February 26, 2024 • 45 mins
Mike and Chris look at Mind Over Mayhem, the 6th episode of the 3rd season wherein Lt. Columbo is faced with a puzzling murder that takes place on the campus of a think tank where the lead scientist, Jose Ferrer, wants to protect his son from an accusation of plagiarism.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:23):
Welcome to the Shabby Detective, yetanother Colombo podcast. I'm your host.
Mike White joined me, of course, is mister Chris Tashu murders within murders
within murders? Is that plans withinplans? Would there be dune references?
Probably? Is that because Jose Ferrerais in this episode, Your goddamn right,
(00:44):
it is the Padishah Emperor himself exactfourth, Yes, Praise be,
Praise be. We are talking aboutthe sixth episode of the third season of
Colombo, Mind Over Mayhem, directedby Alf Jellen. I guess that's how
you would say this gentleman's name froma story by Robert spect teleplay by Stephen
(01:08):
Botchko, Dean Hargrove and Roland Kibbi. This episode aired originally February tenth,
nineteen seventy four. It is thestory of a I guess he's leader of
a think tank here, Marshall Cahill, which is hilarious for me to say
because of the John Wayne film whichhas almost the exact same name, And
(01:30):
I guess that's where they got thename of Marshall Cahill. One such man
was J. D. K.Hill, United States Marshall John Wayne K
Hill, United States, Marshall JoseFerrer. He's a big brain working at
big old brain Trust. And yeahhe his kid not as motivated scholastically as
(01:53):
maybe he should be. And hestole some stuff. Stole the formula for
m molecular matter. Don't drink thatbeer, tad, that's molecular acid.
Yeah it's it sounds so phony andmade up almost as phony as MM seven.
Robbie the Robot, who takes hisplace in the Annals of robot history.
(02:15):
Of course we've seen Robbie the Robotmany times, but yeah, he's
almost an accomplice to this murder oflou Ayers, as Howard Nicholson, who
was going to expose the whole plagiarismthing. And boy, let me tell
you if people do not like tohave their plagiarism exposed, I will tell
you that from personal experience. Chris, what did you think of mind over
(02:38):
Mayhem? I think I alluded toit the last time we did an episode
that I've seen this episode a lot. I don't know why. It's just
I had been just watching ahead andthis is the one that I feel like
I was awake for most of thetime. So I've seen this episode like
five or six times at least awake, and then probably two or three more
times, is like in and outof it. There's some weird anachronisms in
(03:00):
this episode that would not be thereotherwise, namely Robbie the robot in a
way that it's so obvious that they'renot even trying to hide it. Here's
the thing. Obviously, we're watchingthis in twenty twenty four, and this
episode came out in seventy four,so fifty years ago. Lost in Space
(03:21):
is where Robbie the robot comes from, right or am I thinking of something
else? I believe Forbidden Planet.I don't think that was Robbie in Lost
in Space, though there are similarities. I was expecting the arms to start
going around and danger, Danger,This is the robot from Forbidden Planet.
That movie came out in fifty six, almost twenty years after this episode comes
(03:46):
out. I guess I'm just wonderingare people going to recognize it from Forbidden
Plan to be like, oh,look at that thing. Are they gonna
go that's just a robot. It'ssuch a weird. It's such a weird
thing to have in this episode.Again, now in twenty twenty four,
it feels weird in seventy four.Maybe it did, maybe it didn't.
I think that obviously, the coreof this story is Jose Ferrera and his
(04:10):
on screen son played by Robert WalkerJunior. And I think they're great together.
I think Jose Ferrera is good inthis episode. I think his son
is great. I think I thinkthe real problem and I think you'll probably
echo this as well. And Colombosays as much like, this motherfucker is
guilty the moment Colombo, he dude, shit's over before it even starts with
(04:30):
you ding dong, and he makeshimself the obvious killer the moment Columbo meets
him. Because Colombo says as muchat the end of the episode, as
I wasn't paying attention to anything otherthan whether or not there was a cigar
smoker in the house, and thisguy's lighting a cigar two seconds into the
moment Columbo meets him, if youuse that information as again, Colombo being
(04:53):
honest, he knew it was JoseFerrere two seconds in. But you know
what Jose Ferrere should have known heI knew it was him because the way
he treats him in this episode islike he's guilty from the moment he meets
him, and jose fer acts guiltyfrom the moment he meets him. It's
in a lot of ways this issimilar to some of the other episodes we've
(05:14):
seen Where's I dare you to figureout how I did this? Is more
or less the kind of the proceedingsof the bulk of the episode is if
I did it, catch me,if I did it, show me how
I did it, because it wasn'tthere someone as a man on the computer.
And if it wasn't me, whowas it? Because I'm the only
one who can do it. Andof course we have a precocious little shit
(05:34):
of a child giving away the bigtwist of the episode. But I like
the idea of these kinds of episodes. I feel like maybe your mile edge
will vary with the This dickhead istrying to pull over on Columbu, which
never goes well for anyone either.There is that fact that has to be
internalized as the audience at this point, there is no way this guy's gonna
(05:57):
get away with it. No matterhow many intricate hoops he make Colombo jump
through. Colombo will jump through allthose hoops he will do it, And
yeah, I don't know. Ilike this episode, but I can see
how this episode would wear thin immediately. For want to know what your thoughts
are, because you let it sliplast time, and maybe you're not the
biggest fan of this episode. Iagree with you. Colombo knows immediately who
(06:20):
the killer is and the rest ofthe time he's just fucking with him.
You're batting him around. Yeah.I liked seeing Jose Ferrera humiliated in this
episode, at least that's how Ifeel, because he's talking down to Colombo,
who is this weird little guy,And I run this whole think tank
and I've got big important business withthe Pentagon, running these war games and
(06:45):
all this stuff, and he justthinks that he's king shit. And then
the rest of the episode is justColombo just mm hm oh yeah, yeah,
oh yeah, yeah, you're supersmart, super smart. Oh boy,
Oh yes, sir, yes,sir, give him what he That's
the thing. And we've seen thatwith a lot of other Colombo villains,
where Columbo is just placating their fuckingfragile egos. And if anything, for
(07:08):
me, Columbo in so many waysis about fragile male egos. Who can't
deal with things being fucked over byagain, someone who theoretically just should have
as much of an ego as theydo, but doesn't. That's the other
thing we never find out is likeColombo seems, and we've talked about it
in Barney Miller and I think bearmentioning here, like Colombo feels like such
(07:29):
a alien in the show, andit was in a way that like Arthur
Dietrich feels like an alien in BarneyMiller. And you never get the sense,
like you get more of a sensewith Arthur Dietrich than you do with
Columbo. Does he enjoy this?Does he enjoy putting people behind bars?
And there's fucking entire prisons full ofpeople that Colombo has interred in their like
long term holdings, because some ofthese people are going away for a long
(07:54):
time, if not forever, Andyou never get the sense that Colombo enjoys
it. This is something that heenjoys doing. Is just a job for
him. I feel it's interesting tonot see him get into these arguments of
who's smarter with these people, becauseit feels like they're constantly trying to bait
him into it, and he's justlike Oh no, you're right, You're
so smart. And it's I feellike that's worse in the long term because
(08:18):
Colombo, like again, Columbo knowshe's gonna snare him at the end anyways.
So give them what they want.Let them hang themselves, right,
That's always been Columbo's thing, isthey're just most of the time these people
are given enough rope to hang themselveswith, and he finds them hanging in
the wind and he's not the onewho tightened the noose. They normally are,
So this one is weird to jumpright to the end of the episode
(08:39):
that he has to use a frameup of the son in order to get
the father to confess because the fatherloves his son so much. I'm trying
to remember if we've seen this yeton the show, and we haven't seen
this specifically. I'm trying to rememberif we've seen a father and son duo,
we've seen the son. What wasRodney McDowell doing something like this?
(09:03):
Is that was his uncle James Gregoror was it was it his uncle?
I think James Gregory was his uncle. So we haven't seen this specifically yet,
and I liked it. I likethe idea of this son who is
so unable to please his just highstandards dickhead father that it has affected him
(09:24):
emotionally to the And again it's notsaid outright that this is what's going on,
And this is just me inferring himgoing to Jessica Walters, who God,
Jessica Walters, right, she's inthis episode. I'm assuming because he
is going to her because of hisfather doing what he did to him,
(09:45):
trying to break the toxic bonds ofthat relationship. And again we don't get
the sense of that. We justhear that he has been going to therapy.
And if your father was Jose Ferrer, you too might go to therapy,
at least the way that he's portrayedthis episode. Tough customer, and
he's a tough customer to the pointwhere he murders the person who's going to
(10:05):
out his son for falsifying or Iguess falsely attributing this molecular whatever, fucking
red ass mcguffin, the reddest ofred herrings, the mcguffinist of mcguffin.
Yeah, to the point where it'sso fakey in this epod, it's like
the fakeiest of faki. He killssomeone because he loves his son so much.
But the fucked up thing is hecould never tell his son he loves
(10:28):
him, right, but he murdersfor him. And so it's that weird
interplay because then he realizes very Ifeel like he realizes very quickly what Colombo
is doing, which is framing hisown son, and I guess that's the
step that's too far for Jose Ferrer. But I do like that there is
a moment of intellectual chicken between thesetwo people, between Colombo and Jose Ferrara,
(10:52):
that again we haven't seen. We'veseen it if Jose Ferrer was having
it done to him and then hewould admit it, but we've never seen
Colombo doing it to someone else,and then the person who has done it
is also in the room watching ithappen. He does fake outs, even
all the way back to the GeneBarry episode, but yeah, not quite
(11:13):
this far where he is willing toarrest someone falsely. I'm always amazed on
Law and Order just how often theydo false arrests. I would think that
the courts are just completely backed upwith the people that they throw in jail
at the twenty minute mark, becausethey never get their person until the forty
minute mark and then the trial begins. I feel like it's a little illegal.
