Let's watch Columbo: Lady In Waiting!
Episode synopsis: (via IMDb) A mousy heiress murders her brother, pretending she thought he was a burglar. Lt. Columbo unravels her alibi.
Guest Stars: Susan Clark, Jessie Royce Landis, Leslie Neilsen, and Richard Anderson.
Here we are, the fifth episode of Columbo season 1! I think this episode is very slept on, it's quite solid! What are your thoughts on this episode? Is it as weird for you as it is for me to see Leslie Neilsen in a non-parody role? And of course it's always good to see Oscar Goldman from 6 Million Dollar Man!
Timecodes:
0:00 - Intro
1:05 - Reaction
47:31 - Thoughts/Shooting Columbo
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#Columbo #PeterFalk #ReactionVideos #1970s #1970stelevision
Пікірлер: 99
I really enjoyed this reaction. I love Columbo! And you're absolutely right, he is a polite, short King!
@meltyenjoys
5 ай бұрын
Thank you so much! And I loved your video essay on Columbo! ♥
This is why Columbo is such an awesome character. When she pulls the gun on him he's almost inhumanly chill about it. "You're far too classy a woman." She was probably thinking the same thing we in the audience were. "... What even ARE you?"
$11 in 1971 is equal to $83 today. No wonder Columbo wanted his money back!
@meltyenjoys
5 ай бұрын
So crazy.
@lorenzomagazzeni5425
11 күн бұрын
Never forget that in spite of the Italian name, he's actually...
@vincentsaia6545
11 күн бұрын
@@lorenzomagazzeni5425 I assume you mean Jewish and, no, the character is 100% Italian-American and you don't have to be Jewish to want $83 back
Columbo is always very decent, even to folks who arent decent to him, as you said, but as a homicide detective he’s also very devious and understandably uses his decency as a tool to get closer to witnesses and suspects to get more info and put them in his emotional debt so that theyre more open. He’s such an amazing character! I look forward to your reactions, thanks!
The redhead speaking to Columbo in the courtroom is the late Marcia Wallace, who voiced Mrs. Krabappel on "The Simpsons."
The thing about this episode that I love, is that you start out thinking the brother is just a mean, cold, unfeeling, and heartless man. But as the episode goes on, you see that he was protecting Beth from herself. Without his guiding and sometimes overprotective ways, she became a monster, to the man she claimed to love, who actually loved her, while she just treated him as a trophy, something her brother had a right to fear.
For starters, I'm glad to see someone react to Columbo. From where I sit, Beth Chadwick is the most tragic figure in the Columbo canon. So maligned by her brother and mother, they cannot conceive of the possibility that Peter Hamilton might genuinely love her. If an attorney isn't a mature choice of a man then who is? Yet given how Beth's behavior regresses over the course of the show perhaps her brother and mother were right about her all along. Frankly, Columbo ought to have arrested Beth at the board meeting for her crimes against fashion. Your observation about Columbo and flowers is quite astute. With that, I look forward to your Columbo reactions for Season 2.
"You're too classy a woman" and she just melts. I really do love this episode.
11:50 This is the first episode I ever saw on a Saturday morning instead of cartoons. I guess that was the day I stopped being a kid. My parents said this crazy homeless guy that wandered into the crime scene was the greatest detective and would catch the killer. This guy looks like he couldn't catch a cold! He isn't even interviewing witnesses like the other cops, he's just asking about some newspaper in the hall? Obviously I became a die hard fan right away!
The reason why Leslie Nielsen was such a sensation in "Airplane!," and all the comedic roles that followed, is because for the entirety of his career until then he always had played characters like this one, fairly generic, bland, serious types who didn't particularly stand out. He was easily recognizable but not necessarily well known. It was a stroke of genius by the the Zucker brothers and Abrahams to cast him against type in their parodies. Of course, it worked out brilliantly for him. Made him bigger than he ever was before, despite a long prolific career.
I love this episode. I can't wait for you to watch A Friend in Deed. That is my number one favorite.
@meltyenjoys
5 ай бұрын
Can't wait to get to that one!
I am so entertained with your reactions to this show. I’ve been a fan of Columbo for over 50 years. This is so fun to watch.
@meltyenjoys
5 ай бұрын
Thank you so much! I’m so happy you’re enjoying them. ❤
Melissa, the women sitting next to Columbo at the coroner’s inquest is Bob Newhart’s receptionist.
@meltyenjoys
5 ай бұрын
What a fun and random fact!
@Cathy-xi8cb
5 ай бұрын
And Mrs. Crabapple on the Simpsons!
