Try and Catch Me

Welcome to The Shabby Detective, yet another Colombo podcast. I'm your host, Mike White. Jeemy, of course, is mister Christashu. Mike, I want to tell you a joke. I heard Jessica Fletcher and Colombo walk into a bar, or more athlete Jessica Fletcher and Colombo solve a murder together.

On this episode of The Shabby Detective. We were talking about the first episode of season seven of The Colombo, which is called Fry and Fletch Me. It was directed by James Frawley. It was written by Gene Thompson. Apparently they didn't like his screenplay that much, so Paul Tuckahoe, which is a great name, very reminds me a lot of RuPaul's Drag Race.

Paul Tuckahoe came in and did a rewrite and it originally came out November twenty first, nineteen seventy seven. By this time, the mystery movie series The Wheel that Colombo was on is basically done. I also read during my research of this that Try and Catch Me was pretty much done being shot during the sixth season, but it was taking so long to put together that they ended up making it the first one of the seventh season, and by this time, you know, we talked about that sixth season being three frickin episodes over a long period of time. A lot of people didn't even know that Colombo was still on the air. It was that touch and go when it came to this stuff.

I know, I was joking about the Jessica Fletcher of it all, but the moment they said what her profession was, you cannot tell me that's not what you thought, because man, Ruth Gordon is not Jessica Fletcher. However, She's not not Jessica Fletcher. And that I think is the thing that's fun about this episode for me, as someone who has spent the last year watching a lot of murders she wrote, just because it's it's something that's easy to get to on Hulu and leave on in the background, and it's fairly what's the term non offensive or non challenging content, especially my favorite episodes of that show. And I don't know if we're gonna get him with Columbo. Probably not, but let's see what my niece is up to in New York.

So I Angela Lansbury can fucking not work on this episode. I mean, there was the Tom Bosley season, or like he would come in and do things as well. It's like, whoa, it's wild. I'm not saying a murder she wrote podcast would be fun, but it would be. But Ruth Gordon in this episode of Colombo, I mean again, is proto Jessica Fletcher.

It's the closest I think I've seen so far in the show. Maybe, and I haven't looked ahead. I haven't ruined anything myself other than knowing that the next episode has a Bond villain in it. I don't know if there's ever another female horror author or a mystery author, murder mystery author that comes back. So I was just tickled pink this entire episode.

I was like, this is the funniest thing. And man, they milk that scene at the beginning with Edmund going in and out of the safe so many times. I was just laughing. I was like, just lock this motherfucker in there already, Just do it already. And man, there's a shot at the beginning of this that I'm wondering if it reminded you of a little sci fi film from the seventies, because there's a shot between Ruth Gordon and the actor that plays Edmond with two people riding behind them on horses that I was convinced as they got closer would be apes from Planet of the Apes on horseback with a net because the shot was just so strange the way it was crafted.

I was like, are they just Paul Williams is an ape gonna roll up on a horse? So I enjoyed this episode immensely. I don't know about you. I'm very curious, Mike. I'm really glad that you enjoyed this one, because I don't.

Good night, folks, this has been yet another episode of The Shabby Detective with music by John Walker. I'm really really glad that you liked this, because, yeah, this one, I don't know if I've just seen it too many times or what it is about this, And I think what it is is it reminds me too much of one of my most favorite episodes of all times, which is Any Important Storm. This whole idea of locking the nephew into the safe and him dying a horrible death just as she's about to take off to New York and as her alibi now, and I'm like, okay, And then the other thing is that Colombo, you know, we talk about how soon does he know when the killer is the killer? It feels like he knows before he even walks in the door.

You mean, when Columbo walks out of the safe. When he walks out of the. Safe, I know everything that's going on. And then it just becomes this cat and mouse. But it's not that interesting of a cat and mouse to me when to him and Ruth Gordon, because it feels like he knows that she did it, and it feels like she knows that he knows that she did it.

I mean, the name of the episode, try and Catch Me. It's basically a taunt, and that's what she's doing through so much of this freakin episode. It's just taunting Colombo, especially the finale of this and we'll get there, but she is not really trying to hide too much. No, And that is why I loved this episode. And I think it's probably because if I had a spirit animal, it might be part Ruth Gordon, because I would say, she's such a fucking bitch to Colombo in this episode, and she is, but it's done in like what I would consider to be the most humorous way possible, which is not with any sort of malice.

