the smartest guy in the room, and he can't stand that there are these other smart people there in this club. I mean, it's a weird thing that he you know, it kind of comes in late to the meeting. At the beginning, he doesn't really mesh with the rest of the people. He's really just there talking with Bernie the whole time, and then he's just like he really just kind of fucks around with these other folks. And the thing that I wanted from this episode was so you've got like a like a literal drawing room end this episode.

You've got like the smart girl. You've got Bernie Koppol You've got sorry, not Bernie basil Hoffman, she says, you got Kenneth Mars, you got the guy who looks like who isn't the auto mechanic, because I think that's Kinneth Mars, but you got the guy who looks like the auto mechanic, and like the girl comes to Colombo and says, well, I think that this is what happened, and she describes something, and then Basil Hoffman comes up and he's like, oh, well, the weapon had to be tied with elastic and it shot back up the out the window window or. Right. But then like they're actually close with this stuff. And so what I was hoping was that Colombo is the one that puts it all together.

But I wanted all of these other geniuses that are hanging out at this club to all bring a piece to Colombo and for him to bring the whole thing together and be like each one of you, like maybe to them or just to us to the audience, like each one of you can think of one part of the solution, but it's really Colombo who's the smart one that brings it all together. And that he's smarter than Michael in this episode because he fucking is and he knows that he is. And that's the thing I like about this episode more than anything else. And just even if it does have a weak mystery and everything. I just love this whole idea of how fucking smart Colombo is and that he's able to solve all of these puzzles and is able to solve the puzzle of the murder, and just his whole thing about you know, Sarah, it's a funny thing.

All my life I kept running into smart people. I don't just mean smart like you and the people in his house, you know what I mean. In school there were lots of smarter kids. And when I first joined the for Sir, they had some very clever people there, and I could tell right away that wasn't easy making protective as long as they were around. What.

I figured that. If I worked harder than they did, put in more time, read the book, kept my eyes. Open, maybe I could make it happen. And I did. And I really love my works, I can tell you do.

There's one thing I learned, Lieutenant, is that we all have a cross to bear, including those of us who seem most fortunate. I love hearing what just a tiny little glimpse into Colombo's psyche and his reasoning and just how fucking smart he is. I agree with you, I mean, Colombo is so shut off constantly like he's he is again, he seems like an alien in a lot of ways. He and Arthur Dietrich would get along really well. Don't you like how the one actor looks either like William Finley or Arthur pa Trickman.

Yes, yeah, depending on the angle, but he definitely looks almost like he looks very William Finley adjacent. And I was just so sad. So Kenneth Mars is the guy with the pipe, and he's there at the opening meeting and he's talking about how he's I think he is an auto mechanic or something, and he's just so happy to have people kind of like at his level to talk with. Kenneth Mars is fucking amazing. I love that guy.

I think he's such a great actor, and he he was the guy. If the audience doesn't know Kenneth mars Is by name, think of the gentleman who wrote the play Springtime for Hitler that was produced by the self named producers. Think of the guy in Young Frankenstein who won with the amazingly thick German accent, with the fake arm that had been ripped off by the previous Frankenstein Monster that's Kenneth Mars, and I was just like, oh yeah, I'm here for it. I'm here for it. But he's fairly in the episode, and he really doesn't interact with Columbo at all, and I just wanted that interaction between those two actors.

Yeah, no, we don't get enough Kenneth Mars, get enough Theodore Bikeel though. Yeah, I'm glad that I like him so much, and he's very compelling to me. I like some of those moments, like him with that ice cream cone and he's trying to get rid of some of the evidence, and I just thought for sure like Columbo was going to be like, oh, sir, you dropped something or like that. Would that package that he was trying to hide would come back later on because you get to see the whole montage of yoh I put it in the garbage can. I oh now they're picking it up.

Oh oh now they're they're tipping it into the truck, and oh now the truck is like crushing it or whatever. It's like you get to see like all of those things, and each time you cut back to him and he's just a little bit more relieved, a little bit more relief and I'm just waiting for Colombo to like pull that that stuff out and be like, by the way you dropped this, sorry you might yes, yeah, you might need this gun. I do also like how and it's a it's a hits a sight gag. I know it's not meant to be funny, but where Sorrel Brooks body was on those stairs having the body tape. Shock outline thing.

Yeah, yeah, it reminded me of like a naked gun gag where the body line is floating in the water. Well, how weird is. It when Colombo comes in two seconds later that it's all the smoke from a cigar as he walks in, I'm like, who directed this? Patrick mcgwynn, Come on, what's going on here? Is he in this enough?

