Hi Michael. I'm liking your top 10. A Stitch in Crime is indeed excellent. My own personal favourite is Negative Reaction with Dick Van Dyke as the murderer. I laugh at the scene where the nun believes Columbo to be homeless. Other favourites include A Friend in Deed, Suitable for Framing, A Deadly State of Mind, Death Lends a Hand, The Forgotten Lady, By Dawns Early Light, Troubled Waters, Candidate for Crime and Playback. But as you rightly pointed out there are so many brilliant episodes from that first run.
We have the complete DVD set and watched all of the ones mentioned here more than once. The Sky High IQ Club with Theodore Bikel (more famous as a folk singer) is notable for the amazing number of supporting actors given meaty scenes, including then unknown Jamie Lee Curtis. One of the rare 90's exceptions was the one with Faye Dunaway which plumbs the emotional depths of Columbo himself.
I, too, grew up in the 70's watching Columbo with my mother. "Any Port in the Storm" with Donald Pleasence and "Try and Catch Me" are two of my favorites. One feels sorry for Pleansence's vintner.
Great selection. Some of my personal favourites not on your list are “Try and Catch Me” , “Forgotten Lady”, “Suitable for Framing” and (the only later season episode I regard as a favourite) “Uneasy Lies the Crown”.
I haven't seen the last one, but the other three are all terrific. Forgotten Lady is particularly underrated, with great performances from Janet Leigh and John Payne.
I feel so stupid, I’ve deeply loved Columbo (70’s really) forever, but only just now crossed my mind to listen to another ‘nerd/lover’ talk about it. New best video on youtube, very early push for voty 😂
Out of curiosity, because of pair of movies based on the characters, I recently bought a copy of Inspector Hornleigh Investigates (1939) that begins with the crime and the perpetrators. With a feature movie length of time to fill, per episode, Columbo took the same approach.
@@michaelbartlettfilm The Hornleigh book has a kind of a Doc Savage, Don Winslow of the Navy vibe to the plot, that applies to lots of books and radio drama of the type, so Levinson and Link would probably have been well exposed to this type of fiction of the 1940s and 1950s.
I did a masters in Archiving and Records management and graduated in 2011. It was gruelling. I certainly would never consider going any further in Higher education and was really just wanted to bat it away toward the end. But my academic tutor kept me hanging on for final submission for about 5 months. Every time I'd try to be rid of it he'd say somthing like "good good. Looks like we are ready" and then follow with emails straight after - when I thought I was off the hook at last saying "oh one last thing. add some more texts to your literature review" or, "Restructure chapter 2" or "oh by the way the conclusion needs to be more blah de blah" Eventually, after many false dawns I emailed him and said "Look Craig, I don't want a distinction, and was just wondering that, Now that Peter Falk is dead whether you were hoping to take over as Columbo?...He let me submit and I was put out of my misery through the application of sacrasm.
WoW so nice, also a Columbo review upload! 👍🏻☺️👍🏻 My absolute no.1 series ! I can also talk about it the whole day! 👍🏻☺️ Like you say: in the first place because of Peter Falk, I have fallen in love with his character already as a teenager. He just IS Columbo. Really completely addicted to his portrayal of this character, just utterly sublime, I loved him from the first viewing. Since then, I always review my favorite ones. Have seen all 69 episodes, many, many of them multiple multiple times 👍🏻☺️ I'm younger than you, and "discovered" Columbo in the nineties, as a teenager, so perhaps that's the reason why I really enjoy also (some of) the later episodes. To be honest, I never understood the many critics on the "later ones". But, as said, perhaps jus also mainly because of nostalgia, could be! It's somehow maybe like James Bond haha! I saw for example the Roger Moore episodes as a teenager, so, well: he always remains my favorite Bond 🥹🫣. To all the "later episodes haters" I always say: please watch "Agenda for Murder" (Patrick McGoohan in top form ! :-)) and then, for example, compare it candidly and honestly to "Old Fashioned Murder" (but I could easily pick 5 other "70's ones") and if you then STILL are trying to defend that "all the newer ones are way less good than the older ones" I think that you will have quite a difficult task at hand 😅😉. My top ten for sure has some of yours, but added a few of the 90's ones (e.g.), and also Exercise in Fatality, Suitable