She's just like setting him up constantly and just being like, well, maybe I think one of my favorite lines in the entire episode was maybe the door closed and the dial bumped itself and it locked itself. But it's like, you're trying to shovel shit and down this man's throat. Give me a break, lady. I guess this is something I've always wondered. Now correct me if I'm wrong, or correct my head cannon with some of Mike White's head cannon with Columbo.

Since you've watched this so much, do people in La know who Detective Colombo is. I don't think that the general population knows. I mean, we have the one where he goes down to Mexico, and it feels like the guy that is the deputy there knows Columbus. He knows. Yeah, I think within police circles he's known.

But even his the police commissioner that he had to put away a few seasons ago, he didn't seem to know how great Colombo is. Because he's trying to pull some shit on Columbo as well. But then he's trying to use his power of position to get Columbo off the case, just like Geen Barry was trying to get him off the case. But yeah, he makes some of the biggest boneheaded mistakes in the world that it just becomes like, well, why are we even rving this discussion? I mean the whole thing, you know.

It reminds me a little bit of old fashioned murder where the murderer has the lights turned off and it's like, well, how the hell did this guy get in here and do this stuff if the lights were off? And it's like, well, what about this? And what about this? It's like, no, no, the lights were off. I verified with the other detectives that the lights were off when I came in here.

Same thing with this where it's like the alarm was set. How did this guy get into the safe and then set the alarm? Or why would he set the alarm and then get into the safe and not have a way out. The other thing that's interesting about this is that this is a killer. Ruth Gordon is a killer who has a sense of righteous indignation because he is convinced that her victim murdered her niece, her beloved niece.

We never know if he did or not, and apparently in some of the earlier drafts of the script, there were things where they talk about how this guy beat the niece, and so you're just like, oh, fuck, yeah, fuck this guy. He deserves to die. But in this one seems like a really nice guy. And it doesn't seem like he's greedy. It doesn't seem like he wants her money, it doesn't seem like he wants anything.

And he's just like, well, this is weird. Why are you layering all this stuff onto me? I don't deserve this. I really don't want this. He just feels so nice.

And then it's just like you killed my niece slam. I sensed no bit of hesitancy. Remember Gordon in that scene. I think it's my I have my favorite parce. She's like, yep, there you go, like you killed her goodbye.

I hadn't thought at all if there was a possibility for or I guess question around whether or not the Edmund character killed her knees. I just took it at face value. He seemed I mean again, he seemed more like kind of a moron more than anything else. I mean again, like you know, kind of. Just like the Dudu walking straight into this like well, I'll be your are and you be mine, like do not like just.

In case and I love Gordon's voice and I love her deliveries and it will never happen, but just in case this even, but you'll be my era and I'll be yours. I'm like, okay, yeah, And he like sees the box with all the jewelry in it and it gives us kind of like, Okay, this is weird. And then she's got the box with all of the money in there, and he's just like, it looks like a look of to me, looks like a look of terror on his face where he's just like, what are you doing keeping all of this cash just lying around here? I guess I didn't. Yeah, I didn't read it that way.

Interesting, I yeah, I read this more. I guess as straight as as possible. I read this as a kind of like a sad revenge story of this older woman who you know. Again, I interpret her as just as smart as Colombo. But to your point, given what you're talking about with like some of the bone head mistakes she makes, it doesn't seem that way.

There have been other people on the run of the show who have made much less mistakes than she has, and Colombo has effectively caught them with circumstantial evidence, not to say in this episode, it's not a bit of a stretch how he catches her because he goes deathbed confession. That's very strong evidence, Columbo. No it's not. Actually, deathbed confessions are inadmissible in a court of law, just so we are all clear, because they're often made under duress. When he shows the matches early on, I was like, oh man, the outcome has to have something to do with him scratching something out or writing something somewhere, or doing something to that effect.

As the episode progresses, it does a very good job at letting us forget about those matches, which I really appreciate because they I mean, like again, we're not talking about the end yet, but like in the beginning, like with any I think, good Columbo episode. And I understand why you're not a big a fan of this episode as I might be. They often give you like six different pieces of yarn and say, pick which one you want to follow and follow it to the end. And if you make it to the end and there's nothing there, you're gonna have to come all the way back and follow it all the way back down and that's kind of the way Colombo works, like pick one and roll with it. And this episode does do, in my opinion, a very good job of introducing some interesting avenues that it can kind of navigate and go down with the setups for the red herrings or the brick walls that we'll run into along with Colombo.