(11:35):
What he's doing is not great.And frankly, we've literally seen cases
where there has been suspected cop framing. I don't want to mention to Make
a murder, You making a murdererthat fucking show that everyone couldn't shut the
fuck up about for six months,But that was one where there was allegedly
cops framing people. So it's weirdbecause again then we have to struggle through
(12:01):
this, you and I. Theseshows are very cop friendly, cop positive,
and sometimes it's police officers behaving badly. And I'm not saying Colombo's behaving
badly, but I think Colombo isflexing the law about as far as it
can go. And again he getshis man in the end. But imagine,
(12:22):
if you will, someone less egofree than our dear friend Colombo and
someone more egotistical looking to just framepeople because of the color of their skin.
It's all I'm saying. It's justas it's positive here, only because
we understand that it's fictional and theends justify the means. But like,
it doesn't feel great, just likewatching naked gun and all of a sudden
(12:43):
they have a tank and they're justrolling through houses. That's ah man,
it's funny, but at the sametime it's not funny. Yeah, I'm
glad that Colombo is doing it forgood as opposed to evil, because he
does have to be very careful withthose powers that he has. Oh yeah,
we've seen him do this before wherehe's Entrapment is what it's called.
(13:05):
It has a fucking name in thelaw. It's a thing all those people
on to catch a predator. Somany of them did not go to jail
because it was fucking entrapment, andColombo does similar things in this show.
Again you get a confession out ofthe person, but again to what end,
my friend, and also how muchof that if they hired a lawyer,
is just not coercion. Coercion again, that's all I'm saying. We
(13:30):
joke about all these people in prisonbecause of Colombo, but I do think
so many of these people that Colombogets probably would not sit in jail for
more than they'd never go to prison. They'd probably just be in jail for
a week or two. You mentionedthe precocious child, and we would be
remiss not to talk about signor spelbergothe Mexican equivalent of Steven Spielberg, Steve
(13:52):
Spelberg, Steve Spelberg, and theydefinitely make sure you know his name is
Steve Spelberg throughout this whole episode.The same should have been Steve Fabelman.
Again, if we're going to justmythologize someone, it's supposed to be Steve.
I don't understand why. I knowhe directed an episode of the show,
but almost two. Yeah, that'strue, But isn't that weird.
(14:13):
There's no way that was unintentional.Oh no, no, that had to
be intentional. And then I don'tknow if it's supposed to be a loving
tribute or look at how obnoxious thiskid is and he's just as obnoxious as
Steven Spielberg is. I think it'ssupposed to be a tribute, but it
doesn't fly for me because this kidis just a little shit heel for me
(14:35):
so much of this episode, nofault of the actor or anything, and
where I think we're supposed to likehim, but you throw a little kid
into anything, especially a precocious childwho is so much smarter than everybody else.
Oh yeah, I wanted to becomea policeman, but I was too
smart. Okay, way to putyour foot in it there, junior.
I don't know in what universe thiskind of character is ever one that anybody
(14:58):
is sighted to see it. Iunderstand on the page that this makes sense.
But every time I see a childin a show like this where he's
meant it is from this time,mind you, seventies and eighties, when
they're supposed to be like a smartchild, it's like they overdo it to
the point of this child is achild genius, and he is twelve years
(15:22):
old, and he's a the equivalentlike fucking Harvard, and it's like,
what what this is? I getthat this was the time where, oh,
we're really beginning to understand the childrenaren't just fucking morons that just sit
in a corner and drool on themselves. Isn't that great? Again, if
that was your assumption all along,okay, sure, But as an adult
who does not feel that way aboutchildren anymore than I know you do,
(15:46):
this is the kind of thing thatyou get when you get people who think
that way is just this precocious,fucking child is so dialed in that he
feels like more of an adult thanthe adults do in the episode. That's
why it's a precocious fucking kid,because, like you said, not the
actor's fault. The writing is justthe writing was bad and is bad.
(16:07):
And to be honest, I thinkwriting for kids in TV has come a
long way, especially writing for kidsin a show that isn't about kids.
And I know, to your point, maybe just don't have them, and
I would agree, because there's there'snothing about this role that needed to be
played by a child. It couldhave been played by like a young adult,
like a teenager even, and Ithink if it was played by a
(16:27):
teenager it would have been a littlebit more believable. I don't I'm glad
that we're seemingly past the days ofthis is a child genius, But yet
Young Sheldon is still a TV showthat's immensely fucking popular. So maybe I'm
wrong with Middle America, but Ifeel like, again, there's no way
you watched this episode you walk awayfrom it going, oh, that kid's
not fucking annoying, because he is. And again, he, like you
(16:49):
mentioned, he holds everything over everybodyelse's head like Columboi's well I'm so smart
and this is this is no wayhe's talking down to Columbo constant Chill dude,
chill out, chill out, andyou're old or however old you're supposed
to be. And I guess there'seven a remake of Doogie Howser that's going
on right now, or maybe itgot canceled, but there was a remake
(17:10):
of Doogie Howser where it was ayoung female doctor who was so super smart
that she became a regular doctor.And there was that one with Freddy Hymore
too. I think that's still goingon, the Good Good Doctor, yes,
as opposed to the Bad Dog.Yeah. That Doogie Howser sequel was
Doogie kumeal lo At MD, andit ran for two years on Disney and
(17:32):
it is no longer running, Sothere you go. Now, I was
never into those kinds of shows,like I never that was never something that
moved the needle for me, andI don't under I guess I don't understand
why it would for anybody else,But I know that the show is immensely
popular and Neil Patrick Harris has beenhaunting us since. Thank God for that.
I love Neil Patrick Harris. NowI don't know about during the Doogie
(17:55):
days, I was. I didn'twatch that show. I didn't watch the
Younger or sorry, the one years, but I definitely loved some Malcolm in
the Middle. Yeah, I wasone of those people that liked Neil Patrick
Harris for a while. But he'snot my cup of tea anymore. He's
just, I don't know, he'sHe's always himself, which is perfectly fine.
I just don't don't necessarily resonate withit anymore. But I understand why
(18:18):
that kind of role does. Andthat's why we get something like this,
which is again a very early predecessorto an entire show based on this kind
of character, right, because DoogieHowser is a teenage doctor who's super smart.
Right, So this kid's on thattrack already. I don't don't think
we needed that character in this episode. I think we could have done without.
(18:40):
I think we could have done likewe had in those other episodes,
like the one with the Projectionist,where we just had another character in a
scene with Colombo, because wasn't ohGod, the guy from Fletch, the
guy from Spaceballs, remember when he'slike showing Colombo the imagery and he's oh,
this is how it works. Buthe didn't have five scenes with him,
(19:00):
had one and that was more thanenough. And he didn't overstay as
welcome. And that's how you doit with this show unless they're one of
the main characters. Because that's theother thing. The kid, I mean,
he gives away what the twist is. Oh, the robot is able
to do it. But other thanthat, he doesn't do anything. He
doesn't add anything to the episode otherthan taking away time from Again, I
(19:22):
think some pretty good back and forthwith Jessica Walter and the actor who plays
Jose Ferre's son. I like theirscenes together too. Again, it's a
little overwritten, but I still thinkthose parts of the episode are fine.
I guess we need the kid tobe taken out by the motor pool guy
so that then Jose Ferrera can stealthe car and claim that he and then
(19:47):
like back into the car with hisown car and all that kind of stuff.
But yeah, that could have beentaken care of by just office hours
and that this all takes place atnight, so that guy shouldn't be working
anyway. And second episode in arow now where we've had people claiming fake
car crashes to validate their alibis,because wasn't that Jack Cassidy's thing as well?
(20:10):
Well of those people. Oh soyou started remembering all of a sudden,
Oh, my memory is a littleless foggy. I was expecting Jose
Ferrer to do that in this episode, like they got right to that moment
again. He's like, oh,wasn't me. Yeah, it's weird.
It's one again, Like all ofthis seems to suit nothing, because Colombo
knows it's Jose Ferre just from thecigar. Nothing else, nothing else proves
(20:30):
that it was Jose Ferrer. ToColumbo, he even goes, I knew
from the first ten minutes I wasin there, then why not just catch
him right there? But instead Columbogets off on it. I think,
I guess he must if he trulyknew from the moment he walks in there
because of the cigar and match,which, like again feels like such a
fucking oversight for Jose Ferrer, who'sagain like he's not that he is well
(20:55):
thought out, but at the sametime he's like carrying a dead body and
smudging the wall. I don't know, Like, for as smart as you
are, you're not very good atkeeping a clean crime scene, but that
ends up like none of it matters, which really bugs me with Colombo when
nothing else matters and it was justthis one small detail. But the fact
that Colombo says it in this episodejust just irks me a little bit because
(21:18):
he's never said ten minutes in,I knew it was you. He's never
said that before. They could havesaid that at any point in this show
already. They had give multiple chancesfor Columba to be like I've known since
the first two seconds, and theyhaven't. How do you feel about that?