I think so? I mean, he doesn't come in in until after the first commercial break, but he's in there by what fifteen seventeen minutes something like that? Seventeen minutes? Yeah, yeah, And I like the way that he goes around, goes to Samantha Eggar, who is Bichael's wife and this one, and you know, you can tell that she's got pretty exorbitant tastes and everything. And I guess that's why he was embezzling.

But I don't know, it didn't feel like she was. She's definitely not a shrew. She seems like a nice person, you know. I kind of would have liked her to have been worse or something, or somebody who just expects the high life. And like maybe Bichael had never like he didn't come from money and he scraped his way up and maybe he's got like more of a tragic backstory as it is, I don't find there's not very much to like about Bichael as this character.

He just seems like like he's a criminal and he's trying to cover up stuff. But that's not it. Like I don't get a whole lot of like, oh I care about this person, like the last few villains we've heard about more I feel anyone Well's I. Was gonna say, like, I just don't feel that like interested in his performance, Like he just doesn't jump off the page. He was like the fourth choice too for this role.

I can't remember who the other three were, but they went to a lot of other people before they landed on him. Yeah, because this episode's not that engaging. It's just not that interesting, Like it's it is a locked room mystery, which is fine, there's nothing wrong with that. It's just this isn't particularly compelling, And I don't want to be down on the episode, but I did not enjoy this episode as much as I think this episode wanted me to enjoy it. You know, there's there, Like you mentioned, there are some weird things about this episode, Like how much goddamn smoke Columbo Cigar makes it is absurd, Like what is it?

What do you just have like a hose in your jacket pocket that you're just shooting smoke out Like it's it's an absurd amount of smoke. There are weird things in this episode? Are there? Early on in the episode, like he opens the door and the woman's like, I know who did it? Then he closes the door on her and then Colombo comes in, Like there are weird things in this episode that don't make a lot of sense.

Those weird things don't make up for how just I don't know, Like I feel like we've seen this before and they don't like the mensa of it all, Like we've already dealt with people that have these giant egos and they're ego driven and they're like mego maniacal, Like we've already seen that, and I don't even I'm not even sure. I would go as far as to say we haven't seen smart people at this point anyways. Like most of the people that we've seen that are committing murders are successful, so they're not dummies. Most of the time. They're being caught by someone who is like once again written as and coded as essentially God tear, Like Colombo is Deus ex machina, like that is like he's smarter than the script.

It's like he has the script in his back pocket and he's like, I know you're the killer. I just have to get to that point. Like that's the like Columbo's written as a character. I don't understand why they have such a I don't know, Like this just feels so hodge podge of other things we've seen before. Okay, here we go.

So before it was Bichael, it was Peter Eustonov who wanted twenty thousand dollars plus expenses. NBC said yes, but Ustinov changed his mind and passed. The producer went to James Mason or Rex Harrison before they settled on Theodore Bichael. That's from Gaine's book Shooting Colombo, which is still, for my money, one of the best Columbo books that you can buy. In this one, he does talk about some of the other scripts that were out there.

One was an Agatha Christie type playwright who they wanted Betty Davis to play. I think that'll come back when we talk about Ruth Gordon, a gourmet cook who will come back next season as Luis Jordan. And a psychiatrist played by Hal Holbrook Well. And I don't know if we have another psychiatrist, because we've already had two psychiatrists now we had one of the original episodes was a psychiatrist, and then the George Hamilton character was kind of a psychiatrist as well. So Peter Houston of huh, that would have been interesting.

This only had twenty two days to shoot. And yeah, there's a lot of stuff about this new producer. Simmons was his name, and that he had worked with Fulk before on Trials of O'Brien. Richard Allen Simmons that is had worked with him on Trials of O'Brien, And yeah, I guess Falk trusted him. That was always the whole thing of who do you trust we'll hear a lot more about him.

But he really wanted to approach the character in a much different way, almost more of a magoon way, and I'm just like, please now quit doing that. So I frankly don't remember a lot of season seven episodes once we get there, but there are a few standouts for good and a few standouts for really bad. Again, well, season six was at least something, not not sure what, but it was something. I mean. That's that's the thing about this episode that is such a bummer, is because the episode is just kind of middle of the road.