But yeah, in terms of Colombo knowing, Colombo knows before. Even shows up. All the other stuff is fine, but Colombo does kind of no before he shows up, which is a bit of a bummer. By the way, I really like the way that you put that, with the whole idea of the springs and trying to follow those pieces, and yeah, you run into a lot of dead ends with that, or you come across like the alibi or the other piece of evidence that then contradicts the first piece of evidence, and so Colombo is just like, I can't go farther with this one. Yeah, I got to go back to the beginning and retrace this with another thing.

And yeah, for me, it just felt like one piece of string was tied to the next piece of string, which was to the next piece of string, and just on and on and on through this episode, it just felt like he was following a very straight line when it came to this. You also get a lot of similarities between this. Like I said, I mentioned any Oldport in a Storm, the whole idea of Maryette Hartley in this her second time showing up. She was in the Publisher Parish episode with Jack Cassidy, which also reminds me a lot of this when it comes to you know, another author, you know, we're just. A male author, and that one as was a female one.

Though it would have been fun to have Jack Cassidy and Ruth Gore and Columbo in an episode together, my lord. And because that was Jack Cassidy's second time as an author, because of the very first, like the real first Columbo with Murder by the Book. So in that one with Murderer by the Book, you've got the one who runs the store and how she finds out and she's going to try to blackmail them and she ends up dead. I really expected that Maryette Hartley was going to end up dead in this episode because she starts saying like, oh, well, we're going to have to renegotiate our contract, you know, and it feels very similar. I want to say that.

Then the assistant. Also, yeah, the assistant in any important storm. She also figured out what was going on and tried to you know, like it wasn't blackmailing Donald Pulusson's for money, but it was blackmailing him, like you're going to be my husband now basically, you know, this is the love of my life, this murderer guy. And here it's like Maryette Hartley. She might as well have been another niece, but instead she's this assistant and she's like, oh, we're gonna have to renegotiate my contract.

Like, yeah, I've got these keys, and what the fuck was Ruth Gordon doing putting the keys in the sand before she leaves? Just take those with you to New York and drop them anywhere in the entire city of New York Gorge, just anywhere, any place. Yes, I'm going through security at the airport, which they didn't have in nineteen seventy seven. I'm going through security at the airport and I'm just going to leave the keys at the metal detector and they're going to announce you for we've got a set of keys here. Can somebody claim these?

And she's just never going to claim them, you know, Like that's it. That's all you have to do. That is the one part of the episode that I was like, oh my god. It's like, yeah, Shay, hey, we got this picture, and I'm wait, we show you another picture, and it's just like you were taking a picture just this sprinkler head Columbo and zooming in on is like, we just happened to have a picture of the spot, and she just happened to put them in the most obvious place possible. Like again, like as you said about Ruth Gordon making boneheaded moves, one of the most bone headed moves is to just put the keys at your own house after you know that they've been taking pictures.

What were you thinking. I like her performance. She doesn't belie the intelligence her characters meant to have, and I know that there are these moments where she's like, well, I'm just a little old lady who writes, and I'm I'm only smart when I write, And it's like, but you love this giant house, you are super wealthy, you are not dumb. And yet to your point, like she does make a lot of these really costly errors, but again, an error that anyone with any. Sort of training and murder mystery writing would.

Catch and so it's like, again, you're not necessarily Jessica Fletcher. I think if Jessica Fletcher went up against Columbo, I think Jessica Fletcher might actually get. Away with it. Columb would just be like, I don't know what to do, Harry, Like you're just gonna get away with it, like it's I mean, I was actually expecting at the end this episode for that to happen. I was expecting for Colombo to let her get away with it, because it is again, if you go down the straight path, it is a justified murder.

Right if you believe that the nephew was responsible for the niece's murder, Yeah, or death, I should say, because they don't even know what it is. Yeah, yeah, what you know? Could be another salute to the commodore. I suppose she's very Jessica Fletcher. Of course, she's very Agatha Christie.