He has almost said that when hetalks about the letters, like why
did you open your mail when youwere when your brother had died and all
(21:42):
these things with that Susan Clark episode, or there's another one too where he
just walked in and pretty much knewright away what was going on. That
happens so often. But yeah,he's never really thrown that in somebody's face,
and I like that he's throwing itin Jose's prayers face just because he
is such a smarty pants. He'snot rich. We've talked about the rich
(22:06):
getting there just desserts. He's notoverly rich, but he just is so
full of himself that I really kindof like the Lumbo rubbing his face in
it. Yeah, I think itworks here only because of that, because
again, Jose Ferrer is just socontent with I got him, and there's
no way you can prove it.There have been few villains in this show
(22:29):
who have everybody deserves it, butthey rarely waggle it as hard as this
guy is. Again, like Columboknew in the first ten minutes, not
just because of the cigar, butalso because this guy just like such a
dickhead. And that's the thing.Jose Ferrer is a perfect dickhead in this
episode, but not not I don'tknow, not abrasive. He's just one
(22:51):
of those people, like we've allmet someone like this who everything they say
is he just proves that he's adickhead. It's not like it's not like
he goes out of his way tobe a dickhead. He's just a dickhead,
I think, through and through,from the fact that his son can
never please him to the fact thathe like literally talks down to everyone all
the time. I don't think thathe's different with anybody the way he is
(23:15):
with the people that we see.I think he's just a dick to everybody,
which to your point, Yeah,if anyone deserves to have their face
rubbed in it, it's this guy. And again, like the amount of
theatrics that Colombo goes through at theend of the episode, I think again
that in and of itself is apretty big indicator of what Colombo thinks of
this guy. But to be fair, they share a cigar at the end
of the episode, so Colombo alsogives him kind of a weird moment together,
(23:41):
and that's the thing. I ultimatelyfeel like Jose Ferre's character is maybe
the most sympathetic villain we've seen inthe show so far. That scene at
the end sharing the cigar is Ithink rather well done. But as much
of a dickhead as he is,I do think he comes off as sympathetic
because at the end of the day, you understand why he's doing what he's
doing, even if again it's somelevel of cognitive dissonance because his son did
(24:03):
what his son did because of whohis dad is, because he's such a
tough customer. Well, I'm gladthat his son finally stands up to him
and that his son outs himself,which is great, and when he goes
to Jessica Walter is just what shouldI do and she's can't tell you,
can't tell you what to do,but this is what I would do.
(24:25):
He finally does the right thing,which is what you gotta do. I
was very appreciative of that. Likethe whole relationship of Jessica Walter being both
the guy who is the wife tothe guy who gets murdered who is going
to out the son, as wellas the son's therapist. That felt a
(24:45):
little weird to me that she wasin that role between those two men.
Conflict of interest. Does she feelabout her husband trying to out her own
patient? That just seems so bizarre, that's not really mine the whole lot.
Similarly to the Kid, it feelslike an intricacy of this episode that's
unneeded because it doesn't go anywhere.That's the thing, Like it's so much
(25:10):
Colombo and Jose Ferrer back and forththat like everything else feels unimportant, and
everything else feels like just again,if you say I knew in the first
ten minutes, you really make everythingelse seem unimportant. There's there's a really
weird speaking of just like weird interactions. There's a weird scene where Colombo is
talking to Jose Ferrer in the laband then he calls Jose Ferrer's son,
(25:32):
and then Jose Ferrer is just inthat scene too, and it's like,
where the fucking guy just left thisscene and now he's in this scene.
He's a Colombo. I thought Itold you to leave, And it's is
this what it? It's so itfeels like there's stuff missing in this episode,
is what I'm is what I'm saying. It feels like they they misedited
something at some point, or theycut a scene out. But do you
(25:55):
know what I'm talking about? Thislike weird he like Jose Ferrer is there
in the scene, he leaves,and then Bumbo calls his son and then
he's just in that room too.Did he teleport? There? Is what
is going on? Because again,Jose Forer is ever present in this episode
for the most part, unless it'sColombo and the kid or Colombo and Jessica
Walter's one scene, it's pretty muchJose Forre and Columbo for the most part.
(26:18):
Apparently they did know that the storywas weak. According to I believe
it was the David Kohenick book.He was talking about how the producers were
afraid, probably Dean Hargrove was afraidthat people wouldn't be interested in this one
because it was such an easy,open and shutcase with that damn match,
(26:38):
And so then it became Botchko andthe other writers their job to obfuscate things
and to make this more of amystery. But I don't know if they
did it justice. I don't knowif they took it far enough. The
thing is, though, like youwere asking at the beginning, what do
I think of this episode, It'sa fun ride, even if it doesn't
hold together all the way. Ifeel like it's one of those rides where
(27:00):
you go on it once and you'relike, oh, that was fun,
and then the second and third orfourth time you go on it's it's fine.
It's not as fun as it wasthe first time. I think again,
having seen this episode so many times, I I don't I still enjoy
it. Every time I've seen it. I still find something to enjoy,
and the things that I want toenjoy there still aren't enough of because there
(27:22):
are other things that have gotten inthe way of it. Jose Ferrer and
his son are great. Jose Ferrand Colombo are great, but Jose Ferrer
and that kid not great. Actually, Jose Ferrer and the person he kills,
the other scientist, he's not greateither. They're they're not. They
don't really have a lot of chemistrytogether, and and I guess they don't
have to, given what one characteris telling the other, I'm gonna out
(27:44):
your son, so fucking deal withit, asshole. I don't get the
sense of a pre existing relationship.I don't get the sense that this is
either one of them at the endof their rope. I understand why Jose
Ferrer is going to kill him,but again, I feel like everybody at
the institute just gives the way JoseFerrer talks about him, given the way
Jose Ferr treats him when he walksinto his office. If there's someone who
(28:06):
killed him, it's this guy.End of story. It's just it's like
you said, it's hard to findthis episode as anything other than uh,
it's fun, but don't think toohard otherwise it starts to fall apart.
And yeah, it's a fun ride, but I think I don't know that
can get you somewhere with an hourand thirteen minutes. There have been worse
episodes of Colombo that we've seen,for sure. The amount of obfuscation they
(28:29):
do isn't even enough. Even thoughthey spend like an hour doing it,
It's still not enough because again youhave Colombo going, I know it was
you ten minutes and it's guys,just take that line out, Just take
the line out. Really, ultimatelyis the cigar and the match that catches
him. We've seen that with Colombobefore. Where it is and we've talked
about this before. The thing withwas like a contact in the back of
(28:52):
the car, like all these things, all these places you could have gone,
and you went there perfectly fun It'smaybe the one thing we weren't next
to be the thing that catches him, but you did it. Anyways,
in this it's not only is itthe first thing that Colombo says, this
is the thing that catches him.So everything else becomes just Colombo taking this
guy and doing what he wants withhim. So again, like if you
(29:15):
were cool with that upfront, you'regonna enjoy this episode. But yeah,
to your point, like there's athere's so much obfuscation that it's it doesn't
even succeed no matter how much theydo, no matter how like, they
have a false ending essentially where theywalk off with his son and he's wait,
wait a second. It's like he'sjust waiting outside the door for you.
There's no way this was going anywherefor real. There are some things
(29:37):
about this one I like a lot. Which is one of them is the
introduction of Colombo in this episode,where it's the guy from the obedience school
basically telling him that his son,quote unquote, is such a bad performer.
And this is the first episode asfar as I remember that Colombo mentions
having kids because he says that he'sgot two kids or multiple kids because it's
(30:00):
plural, so at least two,if not more. But yeah, you
think that one of his children isin trouble. But it's dog. Dog
is back, and actually this isa different dog. The original dog died
and so this is a new dog. And tell he's not nearly as big
as the old dog. And apparentlythey had to add gray makeup to his
(30:22):
muzzle to make him look older heatthe screen accuracy of this old dog.
I like that the dog is herethroughout the episode because you can see him
trailing behind Colombo in a lot ofthe scenes. It's I found that to
be amusing. They don't do anythingwith it really other than that opening joke,
which I mean is funny that thatis a good little kind of misdirect
(30:44):
with the dog, because we knowColumbus a big dog lover. The John
Cassavetti's episode off opened with him atthe vet with his dog, and there
are no weird extraneous scenes in thisIn this episode, I was waiting for
one of those scenes that we've beentalking about where there's this weird interactions between
Colombo and like an outside character.There's not really any of that. Everything
(31:07):
serves the narrative. There's no Columbomeeting with two cops in the middle of
the street where they spend ten minuteswasting everyone's time, is what it feels
like. There's none of that.This is a pretty zippy episode. I
feel like for the most part,it's so amazing to me how far policing
has come over the last fifty years, where it's you look at an episode
(31:29):
like this and the guy who's dustingfor Prince doesn't even notice the smudge on
the wall, and Columbus, ohwhat is this? And I swear he
fucking tastes it. If he doesn'ttaste it, he takes a big old
whiff of this shoe polish and it'sjust, oh, shoe polish. And
then the other guy's what huh.It turns around, does the same thing,
takes a big old wipe of it. This guy definitely sniffs it.
(31:52):
And I'm just like, no,no, you got to take the little
samples, take a photograph and labelit. And even when it comes to
the match stick, like Colombo hasthe match stick, he's carrying it around,
I'm like, and and even thepipe, I'm like, where's the
chain of evidence with this stuff?Man? You can't just like be carried
around this pipe. That makes anysense. It does if you're a dirty
(32:15):
fucking cop like Columbo. That's theshow that I would write where it's just
the antithesis of Columbo. Just abad cop planting evidence on innocent people.
That's the That's that's the shield,right, isn't that the fucking shit orson
Wells from Touch of Evil? Yeah, Colombo is right there, He's three
(32:36):
quarters of the way there. He'sjust not using his powers for evil,
He's using them for good. Here, I've got this, I've got this
hit of this guy. I'm gonnaplant this evidence on it. What the
fuck? Yeah, that's again,like that's Columbo. Could have gotten this
guy's son to go to jail fora very long time, and there's only
one person standing in the way,and that's Columbo. Even if the guy
(32:58):
admits to it, Columbo could belike, eh, I don't believe you.
