Rest in Peace, Lt Columbo

My favorite picture;
"I know he did it, I just
don't know how."

This is very sad. I have been a fan and collector of the Columbo movies for years when all that was available was do-it-yourself VHS. They were on so much across ABC, ABC Family and I think USA that I eventually didn't need to record them to get a fix, I just needed to turn on the TV.

(Waaay back when they were run on CBS Sunday nights IIRC at 11:30-1:30, I would actually schedule Monday a.m. classes in college late so I could stay up and watch it [after thinking about this more, I believe it was Monday nights; this would have been in the 1981-82 school year, and it was Tuesday mornings I scheduled late]; poor college students couldn't afford VCRs in those days, or even TVs. I watched in the game room; fortunately no one else but me was interested in TV at that hour.)

I no longer have my VHS tapes, but I have a number of paperbacks, one from the 70s that probably was not a Columbo novel to begin with; it reads like the they changed some names, put Peter Falk on the cover and took advantage of the popularity of the show.

In the 90s they began releasing new paperbacks that tied with Falk's return to the role for ABC. I bought and read most of those, eg http://www.amazon.com/Columbo-Skelter-Murders-William-Harrington/dp/0812530268/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1309170723&sr=1-3 

Nothing compares with the show, however, and there is only one Peter Falk and he owned this character.

I feel the same way about Tony Shalhoub and Monk. I anticipated every show every Friday and couldn't help but be saddened at each commercial break when I'd look at the clock and think "Only 50 minutes left tonight... only 40 minutes left..." etc, every season until the show ended. Only one other show did I savor in this fashion, that was M*A*S*H, and I remember vividly as a child feeling the time drain away and wishing I didn't have to wait another week for these friends to come back into my living room.


Of course, one aspect of the reverse whodunit is the enjoyment comes from watching our hero solve the crime, not finding out who committed it, so most episodes can be enjoyed many times.

I have a signed autograph from Falk. I wrote to him and he sent it to me. No personal message. I suppose he had a secretary that simply sent them out when the fan mail came in. I am very fond of it.