And this idea of her going to New York to see the last performance of this play that she wrote and had been running forever feels very much like The mouse Trap, which I think played the East End for decades, and that's very much a nod. And at the same time, she could have the same type of thing that Jack Cassidy was doing a murder by the book where it's like, oh, come on, Lieutenant Columbo, you know missus Melville would have never seen that or never that thing. It feels like she could really be doing Like I wrote a mystery that was like this and it was like, you know, this happened, and this happened, and yeah, it doesn't feel like she really does that type of thing. The other thing I wasn't a big fan of was we're playing on the Columbo tropes now because everyone keeps saying to him, oh, just one more thing.

The tenant thank you for pointing out the Arnold Schwarzenegger. I'll be backification of now, just one more question, like really really. And then he goes to the piano and starts playing this old man. I'm like, oh, good lord, are we. The dog is here, Mike, the dog is even here?

Where's Tim Carrey at when you need him? Oh? I know if he went and got a bowl of chili. I actually would have been happy about that. But then I would have said, but Mike, that's the one that's the trope, that the exception that proves the rule.

Well, and I don't know if he uses I know for sure he talks about his wife and how thrilled beat his wife would be. I don't think there's any nephew or niece or cousin or brother in law, any of those types of stories to use that to help disprove stuff, because, like I said, like you said, as soon as he walks out of that safe which is I think as we're watching these episodes that were produced by this new producer, I think every time it's going to be an entrance for him, and it's going to be something more dramatic. I mean, is not as dramatic as like the slow motion with the smoke that we're getting from Patrick McGowin, but it's definitely feels like there's an entrance that happens. Now what cracks me up is it it feels very Indian cinema, Indian cinema or John Wu cinema, Like do you draw attention to it in a way that like traditionally attention is not drawn to it.

And you're doing that. Because you perceive that the person you're drawing attention to is so important or so necessary or so big that they need that kind of slow moment to themselves. Yes the show is titled Colombo. Yes, Peter Folk as Colombo shows up in big yellow lettering on the screen. But we're going down a dangerous path here with the character that I for one am not a fan of.

Columbo worked better as an organic character, not as a character of cropes and ideas sewn together Eastmeal, because there's a style. Bible for Colombo. You know. The show poker Face, I think is a very good example of that. There is very little mythology in the show as it were in that first season.

I never saw the second season. Second season was great. Second season was really rock solid, and they introduced a new character who was only a voice on a CB and it was Steve Bushemi and I thought, for sure, last episode of the first season, here comes Steve Bushmi, but they actually stayed away from doing that, which I thought was great at the same time. And now these motherfuckers are canceling this show. I'm like, what is your problem of all the shit that's on TV right now?

You're going to cancel Poker Face? And Brian Johnson even was like, Wow, we're going to move away from Natasha Leone and we're actually going to bring in Peter Dinklage and he's going to be our main character. I'm like, I'm curious to see how you do that. I would really like to see how you switch protagonists in the third season. But you know what, I love Natasha Leone and I love Peter Dinklage.

Bring it on, Let's see it. It's a show that I think uses the Colombo formula but does what I have always wanted Colombo to do. And it seems now that Colombo is staying away from it, which is just allowing the character to be in the setting and give it time to like breathe and move and stretch its limbs a little bit. Like Natasha Leone is given a lot of bandwidth in that show to be a care and her ability as an actress comes through. And Peter Falk is such a good actor.

We would not be watching the show if not for Peter Falk. Period a show that we did and we talked the entire length of the show, Arnie Miller. We wouldn't have talked about that show if not for Hal Lindon. He was the rock that that entire the foundation that the show was built on. Peter Falk and this show is so good because they just go, hey, Peter falk and Anna.

We've talked about the. Falcisms and the weird falkesy and like interludes of him trying to like do his emissions tests or some of that weird stuff from some of the episodes. When they just let him be as Colombo and don't tell him how to be Colombo, but just let him be Colombo, the show is much better. And Yeah, I noticed that in this episode. It made me really not uncomfortable, but it definitely disappointed me a little bit that all of a sudden, Columbo's catchphrases are being given to other people in it, kind of like Tom Baker winking a nod, and it's not I don't appreciate it.

But are we really there already? I mean, were seven seasons in, though the last season was nothing. I guess officially this is the forty first episode, not counting those two pilots that we talked about, so I guess forty episodes in and you're okay with yeah, really pointing out the catch phrases, really pointing out that this old man of things, which I liked, that it was barely a thing, that it was like m whistling and throwing that boat out and everything, or like just I think it was maybe like one other time that we had of this old man slighting. I don't need it, and it just gets worse. I don't know about the season, like it's interesting looking at a little bit.