Sorry again, Like that's to yourpoint. Colombo works for good,
and we're all thankful that he's onthe side of good because otherwise he said
he'd be plant what he's planned evidenceon a bunch of rich people. Maybe
is not the end of the world. Flicking that pearl into the umbrella and
(33:19):
everything really good at Marbles. Okay, good old Colombo. Hey, you
know what, as long as weget the moment of him sharing a cigar
with his old pal Jose Ferrer atthe end, I'm okay with it.
That maybe is the moment of thisepisode where I was like, oh,
okay, this is like you andyour buddies type thing, which I mean,
I'm glad they give him that moment. It's weird because we haven't really
(33:39):
seen that with any other killer whereColombo like is commiserating with them. Oh
yeah, we have. Don't forgetany old port in the Storm that drink
with Carsini at the end yet.Okay, yeah, okay, if it's
trying to emulate that, I don'tknow. Carcidi is, he's pretty sympathetic,
(34:00):
but he I don't know. Theway Carcini kills his brother is pretty
fucked up. I'm not saying thatkilling people's off fucked up, period,
but the way this guy kills himis he runs him over with carl Okay,
he's not putting him in a vaultand letting him die slowly over the
week, which is still beyond fuckedup. Way more fucked up than they
(34:21):
make it seem in the episode,that's for sure. Yeah. I love
that this episode has a couple ofStar Trek people in here. You've got
the guy from the Motor Pool.He was in at least one episode of
Star Trek, and then Robert EvansJunior, right is I think he played
Did he play Charlie X or justCharlie Evans Star Trek? But that's mostly
where I know him from, andI kept getting him mixed up with the
(34:45):
guy who played Spider Man in theOld TV movies, a Spider Man or
TV show, I should say,but he just has those same kind of
striking eyes, but he's definitely hasdifferent bone structure, so it's not the
same guy. You say, it'sStar Trek, but also Arthur ben Anitas
was also in a lot of thePolice Academy movies. Yeah, he's got
(35:06):
a great look. And I reallyliked that scene with fucking dog going crazy,
and just I'm like, did theyhad those barks in post or did
they actually try to record this scenewith the dog barking like crazy? It
feels like it must have been donein posts because the dog isn't even visible
most of the time. Every timethey cut to him barking, it's like
(35:28):
a medium shot of him. Apparently, they're very stubborn dogs, so being
the way it is at the boardingschool is rather believable. That's at least
that's what my wife said. She'slike, that's the way these dogs are.
Like, I didn't know that basketbloodhound bassit hown. I guess,
so makes sense why Colombo has one. He's pretty stubborn. Well, it's
(35:50):
that whole thing of how they're supposedto be able to smell really well,
and it's the really appropriate dog forColombo. I think it's funny that this
episode opens with him at the boardingschool again. Will the dog show up
like this more in the show?I'm assuming so. I think this might
be the first dog of season three. Nice to have him back, and
(36:14):
I like that we don't have himin so many episodes. He's just more
of a Colombo got stuck taking himto school or something other than oh yeah,
I take this dog with me everywhereI go. What about colombo murder
at the dog school? Not athing? It should be. It should
be, there should be a wholething. There are some trained dogs in
(36:38):
a later season that we'll see.But and that's that's one of my favorite
episodes. But yeah, what not. I don't think the dog himself makes
an appearance in that episode. Butyeah, Colombo the animal lover knows how
to deprogram those dogs, but hedoesn't know how to program his own dog.
He doesn't know how to program arobot. But it does give us
(36:59):
a does give us a great line. I think something just computed. Oh
god, I love those on Peacock. Those like three episode teasers are fun
me because they more or less giveaway the goddamn episode at all, all
at once. It's just like Iknow where this fucking episode's going already.
(37:20):
But yeah, that something just computedis a great That's a great Columbo one
liner for sure. I love thiswhole thing of him now using the tape
recorder because he's I could never findmy pencil sometimes I couldn't even find my
path, and now he's going throughall the pockets and stuff. And I
love how he just keeps playing therecorder and he'll just repeat what he said
(37:43):
on the recorder. It's like,why did the father protect the son?
You know? Well. I lovehow he also uses it to like needle
Jose Ferrara, which is also great, like just playing it just to be
like just so you know, motherfucker, I'm onto you, just just so
you know. Oh, Colombo isin rare form in this episode. Just
(38:04):
all the little ticks and all thesethings, the looking down, he's got
the finger waggling and then it justdoes the thing over his mouth, will
hold his hand over his mouth.He's so filled with ticks in this episode,
and I love it. Yeah,he's peak Colombo, I like I
said, as much as I maybedon't like the trappings of the narrative.
I do like him in this episodequite a bit. I do love when
(38:30):
Jose Ferrere calls in his little assistantguy and the guy comes in and he's
just so nervous and he's just like, oh, you're not accusing me of
crimes. No, no, you'reall set. Because he does that like
twice in this episode. Not onlydoes he do it to the little assistant
guy, but then he also doesit to Jessica Walter as well. He's
just no, no, you're nota suspect. He just totally tries to
(38:50):
allay their fears because he knows whoit is. And I love how he
even like looks at Jose Ferrer ashe's lighting a fucking cigar, when he's
just like, no, no,you're okay, you're all right. No.
I love that because again, likeit's just more of the needling.
Oh yeah, that guy's way tooshort. Not only is Falk talking about
how short this guy is, buthe's bent over as he's talking to for
(39:15):
Rare to make him look even tallerthan he is. He's going for it
in this episode big time. Despiteall of the grousing and stuff, there
are some incredible moments to this andjust some wonderful Peter Falk. Obviously,
this show can be as great oras not great as it wants to be.
But when Falk is on, I'lltake whatever adventure he's in. I
(39:39):
agree with you one hundred percent ofthat. I think that speaks volumes to
this show. And again, likethis episode. This episode, in a
lot of ways should not have worked, but it worked for me more than
it should have been. Clearly,I'm glad to hear it wasn't the dud
you were expecting it to be,at least not in traditional terms. Now.
(40:00):
It's just not one I go backto all the time. It's not
one where I'm just like, oh, great this one. Oh, I
can't wait to see it. IfI just remind myself how great Folk is
in this, then I'll be moreexcited. But yeah, just the story
itself and some of the things like, eh, okay, it's really funny.
I was reading, So I readthrough all my Columbo volumes while I
was doing this, and there's onebook that was just like, there's an
(40:24):
actor in here called William Christopher andthat is not the William Christopher from mash
And they were just like super adamantabout that. And then I go to
another one of the Columbo books andit's look for a Guest Appearance by William
Christopher of Mash Fame, and I'mlike, Okay, which is it?
So I think it's the guy whosaid that it's not William Christopher of Mash
(40:46):
because I've gone through this episode severaltimes and I'm not seeing him at all,
and I think it's just another dudewith the same name. I don't
think it's a Grigory Sierra moment here. If I could deal with another one
of those, don't claim he's inthis and then not give us to him.
I am so disappointed. But theWilliam Christopher thing that's building correctly on
(41:07):
IMDb, then geez, that's justshocking that IMDb could be wrong. Who
would have ever thought, not Isomeone who uses it every day for things
other than just randomly looking bullshit up. If you go in you try to
correct it, it'll just be Nope, we won't admit that we're wrong.
(41:28):
You don't know how many times Ihave tried to correct certain things on here.
No human being would make an errorlike this. What do you mean
there's a William Christopher one or two. It's only William Christopher. Nobody else
could have that name. It's notlike his name is Johnny Cash or anything.
At least we get to talk aboutsome Johnny Cash in the next episode
(41:49):
with Swan song that. Even thoughI don't think that episode is the greatest
in the world, I really likedthat one when I was growing up,
so I on doing some some realsoul singing during that episode, Chris,
I am excited. So as excitedas I was to talk about this episode,
I think I'm more excited to talkabout the next episode because there's a
(42:12):
lot of weird things and that thingsthat happen like I have not seen yet
in Colombo that I am so excitedto talk about, including but not limited
to Johnny Cash doing weird hand gestureswhen he sings that I did not notice
him doing any other It's it's justa lot of weird shit going on.
But Johnny Cash in an episode ofColumbo can't be bad. Let's come back
(42:35):
for that and another one directed byCoach from Cheers, not directed by Gordon
Shumway, of the Planet Melmack andAlf Cagellan. Okay, until we come
back with that, Chris, whatare you working on? So a lot
of audio nonsense over at to Weirdingwaymediadot com, where you can check out
the Culture Cast where I talk aboutmovies once a week, but more importantly
(42:59):
over on Patreon, you and Iand Richard had him. The Internet's famous
Richard had him, Internet's famous crazyuncle Richard had him. The three of
us are talking about Bond movies oncea month over on both your Patreon and
my Patreon respectively, Patreon dot comslash culturecast or patreon dot com slash Yep.
What about you, Mike, what'skeeping you busy? Yeah, that's
(43:20):
definitely keeping me busy. I'm superexcited to record our next episode of that.
Hope to start listening to the booktomorrow, which hoping that the book
is better than the movie. Let'sjust say that we do yeah, doing
that, doing the weekly Projection Boothpodcast, and then we're talking with Father
Malone. Oh gosh, I'm we'redoing this once every two weeks, talking
(43:42):
about Tales from the Dark Side nowover on midnight Viewing. So that is
very exciting. Just wrapping up ournight Gallery discussion and now talking about Tales
from the Dark Side We're always busy. We are always doing something. If
people wonder what we're doing all thetime, worry not. We're busy every
night of the week. So bringingcontent to you via Weirdingwaymedia dot Com until
(44:05):
we talk again next month. Chris, I want to thank John Walker for
our opening theme and Colin Gallagher forour closing theme. And I want to
thank everybody for listening to the podcast. Give us those ratings and reviews out
on your favorite podcast platform always helpsgrow the show. Being one of a
dozen Colombo podcasts, it's not tooeasy, but we decided let's just add
(44:27):
our voices to the fray. Whynot
Welcome to the Shabby Detective, yetanother Colombo podcast. I'm your host.
