"Oh, just one more thing..."
I was a high school senior when NBC launched a new "Mystery Movie" cycle of three rotating series in September 1971. One show was called "McMillan & Wife" and starred Rock Hudson. Another featured Dennis Weaver as "McCloud." But the first episode to air in the rotation starred the great Peter Falk as a cigar-smoking, trenchcoated homicide detective named Columbo. I was hooked on "Columbo" for the next seven years (some 43 episodes total).
Last night, I watched that first 90-minute show for only the second or third time in 33 years. It's titled "Murder by the Book" and starred the late Jack Cassady, a perfect snooty Columbo adversary. What a treat! It still holds up as both a clever mystery and as great entertainment. That episode (directed by a young punk named Steven Spielberg), plus six others from the series' first "season" and two pilot movies from 1968 and 1971, have been released by Universal on DVD as Columbo: The Complete First Season.
There are no extras in this DVD package -- just the barebones shows themselves -- but it's a gem anyway. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the release of further "Columbo" episodes.
posted by Wally Conger @ 11:21 AM
2 comments
2 Comments:
I was just thinking about that "Mystery Movie" series. I must have watched repeats in the late 1970s because I would have been 3 when it started.
I liked McCloud, couldn't follow McMillan & Wife, and loved Columbo!
Thanks for the pointer. I'll look for the DVD.
PS I have a very specific memory of a McCloud episode. He was a fiction writer who solved mysteries, right? He goes to a fancy party wearing a turtleneck. His friend admonishes him because it's a black-tie affair. McCloud tells him, No, I'm a writer. They expect me to dress like this.
I remember thinking, Then I want to be a writer, too!
They have been releasing a lot of collections like that and I plan to get several. They were the movies and series of my youth. They are also priced pretty good also.
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