And there's only two other episodes this season, and the first one was good because it was Chattner. Yeah. I don't know if we would have liked it as much if it had not been Shatner, but he we would not say, such a good job. Yeah no, And that's and that's the thing, Like I feel like, imagine if it had been Peter euston Off in this episode, would it have worked better? Yeah?

No, I mean, I can see you stuff. This is a year before he plays Poi ro it would be seventy eight. Well, he played Poio many times, but I don't think he played pli Row before seventy eight. Really okay, because I think so. I'm pretty sure Wannamaker actually was in one of those with him as an actor rather than as a director, which.

Was seventy eight is yes, seventy eight is Death on the nun. Okay, was in Voyage of the Damned, which was which one was that for seventy eight Death on the Nile, Death on the Nile, okay. Which is the first one. And then he played him like on TV a bunch of times, like maybe one other time in a movie maybe. Well, yeah, I definitely remember Murder under the Sun, which was probably my favorite of those paro mysteries, maybe just because I saw it so many times as a kid, but I just remember really liking that one a lot.

Yeah. So it's two movies and three movies and three TV shows, even Under the Sun, Appointment with Death, Murder on the Nile, and then Thirteen at Dinner, dead Man's Folly, and Murder in Three Acts, which is ironic that he would go and play poar Row on TV. I never even saw those other ones. Okay, That's what I was saying, Like, it's a little I think this would have worked better with Peter Eustadov because you could have And yes, I know this is before he plays poi Ro, but imagine if he had played him in this episode, and then we could look back on and be like it was Peter Folk and one of the blav Ro characters opposite one another. It takes on a whole different kind of tone and texture than it does.

And again, Theodore Bichael's fine, but that's about it. He's not given much to do. Like, the character doesn't jump off the page. He's very much an amalgamation of a bunch of other characters that we've seen. He doesn't have as big of a personality.

He seems a little bit more put upon than some of the other characters, seems more exhausted than the other characters. Like he's just you know, he's not engaging or interesting. And that I feel like is a requirement for a villain in Colombo because they are effectively the main character. Colombo is the villain, so they need to be engaging and interesting and they need to hook me in as the viewer, Like I know what I really think about often like that Donald pleasant episode for it in any storm that I mean, it's the best episode. Yeah, Donald Pleasant's character is a murderer, but you get it like I get it.

I'm like, yeah, I get it, Like I don't agree with it. I don't like and you know what the Jose Ferrera episode two, that one where I'm like I get it, like I get it, like I'm not agreeing with it, but like I you have gotten me there. As the screenwriter, our friend Richard always talks about like you you are taking people with you, like you are telling them the story. You need to get them to that point. Like I am on the journey with those episodes, and it gets me to that point and I put my trust in the episode and it is well rewarded.

Sometimes with the show that is not the case. This is one of those episodes where it just is not putting its best foot forward. And there's only three episodes this season, Like what a bummer, Because yeah, even just a minor change to the casting might have helped. I don't think it would have fixed everything, but it might have helped. And my god, Samantha Eggers is like her flips, her French flip are just out of control, out of control.

So it's French curls or what's that called it's what it's what Headwig has in the angry Edge. It's like a little lake. Yeah, it's the flipout. It's the flipout bangs. Yeah.

This this episode of is so seventies. It hurts. So what I was thinking of was Albert Finni playing Hercule Piro and murder on the York Orient Express in nineteen seventy four. So that's why I was thinking that Yusinov. I thought that Usinov was playing that in seventy four.

But it's interesting that I think that he only played Elber Finni, that is, only played him once, and then Poirot takes over in seventy eight and ends up playing him all those times. So hashtag not my poi Ro having Farro versus Colombo. I mean, they couldn't have sold it that way, but they definitely could have been the reruns. I'll tell you that, right right exactly, Like that is my point is like they should have put more effort into this episode, and it doesn't feel like they did so, which is fine, but you know, not every episode is a banger. But we only had three this season, so come on, one in three, one in three, really, we can't.

Talk about this episode without talking about Jamie Lee Curtis. Well, thank you you you beat me, You beat me to the punch speaking of Donald Lessens so surly. Oh my god, Well that's the thing. Like the fucking best part of this episode might be Jamie Lee Gurtis because you just I'll tell you. I knew she was in the episode, and when I was watching it, I looked away for a moment and I like snapped back the moment I heard her voice, because she just does not belong in this at all, Like she is so not, like she is so not the size that this show deserves.