This episode is in my top 10, if not top 5.
You mentioned locations in LA. I worked for a company that had an office on LaCienga Blvd in LA and a sign with that street name was shown in Suitable for Framing.
It's nice to see some one complementing the writers for a change.
Leslie Nelson's 2nd resurgence was in parody films - in his early acting career believe it or not he played the classic heavy so when I first say him playing a funny character I was shocked but yup he is as funny as funny could be. Awesome reaction as usual looking forward to the next ....:)
@DaleRibbons
5 ай бұрын
He was the lead in 'Forbidden Planet'.
One of my favorite moments in this episode is when Columbo tells Leslie that he thinks Beth murdered her brother. There is just something about how he just stares Leslie down as he laughs. Because he knows that Leslie is a smart man, and he knows that if he just really thinks about what happened the night of the murder that he would easily see what Columbo sees.
Your reactions are great! This particular episode is interesting. Columbo's character is hilarious sometimes. In the Wim Wenders film Wings Of Desire ..Peter Falk plays the part of Columbo. In one particular scene he is drinking coffee at an outdoor food stand. He is able to feel the presence of an angel but the guy behind the register cannot. Columbo says to the angel...."I cant see ya...but I know youre there" "You been hanging around since I got here" The guy behind the register thinks that Columbo is talking to himself.😅 At this point of the film its evident that Columbo was once an angel himself and dropped out of the sky to live the life of a human...or X communicated from God Eventually the angel he felt the presence of follows the same path and is now human. Later in the film Columbo asks him..."How much did you get for the armor?"
I really love your attention to detail on my favorite tv show 😃
The Six Million Dollar Man is awesome. I found out about it in the most roundabout way ever, Lee Majors plays Ash's dad in Ash vs Evil Dead.
Thank you for these reactions. I really enjoy your analyses and your sense of humor. 😊
Marcia Wallace is uncredited in this episode as the lady in the courtroom talking to Columbo. She became famous on the Bob Newhart show later in the 70s. She’s made many many many television appearances. She was also famous for playing the voice of Ms. Krabapple on the Simpsons.
The Six-Million Dollar man was part of my p-teen years. I remembered two things from that series all these years later, the fight between Steve Austin and Bigfoot who was played by Andre the Giant and Bigfoot carrying Steve Austin through this rotating tunnel which was, apparently, a Disney attraction or something.
Thank you for the awesome reaction to one of my top ten Columbo episodes. :) As a comment: Love Leslie Nielsen's comedic work... 'surely' he's one of the greats. But after seeing him in The Poseidon Adventure and his two roles in Columbo, I actually think he's a brilliant dramatic actor. You believe he is who he says he is. (Also: Love that quasi-cubist Columbo on the wall)
@meltyenjoys
5 ай бұрын
Thank you for watching! Love Leslie Nielsen, and I definitely want to check out more of his dramatic work after watching this episode. I got the Columbo artwork from an artist on Etsy (DropDStudio) - it's definitely one of my favorite pieces I own.
@Tnenamrep2
5 ай бұрын
@@meltyenjoys No worries. :) I hope you like it... it surprised me how good he was, when I saw Poseidon, especially. Drop us a tangent video on 'Legit Leslie', maybe? And thanks for that. Found DropDStudio... and Columbo's still there. :)
Hi one of my favourites this one very well scripted. In the dream sequence she did have the perfect murder. Yeah I laugh when Colombo makes mention of his wife or his cousin or brother in law whom always gets a mention. The killer could be a celebrity & Colombo would say something like his brother in law is your greatest fan of course it's all made up just to soften up the suspect & become less suspecting that Colombo thinks they are guilty. I like the suspects that are on to Colombo they know he's not stupid at all. Great reaction
45:11 I love this scene. Of course, the mention of the policemen does not offend the woman, but the second half of the sentence... Her family could never control her (not even her boyfriend). But the lieutenant controls her after a few days of getting to know her, even though she has a gun in her hand. In fact, she looks at him seductively and does what he tells her.
Little details! Columbo nearly driving off with the tray after his epiphany but stops to hand it over. One of those moments that doesn't advance the mystery but endears us to Colombo.
When you are enjoying Friday then see the next Columbo reaction drop, yass bring it on
@meltyenjoys
5 ай бұрын
❤
This one is known me to me as "Hey, who knew the mom from WEBSTER was a stone cold fox" episode.
Thank you for the amount of work you expend to produce these videos. This particular episode is a favourite of mine. I agree with you that this episode gets overlooked.
