[HN Gopher] Why the world still loves 1970s detective show Columbo
___________________________________________________________________
Why the world still loves 1970s detective show Columbo
Author : CaptainZapp
Score : 77 points
Date : 2021-09-10 11:43 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.bbc.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.bbc.com)
| drfuchs wrote:
| Fun fact: In the first few seasons, Colombo had continuing
| problems with his car, which was always an excuse for being late
| or showing up unexpectedly. But, like his wife, the car never
| showed up on screen. By the later seasons, they wanted to do
| scenes where you see him arrive at a golf course, or whatever,
| and the prop department had to create a car that looked like an
| old clunker, and they made it out of unidentifiable pieces of
| various different real automobiles of different manufacturers,
| all so that no car company would complain that their cars were
| being maligned as unreliable.
| yodon wrote:
| This is a wonderful story but I'm sorry to have to report that
| the car Columbo drove wasn't built by the props department, it
| was a 1959 Peugeot 403[0].
|
| [0]https://www.cartalk.com/blogs/jim-motavalli/columbos-car-
| it-...
| drfuchs wrote:
| Huh. I thought I'd heard the story in an interview with Peter
| Falk, or one of the producers. Oh, well.
| goodJobWalrus wrote:
| Was Peugeot ever sold in th US?
| banana_giraffe wrote:
| Yep
|
| https://www.periodpaper.com/products/1959-ad-
| peugeot-403-sta...
|
| There were a few hundred Peugeot dealers in North America.
| technothrasher wrote:
| Huh? The car was a very recognizable Peugeot 403.
| raffraffraff wrote:
| From across the pond... Yes Minister and the follow up series Yes
| Prime Minister are the most rewtchable TV shows I've ever seen.
| When it was originally on air, it's said that the prime minister
| at the time, Margaret Thatcher, loved it. And it's still
| absolutely relevant and witty today.
| JimTheMan wrote:
| I second that. The Yes Minister series is brilliant.
| throw0101a wrote:
| > _When it was originally on air, it 's said that the prime
| minister at the time, Margaret Thatcher, loved it. And it's
| still absolutely relevant and witty today._
|
| Thatcher loved because it suited her ideology:
|
| > _Adam Curtis, in his three-part TV documentary The Trap,
| criticised the series as "ideological propaganda for a
| political movement",[16] and claimed that Yes Minister is
| indicative of a larger movement of criticism of government and
| bureaucracy, centred upon public choice economics. Jay himself
| supported this:_
|
| >> _The fallacy that public choice economics took on was the
| fallacy that government is working entirely for the benefit of
| the citizen; and this was reflected by showing that in any
| [episode] in the programme, in Yes Minister, we showed that
| almost everything that the government has to decide is a
| conflict between two lots of private interest - that of the
| politicians and that of the civil servants trying to advance
| their own careers and improve their own lives. And that 's why
| public choice economics, which explains why all this was going
| on, was at the root of almost every episode of Yes Minister and
| Yes, Prime Minister.[17]_
|
| * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yes_Minister#Politics
|
| > _There is a division of opinions by political scientists.
| Some of them cite the series for their accurate and
| sophisticated portrayal of the relationships between civil
| servants and politicians,[40] and are quoted in some textbooks
| on British politics.[6] However, other political scientists
| considered it a reflection of the public choice model, which
| encouraged a "conservative agenda of balanced budgets and
| reduced government spending".[41] The Washington Post
| considered its "ideas were at the center of the Thatcher and
| Ronald Reagan administrations in Britain and the United States,
| which favored cutting government and shifting its functions to
| the private sector".[42]_
|
| * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yes_Minister#Reception
| linksnapzz wrote:
| The critics of the Public Choice model, (who all seem to be
| socialist academics, a cohort known for its puissance at both
| government & industry...) would have done better to have
| their own TV show, written by someone who could cleverly show
| why the Heath/Wilson/Callaghan-style governments were the
| best the UK was going to get, and why the viewer should
| appreciate that.