for Framing, Identity Crisis, Caution! Murder Can Be Hazardous to Your Health, Uneasy lies the Crown, and other ones. But it's hard to make only a top ten, with 69 episodes....yes there are, unfortunately !!, some really dreadful ones in the 90's for súre, (No Time to Die (no, nót J.B. ;), Undercover, Murder with Too Many Notes, my gosh soooo bad), but álso in the seventies (e.g.: I really never rewatch the Commodore-episode, or the Greenhouse Jungle, or the already mentioned boring Old Fashioned Murder), but still luckily for us all, many many good episodes are there to fill at least a top 25 ☺️. I always regretted Peter Falk stopped for a decade playing Columbo, and wished he just let Columbo naturally grew old paralel to the real Peter Falk (so: not die his hair, for example, such a pity and so nót needed!!) and that he just played this wonderful character from Prescription Murder up until the end. Those extra ten years would have, probably, gave us many more possible "classic episodes"! But unfortunately it was not how it turns out te be. 😅 Thanks again for your review! So nice to see a fellow admirer! Unfortunately I rarely meet one directly, in my social surroundings, so yes TH-cam can be than so nice and revealing and wonderful ! Kind regards, greetings again from The Netherlands, Simon 🎹
Thanks, Simon! I bloody love Columbo. It's so incredibly rewatchable. I love the back and forth between Columbo and the villain. The one 90s episode I've seen a few times is the one with the college students firing a gun remotely from the bonnet of their jeep. That's not bad. (PS. Um, don't hate me...but I like Old Fashioned Murder. I think Joyce Van Patten is great as the murderer.)
Also, check out this TH-camr: th-cam.com/video/vESfMQjJVyI/w-d-xo.html He has done lots of vids on Columbo! (OK, I admit, he's one of my subscribers and I'm giving him a plug, but why not?!)
@@michaelbartlettfilm ah nice, I will check out also that channel ! 👍🏻 Yes, I saw you mentioning already that episode in another comment, it's called "Columbo goes back to college". That episode is known by the fans also mainly (besides the complicated 'from a distance planned murder'-plot) because of the 'return' of Robert Culp. Unfortunately he only has a minor role in that episode, I wish he was instead cast as the murderer again..! And yes, of course, Joyce Van Patten is a great actrice, I do know what you mean (she has, as you of course know, a great role as the "nun" in Negative Reaction") but still, if I have to choose between "Old Fashioned Murder" or "Agenda for Murder" it's a really really easy choice for me 😅☺️. The same goes, for example, for "The Conspirators" versus "Caution! Murder can be Hazardous to your health" (with a great return of George Hamilton), or "Dagger of the Mind" vs "Murder Smoke & Shadows (mainly because of the wonderful interplay between Falk and the cocky young murderer), or "A Matter of Honor" vs "Grand Deceptions" (also a great interplay between the arrogant murderer and Columbo), to name just a view. But, as mentioned, I realize in my case it's also probably got to do with the mentioned nostalgia....so, partly I'm biased haha! (For that same reason by the way (don't shoot me hahaha! 🫣I just love love love Die Hard, I've seen that movie as a teenager and it just floored me, mainly because of a terrific Willis vs a terrific Rickman) Thanks again, kind regards, Simon 🎹👍🏻
@@simonvanthoff The nun scene in Negative Reaction is probs my favourite scene in the whole of Columbo - that whole bit in the soup kitchen with Vito Scotti as well. Terrific acting all round. (OK, I admit those 70s eps you mention are definitely some of the weakest!)
I haven't seen some of these so will hunt them down. The two that always stuck in my mind, particularly for their climaxes, were 'A Deadly State of Mind' and 'How to Dial a Murder'. Those two seemed to be repeated on TV more than many others too.
@@michaelbartlettfilm No problem, you're a goldmine for recommendations of films I'd likely never come across. And I watched 'A Stitch in Crime' earlier and Leonard Nimoy was indeed great!
Enjoyed your video a lot!!!! Very good picks! I must say though that I’m kinda bummed that you completely alienated the 80’s,90’s and 2000’s episodes! I enjoy those episodes very much!!!!! And probably more than one would be in my top ten (which I’m currently working on,it’s very hard to do!) have you even watched all of the non 70’s episodes? (I’ve watched them all many times!) or did you just watch a few and decide you didn’t like them all? If you watched them all,I’d be curious to no which is your favourite of the non 70’s episodes?