@meltyenjoys
5 ай бұрын
Thank you for watching them! They're definitely a lot of work and editing, but worth it.
@clarencewalker3925
5 ай бұрын
The character of Beth was played by Susan Clark. She was married for many years to her "Wesbter" co-star Alex Karras, aka Mongo from "Blazing Saddles" and former Detroit Lion.
The only other time I've seen Leslie Nielsen play a serious role, was in a 50s Sci Fi movie called Forbidden Planet, which also started Richard Anderson and Anne Francis.
@meltyenjoys
5 ай бұрын
I believe I've seen a short excerpt from that! I'll add it to the list.
@mikefish1124
5 ай бұрын
Well, he did do a second serious guest star on Columbo. The one where Patrick McGooghan plays the spy
great observations of my favourite show
@meltyenjoys
5 ай бұрын
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it. :)
You might want to see Leslie Nielsen in the classic FORBIDDEN PLANET
I've always felt bad for leslie in this. To her he was just a trophy i think. Or maybe her original plan to gain control, and then to become just a trophy. I always find it interesting that she announces their engagement without asking him. Which is often used as a way to tell the audience how awful the "boyfriend" is in a romantic comedy. You really start out sympathizing for Beth at the start, but by the end you (or at least I) dislike who she really is.
PETER: Surely, you don't believe that Beth killed her brother. COLUMBO: Yes, I do. And don't call me Shirley. But seriously, how would the coroner's inquest not reach the same conclusion that Colombo did: that the gunshots came before the alarm, and not after?
Her brother keeps getting rid of her boyfriends is the vibe I'm getting.
She was sympathetic at first. Her brother kept controlling her life. But later she became a b.
The reason the Zucker brothers decided to cast actors like Leslie Nielsen, Robert Stack, and Lloyd Bridges in their disaster movie parody AIRPLANE ✈️ Is because the lines needed to be delivered as intensely serious as possible, in order to make them sound completely absurd. Leslie Nielsen found a second career as a comedic actor because of this. Before his role in AIRPLANE he mostly played serious dramatic characters 🎭
Richard Anderson came out in one episode of Kolchak "The Night Stalker" TV series. Pretty good series, if you ask me. Maybe you'll want to check some of those episodes out. I believe Richard Anderson came out in the second episode.
Friday for me.
Thanks for the reaction video. :) I was able to watch some of the 70s episodes when they originally aired. Over the last decade or so my appreciation for the show has grown and I've now seen each episode multiple times. It is an amazing show. Regarding more recent shows I'd recommend Community, if you like shows with a strong artistic vision and thoughtful construction.
That superstitious lady who talks to Columbo at the inquest would later play Edna Krabappel in _The Simpsons_ for 172 episodes.
I wonder if this plot was inspired by the real life case involving one of Truman Capote's swans who shot her husband with a shotgun and insisted she thought he was a burglar.
In between this and the Six Million Dollar Man, Richard Anderson starred in 'The Night Strangler' TV movie. I recommend checking that out.
@meltyenjoys
5 ай бұрын
Thank you so much for the suggestion! I'll add it to my list of things to watch. :)
Since this new show Elsbeth is casting major TV stars as guest killers, maybe they'll end up getting Kelsey Grammar. And exactly, they show you instead of telling you and I remember in writing that's the #1 rule to show instead of telling. And I like that about Columbo too, is politeness. I read that might have come from Crime and Punishment, but also that Falk might have added that aspect himself. I know it's in the Shooting Columbo and Columbo Phile books though. As opposed to when a PI character like a Mike Hammer or Philip Marlowe might smash someone's face against a table or grab them by the tie or collar when being talked to rudely, it's a nice contrast. I like both approaches though. Well then you'd love Leslie Nielsen in Creepshow and in his Thriller episode.
No need to beat yourself up. Columbo and Six Million Dollar Man were produced out of the same studio so. there is a lot of overlap between the two shows.
$10.50 is apparently worth $95 in today’s money 😮
Oddly enough, Barbara Rhoades (the salon receptionist) is in Leslie Nielsen's other Columbo episode, "Identity Crisis." Your comment at 49:00 makes a whole lot of sense.
Columbo is the best. It's a all time great TV series.
Peter falk often explains in interviews that he almost worked for the cia ,guess what? It was the entertainment division
You gotta love her clothes. Classic early 1970's duds.
Columbo is in my top 10 tv characters ever.
Leslie Nielsen was a serious actor for most of his career, until Airplane changed gis career trajectory forever. Check him out in Tammy and the Bachelor (with none other than Carrie Fisher’s mother Debbie Reynolds) or as the captain in Forbidden Planet.