I'm just like, Okay, I remember the next episode. I remember the fourth episode, I remember the fifth episode, but the third episode of the season I have no memory of it. So I'm curious to see what that one turns into. So but when it comes to this one, like when I put this on last night, Andrea was just like, oh, this one, and I was like, you don't like this episode. She's like, it's fine, but they just play it so much.

I guess, like when she watches Ovation or any of these other channels, like this is a favorite of people's and she's like, I've seen it way too many times. I feel like I'm being a little unfair because I feel like I've seen it too many times And they do some things here, like the whole thing with the belly dancing class and stuff. I'm like, this is a little much here, like I don't know exactly why are you doing this? Max Gail doing karate of it all. That's what it reminded me of, like when we did Barney Miller for those of you that don't know, at the beginning of that show, it had the very like seventies three seconds of action with a freeze frame and then the character and there was one of Max Gail in a legit like karate like outfit doing karate, and it was always like, what does this have to do with anything?

And I'm convinced that the belly dancing scene in this episode was just so they could have that on the next stepisode of Kalombo, just having him standing in that like what is this? What is this supposed to be? They all form a circle around him. Yeah, yeah, Like it's so strange, And again, it's almost like it exists solely to bring the viewer in as like a enticement. It is so unnecessarily like, what would it be like if we set this at a belly dance studio?

What would it be like? Belly dancing as a as a way to lose weight, belly dancing as a way to I don't understand what the belly dancing was even for I'm just kind of at a loss I guess that was probably a thing in seventy seven, learning belly dancing a new tantric dance style from the Middle. East a Legit think it was because I remember my mom going to you went to community college. I don't remember when that was, what age I was. I know, I've talked about this on another episode.

I'm talking about death and dying and death and dying classes and that those were a rage for a while. Belly dancing was actually a rage for a while. I remember her in like some sort of anthropology class and it was like, Oh, we had this belly dancer come in. I was just like, Okay, that's interesting. Uh yeah, yeah, it's I mean, like the fatty technology like Levinson and Link.

You know, we talked about the storyteller of it all, like Levinson and Link are always kind of not them specifically anymore, given that you mentioned the storyteller, they're not really the show runners anymore. But the showrunners of the show and the people who make this show are very much finger on the pulse of things that are going on. You know. The technology of it all is very much like an out an outcropping of that idea and definitely like for me, the belly dancing was like this just must have been a thing, Like this had to have been a thing, and to your point, like definitely sounds like it was thing, not anymore. Pole dancing is maybe the close equivalent now, you know, like I put a pole in my bedroom so I could learn how to pole dance, Like, are right, same difference, I guess.

I was on a podcast the other night. I was doing a trivia game show type podcast and this woman had a pole behind her and somebody's like, is that up for Festivus and she's like, no, no, I'm I'm a pole dancer. And it's just like, okay, yeah, that's a thing now, Like that is a legit thing now, and more power to people because I could never freaking do that. And by the way, and I know that this isn't always stripping, but the origins have to be from stripping, right or was there were there people dancing down poles before that? But I will tell you when I have been to strip clubs that have poles and they have a really good pole action, like they can really work that pole.

And I know that sounds awful, but I'm talking about like can climb up it and slide down and spin around and do all this kind of stuff. I'm just like that is amazing, Like that is such a great entertainment. And you know, these people are are able to build up their muscles and get fit from pole dancing, right, that is fantastic. Do whatever you want to do. But yeah, it's so interesting that it is the trend to get basically modern day belly dancing.

And I'm sure there are plenty of belly dance classes going out as well, which is terrific. However, you get your kicks, however you get pleasure out of stuff, is wonderful. I'm not trying to smirch any pole dancer or belly dancer or anything, but yeah, just looking at nineteen seventy seven and being like, okay, this is what we're doing now, that's great. You know, like we had the one I think it was last season where the woman's just like I've tried and stuff tried. I'm okay, you're okay, and it's like good, you're tuning into the zeitgeist of this, and it's such a valuable time appsole to see these kind of things in these television shows or TV movies for you know, all intentsive purposes.

Colombo being so aware of the time and being set in essentially present you know, at the time, present day Los Angeles. I think it just you know, I lost my mantra, you know, I always think of that from Anny Hall, like I lost my mantra. Like that's when I think of La of the seventies, Like people who were watching the show that didn't live in LA were like, look at this wild, crazy place. And you know, especially in Middle America. They're out there eating sushi, i know, and.