| nyokodo wrote:
| > Thatcher loved because it suited her ideology
|
| She liked it because she could laugh at herself. It might
| have given a voice to her ideology sometimes, and rightly so
| because it was prominent at the time, but none of the
| characters giving voice to anything are sympathetic. They're
| portrayed as tragically ridiculous players vying for power
| and positive public image who'll drop their "principles" at
| the drop of a hat if it suits them. If pundits are worried
| about this or that argument given by a character on the show
| they're just revealing their own insecurities about their
| political opinions.
| Barrin92 wrote:
| >They're portrayed as tragically ridiculous players vying
| for power and positive public image who'll drop their
| "principles" at the drop of a hat if it suits them
|
| And that cynical portrayal of politics is itself part of
| the exact ideology that Thatcher tried to promote, so I
| don't really see why you think that contradicts OPs point.
| It's like the joke that Reagan used to repeat _" The nine
| most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from
| the Government, and I'm here to help"_. It wasn't an actual
| self-demeaning joke, the intention was to demean governance
| itself at every moment possible.
| linksnapzz wrote:
| What a tragedy. Lese-Majeste towards civil servants and
| politicians. Of all the things to be less cynical about,
| we must be less cynical about the motivations of those
| that seek temporal power!
| Barrin92 wrote:
| >we must be less cynical about the motivations of those
| that seek temporal power
|
| is there anyone not seeking temporal power? Are private
| sector shareholders on a quest for spiritual
| enlightenment or something? Is the board of Facebook
| filled with Zen Buddhists?
|
| The notion that competing for petty status and power is
| somehow unique to administration and government is one of
| the consequences of shows like Yes, Minister. And
| actually yes, we should be less cynical of civil servants
| and politicians. A pathological disregard of them has,
| for example, significantly worsened one of the worst
| public health crisis in decades.
| nsajko wrote:
| You're entirely missing what the parent is talking about.
| Your point that "none of the characters giving voice to
| anything are sympathetic" is irrelevant. On the other hand:
|
| > They're portrayed as tragically ridiculous players vying
| for power and positive public image who'll drop their
| "principles" at the drop of a hat if it suits them
|
| This is exactly what the parent pointed out.
|
| To make this even more clear, I made excerpts from the
| quote by Jay (creator of Yes Minister):
|
| > this was reflected by showing that in any [episode] in
| the programme, in Yes Minister, we showed that almost
| everything that the government has to decide is a conflict
| between two lots of private interest [...]
|
| > And that's why public choice economics, which explains
| why all this was going on, was at the root of almost every
| episode of Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister.
|
| So both series ("almost every episode") were clearly
| conceived and executed as propaganda, whether you like it
| or not.
| nyokodo wrote:
| > Yes Minister and the follow up series Yes Prime Minister are
| the most rewtchable TV shows I've ever seen.
|
| It had a brilliant and ideologically diverse writing team
| meaning no side was singled out. The principal actors were
| comedy geniuses. Plus, the writers eventually revealed they had
| political insiders feeding them material [1]. Apparently
| similar things to the Arab embassy security room bar scene
| actually happened!
|
| [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yes_Minister
| romwell wrote:
| It was _massively_ popular in Ukraine and Russia in the 1990s.
|
| I still remember the overcoat, the dog, and Culombo's wife, which
| has always been mentioned, but never shown.
|
| I guess that's all I have to say for now _starts to leave_.
|
| _Opens the door back again_
|
| Now, just one more thing...
| MikeDelta wrote:
| I seem to remember that that one more thing often turned out to
| be the thing that unravelled into solving the crime.
| mbg721 wrote:
| Just as often, he would already know how the crime happened,
| and the "one more thing" was just to unnerve the suspect.
| ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
| That was his "schtick."
|
| He'd come back and say "You see, I guess maybe I missed it,
| but I just can't figure out how..."
|
| Whoever he was talking to, was about to get new jewelry.
|
| He'd also have a couple of uniforms handy, with stainless
| steel bracelets.
|
| He was doing it before Steve Jobs.
| [deleted]
| themadturk wrote:
| I read recently that the "just one more thing" originated when
| the writers discovered they'd forgotten to have Colombo ask a
| question during the scene and tacked it onto the end to avoid
| having the rewrite the scene.