Thank you! 🌺🌺🇨🇦
Call the police. The fashion police.
@meltyenjoys
5 ай бұрын
A lot of fashion crimes in this show!
I didn't connect for years that Beth is played by Webster's mother. Maybe it's her not having the Duke Nukem spiky haircut. The officer with the glasses is played by Gary Walberg, who would later play Lt Monahan on Quincy. Leslie Nielsen typically played serious rules up until Airplane!, where him playing such a role seriously got a lot of laughs. Maybe it's a shame he never showed up in the later ABC episodes(he pops up in season 5-6 somewhere) but by then he'd been typecast. Granted this episode has 2 oddities- first, shooting someone 3 times in the front, having them fall on their face & dragging them through a house is going to leave a massive blood trail, on top of the initial splatter site. We wouldn't see any sort of realistic blood until "Columbo Goes To College" decades later. Second, unless he could convince his superiors of something I doubt he'd have been remotely allowed to continue to investigate a "cleared" case like this. Double jeopardy probably wouldn't apply- she had likely been charged with accidental manslaughter based on then-evidence, not premeditated homicide which was proven later(a prior decision can be overturned with enough proof)- but even so investigating onward like that would probably not fly with the legal system.
Lunch was Columbo's treat. Leslie Nielsen's character opening the bun of his drive-in hamburger and seeing nothing but the burger patty, lol. Hmm... scripted or improvised?
You did a good jorb
Greetings from Russia, via Google translator. This episode is in my top 3, especially because we were clearly shown the basic mistake of the killer and we had the opportunity to guess for ourselves. An interesting fact is that this is one of those early episodes where we see that Columbo lowers the top of his car, but in s10e3 "Columbo and the Murder of a Rock Star" he says that he is doing this for the first time, the authors did not watch it.
In BLUEPRINT FOR MURDER, the last episode of Season 1, you will not notice I'm sure that towards the end when the killer goes to bury the corpse in a concrete pile and has a flat tire on the way and the police asks the killer for his paper, the killer produces Columbo's piece of identity as it is clearly Columbo's face in the picture. It was probably too much trouble to make the real killer's piece of identity hey!...
The fact that you knew Oscar Goldman…… I think I love you. Plus you love Columbo!!!! Other women are dead to me🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️
One of the first police detectives on the scene, is played by Richard Bull, the guy who was Nels Oleson (the store keeper) on Little House on the Prarie
@michaelmorgan7893
5 ай бұрын
The other detective, was the guy who plays Lt. Monighan on Quincy.
She shot him three times in the torso, he fell face first onto the floor and then she dragged him face down across the room without any blood on the carpeting. Not very realistic but works for television.
@meltyenjoys
5 ай бұрын
Maybe Richard Anderson was secretly bionic! 😜
If you want to see a young Leslie Nielson watch the movie Tammy and the Bachelor co-staring Debbie Reynolds from 1957.
@williamcurry4868
5 ай бұрын
I’d also recommend Forbidden Planet too
Thanks for your excellent analysis of this episode. I agree, the writing in this episode is top notch. I think Columbo had the best writing of any 70's show. I had never noticed the excellent staging before you pointed it out. The fact that Columbo was of such a high quality compared to the regular TV fare of the 70's might be partially due to the fact that it was only on once a month, so they had more time to make an episode. Beth's transformation was really interesting to watch as the episode progressed, credit to Susan Clark for her acting. It was great to see Oscar Goldman in the beginning of the episode. Unfortunately, since he was shot, it means we never got our Columbo/Six Million Dollar Man crossover. Looking forward to more Columbo analysis. If you are interested in doing Doctor Who or Six Million Dollar Man, that would be great as well. Thanks for your work.
@meltyenjoys
5 ай бұрын
Definitely taking a look at doing some 6 Million Dollar Man on this channel in the future!
@7bestthings
5 ай бұрын
@@meltyenjoys that would be awesome! Thanks!
Where'd you get the picture of Peter Falk from?
Should've set off the alarm before shooting. Whoops.
With a decent lawyer, I'm not so sure an ex-fiancé's testimony would be enough to convict Beth, and given the way her family treated her, I'm maybe not as sorry as I should be about the idea of her getting away with murder. A non-comedic Leslie Nielsen is in one of my favorite movies, Forbidden Planet.
Perhaps this telefilm is overlooked because it is neither particularly great nor particularly awful (myself would rank this below Short Fuse and Blueprint for Murder but above 'Framing' and 'Hands').