I’m not keen on the non-70s ones, really. The one that most sticks in the memory, though I don’t know why, is the one where two college kids kill their professor with a gun hidden in their truck
@@michaelbartlettfilm I enjoy that one also! The interesting part about that one is that of all of the murder’s in columbo history,those 2 seem to underestimate columbo the most! (Jokes on them) my favourite non 70’s episode is with Ed bagley jr. when columbo goes undercover and they search for the pieces of the picture! That would be In my official top ten! I have watched that a lot!!!! My favourite overall is the one on the cruise ship with Robert Vaughn (glad you put that in your honourable mentions) ☺️👌
I have a soft spot for LOST LADY, not because the mystery is all that thrilling, but because a secondary character takes over the show, and it's the great noir star John Payne, whose confrontation with Columbo I am obliged to describe as "crackling." It was Payne's last performance, his character outmaneuvers Columbo and earns his respect through an act of self-sacrifice. Columbo crosses swords with greedy swine every show, it's a quiet joy to see him fencing with a decent human being.
@@michaelbartlettfilm - Indeed! or when he got really angry at Nimoy! There was a scene though that struck me hard and it was when he thrashed some lady about the death, but I'm damned if I can remember it!
@@michaelbartlettfilm You know? I was just thinking that Nimoy should've been called Dr. Spock! in his episode! LOL! I don't know if you know who that is but Dr. Spock was a famous author here in the States who wrote books on parenting back in the '60s
@@michaelbartlettfilm No, it's the one with the dissolving sutures. Nimoy is acting arrogant about everything and Colombo gets really mad at him in his office. It happens just before his 'gotcha' moment' as I recall. I'll see if I can find a clip.
@@michaelbartlettfilm fantástico! hay una página web para locos! por Colombo, que se dedica a localizar en el Google Maps los escenarios donde se grabaron los episodios, por ejemplo la casa de Ken Franklin y la tienda de la Señora Lasanka.
Habiendo escuchado tu intervención sobre Children of the Stone (una de mis series favoritas) Me gustaría saber que opinas de series como The Omega Factor, The Last Train, One Summer, la saga de adaptaciones televisivas de las novelas de John Wyndham y de Survivors.
@@rafadiezdom Te gusta Children of the Stones? Que guay! Los vi The Omega Factor y Day of the Triffids cuando era muy joven. No los recuerdo bien. Pero me encanto el ruido de las Triffid plantas! Ironicamente, estoy leyendo The Kraken Wakes por Wyndham al momento. Louise Jameson de Doctor who aparecio en The Omega Factor. Tengo la DVD, pero no lo he revisitado ya. (Lo siento - mi espanol es fatal!)
To be fair, Exercise in Fatality has two of my fave scenes in Columbo - when Columbo first turns up at Robert Conrad's house and his secretary is there with him, and the great scene where Columbo turns angry at the hospital
I have the complete series of Columbo ❤️. I never get tired of watching him❤️🤗!
great times ....great show , I hate most shows....
Your top ten picks are almost identical to my top ten! "Suitable For Framing with Ross Martin...the ending blows me away! That's #2 on my top 10.
Yeah, it's a great ep. I love the actress who Ross Martin's murderer is trying to frame.
Hi Michael. I'm liking your top 10. A Stitch in Crime is indeed excellent. My own personal favourite is Negative Reaction with Dick Van Dyke as the murderer. I laugh at the scene where the nun believes Columbo to be homeless. Other favourites include A Friend in Deed, Suitable for Framing, A Deadly State of Mind, Death Lends a Hand, The Forgotten Lady, By Dawns Early Light, Troubled Waters, Candidate for Crime and Playback. But as you rightly pointed out there are so many brilliant episodes from that first run.
That scene with the nun and Vito Scotti as the homeless man is one of the best acted scenes in the whole series!
We have the complete DVD set and watched all of the ones mentioned here more than once. The Sky High IQ Club with Theodore Bikel (more famous as a folk singer) is notable for the amazing number of supporting actors given meaty scenes, including then unknown Jamie Lee Curtis. One of the rare 90's exceptions was the one with Faye Dunaway which plumbs the emotional depths of Columbo himself.