Mike White joined me, of course, is mister Chris Tashu murders within murders
within murders? Is that plans withinplans? Would there be dune references?
Probably? Is that because Jose Ferrerais in this episode, Your goddamn right,
(00:44):
it is the Padishah Emperor himself exactfourth, Yes, Praise be,
Praise be. We are talking aboutthe sixth episode of the third season of
Colombo, Mind Over Mayhem, directedby Alf Jellen. I guess that's how
you would say this gentleman's name froma story by Robert spect teleplay by Stephen
(01:08):
Botchko, Dean Hargrove and Roland Kibbi. This episode aired originally February tenth,
nineteen seventy four. It is thestory of a I guess he's leader of
a think tank here, Marshall Cahill, which is hilarious for me to say
because of the John Wayne film whichhas almost the exact same name, And
(01:30):
I guess that's where they got thename of Marshall Cahill. One such man
was J. D. K.Hill, United States Marshall John Wayne K
Hill, United States, Marshall JoseFerrer. He's a big brain working at
big old brain Trust. And yeahhe his kid not as motivated scholastically as
(01:53):
maybe he should be. And hestole some stuff. Stole the formula for
m molecular matter. Don't drink thatbeer, tad, that's molecular acid.
Yeah it's it sounds so phony andmade up almost as phony as MM seven.
Robbie the Robot, who takes hisplace in the Annals of robot history.
(02:15):
Of course we've seen Robbie the Robotmany times, but yeah, he's
almost an accomplice to this murder oflou Ayers, as Howard Nicholson, who
was going to expose the whole plagiarismthing. And boy, let me tell
you if people do not like tohave their plagiarism exposed, I will tell
you that from personal experience. Chris, what did you think of mind over
(02:38):
Mayhem? I think I alluded toit the last time we did an episode
that I've seen this episode a lot. I don't know why. It's just
I had been just watching ahead andthis is the one that I feel like
I was awake for most of thetime. So I've seen this episode like
five or six times at least awake, and then probably two or three more
times, is like in and outof it. There's some weird anachronisms in
(03:00):
this episode that would not be thereotherwise, namely Robbie the robot in a
way that it's so obvious that they'renot even trying to hide it. Here's
the thing. Obviously, we're watchingthis in twenty twenty four, and this
episode came out in seventy four,so fifty years ago. Lost in Space
(03:21):
is where Robbie the robot comes from, right or am I thinking of something
else? I believe Forbidden Planet.I don't think that was Robbie in Lost
in Space, though there are similarities. I was expecting the arms to start
going around and danger, Danger,This is the robot from Forbidden Planet.
That movie came out in fifty six, almost twenty years after this episode comes
(03:46):
out. I guess I'm just wonderingare people going to recognize it from Forbidden
Plan to be like, oh,look at that thing. Are they gonna
go that's just a robot. It'ssuch a weird. It's such a weird
thing to have in this episode.Again, now in twenty twenty four,
it feels weird in seventy four.Maybe it did, maybe it didn't.
I think that obviously, the coreof this story is Jose Ferrera and his
(04:10):
on screen son played by Robert WalkerJunior. And I think they're great together.
I think Jose Ferrera is good inthis episode. I think his son
is great. I think I thinkthe real problem and I think you'll probably
echo this as well. And Colombosays as much like, this motherfucker is
guilty the moment Colombo, he dude, shit's over before it even starts with
(04:30):
you ding dong, and he makeshimself the obvious killer the moment Columbo meets
him. Because Colombo says as muchat the end of the episode, as
I wasn't paying attention to anything otherthan whether or not there was a cigar
smoker in the house, and thisguy's lighting a cigar two seconds into the
moment Columbo meets him, if youuse that information as again, Colombo being
(04:53):
honest, he knew it was JoseFerrere two seconds in. But you know
what Jose Ferrere should have known heI knew it was him because the way
he treats him in this episode islike he's guilty from the moment he meets
him, and jose fer acts guiltyfrom the moment he meets him. It's
in a lot of ways this issimilar to some of the other episodes we've
(05:14):
seen Where's I dare you to figureout how I did this? Is more
or less the kind of the proceedingsof the bulk of the episode is if
I did it, catch me,if I did it, show me how
I did it, because it wasn'tthere someone as a man on the computer.
And if it wasn't me, whowas it? Because I'm the only
one who can do it. Andof course we have a precocious little shit
(05:34):
of a child giving away the bigtwist of the episode. But I like
the idea of these kinds of episodes. I feel like maybe your mile edge
will vary with the This dickhead istrying to pull over on Columbu, which
never goes well for anyone either.There is that fact that has to be
internalized as the audience at this point, there is no way this guy's gonna
(05:57):
get away with it. No matterhow many intricate hoops he make Colombo jump
through. Colombo will jump through allthose hoops he will do it, And
yeah, I don't know. Ilike this episode, but I can see
how this episode would wear thin immediately. For want to know what your thoughts
are, because you let it sliplast time, and maybe you're not the
biggest fan of this episode. Iagree with you. Colombo knows immediately who
(06:20):
the killer is and the rest ofthe time he's just fucking with him.
You're batting him around. Yeah.I liked seeing Jose Ferrera humiliated in this
episode, at least that's how Ifeel, because he's talking down to Colombo,
who is this weird little guy,And I run this whole think tank
and I've got big important business withthe Pentagon, running these war games and
(06:45):
all this stuff, and he justthinks that he's king shit. And then
the rest of the episode is justColombo just mm hm oh yeah, yeah,
oh yeah, yeah, you're supersmart, super smart. Oh boy,
Oh yes, sir, yes,sir, give him what he That's
the thing. And we've seen thatwith a lot of other Colombo villains,
where Columbo is just placating their fuckingfragile egos. And if anything, for
(07:08):
me, Columbo in so many waysis about fragile male egos. Who can't
deal with things being fucked over byagain, someone who theoretically just should have
as much of an ego as theydo, but doesn't. That's the other
thing we never find out is likeColombo seems, and we've talked about it
in Barney Miller and I think bearmentioning here, like Colombo feels like such
(07:29):
a alien in the show, andit was in a way that like Arthur
Dietrich feels like an alien in BarneyMiller. And you never get the sense,
like you get more of a sensewith Arthur Dietrich than you do with
Columbo. Does he enjoy this?Does he enjoy putting people behind bars?
And there's fucking entire prisons full ofpeople that Colombo has interred in their like
long term holdings, because some ofthese people are going away for a long
(07:54):
time, if not forever, Andyou never get the sense that Colombo enjoys
it. This is something that heenjoys doing. Is just a job for
him. I feel it's interesting tonot see him get into these arguments of
who's smarter with these people, becauseit feels like they're constantly trying to bait
him into it, and he's justlike Oh no, you're right, You're
so smart. And it's I feellike that's worse in the long term because
(08:18):
Colombo, like again, Columbo knowshe's gonna snare him at the end anyways.
So give them what they want.Let them hang themselves, right,
That's always been Columbo's thing, isthey're just most of the time these people
are given enough rope to hang themselveswith, and he finds them hanging in
the wind and he's not the onewho tightened the noose. They normally are,
So this one is weird to jumpright to the end of the episode
(08:39):
that he has to use a frameup of the son in order to get
the father to confess because the fatherloves his son so much. I'm trying
to remember if we've seen this yeton the show, and we haven't seen
this specifically. I'm trying to rememberif we've seen a father and son duo,
we've seen the son. What wasRodney McDowell doing something like this?
(09:03):
Is that was his uncle James Gregoror was it was it his uncle?
I think James Gregory was his uncle. So we haven't seen this specifically yet,
and I liked it. I likethe idea of this son who is
so unable to please his just highstandards dickhead father that it has affected him
(09:24):
emotionally to the And again it's notsaid outright that this is what's going on,
And this is just me inferring himgoing to Jessica Walters, who God,
Jessica Walters, right, she's inthis episode. I'm assuming because he
is going to her because of hisfather doing what he did to him,
(09:45):
trying to break the toxic bonds ofthat relationship. And again we don't get
the sense of that. We justhear that he has been going to therapy.
And if your father was Jose Ferrer, you too might go to therapy,
at least the way that he's portrayedthis episode. Tough customer, and
he's a tough customer to the pointwhere he murders the person who's going to
(10:05):
out his son for falsifying or Iguess falsely attributing this molecular whatever, fucking
red ass mcguffin, the reddest ofred herrings, the mcguffinist of mcguffin.
Yeah, to the point where it'sso fakey in this epod, it's like
the fakeiest of faki. He killssomeone because he loves his son so much.
But the fucked up thing is hecould never tell his son he loves
(10:28):
him, right, but he murdersfor him. And so it's that weird
interplay because then he realizes very Ifeel like he realizes very quickly what Colombo
is doing, which is framing hisown son, and I guess that's the
step that's too far for Jose Ferrer. But I do like that there is
a moment of intellectual chicken between thesetwo people, between Colombo and Jose Ferrara,
(10:52):
that again we haven't seen. We'veseen it if Jose Ferrer was having
it done to him and then hewould admit it, but we've never seen
Colombo doing it to someone else,and then the person who has done it
is also in the room watching ithappen. He does fake outs, even
all the way back to the GeneBarry episode, but yeah, not quite
(11:13):
this far where he is willing toarrest someone falsely. I'm always amazed on
Law and Order just how often theydo false arrests. I would think that
the courts are just completely backed upwith the people that they throw in jail
at the twenty minute mark, becausethey never get their person until the forty
minute mark and then the trial begins. I feel like it's a little illegal.