Doing belly dancing, and they have safes behind secret walls in their homes, and you know, they they go and give speeches in front of like large groups of people, like all these things that like people like in the Midwest could only dream of like seeing or being part of, you know, I'm assuming in seventy seven and these kinds of like these kind of like more weird California specific things. But I think that really works in the show's favor because, like you said, it makes the show feel like a little bit of like a nineteen seventies time capsule, if not just like you know, and I think you might agree with this, and I don't want to like boil Columbo down all the way to its like base elements. But I think at the end of the day, Colombo, similarly to Murder, she wrote, is a little bit of a vibe show, like you could just kind of leave it on if you want a certain vibe in the background, And Colombo is a pretty good vibe set show, because I mean, if you want to have something on that's you know, a certain time and place in La and Hollywood, like this is a very good example of seventies Hollywood, seventy, late seventies, early eighties television.

I want to know what you think of the gd Spreadline character, so her lawyer, because I as an actor, I love him. You know, we talked recently about The Godfather. He shows up in The Godfather too, has a really good role in there as that senator that they blackmail. I mostly know him from Apocalypse Now where he's playing that tape for Willard. That's amazing.

But him here think, oh, such she did this murder? Do you think that? That's why I was convinced Colombo was just gonna let her go at the end, because I was like, GD Spradland knows he's like, you know, just make sure you call me next time. You need a safe being closed. And it's like, there do seem parts of the episode that seem a little.

Incongruous with one another. And again to your point, doing the research for the episode and learning that there are versions of this where the Edmund character is given more doubt, I mean again here, well, I appreciate you had some doubt, like it they they're not giving a much doubt the episode itself, Like I think you probably found those things a little easier than I did, but the episode's not given much in that regard, and that the episode. Choosing to wind that back and not include that, I think in the long term would really rob the episode of some interesting kind of like paths to go down if you're like, well with Gordon's kind of not great. Like again, in my mind, I'm not saying it's justifiable, but it's one of the more justifiable murders I've seen on this show.

Like I know, Colombo lets people go on this show at some point who do a murder at some point. I didn't know if it was this one, And this is the first one where I thought to myself, you know what, Ruth Gordon getting away with it? I feel like Colombo could live with but if there was some doubt to it, then I'm like, it's a little bit of a different kind of due to what I'm looking at. And I wish in a way that they had because I think I might have been able to enjoy the episode even more than I already did. Well, we did see him let someone go who ironically was another old lady and I was Janet Lee who was suffering from dementia, and then altering of I'm going to arrest this guy who confessed to the crime, and it's going to take you a few months to get through all these legal hurdles, sir, And he's like, well, I hope that's enough time.

Basically like by that time, she'll be dead. And yeah, like. We've talked about Colombo, Peter Falk did not like female villain and this one, Yeah, I can see why she has played so sympathetically, but I honestly have problems at the end of this when he's got those that safety deposit boxes and he starts arranging them like a puzzle, and every single time he does it, she has to have this whole thing like a. Why Maybe it's a cosmic question why dear Edmond in the safe questioning the meaning of life or why he was murdered. Man Oh, every character I right knows exactly why he was murdered.

Try and get well. It's an era, Well is it pointing down while he was probably thinking about. What do you make of that? Man u? Uh?

An arrow? An arrow pointing straight? Yeah? You think he wanted to call attention to his new shoes. And she just like has this running monologue as he's trying to do this, and I'm like, this is a little much.

And I think Ruth Gordon sells it because she is so frickin good again child of the seventies, Like I grew up with her being in so many things. I don't know if you're familiar with the Any Which Way series from Clint Eastwood, but her wole in that was something, especially when there's a parody of ten with Bo Derek and you get to see Ruth Gordon with the corn Row kind of stuff running down the beach like Bo Derek. Only fucking shit, what an image that is going to be burned in my brain for the rest of my life, thank you know. But yeah, she was everywhere for so long and here, she's giving Fulk as good as she gets, and I just I if it was somebody other than her, and I want to say they were trying to ask somebody else and I can't remember who it is off hand, but was anybody but her?

I think I would really hate this episode right now. I just I'm not the biggest fan of this episode because she is still so good and I just really like that chemistry that she and Falk have. I'm a huge Ruth Gordon fan from Harold and Maud, which is a show that a film that Father Malone introduced me too. I think it was a year or two ago. And I mean, she's so good in that, she's so naturalistic in that that.