Thanks for your comment, Robert. I didn't know Theodore Bikel was a folk singer!
I, too, grew up in the 70's watching Columbo with my mother. "Any Port in the Storm" with Donald Pleasence and "Try and Catch Me" are two of my favorites. One feels sorry for Pleansence's vintner.
I feel bad not putting that one in my top ten.
Great selection. Some of my personal favourites not on your list are “Try and Catch Me” , “Forgotten Lady”, “Suitable for Framing” and (the only later season episode I regard as a favourite) “Uneasy Lies the Crown”.
I haven't seen the last one, but the other three are all terrific. Forgotten Lady is particularly underrated, with great performances from Janet Leigh and John Payne.
I feel so stupid, I’ve deeply loved Columbo (70’s really) forever, but only just now crossed my mind to listen to another ‘nerd/lover’ talk about it. New best video on youtube, very early push for voty 😂
Aww, thanks so much! Can I put in for the prize now? 😆
@@michaelbartlettfilmmaybe just go see if sgt. Wilson needs anything for now 😂
Out of curiosity, because of pair of movies based on the characters, I recently bought a copy of Inspector Hornleigh Investigates (1939) that begins with the crime and the perpetrators. With a feature movie length of time to fill, per episode, Columbo took the same approach.
Interesting, I've not heard of that book. I wonder if Columbo's creators knew about it.
@@michaelbartlettfilm The Hornleigh book has a kind of a Doc Savage, Don Winslow of the Navy vibe to the plot, that applies to lots of books and radio drama of the type, so Levinson and Link would probably have been well exposed to this type of fiction of the 1940s and 1950s.
I did a masters in Archiving and Records management and graduated in 2011. It was gruelling. I certainly would never consider going any further in Higher education and was really just wanted to bat it away toward the end. But my academic tutor kept me hanging on for final submission for about 5 months. Every time I'd try to be rid of it he'd say somthing like "good good. Looks like we are ready" and then follow with emails straight after - when I thought I was off the hook at last saying "oh one last thing. add some more texts to your literature review" or, "Restructure chapter 2" or "oh by the way the conclusion needs to be more blah de blah" Eventually, after many false dawns I emailed him and said "Look Craig, I don't want a distinction, and was just wondering that, Now that Peter Falk is dead whether you were hoping to take over as Columbo?...He let me submit and I was put out of my misery through the application of sacrasm.
Ha, ha, brilliant. Academic tutors, though... Biggest waste of space ever?
WoW so nice, also a Columbo review upload! 👍🏻☺️👍🏻 My absolute no.1 series ! I can also talk about it the whole day! 👍🏻☺️
Like you say: in the first place because of Peter Falk, I have fallen in love with his character already as a teenager. He just IS Columbo. Really completely addicted to his portrayal of this character, just utterly sublime, I loved him from the first viewing.
Since then, I always review my favorite ones. Have seen all 69 episodes, many, many of them multiple multiple times 👍🏻☺️
I'm younger than you, and "discovered" Columbo in the nineties, as a teenager, so perhaps that's the reason why I really enjoy also (some of) the later episodes.
To be honest, I never understood the many critics on the "later ones". But, as said, perhaps jus also mainly because of nostalgia, could be! It's somehow maybe like James Bond haha! I saw for example the Roger Moore episodes as a teenager, so, well: he always remains my favorite Bond 🥹🫣.
To all the "later episodes haters" I always say: please watch "Agenda for Murder" (Patrick McGoohan in top form ! :-)) and then, for example, compare it candidly and honestly to "Old Fashioned Murder" (but I could easily pick 5 other "70's ones") and if you then STILL are trying to defend that "all the newer ones are way less good than the older ones" I think that you will have quite a difficult task at hand 😅😉.
My top ten for sure has some of yours, but added a few of the 90's ones (e.g.), and also Exercise in Fatality, Suitable for Framing, Identity Crisis, Caution! Murder Can Be Hazardous to Your Health, Uneasy lies the Crown, and other ones.
But it's hard to make only a top ten, with 69 episodes....yes there are, unfortunately !!, some really dreadful ones in the 90's for súre, (No Time to Die (no, nót J.B. ;), Undercover, Murder with Too Many Notes, my gosh soooo bad), but álso in the seventies (e.g.: I really never rewatch the Commodore-episode, or the Greenhouse Jungle, or the already mentioned boring Old Fashioned Murder), but still luckily for us all, many many good episodes are there to fill at least a top 25 ☺️.
