Re: COLUMBO Coming on Blu-Ray From Kino
Posted: Thu Dec 28, 2023 6:13 pm
I'd note that we had the Mystery Movie intro in the DVD releases of "McMillan And Wife". It was admittedly a case where they used one opening and then "branched" into the episode but at least we got to see it there.
It is true that in recent years, with the publication of David Koenig's book on the series, a lot more dirty laundry about Falk's relationship with Universal and NBC has come to light, especially on the matter of how Falk was constantly causing production overruns which culminated with the disaster in the episode "Old Fashioned Murder" when he allowed Elaine May to wield excessive power to the point where things were running over by weeks. It doesn't paint a flattering picture of him, and it's certainly possible that with commentaries on every episode, we were going to keep hearing this on a recurring basis because relatively few episodes over the course of the run went off without a hitch.
It's probably the fact that I am too much of a Columbo "specialist" as opposed to a casual fan that has made this hard to accept. When it is one of your favorite shows, you want to see it get the kind of bonus treatment that admittedly you'd ignore for a show or movie that isn't one of your big favorites. The people who were recruited for these commentaries, unlike the ones they've hired for some truly AWFUL movie commentaries, are people I'm familiar with who know their stuff and always keep the focus on informing us rather than going off on soapboxes or boring auteurism. So the expectations were very high going into this.
BTW, as I've watched more I've noticed that the sound mixing in "Dead Weight" is REALLY off in some scenes where F/X are drowning out dialogue at ridiculous levels. I almost felt compelled to engage the subtitles at one point. I'd have to go back to the DVD and see if it was true there but I don't recall it being that way (BTW when you watch "Dead Weight" play close attention to the final tag scene of Columbo and Suzanne Pleshette walking out. The reason why Columbo is only seen from behind is because that's Falk's stand-in. Falk refused to show up claiming illness and Jack Smight the director finally got fed up with his antics he shot the scene without him and when Falk came back later to finally do it, Smight told him that he was done with the scene and wasn't going to waste time any longer. Pleshette later said she never spoke to Falk for years afterwards).
It is true that in recent years, with the publication of David Koenig's book on the series, a lot more dirty laundry about Falk's relationship with Universal and NBC has come to light, especially on the matter of how Falk was constantly causing production overruns which culminated with the disaster in the episode "Old Fashioned Murder" when he allowed Elaine May to wield excessive power to the point where things were running over by weeks. It doesn't paint a flattering picture of him, and it's certainly possible that with commentaries on every episode, we were going to keep hearing this on a recurring basis because relatively few episodes over the course of the run went off without a hitch.
It's probably the fact that I am too much of a Columbo "specialist" as opposed to a casual fan that has made this hard to accept. When it is one of your favorite shows, you want to see it get the kind of bonus treatment that admittedly you'd ignore for a show or movie that isn't one of your big favorites. The people who were recruited for these commentaries, unlike the ones they've hired for some truly AWFUL movie commentaries, are people I'm familiar with who know their stuff and always keep the focus on informing us rather than going off on soapboxes or boring auteurism. So the expectations were very high going into this.
BTW, as I've watched more I've noticed that the sound mixing in "Dead Weight" is REALLY off in some scenes where F/X are drowning out dialogue at ridiculous levels. I almost felt compelled to engage the subtitles at one point. I'd have to go back to the DVD and see if it was true there but I don't recall it being that way (BTW when you watch "Dead Weight" play close attention to the final tag scene of Columbo and Suzanne Pleshette walking out. The reason why Columbo is only seen from behind is because that's Falk's stand-in. Falk refused to show up claiming illness and Jack Smight the director finally got fed up with his antics he shot the scene without him and when Falk came back later to finally do it, Smight told him that he was done with the scene and wasn't going to waste time any longer. Pleshette later said she never spoke to Falk for years afterwards).