Just One More Thing

Seemingly ripped from the pages of a romance novel, it’s Season Nine’s “Murder in Malibu.” Columbo has to unravel the twists and turns surrounding a writer and her two-(Or is it three? Maybe four?) timing tennis pro/actor fiancee. Joining to discuss will be critics Donna Bowman (AV Club) and Noel Murray (New York Times).

Get your scratch-offs, it’s “Death Hits the Jackpot”! Wielding a southern accent slightly less broad than Foghorn Leghorn’s, Rip Torn is the owner of a fancy Beverly Hills jewelry store who’s just gone dead broke. Thankfully, at the moment he gets the news, his nephew (Gary Kroeger) shows up with a winning lottery ticket. The problem? The nephew […]

Season Eleven’s “Death Hits the Jackpot” contains: Rip Torn doing a huge Southern accent Gary Kroeger Columbo pulling his badge on a car salesman Someone dressed as Col. Sanders accompanied by a lady dressed as a chicken A chimp So, you’ll want to see it, if you can. It’s on DVD. Alex Knapp (Forbes) will be […]

“No Time to Die” is the first of two forays the series made into the world of Ed Mccain’s “87th Precinct” books, so the format’s a little different than your typical episode. There isn’t a murder, but a kidnapping! Columbo carries a gun! You meet one of Columbo’s oft-referenced nephews, who’s also an LAPD cop! And on and […]

When is a Columbo not a Columbo? When it’s Season Eleven’s “No Time to Die,” based on an Ed McBain 87th Precinct tale of a kidnapping, not a murder. What happens when a beloved program strays wildly from its patented format? We’ll find out on our next show, with author Amanda Reyes (Are You In the House Alone?)!

Poor Adrian Carsini (Donald Pleasance). When we meet him in “Any Old Port In a Storm,” all he wants is to run the family winery, play the big shot with his wine nerd friends and decant the days away. When Carsini’s playboy half-brother threatens to sell the winery’s land to the Two Buck Chucks up the […]

Grab a bottle! In Season Three’s “Any Old Port In a Storm,” Columbo comes up against Adrian Carsini (Donald Pleasance), the prestigious head of a winery who locks his brother in the cellar when the younger sibling threatens to sell out the family vineyard. Steven Goss (Columbo Interiors) will be the guest.

In “By Dawn’s Early Light,” Patrick McGoohan is Colonel Lyle Rumford, overseeing a military academy whose enrollment has been steadily declining for years. When the scion of the academy’s founder announces plans to turn the institution into a co-ed prep school, the commandant sees fit to rig an antique cannon with C-4 and blow the guy […]

Staying with the military theme, as we visit Season Four’s “By Dawn’s Early Light.” Columbo mainstay Patrick McGoohan is the commandant of a military academy who’d rather commit murder than see the institution become a co-ed prep school. Michael Grasso (Hold My Order Terrible Dresser) joins to discuss.

It’s like the old saying: Sometimes, it’s not enough to stab a guy; you also have to blow him up. At least, that seems to be the thought in “Grand Deceptions,” a confusing late Columbo set at a military think tank which also trains mercenaries on the side. Oh, and illegally runs arms. When he’s not busy shaking yarrow […]

Rocketing back into the 90s for the season eight episode, “Grand Deceptions,” in which Columbo has to dig into the secrets of a military think tank that also runs a little paramilitary ripoff school on the side. Joining in the pain of combat are writers Jennifer Wright (Get Well Soon: History’s Worst Plagues and the […]

Murder is no game. Well, except for “The Most Dangerous Match,” wherein chess genius Laurence Harvey is terrified at the prospect of losing to someone even more genius-er than he is. Instead of just playing harder, he tries to kill his opponent by shoving him into what passes for early-70s green technology (a massive garbage crushing machine). When that […]

Season Two’s “The Most Dangerous Match” pits chess grandmaster Laurence Harvey against Lt. Columbo in a case involving garbage crushers, garlic snails and garish hallucinations. Game designer Nathan Paoletta (Who is working on a game based on Columbo!) will be the guest.

“Last Salute to the Commodore” is an odd episode of Columbo to be sure. The titular Commodore, owner of a luxury shipbuilding firm and head of a dysfunctional family, is found dead, presumably of an accident at sea. The prime suspect is conniving son-in-law Robert Vaughn. But wait! He gets killed, too? What? This episode is […]

Vaughning it up again with Season Five’s “Last Salute to the Commodore,” a perennial favorite of all Columbo fans! Sure, why not? An exclusive LA island community turns out to be a hotbed of murder and betrayal as the patriarch of a shipbuilding (boatbuilding?) company is found dead upon the ocean he loved so much. First-time guest Christy […]

What was supposed to be a pleasure cruise to Mexico becomes a working vacation for Lt. Columbo in “Troubled Waters.” Also on board is used car kingpin Robert Vaughn, who kills the lounge singer who’s blackmailing him, while pinning the murder on her piano-playing ex. Though the crew is more than willing to buy the frame-up, Columbo can’t […]

Season Four’s “Troubled Waters” welcomes Robert Vaughn aboard as a scheming used car dealer who murders a past fling on a pleasure cruise. However, he didn’t figure on Lt. Columbo happening to be on the exact same boat. Ship. Boat. No, ship. Richard Massara returns to the podcast to swab the decks. The episode’s available […]

Politics. No one’s tired of that yet, right? Ha. Ha. Ha. Yeah. So, in “Candidate for Crime,” Jackie Cooper is Nelson Hayward, a US Senate candidate who’s sick and tired of his campaign manager telling him what to do. Does he fire him? Nope, it’s a literal Saturday Night Massacre, as the pol kills him […]

Next up is Season Three’s “Candidate for Crime,” in which a politician figures he can get away with literal murder and still get elected. That could never happen in a million years, right? Right? ANYWAY, JD Ryznar (Beyond Yacht Rock, Hot Streets) joins us to discuss this wildly implausible scenario. The episode is available on […]

Yes, we talked about “Now You See Him” way back on our seventh show, but we felt it was worth revisiting with a more, shall we say, open-minded guest. The episode features Jack Cassidy creeping it up as a creep magician/ex-Nazi SS officer who kills the creep magic club owner who’s blackmailing him over his evil past. […]