I always regretted Peter Falk stopped for a decade playing Columbo, and wished he just let Columbo naturally grew old paralel to the real Peter Falk (so: not die his hair, for example, such a pity and so nót needed!!) and that he just played this wonderful character from Prescription Murder up until the end. Those extra ten years would have, probably, gave us many more possible "classic episodes"! But unfortunately it was not how it turns out te be.
😅
Thanks again for your review! So nice to see a fellow admirer! Unfortunately I rarely meet one directly, in my social surroundings, so yes TH-cam can be than so nice and revealing and wonderful !
Kind regards, greetings again from The Netherlands, Simon 🎹
Thanks, Simon! I bloody love Columbo. It's so incredibly rewatchable. I love the back and forth between Columbo and the villain. The one 90s episode I've seen a few times is the one with the college students firing a gun remotely from the bonnet of their jeep. That's not bad. (PS. Um, don't hate me...but I like Old Fashioned Murder. I think Joyce Van Patten is great as the murderer.)
Also, check out this TH-camr: th-cam.com/video/vESfMQjJVyI/w-d-xo.html
He has done lots of vids on Columbo! (OK, I admit, he's one of my subscribers and I'm giving him a plug, but why not?!)
@@michaelbartlettfilm ah nice, I will check out also that channel ! 👍🏻
Yes, I saw you mentioning already that episode in another comment, it's called "Columbo goes back to college". That episode is known by the fans also mainly (besides the complicated 'from a distance planned murder'-plot) because of the 'return' of Robert Culp. Unfortunately he only has a minor role in that episode, I wish he was instead cast as the murderer again..!
And yes, of course, Joyce Van Patten is a great actrice, I do know what you mean (she has, as you of course know, a great role as the "nun" in Negative Reaction") but still, if I have to choose between "Old Fashioned Murder" or "Agenda for Murder" it's a really really easy choice for me 😅☺️. The same goes, for example, for "The Conspirators" versus "Caution! Murder can be Hazardous to your health" (with a great return of George Hamilton), or "Dagger of the Mind" vs "Murder Smoke & Shadows (mainly because of the wonderful interplay between Falk and the cocky young murderer), or "A Matter of Honor" vs "Grand Deceptions" (also a great interplay between the arrogant murderer and Columbo), to name just a view.
But, as mentioned, I realize in my case it's also probably got to do with the mentioned nostalgia....so, partly I'm biased haha!
(For that same reason by the way (don't shoot me hahaha! 🫣I just love love love Die Hard, I've seen that movie as a teenager and it just floored me, mainly because of a terrific Willis vs a terrific Rickman)
Thanks again, kind regards, Simon 🎹👍🏻
@@simonvanthoff The nun scene in Negative Reaction is probs my favourite scene in the whole of Columbo - that whole bit in the soup kitchen with Vito Scotti as well. Terrific acting all round. (OK, I admit those 70s eps you mention are definitely some of the weakest!)
Couldn’t cope without Identity Crisis and Any Port ❤❤❤
Try and catch me
I haven't seen some of these so will hunt them down. The two that always stuck in my mind, particularly for their climaxes, were 'A Deadly State of Mind' and 'How to Dial a Murder'. Those two seemed to be repeated on TV more than many others too.
Both great eps. I didn't like the dogs one much at first, but I watched it again last week and it's fab! And it's got a young Kim Cattrall in it, too.
@@michaelbartlettfilm Great viewing figures for this video, a testament to Columbo's popularity!
@@markgillespie3971 I know, right? Thanks for your support, Mark!
@@michaelbartlettfilm No problem, you're a goldmine for recommendations of films I'd likely never come across. And I watched 'A Stitch in Crime' earlier and Leonard Nimoy was indeed great!
Enjoyed your video a lot!!!! Very good picks! I must say though that I’m kinda bummed that you completely alienated the 80’s,90’s and 2000’s episodes! I enjoy those episodes very much!!!!! And probably more than one would be in my top ten (which I’m currently working on,it’s very hard to do!) have you even watched all of the non 70’s episodes? (I’ve watched them all many times!) or did you just watch a few and decide you didn’t like them all? If you watched them all,I’d be curious to no which is your favourite of the non 70’s episodes?