(11:35):
What he's doing is not great.And frankly, we've literally seen cases
where there has been suspected cop framing. I don't want to mention to Make
a murder, You making a murdererthat fucking show that everyone couldn't shut the
fuck up about for six months,But that was one where there was allegedly
cops framing people. So it's weirdbecause again then we have to struggle through
(12:01):
this, you and I. Theseshows are very cop friendly, cop positive,
and sometimes it's police officers behaving badly. And I'm not saying Colombo's behaving
badly, but I think Colombo isflexing the law about as far as it
can go. And again he getshis man in the end. But imagine,
(12:22):
if you will, someone less egofree than our dear friend Colombo and
someone more egotistical looking to just framepeople because of the color of their skin.
It's all I'm saying. It's justas it's positive here, only because
we understand that it's fictional and theends justify the means. But like,
it doesn't feel great, just likewatching naked gun and all of a sudden
(12:43):
they have a tank and they're justrolling through houses. That's ah man,
it's funny, but at the sametime it's not funny. Yeah, I'm
glad that Colombo is doing it forgood as opposed to evil, because he
does have to be very careful withthose powers that he has. Oh yeah,
we've seen him do this before wherehe's Entrapment is what it's called.
(13:05):
It has a fucking name in thelaw. It's a thing all those people
on to catch a predator. Somany of them did not go to jail
because it was fucking entrapment, andColombo does similar things in this show.
Again you get a confession out ofthe person, but again to what end,
my friend, and also how muchof that if they hired a lawyer,
is just not coercion. Coercion again, that's all I'm saying. We
(13:30):
joke about all these people in prisonbecause of Colombo, but I do think
so many of these people that Colombogets probably would not sit in jail for
more than they'd never go to prison. They'd probably just be in jail for
a week or two. You mentionedthe precocious child, and we would be
remiss not to talk about signor spelbergothe Mexican equivalent of Steven Spielberg, Steve
(13:52):
Spelberg, Steve Spelberg, and theydefinitely make sure you know his name is
Steve Spelberg throughout this whole episode.The same should have been Steve Fabelman.
Again, if we're going to justmythologize someone, it's supposed to be Steve.
I don't understand why. I knowhe directed an episode of the show,
but almost two. Yeah, that'strue, But isn't that weird.
(14:13):
There's no way that was unintentional.Oh no, no, that had to
be intentional. And then I don'tknow if it's supposed to be a loving
tribute or look at how obnoxious thiskid is and he's just as obnoxious as
Steven Spielberg is. I think it'ssupposed to be a tribute, but it
doesn't fly for me because this kidis just a little shit heel for me
(14:35):
so much of this episode, nofault of the actor or anything, and
where I think we're supposed to likehim, but you throw a little kid
into anything, especially a precocious childwho is so much smarter than everybody else.
Oh yeah, I wanted to becomea policeman, but I was too
smart. Okay, way to putyour foot in it there, junior.
I don't know in what universe thiskind of character is ever one that anybody
(14:58):
is sighted to see it. Iunderstand on the page that this makes sense.
But every time I see a childin a show like this where he's
meant it is from this time,mind you, seventies and eighties, when
they're supposed to be like a smartchild, it's like they overdo it to
the point of this child is achild genius, and he is twelve years
(15:22):
old, and he's a the equivalentlike fucking Harvard, and it's like,
what what this is? I getthat this was the time where, oh,
we're really beginning to understand the childrenaren't just fucking morons that just sit
in a corner and drool on themselves. Isn't that great? Again, if
that was your assumption all along,okay, sure, But as an adult
who does not feel that way aboutchildren anymore than I know you do,
(15:46):
this is the kind of thing thatyou get when you get people who think
that way is just this precocious,fucking child is so dialed in that he
feels like more of an adult thanthe adults do in the episode. That's
why it's a precocious fucking kid,because, like you said, not the
actor's fault. The writing is justthe writing was bad and is bad.
(16:07):
And to be honest, I thinkwriting for kids in TV has come a
long way, especially writing for kidsin a show that isn't about kids.
And I know, to your point, maybe just don't have them, and
I would agree, because there's there'snothing about this role that needed to be
played by a child. It couldhave been played by like a young adult,
like a teenager even, and Ithink if it was played by a
(16:27):
teenager it would have been a littlebit more believable. I don't I'm glad
that we're seemingly past the days ofthis is a child genius, But yet
Young Sheldon is still a TV showthat's immensely fucking popular. So maybe I'm
wrong with Middle America, but Ifeel like, again, there's no way
you watched this episode you walk awayfrom it going, oh, that kid's
not fucking annoying, because he is. And again, he, like you
(16:49):
mentioned, he holds everything over everybodyelse's head like Columboi's well I'm so smart
and this is this is no wayhe's talking down to Columbo constant Chill dude,
chill out, chill out, andyou're old or however old you're supposed
to be. And I guess there'seven a remake of Doogie Howser that's going
on right now, or maybe itgot canceled, but there was a remake
(17:10):
of Doogie Howser where it was ayoung female doctor who was so super smart
that she became a regular doctor.And there was that one with Freddy Hymore
too. I think that's still goingon, the Good Good Doctor, yes,
as opposed to the Bad Dog.Yeah. That Doogie Howser sequel was
Doogie kumeal lo At MD, andit ran for two years on Disney and
(17:32):
it is no longer running, Sothere you go. Now, I was
never into those kinds of shows,like I never that was never something that
moved the needle for me, andI don't under I guess I don't understand
why it would for anybody else,But I know that the show is immensely
popular and Neil Patrick Harris has beenhaunting us since. Thank God for that.
I love Neil Patrick Harris. NowI don't know about during the Doogie
(17:55):
days, I was. I didn'twatch that show. I didn't watch the
Younger or sorry, the one years, but I definitely loved some Malcolm in
the Middle. Yeah, I wasone of those people that liked Neil Patrick
Harris for a while. But he'snot my cup of tea anymore. He's
just, I don't know, he'sHe's always himself, which is perfectly fine.
I just don't don't necessarily resonate withit anymore. But I understand why
(18:18):
that kind of role does. Andthat's why we get something like this,
which is again a very early predecessorto an entire show based on this kind
of character, right, because DoogieHowser is a teenage doctor who's super smart.
Right, So this kid's on thattrack already. I don't don't think
we needed that character in this episode. I think we could have done without.
(18:40):
I think we could have done likewe had in those other episodes,
like the one with the Projectionist,where we just had another character in a
scene with Colombo, because wasn't ohGod, the guy from Fletch, the
guy from Spaceballs, remember when he'slike showing Colombo the imagery and he's oh,
this is how it works. Buthe didn't have five scenes with him,
(19:00):
had one and that was more thanenough. And he didn't overstay as
welcome. And that's how you doit with this show unless they're one of
the main characters. Because that's theother thing. The kid, I mean,
he gives away what the twist is. Oh, the robot is able
to do it. But other thanthat, he doesn't do anything. He
doesn't add anything to the episode otherthan taking away time from Again, I
(19:22):
think some pretty good back and forthwith Jessica Walter and the actor who plays
Jose Ferre's son. I like theirscenes together too. Again, it's a
little overwritten, but I still thinkthose parts of the episode are fine.
I guess we need the kid tobe taken out by the motor pool guy
so that then Jose Ferrera can stealthe car and claim that he and then
(19:47):
like back into the car with hisown car and all that kind of stuff.
But yeah, that could have beentaken care of by just office hours
and that this all takes place atnight, so that guy shouldn't be working
anyway. And second episode in arow now where we've had people claiming fake
car crashes to validate their alibis,because wasn't that Jack Cassidy's thing as well?
(20:10):
Well of those people. Oh soyou started remembering all of a sudden,
Oh, my memory is a littleless foggy. I was expecting Jose
Ferrer to do that in this episode, like they got right to that moment
again. He's like, oh,wasn't me. Yeah, it's weird.
It's one again, Like all ofthis seems to suit nothing, because Colombo
knows it's Jose Ferre just from thecigar. Nothing else, nothing else proves
(20:30):
that it was Jose Ferrer. ToColumbo, he even goes, I knew
from the first ten minutes I wasin there, then why not just catch
him right there? But instead Columbogets off on it. I think,
I guess he must if he trulyknew from the moment he walks in there
because of the cigar and match,which, like again feels like such a
fucking oversight for Jose Ferrer, who'sagain like he's not that he is well
(20:55):
thought out, but at the sametime he's like carrying a dead body and
smudging the wall. I don't know, Like, for as smart as you
are, you're not very good atkeeping a clean crime scene, but that
ends up like none of it matters, which really bugs me with Colombo when
nothing else matters and it was justthis one small detail. But the fact
that Colombo says it in this episodejust just irks me a little bit because
(21:18):
he's never said ten minutes in,I knew it was you. He's never
said that before. They could havesaid that at any point in this show
already. They had give multiple chancesfor Columba to be like I've known since
the first two seconds, and theyhaven't. How do you feel about that?