Like she's already like you can already tell she's already, Like yeah, she's huge already, Like you can tell she already gets it. Like the way she just interacts with Glumbo and she's like fuck you, Like I just love her a little bit in this episode is really good. It's just you get why Jamie Lee Curtis is still in movies as recently as like what a week ago with Freaky or. Friday Jesus Christ. Yeah, literally like still making movies, man like still doing it.

But yeah, she's so good in this episode. Makes a lot out of a little. Let's put it that way. I guess the kids call it ed cannon. My head canon is Janet L Lee calling up Peter Falk and be like, hey, Peter, you know I was in that episode last season.

You got a spot for my daughter? My daughter, well, I mean at this point, I mean, at this point, we do know that Peter Falk moves the needles. So yeah, she was great and this whole thing and like, oh, I brought this donut in the donut and I was gonna eat it, but just that look on her face, she is, oh, yeah, she is so great. I mean it's funny because like normally be like, oh yeah, did you see you know, Katie Cigal in this episode, or did you see that person in here? Like let me just see Jeff goldbloom out protesting and stuff.

Jamie Lee Curtis, Yeah, she's got a couple of lines, but Jesus fucking Christ, her lines are great and just like the hand on the hip kind of thing, looking at it at fault, just like you don't want to mess with this waitress. No, nonplus she's not having any of it. And I love no, I loved it. Jamie Lee Curtis was great. Like you know, it says it on Wikipedia that she's in this episode but as a surly coffee shop waitress.

But she is surly, that is for sure. No, she Jamie the Curtis, I think is you know, I don't think that this is a controversial opinion. Like she is a modern icon in terms of being an actress. Like she's able to be in a lot of like different things. She's good in everything she's in.

Essentially, everything that she's in is better for having her in it, it would seem. And you know, her finally winning an Oscar for everywhere everything all at once, I think was just like, you know, a gimme is you know, she was given the Oscar without going and getting one of those honorary Oscars. She is that good of an actress. Like everything I've seen, I mean, even those Halloween movies that really aren't that good, you know, like I think they'll probably age better in the long term, especially that third one, but those movies are worth watching for her performance and what she brings to it. You're talking about the rob zombie films, right.

That's exactly what I'm talking about. Those rob zombie movies have their moment. That's second, have you seen the second one? No, I couldn't make the best first. Okay, the second one is worth watching because it's just insane.

It just goes cannon previous cannon out the window, other things out the window, whatever you were expecting out the window, Michael Myers mask not even gonna wear it. Like Michael Myers is like a giant beard like literally like it's like the Michael Myers mass is like a giant just like fucking trucker beard sticking out the bottom. Essentially, Jamie Lee Curtis is just you get why she is still in the conversation she sticks out the way no other like actresses have in those like minor fucking like throw effectively a throwaway roll right literally for anybody else that would have been a throwaway role because there's been plenty of secretaries, other waitresses, other bit I mean, there's a garbage man, there's an ice cream man.

In this episode, there's several secretaries, like none of them are given anything to do, and here she is just like, what do you want put your donut away? Wow? Like all right, like talk about making a fucking impact. As you also saw on Wikipedia, this was the last episode of the NBC mystery movie The Wheel was about to come off when I came here and there were. Jamielee Curtis is the breaker of the Wheel apparently.

So the show that was playing rather than Colombo for all of these months was Quincy m with Jack Flugman, and which I went back and I watched all those virtual Quincy Mystery movies. They're pretty decent. Not the greatest thing in the world, but pretty decent. I mean, It's Klugman is really good in those episodes, and I believe the guy's name is Robert Edo was fucking amazing the weird time in television. Knnig was writing that people had to always look at their TV guys to even see if the NBC Mystery Movie was going to be on.

It just was so the ratings were plumbing at this time. After the four original episodes, Quincy was spun off as its own weekly one hour long show. Its replacement in the Rotation on the Wheel, Lannigan's Rabbi, would only last four episodes. So now I'm like, do I need to track down Lannigan's Rabbi? What did you just say out loud?

Was the name of this show? Lanagan La n ig A n Lanigan's rabbi. Did you look into it? I've looked into it a little bit. The picture that comes up when you initially google it is pretty funny and it's Art Kearney, Janet Margolin, Stuart Margolin who plays Rabbi David Small.

Stuart Margolin, who most people would know as Angel. Most people listening to this show and you know anyway, would know is Angel from Rockford Files. It looks bizarro? Wait is it? Is it a cop and a rabbi together.