I’m not keen on the non-70s ones, really. The one that most sticks in the memory, though I don’t know why, is the one where two college kids kill their professor with a gun hidden in their truck
@@michaelbartlettfilm I enjoy that one also! The interesting part about that one is that of all of the murder’s in columbo history,those 2 seem to underestimate columbo the most! (Jokes on them) my favourite non 70’s episode is with Ed bagley jr. when columbo goes undercover and they search for the pieces of the picture! That would be In my official top ten! I have watched that a lot!!!! My favourite overall is the one on the cruise ship with Robert Vaughn (glad you put that in your honourable mentions) ☺️👌
@@42yearoldboy5 Patrick Macnee’s shorts and socks combo in that one is hilarious!
I have a soft spot for LOST LADY, not because the mystery is all that thrilling, but because a secondary character takes over the show, and it's the great noir star John Payne, whose confrontation with Columbo I am obliged to describe as "crackling." It was Payne's last performance, his character outmaneuvers Columbo and earns his respect through an act of self-sacrifice. Columbo crosses swords with greedy swine every show, it's a quiet joy to see him fencing with a decent human being.
Agreed, he and Janet Leigh are terrific in that episode. (As is Falk, of course!)
What about 'how to dial a murder' and ''catch me if you can'?
Both great eps. But I only had 10 spaces. Aaargh!
My favorite moments of Colombo was when he truly got angry with his suspects about , someone died!
Colombo was a very cool dude baby!
Yeah, like the great hospital scene with Robert Conrad
@@michaelbartlettfilm - Indeed! or when he got really angry at Nimoy!
There was a scene though that struck me hard and it was when he thrashed some lady about the death, but
I'm damned if I can remember it!
@@michaelbartlettfilm You know? I was just thinking that Nimoy should've been called Dr. Spock! in his episode! LOL!
I don't know if you know who that is but Dr. Spock was a famous author here in the States who wrote books on parenting back in the '60s
@@chrislong3938 Is it the George Hamilton one? "Deadly State of Mind" I think.
@@michaelbartlettfilm No, it's the one with the dissolving sutures. Nimoy is acting arrogant about everything and Colombo gets really mad at him in his office. It happens just before his 'gotcha' moment' as I recall. I'll see if I can find a clip.
Hello from Spain! to me just the first 3 seasons and the ranking positions: Columbo + Jack Cassidy, Columbo + Robert Clup, Columbo + Anne Francis
Hola! Que tal? Vivi en Oviedo hace muchos anos. So glad you like the Anne Francis episode. It's one of the best, but rarely gets mentioned by fans.
@@michaelbartlettfilm fantástico! hay una página web para locos! por Colombo, que se dedica a localizar en el Google Maps los escenarios donde se grabaron los episodios, por ejemplo la casa de Ken Franklin y la tienda de la Señora Lasanka.
Habiendo escuchado tu intervención sobre Children of the Stone (una de mis series favoritas) Me gustaría saber que opinas de series como The Omega Factor, The Last Train, One Summer, la saga de adaptaciones televisivas de las novelas de John Wyndham y de Survivors.
@@rafadiezdom Te gusta Children of the Stones? Que guay! Los vi The Omega Factor y Day of the Triffids cuando era muy joven. No los recuerdo bien. Pero me encanto el ruido de las Triffid plantas! Ironicamente, estoy leyendo The Kraken Wakes por Wyndham al momento. Louise Jameson de Doctor who aparecio en The Omega Factor. Tengo la DVD, pero no lo he revisitado ya. (Lo siento - mi espanol es fatal!)
I have a few that aren't on this list.
An Exercise In Fatality
The Greenhouse Jungle
Blueprint For Murder
Ransom For A Dead Man
To be fair, Exercise in Fatality has two of my fave scenes in Columbo - when Columbo first turns up at Robert Conrad's house and his secretary is there with him, and the great scene where Columbo turns angry at the hospital
The only episode I haven't watched in the whole series I have is the one of Mrs. Columbo. That would just ruin it for me.
Totally agree!
A Bird in the Hand... featuring Tyne Daly is a great later episode.
Yeah, it's definitely one of the better 80s eps. Tyne Daly gives a terrific, diva-ry performance!