He has almost said that when hetalks about the letters, like why
did you open your mail when youwere when your brother had died and all
(21:42):
these things with that Susan Clark episode, or there's another one too where he
just walked in and pretty much knewright away what was going on. That
happens so often. But yeah,he's never really thrown that in somebody's face,
and I like that he's throwing itin Jose's prayers face just because he
is such a smarty pants. He'snot rich. We've talked about the rich
(22:06):
getting there just desserts. He's notoverly rich, but he just is so
full of himself that I really kindof like the Lumbo rubbing his face in
it. Yeah, I think itworks here only because of that, because
again, Jose Ferrer is just socontent with I got him, and there's
no way you can prove it.There have been few villains in this show
(22:29):
who have everybody deserves it, butthey rarely waggle it as hard as this
guy is. Again, like Columboknew in the first ten minutes, not
just because of the cigar, butalso because this guy just like such a
dickhead. And that's the thing.Jose Ferrer is a perfect dickhead in this
episode, but not not I don'tknow, not abrasive. He's just one
(22:51):
of those people, like we've allmet someone like this who everything they say
is he just proves that he's adickhead. It's not like it's not like
he goes out of his way tobe a dickhead. He's just a dickhead,
I think, through and through,from the fact that his son can
never please him to the fact thathe like literally talks down to everyone all
the time. I don't think thathe's different with anybody the way he is
(23:15):
with the people that we see.I think he's just a dick to everybody,
which to your point, Yeah,if anyone deserves to have their face
rubbed in it, it's this guy. And again, like the amount of
theatrics that Colombo goes through at theend of the episode, I think again
that in and of itself is apretty big indicator of what Colombo thinks of
this guy. But to be fair, they share a cigar at the end
of the episode, so Colombo alsogives him kind of a weird moment together,
(23:41):
and that's the thing. I ultimatelyfeel like Jose Ferre's character is maybe
the most sympathetic villain we've seen inthe show so far. That scene at
the end sharing the cigar is Ithink rather well done. But as much
of a dickhead as he is,I do think he comes off as sympathetic
because at the end of the day, you understand why he's doing what he's
doing, even if again it's somelevel of cognitive dissonance because his son did
(24:03):
what his son did because of whohis dad is, because he's such a
tough customer. Well, I'm gladthat his son finally stands up to him
and that his son outs himself,which is great, and when he goes
to Jessica Walter is just what shouldI do and she's can't tell you,
can't tell you what to do,but this is what I would do.
(24:25):
He finally does the right thing,which is what you gotta do. I
was very appreciative of that. Likethe whole relationship of Jessica Walter being both
the guy who is the wife tothe guy who gets murdered who is going
to out the son, as wellas the son's therapist. That felt a
(24:45):
little weird to me that she wasin that role between those two men.
Conflict of interest. Does she feelabout her husband trying to out her own
patient? That just seems so bizarre, that's not really mine the whole lot.
Similarly to the Kid, it feelslike an intricacy of this episode that's
unneeded because it doesn't go anywhere.That's the thing, Like it's so much
(25:10):
Colombo and Jose Ferrer back and forththat like everything else feels unimportant, and
everything else feels like just again,if you say I knew in the first
ten minutes, you really make everythingelse seem unimportant. There's there's a really
weird speaking of just like weird interactions. There's a weird scene where Colombo is
talking to Jose Ferrer in the laband then he calls Jose Ferrer's son,
(25:32):
and then Jose Ferrer is just inthat scene too, and it's like,
where the fucking guy just left thisscene and now he's in this scene.
He's a Colombo. I thought Itold you to leave, And it's is
this what it? It's so itfeels like there's stuff missing in this episode,
is what I'm is what I'm saying. It feels like they they misedited
something at some point, or theycut a scene out. But do you
(25:55):
know what I'm talking about? Thislike weird he like Jose Ferrer is there
in the scene, he leaves,and then Bumbo calls his son and then
he's just in that room too.Did he teleport? There? Is what
is going on? Because again,Jose Forer is ever present in this episode
for the most part, unless it'sColombo and the kid or Colombo and Jessica
Walter's one scene, it's pretty muchJose Forre and Columbo for the most part.
(26:18):
Apparently they did know that the storywas weak. According to I believe
it was the David Kohenick book.He was talking about how the producers were
afraid, probably Dean Hargrove was afraidthat people wouldn't be interested in this one
because it was such an easy,open and shutcase with that damn match,
(26:38):
And so then it became Botchko andthe other writers their job to obfuscate things
and to make this more of amystery. But I don't know if they
did it justice. I don't knowif they took it far enough. The
thing is, though, like youwere asking at the beginning, what do
I think of this episode, It'sa fun ride, even if it doesn't
hold together all the way. Ifeel like it's one of those rides where
(27:00):
you go on it once and you'relike, oh, that was fun,
and then the second and third orfourth time you go on it's it's fine.
It's not as fun as it wasthe first time. I think again,
having seen this episode so many times, I I don't I still enjoy
it. Every time I've seen it. I still find something to enjoy,
and the things that I want toenjoy there still aren't enough of because there
(27:22):
are other things that have gotten inthe way of it. Jose Ferrer and
his son are great. Jose Ferrand Colombo are great, but Jose Ferrer
and that kid not great. Actually, Jose Ferrer and the person he kills,
the other scientist, he's not greateither. They're they're not. They
don't really have a lot of chemistrytogether, and and I guess they don't
have to, given what one characteris telling the other, I'm gonna out
(27:44):
your son, so fucking deal withit, asshole. I don't get the
sense of a pre existing relationship.I don't get the sense that this is
either one of them at the endof their rope. I understand why Jose
Ferrer is going to kill him,but again, I feel like everybody at
the institute just gives the way JoseFerrer talks about him, given the way
Jose Ferr treats him when he walksinto his office. If there's someone who
(28:06):
killed him, it's this guy.End of story. It's just it's like
you said, it's hard to findthis episode as anything other than uh,
it's fun, but don't think toohard otherwise it starts to fall apart.
And yeah, it's a fun ride, but I think I don't know that
can get you somewhere with an hourand thirteen minutes. There have been worse
episodes of Colombo that we've seen,for sure. The amount of obfuscation they
(28:29):
do isn't even enough. Even thoughthey spend like an hour doing it,
It's still not enough because again youhave Colombo going, I know it was
you ten minutes and it's guys,just take that line out, Just take
the line out. Really, ultimatelyis the cigar and the match that catches
him. We've seen that with Colombobefore. Where it is and we've talked
about this before. The thing withwas like a contact in the back of
(28:52):
the car, like all these things, all these places you could have gone,
and you went there perfectly fun It'smaybe the one thing we weren't next
to be the thing that catches him, but you did it. Anyways,
in this it's not only is itthe first thing that Colombo says, this
is the thing that catches him.So everything else becomes just Colombo taking this
guy and doing what he wants withhim. So again, like if you
(29:15):
were cool with that upfront, you'regonna enjoy this episode. But yeah,
to your point, like there's athere's so much obfuscation that it's it doesn't
even succeed no matter how much theydo, no matter how like, they
have a false ending essentially where theywalk off with his son and he's wait,
wait a second. It's like he'sjust waiting outside the door for you.
There's no way this was going anywherefor real. There are some things
(29:37):
about this one I like a lot. Which is one of them is the
introduction of Colombo in this episode,where it's the guy from the obedience school
basically telling him that his son,quote unquote, is such a bad performer.
And this is the first episode asfar as I remember that Colombo mentions
having kids because he says that he'sgot two kids or multiple kids because it's
(30:00):
plural, so at least two,if not more. But yeah, you
think that one of his children isin trouble. But it's dog. Dog
is back, and actually this isa different dog. The original dog died
and so this is a new dog. And tell he's not nearly as big
as the old dog. And apparentlythey had to add gray makeup to his
(30:22):
muzzle to make him look older heatthe screen accuracy of this old dog.
I like that the dog is herethroughout the episode because you can see him
trailing behind Colombo in a lot ofthe scenes. It's I found that to
be amusing. They don't do anythingwith it really other than that opening joke,
which I mean is funny that thatis a good little kind of misdirect
(30:44):
with the dog, because we knowColumbus a big dog lover. The John
Cassavetti's episode off opened with him atthe vet with his dog, and there
are no weird extraneous scenes in thisIn this episode, I was waiting for
one of those scenes that we've beentalking about where there's this weird interactions between
Colombo and like an outside character.There's not really any of that. Everything
(31:07):
serves the narrative. There's no Columbomeeting with two cops in the middle of
the street where they spend ten minuteswasting everyone's time, is what it feels
like. There's none of that.This is a pretty zippy episode. I
feel like for the most part,it's so amazing to me how far policing
has come over the last fifty years, where it's you look at an episode
(31:29):
like this and the guy who's dustingfor Prince doesn't even notice the smudge on
the wall, and Columbus, ohwhat is this? And I swear he
fucking tastes it. If he doesn'ttaste it, he takes a big old
whiff of this shoe polish and it'sjust, oh, shoe polish. And
then the other guy's what huh.It turns around, does the same thing,
takes a big old wipe of it. This guy definitely sniffs it.
(31:52):
And I'm just like, no,no, you got to take the little
samples, take a photograph and labelit. And even when it comes to
the match stick, like Colombo hasthe match stick, he's carrying it around,
I'm like, and and even thepipe, I'm like, where's the
chain of evidence with this stuff?Man? You can't just like be carried
around this pipe. That makes anysense. It does if you're a dirty
(32:15):
fucking cop like Columbo. That's theshow that I would write where it's just
the antithesis of Columbo. Just abad cop planting evidence on innocent people.
That's the That's that's the shield,right, isn't that the fucking shit orson
Wells from Touch of Evil? Yeah, Colombo is right there, He's three
(32:36):
quarters of the way there. He'sjust not using his powers for evil,
He's using them for good. Here, I've got this, I've got this
hit of this guy. I'm gonnaplant this evidence on it. What the
fuck? Yeah, that's again,like that's Columbo. Could have gotten this
guy's son to go to jail fora very long time, and there's only
one person standing in the way,and that's Columbo. Even if the guy
(32:58):
admits to it, Columbo could belike, eh, I don't believe you.
Sorry again, Like that's to yourpoint. Colombo works for good,
and we're all thankful that he's onthe side of good because otherwise he said
he'd be plant what he's planned evidenceon a bunch of rich people. Maybe
is not the end of the world. Flicking that pearl into the umbrella and
(33:19):
everything really good at Marbles. Okay, good old Colombo. Hey, you
know what, as long as weget the moment of him sharing a cigar
with his old pal Jose Ferrer atthe end, I'm okay with it.