Yeah, I think the way the episode concludes is one of the most circumstantial evidence conclusions in the history of this show up until this point, because I'm sure that the show is it from this point on where we're going to start running into things or is it next season? No, it's this one. This is our last NBC season. Universal at this point is just like, you know what, We're not going to pick up the overruns of this It's all on you again. It's a pretty short season.

With five episodes, and there are some things I like, and there are there's one episode that I I would really debate is it the worst one. If this is the case, and this is the moment of the turn for Colombo, then this, I think for me, is then the beginning of the turn of the way that these are going to start playing out. Uh in the at the end of the episodes, it's going to be very and then and then and then and then and then, and I to your point with Ruth Gordon at the end, like she turns in a really great performance in this episode up until the last five minutes, last five ten minutes, and then it becomes this weird her pretending that she didn't do it because she doesn't think Colombo knows that she did it, even though she knows full well that Columbo has known pretty much since the moment he walked in.

And she's in this scene, like you said, like I almost feel like, in my mind, the way the scene should have been written and should have been played is Colombo is really just giving her more rope to hang herself with. And it doesn't really seem that way. It seems more just like she's trying to put one over on Columbo, and it's like, you know, at this point in the episode, maybe this wasn't the time to do it. Maybe you should have done this an hour in as opposed to in the last five minutes, because if you want to get to the end with and then there's the arrow and it's pointing up, and then it's a it's in the light bulb, and you know when someone because when someone goes to change the light, they'll all know, they'll immediately find the They'll they'll find a little piece of paper in there.

Maybe even then, Okay, if I can take all of that at face value and that all makes sense, the piece of paper that has the night I was murdered by Abigail Mitchell. The piece of paper says the night I was murdered by Abigail Mitchell, which is the title of her book, and then it's scratched out to say I was murdered by Abigail Mitchell. Is just what court of law would prosecute Abigail Mitchell for that? I just want to. Know it honestly feels like they started with that and work this episode backwards.

Yes, And that's why I said the thing about the matches like, I think they did a masterful job at getting the audience to forget the matches. I don't think they did a good job with it. On the other. Side, though, that's the problem. You know, planting and payoff.

If the planting is good, that doesn't necessarily mean that the payoff is good. I mean we always talk about that with Richard HadAM, that you know, planting and payoff, planting and payoff, but we never talked about what happens when they plant it well, but the payoff is lackluster. And this is that, Like, I like that the matches were ultimately the device through which Ruth Gordon's character is caught. But to have it just be like, well he's he's kind of scratched it out and they know, oh it says I was murdered by Abigail Mitch, Like that's a deathbed confession, which Columbo admits free, freely and openly and says this is really strong evidence when it is in. Fact just circumstantial.

And then to have it not be like, why didn't he write Abigail Mitchell murdered me. Well, he's got the burnt matches. I don't understand, Like he he can see enough to do that, but he couldn't see enough to like use a burnt match, because you can use a burn match even for a little bit like a pencil. I mean, anybody knows that he he knew it enough to use it like a crayon, So he should have known enough to just turn that piece of paper over and just write on there. And it's like, again like they were trying to be really clever, and I appreciate the level of clever that they were trying to be.

I don't think they nailed it in the end. I think that this episode is good up into the last ten minutes and then for me, it really it falls apart because, yeah, to your point, it just kind of becomes silly, really kind of just like again, almost like somebody watched an episode of Colombo and decided to write one, if that makes sense. I'm sure that Richard Hadhams episode of The A Team was a lot better than than The Who, and that was his whole thing. I watched these this TV series, I can come up with an episode, and I don't think that was the case for this one. Because you know Dan Kanig's book, the second one that he did about Colombo, which is all about the different scripts that were out there floating around, the different ideas that were happening and everything, and it's like this was not one of those like we just tapped this writer and said do this thing for us, you know, and you know, for Awley, I believe had directed a few episodes already, so I'm like, yeah, come on, be better.

