Peter Falk’s 4 Favourite Columbo Episodes

The factor about episodes of “Columbo” is that they are form of like slices of pizza: even once they’re not that nice, they’re nonetheless fairly great. There actually are no god-awful episodes of “Columbo,” and rating the very best of them is a problem. “Columbo” is pure consolation, a present that appears like a heat hug as a result of Peter Falk because the titular detective is the final word dream of what justice ought to appear like. Columbo nearly all the time will get his villain, the dangerous guys are often the wealthy and entitled, and the world appears like a greater place, all inside the span of 90 minutes or so. I’ve already written at size about which “Columbo” episodes are the best possible (in my humble opinion), however how did Falk really feel in regards to the collection? 

Again within the early Nineties, Falk did a particular for A&E the place he went over his favourite episodes from the NBC period of the collection, which spanned all through the Nineteen Seventies and included the primary seven seasons of the present. (“Columbo” would return within the late ’80s on ABC for seasons 8 and 9, together with a handful of random specials that ran all over 2003.) Sadly, video of Falk’s intros to his favourite episodes is unavailable wherever, however there are some transcripts and stills, so we all know simply how Falk felt about his favourite episodes. 

The great weblog The Columbophile managed to place collectively Falk’s 4 favourite episodes from transcripts on the net and within the guide “The Columbo Phile” by Mark Dawidziak, and numbers two via 4 have been all from season 5. Rating at quantity 4 was “Identification Disaster,” the second outing as villain for actor Patrick McGoohan, who had already performed a murderous army commander and would go on to play a further two murderers. Falk was effusive in his reward for the scenes between himself and McGoohan in his introduction of the episode on A&E, saying:

“The scenes between Columbo and the assassin are, in my judgment, among the many greatest we ever did. They’ve that excellent steadiness between being each compelling and amusing. And that is what we all the time attempt for – that is the trick in these scenes, maintain ’em tense and maintain ’em humorous. And an excessive amount of credit score for that goes to Patrick McGoohan. I will all the time keep in mind how a lot enjoyable I had taking part in ’em, and to at the present time I get a kick out of watching ’em.”

In spot quantity three was “Now You See Him,” which starred repeat visitor villain Jack Cassidy as a malicious magician, the Nice Santini. (Cassidy tragically died in an residence fireplace solely 10 months later.) As with “Identification Disaster,” Falk praised his co-star for his enjoyment of “Now You See Him,” and he continued that development together with his quantity two choose, “Forgotten Girl,” the place he liked working with “Psycho” star Janet Leigh. 

Falk’s very favourite episode was “Any Previous Port in a Storm,” a completely improbable episode from season 3 that options Donald Pleasence as a wine connoisseur and dealer who will get a bit bloodthirsty when his youthful brother tries to promote the household winery. The episode works so nicely due to the forwards and backwards between Pleasence’s character and Columbo as the 2 start to grasp each other a bit higher regardless of their apparent variations. (Columbo studying tips on how to be a wine snob additionally simply makes for actually entertaining tv!) In “The Columbo Phile,” Falk defined why he liked the episode so dearly, saying that whereas “Columbo may need been a slob” together with his garments and tendency to go away cigar ash throughout, he “had respect and admiration for excellence.” That meant that he admired the homicidal wine fanatic, whilst he investigated him for homicide. 

It looks like Falk’s favorites principally depend upon the visitor stars, and there are many different wonderful ones that he failed to say. In spite of everything, there are quite a few “Star Trek” actors who appeared on the collection, together with Leonard Nimoy as a killer physician and William Shatner in two completely different murderous roles! The true genius of “Columbo,” nevertheless, is Falk himself, although he was in all probability a bit too humble to ever say that himself. Even supposing initially Falk wasn’t the primary option to play the crumpled detective, he was the magic that made the present work.