That maybe is the moment of thisepisode where I was like, oh,
okay, this is like you andyour buddies type thing, which I mean,
I'm glad they give him that moment. It's weird because we haven't really
(33:39):
seen that with any other killer whereColombo like is commiserating with them. Oh
yeah, we have. Don't forgetany old port in the Storm that drink
with Carsini at the end yet.Okay, yeah, okay, if it's
trying to emulate that, I don'tknow. Carcidi is, he's pretty sympathetic,
(34:00):
but he I don't know. Theway Carcini kills his brother is pretty
fucked up. I'm not saying thatkilling people's off fucked up, period,
but the way this guy kills himis he runs him over with carl Okay,
he's not putting him in a vaultand letting him die slowly over the
week, which is still beyond fuckedup. Way more fucked up than they
(34:21):
make it seem in the episode,that's for sure. Yeah. I love
that this episode has a couple ofStar Trek people in here. You've got
the guy from the Motor Pool.He was in at least one episode of
Star Trek, and then Robert EvansJunior, right is I think he played
Did he play Charlie X or justCharlie Evans Star Trek? But that's mostly
where I know him from, andI kept getting him mixed up with the
(34:45):
guy who played Spider Man in theOld TV movies, a Spider Man or
TV show, I should say,but he just has those same kind of
striking eyes, but he's definitely hasdifferent bone structure, so it's not the
same guy. You say, it'sStar Trek, but also Arthur ben Anitas
was also in a lot of thePolice Academy movies. Yeah, he's got
(35:06):
a great look. And I reallyliked that scene with fucking dog going crazy,
and just I'm like, did theyhad those barks in post or did
they actually try to record this scenewith the dog barking like crazy? It
feels like it must have been donein posts because the dog isn't even visible
most of the time. Every timethey cut to him barking, it's like
(35:28):
a medium shot of him. Apparently, they're very stubborn dogs, so being
the way it is at the boardingschool is rather believable. That's at least
that's what my wife said. She'slike, that's the way these dogs are.
Like, I didn't know that basketbloodhound bassit hown. I guess,
so makes sense why Colombo has one. He's pretty stubborn. Well, it's
(35:50):
that whole thing of how they're supposedto be able to smell really well,
and it's the really appropriate dog forColombo. I think it's funny that this
episode opens with him at the boardingschool again. Will the dog show up
like this more in the show?I'm assuming so. I think this might
be the first dog of season three. Nice to have him back, and
(36:14):
I like that we don't have himin so many episodes. He's just more
of a Colombo got stuck taking himto school or something other than oh yeah,
I take this dog with me everywhereI go. What about colombo murder
at the dog school? Not athing? It should be. It should
be, there should be a wholething. There are some trained dogs in
(36:38):
a later season that we'll see.But and that's that's one of my favorite
episodes. But yeah, what not. I don't think the dog himself makes
an appearance in that episode. Butyeah, Colombo the animal lover knows how
to deprogram those dogs, but hedoesn't know how to program his own dog.
He doesn't know how to program arobot. But it does give us
(36:59):
a does give us a great line. I think something just computed. Oh
god, I love those on Peacock. Those like three episode teasers are fun
me because they more or less giveaway the goddamn episode at all, all
at once. It's just like Iknow where this fucking episode's going already.
(37:20):
But yeah, that something just computedis a great That's a great Columbo one
liner for sure. I love thiswhole thing of him now using the tape
recorder because he's I could never findmy pencil sometimes I couldn't even find my
path, and now he's going throughall the pockets and stuff. And I
love how he just keeps playing therecorder and he'll just repeat what he said
(37:43):
on the recorder. It's like,why did the father protect the son?
You know? Well. I lovehow he also uses it to like needle
Jose Ferrara, which is also great, like just playing it just to be
like just so you know, motherfucker, I'm onto you, just just so
you know. Oh, Colombo isin rare form in this episode. Just
(38:04):
all the little ticks and all thesethings, the looking down, he's got
the finger waggling and then it justdoes the thing over his mouth, will
hold his hand over his mouth.He's so filled with ticks in this episode,
and I love it. Yeah,he's peak Colombo, I like I
said, as much as I maybedon't like the trappings of the narrative.
I do like him in this episodequite a bit. I do love when
(38:30):
Jose Ferrere calls in his little assistantguy and the guy comes in and he's
just so nervous and he's just like, oh, you're not accusing me of
crimes. No, no, you'reall set. Because he does that like
twice in this episode. Not onlydoes he do it to the little assistant
guy, but then he also doesit to Jessica Walter as well. He's
just no, no, you're nota suspect. He just totally tries to
(38:50):
allay their fears because he knows whoit is. And I love how he
even like looks at Jose Ferrer ashe's lighting a fucking cigar, when he's
just like, no, no,you're okay, you're all right. No.
I love that because again, likeit's just more of the needling.
Oh yeah, that guy's way tooshort. Not only is Falk talking about
how short this guy is, buthe's bent over as he's talking to for
(39:15):
Rare to make him look even tallerthan he is. He's going for it
in this episode big time. Despiteall of the grousing and stuff, there
are some incredible moments to this andjust some wonderful Peter Falk. Obviously,
this show can be as great oras not great as it wants to be.
But when Falk is on, I'lltake whatever adventure he's in. I
(39:39):
agree with you one hundred percent ofthat. I think that speaks volumes to
this show. And again, likethis episode. This episode, in a
lot of ways should not have worked, but it worked for me more than
it should have been. Clearly,I'm glad to hear it wasn't the dud
you were expecting it to be,at least not in traditional terms. Now.
(40:00):
It's just not one I go backto all the time. It's not
one where I'm just like, oh, great this one. Oh, I
can't wait to see it. IfI just remind myself how great Folk is
in this, then I'll be moreexcited. But yeah, just the story
itself and some of the things like, eh, okay, it's really funny.
I was reading, So I readthrough all my Columbo volumes while I
was doing this, and there's onebook that was just like, there's an
(40:24):
actor in here called William Christopher andthat is not the William Christopher from mash
And they were just like super adamantabout that. And then I go to
another one of the Columbo books andit's look for a Guest Appearance by William
Christopher of Mash Fame, and I'mlike, Okay, which is it?
So I think it's the guy whosaid that it's not William Christopher of Mash
(40:46):
because I've gone through this episode severaltimes and I'm not seeing him at all,
and I think it's just another dudewith the same name. I don't
think it's a Grigory Sierra moment here. If I could deal with another one
of those, don't claim he's inthis and then not give us to him.
I am so disappointed. But theWilliam Christopher thing that's building correctly on
(41:07):
IMDb, then geez, that's justshocking that IMDb could be wrong. Who
would have ever thought, not Isomeone who uses it every day for things
other than just randomly looking bullshit up. If you go in you try to
correct it, it'll just be Nope, we won't admit that we're wrong.
(41:28):
You don't know how many times Ihave tried to correct certain things on here.
No human being would make an errorlike this. What do you mean
there's a William Christopher one or two. It's only William Christopher. Nobody else
could have that name. It's notlike his name is Johnny Cash or anything.
At least we get to talk aboutsome Johnny Cash in the next episode
(41:49):
with Swan song that. Even thoughI don't think that episode is the greatest
in the world, I really likedthat one when I was growing up,
so I on doing some some realsoul singing during that episode, Chris,
I am excited. So as excitedas I was to talk about this episode,
I think I'm more excited to talkabout the next episode because there's a
(42:12):
lot of weird things and that thingsthat happen like I have not seen yet
in Colombo that I am so excitedto talk about, including but not limited
to Johnny Cash doing weird hand gestureswhen he sings that I did not notice
him doing any other It's it's justa lot of weird shit going on.
But Johnny Cash in an episode ofColumbo can't be bad. Let's come back
(42:35):
for that and another one directed byCoach from Cheers, not directed by Gordon
Shumway, of the Planet Melmack andAlf Cagellan. Okay, until we come
back with that, Chris, whatare you working on? So a lot
of audio nonsense over at to Weirdingwaymediadot com, where you can check out
the Culture Cast where I talk aboutmovies once a week, but more importantly
(42:59):
over on Patreon, you and Iand Richard had him. The Internet's famous
Richard had him, Internet's famous crazyuncle Richard had him. The three of
us are talking about Bond movies oncea month over on both your Patreon and
my Patreon respectively, Patreon dot comslash culturecast or patreon dot com slash Yep.
What about you, Mike, what'skeeping you busy? Yeah, that's
(43:20):
definitely keeping me busy. I'm superexcited to record our next episode of that.
Hope to start listening to the booktomorrow, which hoping that the book
is better than the movie. Let'sjust say that we do yeah, doing
that, doing the weekly Projection Boothpodcast, and then we're talking with Father
Malone. Oh gosh, I'm we'redoing this once every two weeks, talking
(43:42):
about Tales from the Dark Side nowover on midnight Viewing. So that is
very exciting. Just wrapping up ournight Gallery discussion and now talking about Tales
from the Dark Side We're always busy. We are always doing something. If
people wonder what we're doing all thetime, worry not. We're busy every
night of the week. So bringingcontent to you via Weirdingwaymedia dot Com until
(44:05):
we talk again next month. Chris, I want to thank John Walker for
our opening theme and Colin Gallagher forour closing theme. And I want to
thank everybody for listening to the podcast. Give us those ratings and reviews out
on your favorite podcast platform always helpsgrow the show. Being one of a
dozen Colombo podcasts, it's not tooeasy, but we decided let's just add
(44:27):
our voices to the fray. Whynot
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