It's a police procedural series that aired on NBC from January thirtieth to April twenty fourth. The title alludes to police Chief Paul Lanagan and his friend Rabbi David Small. There we Go. Based on a series of novels by Harry Kemmelman, the series stars Art Kindy as police Chief Paul Lanagan, who fights crime in a small California town with the help of his best friend, Rabbi David Small, Stuart Margolin, and the pilot Bruce Solomon. In the series, small stability in this area was attributed to his rabbinic mind and his Talmudic training.

Friday, the Rabbi, slept late my Harry Kimmelman, Yeah, oh slectly down. The Sabbath is the first in a series of twelve books. You better be on YouTube Saturday, the Rabbi went hungry. Sunday, the Rabbi stayed home. Monday, the Rabbi took off.

Tuesday, the rabbi saw red. Wednesday, the Rabbi got wet. Thursday, the rabbi walked out. Conversations with Rabbi small. Someday the rabbi will leave.

One fine day, the rabbi bought a cross, the day the rabbi resigned, and the day the rabbi left pound. The first book came out in nineteen sixty four. The last book, I Shit You Not, came out a nineteen ninety six. This whole subculture of Jewish police procedurals with rabbis that we didn't know. But not only did I find the original episode, or at least an airing of it, it has all of the commercials.

Oh my god, yes, in a strange turn of events, people in twenty twenty five want to watch commercials. What a strange What a strange thing to say out loud? What are we doing in between Season six and seven Flannigan's Rabbi feels like we just. Talked about Griffin and Phoenix and we didn't talk about Mikey and Nicky. And I've got a lot of people who are coming after me on Facebook saying, you really need to watch Mikey and Niki.

It's the real classic. Just like I told you, Just like I told you, we are going to do two Levenson and Link properties. We are going to talk about Charlie Cobb Nice Night for Hanging, But before that, we're going to talk about roller Coaster, which is a movie that, in my opinion, is way better than it has any right to be. Talk about it before terrorist and an amusement park and a roller coaster, and I believe it's George Siegel. And also the band.

Sparks is in it, like the band Sparks. The band Sparks, isn't it? At least the brothers are gonna interesting? Doesn't Richard had him love that movie? He might he might, Maybe we should see if he wants to come on and talk.

I know somebody I vaguely remember we have talked about it at some point and somebody was like, I love that movie. I mean, what's not to love as it as President George Bush and is that Timothy Bottoms? That's why Bush, isn't it. Just imagine how many episodes we're gonna be talking about between season seven and eight, when there's like ten years of Levinson and Link stuff, ten years of Peter Falk stuff that we're gonna be talking about between those two between seven and eight. It's gonna be a field day for us.

Plus we've already talked about Quirky Romano. So where do we go from there? Well, we're gonna be talking about Uncle Maren the Billionaire, which I believe is a Is that a Romanian film that has a character very much like Colombo? So yeah, we're gonna have a good time with that one too. Buokle In vokes my just Mike says, we're going down the Mister Toad's Wild Ride, Mister Mike's Wild Ride, Yo fu.

Yeah, this show goes. Away for so long the world changes like drastically. I mean, the format of the show is gonna change. I mean, this is a TV movie show. This is a TV movie mini series masquerading as a TV show, Like this is just a mini series.

They just didn't know what to call it. But this is not like a TV show. Like the way they handle this show is not like a TV show. There's not like the weekly nature of the show has been gone for what four fucking seasons at this point, and now we're getting to the point where, like, you know, we're one we're one season away from Peter Folk just being like an old man essentially, right, just like literally like a grandpa. Like things go pretty quick.

Yeah, and it's it's surprising. I didn't realize that he was getting a divorce at this time, so he was kind of desperate for money, and then he's got all the money being tied up in that Aline May project and stuff. It's just like, all right, sure, great, we're heading into the less exciting times for Peter Folk, where decisions are being made that maybe we shouldn't be making. So I have to ask before we get to season seven, like, is season seven considered to be a good season? Jonathan Demi directed an episode.

I'm having the worst time remembering make Me a Perfect Murder. I really like Murder on the Glass. That's the Jonathan Demi episode I seem to remember liking Try and Catch Me, the Ruth Gordon one, How to Dial a murder I seem to remember really liking, and then the conspirators. The last official Columba episode is again one of the worst ones for me. Is that because it's just there's no way to end Colombo in a satisfying way.

Well, you know, the one thing that Colombo probably shouldn't get mixed up in is the troubles in Ireland. Le