COLUMBO THE COMPLETE SERIES 1-10
Universal Playback / Region 2 / Released 19 October 2009 in a 35 disc set"Just one more thing"... The fabulousness that is Columbo comes to dvd in a brand new very groovy cigar box shaped complete collection! Released on the 19th October this mammoth 35 disc set features every episode of the show as well as the two series pilots and two episodes of spin off Mrs Columbo.
Columbo, played with great style by Peter Falk, was intially part of NBC's Mystery Movie Series during the 1970's appearing along side the likes of McMillan and Wife, Banacek and McCloud, so loved was the character though that Falk brought him back for more feature length mysteries in the early 1990's.
Columbo, unlike pretty much all other detective shows, was different in that right from the start the audience knew who the killer was and the joy of the thing is watching Lt Columbo, with his absent minded air, constant cigar and scruffy demeanour, use his considerable skills, a bit like a low rent Hercule Poirot gather the evidence to catch his man (or woman).
The show always attracted well known names for guest appearances so there is much joy to be had in spotting the likes of Don Ameche, Dabney Colman, Blythe Danner, Robert Culp, Ray Milland, Ida Lupino, Anthony Andrews, Honor Blackman, Johnny Cash, John Cassavetes, Billy Connolly, Patrick Macnee, Vincent Price, Leslie Nielsen and Roddy McDowell to name just a few. Incidentally four murderers on Columbo went on to play villains in Bond movies!
This is a great keepsake, cleveryly packaged and with a lot of attention lavished upon it, it also comes with an extensive booklet. A must have for any fan of classic TV.
COLUMBO FACTS
Columbo’s first incarnation, as played by Bert Freed, was in 1960 in a TV anthology series which also included McCloud and McMillan & Wife. It became a stage play in 1962, this time starring Thomas Mitchell – Scarlett O'Hara’s father in Gone with the Wind and Uncle Billy in It's a Wonderful Life.
Finally, it was made into a 2-hour television movie in 1968. Mitchell had died, and the writers suggested Lee J. Cobb or Bing Crosby for the role, but Cobb was unavailable and Crosby turned it down. Director Richard Irving was convinced that Falk, who wanted the role, could pull it off even though he was much younger than the writers had in mind. Falk continued in the role when the TV series began in 1971, and played the role until 2002.
Columbo's wardrobe was provided by Peter Falk himself. They were his own clothes – including the iconic trench coat which made its first appearance in the second episode.
Columbo's equally famous battered car is a 1959 Peugeot 403 Cabriolet, which Falk selected personally after seeing it in a car park at Universal Studios. When Columbo boasts that it's rare, he isn't kidding: from 1956 to 1961 only 2,050 were produced.
Falk would often ad-lib "Columbo-isms" (fumbling through his pockets for a piece of evidence and discovering a shopping list, asking to borrow a pencil, becoming distracted by something irrelevant in the room at a dramatic point in a conversation with a suspect), inserting them into his performance as a way to keep his fellow actors off-balance. He felt it helped to make their confused and impatient reactions to Columbo's antics more genuine.
DIRECTORS: Among the show’s directors, some names sing out ... Steven Spielberg and Jonathan Demme (Silence of the Lambs) each directed an episode of the show during its first run. Nicholas Colasanto (Coach in Cheers) directed several episodes as did Patrick McGoohan (The Prisoner, Braveheart) and indy darling John Cassavetes.
A mystery like “Endeavour” Morse, Columbo's first name was never mentioned in the series, and became as celebrated an enigma as his never-seen wife. In the episode "Columbo: Undercover", when asked for his first name Columbo replies, "Lieutenant".
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