Fabulous Films have announced their upcoming Blu-ray release of classic cop-mystery show Columbo.
Starring Peter Falk, the detective in the raincoat first appeared in a feature length pilot in 1968. It then became part of the NBC Mystery Movie strand, which rotated detective shows on a tri-weekly basis. In its first season in 1971-72, Columbo alternated weeks with McCloud and McMillan and Wife.
Columbo is unusual in that the murder is seen in full, usually before the unassuming detective gets any screen time. So the viewer is always one step ahead of Columbo; although he is in fact a lot sharper than he tries to appear. He uses his bumbling charm to lull murderers into a false sense of security. Meanwhile, he has generally zeroed in on the guilty party from the start, spending the rest of the episode working to find a motive, evidence and catch the killer out.
Fairly frequent humourous relief comes in the form of Columbo’s disobedient and nameless Basset Hound, his broken-down old Peugeot car, his rumpled, dirty raincoat and chewed cigar ends. Not forgetting the infamous and killer-tormenting catchphrase “Oh, just one more thing…”.
Many well-known faces graced the series over its decades-long run. Some of the stars to appear in this era include Dick Van Dyke, Roddy McDowall, Johnny Cash, Leonard Nimoy, Patrick McGoohan, Robert Vaughan, Leslie Nielsen, Vincent Price, William Shatner and Janet Leigh.
This Blu-ray release from Fabulous Films includes all 43 episodes from the first 7 seasons of Columbo. These have just been restored and remastered by NBC Universal in 4K. The set comprises 20 discs, which also contain the pilot episodes, Prescription Murder and Ransom for a Dead Man.