| dogma1138 wrote:
| The wife got a spin-off series Mrs. Columbo.
| mbg721 wrote:
| In case you find yourself among Columbo corners of the
| Internet, Mrs. Columbo is emphatically considered non-
| canonical.
| dasil003 wrote:
| Oh my god, I never connected the through-line from Columbo
| (which I often watched re-runs with my family as a kid) to
| Steve Jobs keynotes.
| loonster wrote:
| Columbo, CHIPS, MASH, all old shows that still appealed to me as
| a boy in the 90s.
| romwell wrote:
| Throw in Nash Bridges there too
| [deleted]
| 95014_refugee wrote:
| That's a nice nod to Wings of Desire in there.
| tyingq wrote:
| I did like Columbo, but I liked "The Rockford Files" better.
| muzster wrote:
| Peter Falk really was a fallen angel. Wings of Desires
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2-26rb7S38
| itronitron wrote:
| Columbo!
| dogma1138 wrote:
| I kinda miss the older syndication friendly shows.
|
| Everything today is trying too hard to have a season or a multi
| season epic story arc and the shows today are often so damn grim.
| gremloni wrote:
| I completely agree. I've completely gravitated lately towards
| irreverent, silly, almost B-movies. Yesterday I watched Men at
| Work and it was amazing. That's something I would have never
| watched a decade ago.
| bwship wrote:
| That is a great movie! Have you watched Tremors?
| gremloni wrote:
| I haven't. I'm going to watch it tonight, thanks for the
| recommendation!
| JohnFen wrote:
| Ummm... because great shows stay great forever?
| mbg721 wrote:
| Columbo plots were oddly fixed on telephone technology in
| particular, in a way that might not have aged well if the
| acting weren't as good as it was.
| chrisseaton wrote:
| I don't understand why being set in a particular period would
| cause a program to not age well?
|
| Does Sherlock Holmes not age well because now we have DNA to
| solve crimes more easily?
| mbg721 wrote:
| Just that things like answering machines or phone records
| for long-distance but not local calls are less familiar and
| relatable, so plot points that would have been obvious to
| the audience at the time can't be taken for granted.
| sn41 wrote:
| There was a German detective series whose translation was called
| "The Old Fox" - I used to like it in the 80s. I haven't been able
| to find it online much.
| Someone wrote:
| I think that's "Der Alte". https://www.fernsehserien.de/der-
| alte/episodenguide. Available on Amazon, iTunes, and magenta
| tv.de (all possibly only in Germany and/or Austria)
| yodon wrote:
| Colombo always had a such hilarious proletariat vs bourgeois
| "Marxist" class struggle element hidden just below the surface of
| a major Hollywood series whose pilot was directed by a promising
| new young kid named Steven Spielberg.
|
| The criminals were always rich, powerful, famous. Columbo was an
| unimpressive civil servant dressed in a shabby overcoat and
| driving an equally unimpressive old Peugeot. Every episode
| contained some bit of banter in which he or the villain called
| out explicitly the huge gulf in class between them, generally
| including some mention of Mrs. Columbo, who was never seen in the
| real series but was always held up by Columbo as cultured,
| intellectual, and wise in all the ways he professed to be
| ignorant (yes, they did eventually spin off a series about her,
| but it was terrible in as many ways as Columbo was great).
|
| At the end of every episode, the honorable masses would triumph
| over the evil bourgeois as Columbo caught and humiliated yet
| another arrogant villain just before viewers were advised what
| brand of products to buy to look better than their neighbors.
| mbg721 wrote:
| Some of the better episodes and their guest murderers:
|
| "Swan Song" features Johnny Cash as a gospel singer with an
| unconventional murder weapon,
|
| "Any Old Port In A Storm" has Donald Pleasence as a wine
| aficionado,
|
| "Double Shock" has Martin Landau playing a pair of twins and
| Columbo harassed by their uncle's fastidious housekeeper,
|
| "Columbo Goes To College" is one of the best of the 90s-era
| revival episodes, and features a couple of cocky frat-boys
| murdering their criminology professor.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2021-09-11 23:02 UTC)