But like I said, it's not a terrible episode. It just reminds me of better episodes, and you know, it's it just I wish that it was a little bit better, a little bit bigger start to the seventh season of Colombo. For me, that's the other kind of big, big takeaway, and that was the thing that we always talk about, like you know, a good opening salvo as it were, for the season or for the for again, like what you're going to be getting into if you're watching Columbo just I mean again, just imagine just coming who the show now like at this point in the seventh season, in this first episode, Like I don't think you would not enjoy the show, but I think people who are watching the show up into this point were like, I've kind of seen this before a bit, and you know, as much as I do appreciate and enjoy this episode based primarily on Ruth Gordon's performance, you know, opposite Peter Falk.

I can't deny that this episode is in a lot of ways like what we've. Already seen before. Not identical, mind you, but what we've seen before enough that I can, like you said, like, oh there's a Jack Cassidy and oh you know there's this, and that was a little bit of this and a little bit of this, and it's like and even like again like even we're gonna talk about like again talked about something like Jessica Fletcher, a character that Levinson and Link would go on to create as well, Like we're we're kind of just walking around in the same circle here. As opposed to making the circle bigger, the circle is just kind of you're walking around in it. You're not really giving yourself any more new room or or things to do or play with or idea is to kind of expound upon.

And I I'm really I wouldn't say I'm disappointed by that, but if this is where we're going and we're just gonna start walking in the circle, and the circle's going to start me dug into the ground, as opposed to being any bigger. That's kind of a bummer. But at the same time, like I guess seven seasons in the show's kind of reached its peak, not of popularity, but I guess of peak ability to entice new people in, to like set that amount of audience in because I know that once season eight starts, it's more or less like Columbo's back. Friends, Well, who's still interested, you know what I mean? Like who's still out there in the world of television still waiting for Columbo to come back?

Like this is that, like you said, last opportunity to kind of give those people, the new people, an opportunity to come on to the show, because you know, season eight is going to be like for fans of Columbo, like yeah, like this is this is it? Like this is the kind of demu ma of the like you said, original show. And as much as I like Ruth Gordon, as much as I do like parts of this episode, I don't think that overall this episode hangs together that well. I just I probably like it more than it maybe deserves to be light. There is a charm to it, and definitely seeing Ruth Gordon versus Peter Falk does have its merits.

You know, unfortunately that might be where most of the merits lie. I'm just willing to give that that merit a lot of room, you know what I mean, like a lot of like a lot of room and kind of credit for how good it is, because we have had kind of some villains or murderers in the show that haven't been as engaging with Peter Falk, and Ruth Gordon is very engaging with Peter Falk, which I really, really really appreciate. So yeah, I enjoyed this episode. I understand this episode's faults and its problems for sure, but I think it's a It's a good episode because of Ruth Gordon's performance, but I think it's kind of a mediocre episode based. On the other like Colombo trappings that we get.

Well, when we come back next month, we're going to see Peter Falk face off against Louis Jordan, who, as you mentioned, a clastic Bond villain and here he as a restaurant tour So no chili, I don't think in the next episode, but definitely some food and also directed by Jonathan Demi. It'll be nice to see that. But until don Chris, what are you working on these days. Sir working on podcasts over at Weirdingwaymedia dot com, where every podcast that I work on can be found there. You know, I do a weekly show called The Culturecast.

I've been on and not like a bit of a hiatus, but life has been kind of all over the place and I haven't been able to commit to it the way that I want, which is unfortunate. But I'm trying trying to do better, which is, you know, which is the first step in all of this is trying and taking accountability. So if you want to hear me and the things that I work on, Weirdingwaymedia dot com is where you can go. But once a month, if you are a Patreon supporter, you can hear us talking about James Bond over at patreon dot com, Slash Culturecast, patreon dot com, slash Projection Booth, and patreon dot com slash Oh wait not Richard Haddams podcast. Never mind?

What about you, Mike? Yeah, pretty much the same daring thing. Every week I'm putting out new episodes of the Projection Booth. Once a month, we're talking about Colombo, we're talking about well, I think what twenty twenty six will be the year of what No fucking ZD. So everything that I do is over at Readingwaymedia dot com, and I would highly recommend that everyone check that out and go back through the old back catalog of these.

Not only do we talk about Colombo, but we also talk about other Peter Falk things as well as Lincoln Levinson stuff. So just had a really good conversation last month about Lincoln Levinson's TV movie from the same year that came out just about a month after this episode of Colombo called The Storyteller. Great discussion, and I would highly recommend that everybody check that one out. Do you like Lincoln Levinson stuff, We're trying to cover everything, and if you like Peter Folk stuff, we're trying to cover some things. And if you've ever wanted to.

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