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(created by Jon, your Just One More Thing co-host...)

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Here’s the room- https://app.kosmi.io/room/wi9fu9 

See you tonight!

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Here's the room- https://app.kosmi.io/room/wi9fu9 

See you tonight!

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For the Columbo Role-Player in your life!

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A journey through an impractical soundstage elevator with Lt.Columbo -- it sounds like the world’s greatest dark ride. Get Disneyland on the phone! (from “Murder With Too Many Notes”)

Listen to us discuss this episode with our guest Jenny Hammerton.

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Murder With Too Many Notes (March 12, 2001) Columbo: Season 13, Episode 4

There are many questions which beg for answering in this episode. Luckily, the answer also happened to be the director ... Patrick McGoohan’s sensibilities show up throughout “Murder With Too Many Notes” like fingerprints on a smartphone screen. (As a matter of fact, it only occurs to me while writing this that the scene in which the witnesses to David’s post-mortal plummet burst into the soundstage on which Finlay was conducting was a trademark McGoohan angle, head to toe, and was just one among many)

More than merely that camera angle, shot from the rafters, signified McGoohan’s presence. His sense of humor reared its exceptionally dry head now and again. A protracted chase scene (of sorts) to the score of a sonorous lullabye, punctuated by the passing “old man on a bike” gag -- the sudden insertion of slapstick surrealism in the middle of a mysterious murder -- was probably serenaded by McGoohan’s soft chuckling from behind the cameras...

For my personal tastes, I find Connolly too avuncular and charming to consider menacing. I enjoyed the same problem in Boondock Saints, in which his character seemed no more threatening to me than Fred Rogers. It affected my suspension of disbelief, but not my enjoyment of Connolly’s presence. 

Performances are the make-or-break factor of this episode, knowing that McGoohan has complicated matters with his usual flair (for instance, by adding a musical clue which would have been opaque to tin-eared viewers -- such as myself). You have to just ride it out when you’re in something McGoohan has directed. You have to accept that he’s going to make part of the story at least partly impenetrable, as a challenge to the audience.  He brings The Prisoner wherever he goes... 

Listen to us discuss this episode with our guest Jenny Hammerton.

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What do you know? The second-to-last Columbo episode ever is the second-to-last one we’re covering! In “Murder with Too Many Notes,” Billy Connolly plays a past-his-prime film score composer whose protégé has secretly been the one producing the maestro’s best work lately. When the kid starts demanding some credit for his work, the composer sees no way out than to stage an untimely death for the wannabe John Williams. Author and film archivist Jenny Hammerton (Cooking with Columbo) joins us to discuss the episode, weather on our respective continents, what Columbo souvenir you’d want in your house, and so much more. Also- a contest to win Jenny’s book! Details in the episode.

Listen to us discuss this episode with our guest Jenny Hammerton.

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That algorithm of Tumblr’s sure has a mad-on for Columbo...

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Courtesy of upcoming guest and television encyclopedia Tilt Araiza (listen to our discussion with Tilt regarding Uneasy Lies the Crown), here’s a TVTimes article (vol.97 No.47, Nov.15 1979) on the impending Mrs.Columbo. It’s got some delightful contributions from Mulgrew.

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Billy Connolly! Film scoring action! A rusty elevator! Tuxedo rental clues! We’re getting close to the end, with Season Ten’s McGoohan-directed “Murder with Too Many Notes.” Joining in will be author and film archivist Jenny Hammerton (Cooking with Columbo).

Listen to the episode preview here

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A pair of listings for broadcast and repeat performances of Uneasy Lies The Crown*, which we’ll discuss next on Just One More Thing with guest Tilt Araiza. Listen to the episode here.

*(top) Santa Cruz Sentinel Sun, Nov 29 1992 *(bottom) Tampa Bay Times, Apr 28 1990

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A smorgasbord of character actors in Uneasy Lies the Crown, which we discuss on the latest episode of the podcast:  Steven Gilborn as “George,” the morgue attendant; Mimi Cuzzins as the lady at the track; Raymond Singer as Columbo’s impromptu dentist; Morgan Jones as the lab technician; James A.Watson Jr as the Sarge; “Red” (I didn’t catch the actor’s credit) and, lastly, John Finnegan as “waiter!”

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Famous (?) Faces of the regular poker gang, as shown in Uneasy Lies the Crown, include: Nancy Walker (actor and comedian), Dick Sargent (ditto plus also he’s famously the second Darrin on Bewitched), former Los Angeles Dodger Ron Cey, impressionist John Roarke and then, sitting next to Mark Arnott as David Sherwin, the game’s host Victor Berrine (creator of MTV’s Ultimate Parkour Challenge). QUITE A MURDERER’S ROW!

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please tell us more about Columbo thought? im very curious; i want to grow closer to Columbo.

You are already close to Columbo - look at your curiosity, the politeness and openness of your message! There are so many ways to explore the Columbo spirit. Here are three:

1. LanguageTry out Columbo’s cornerstone phrases in your own life. “Isn’t that interesting?” is a very powerful phrase to key into your detective self. It immediately puts you in a mindset of curiosity - and delight! I use this phrase especially when I encounter a disagreement between me and another person. Columbo also uses a lot of phrases of appreciation - “what a honey!” being my favorite. It can feel very good to take of bite of something and make a big Columbo deal out of how good it is.  2. BodyI sometimes watch Columbo on mute to take in the beauty of his hand gestures. He’s very natural in his body expressions. How do you explore this naturalness in yourself? You could try getting very comfortable in unlikely spots. Columbo can fall asleep in a murderer’s house. By getting comfortable in a variety of places, you’re telling yourself that comfort is based on you & your body more than the environment. 3. MethodThere’s a lot of patience and deliberation in Columbo. One of my favorite images of Columbo is of him tying his shoes. Tying your shoes with attention is a doorway into a different day. It’s a miracle to tie your shoes! I remember learning as a kid, how hard it was and how much I had to work at it. When I do it today, I pay tribute to my efforts and renew my vows to keep trying step after step, like Columbo.

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Uneasy Lies the Crown (April 28, 1990) Columbo: Season 9, Episode 5 

In retrospect, the lineage of this episode -- that it was written by Bochco for Columbo in the Seventies, was rejected by Falk for lacking a compelling villain, then is adapted for McMmillian elsewhere in the Mystery Movie lineup before ending up on Columbo, finally, almost two decades later -- is probably the most compelling matter for discussion. 

It is a solidly written episode, but the 1970s script collides with some 90s sensibilities. The deliberate process of the killer preparing his ‘weapon of choice,’ for instance, is a welcome callback to traits which weren’t unheard-of in the 90s, but more rarely than the show’s decade of origin. 

The difference in depictions of wealth on television affects that one component of the 1970s-style script, in that Columbo doesn’t really seem to be intruding on the cloistered worlds of the wealthy here. The closest he comes is intruding upon the purgatorial poker game in that oddly-appointed hotel room, into which he’s welcomed as a fan and a beloved nostalgic character. Otherwise, he’s just going to dentist’s offices and the track ... and not even the good seats at the track!

It’s a strange creature, this episode. The story is stronger than the execution, the killer may have not really been the type of actor that they should have used, and the pacing is without much in the way of peaks and valleys. A mid-range 90s episode, which is a little disappointing considering how long it took to be made...