Saturday, June 20, 2009

Jack J's 1970s: Columbo



I looked down and discovered my white T-shirt was full of blood. Not fake blood or tomato juice but real living human blood. All over my shirt. I was around 7 or 8 years old and I was sitting in bed watching an episode of Columbo and I got the biggest nosebleed ever!! (and lets not go into why I had a nosebleed! Picking your nose is a filthy habit but, hey, I was 7 yrs old for crying out loud!! LOL).

I haven't really watched Columbo since its original run back in the 70s and I have never watched a full episode of the "new" seasons (i.e. counting from season 8) so when I stumbled over a particularly cheap Columbo box at a local store I thought it was finally time for a re-visit. :-)

So far I've watched two episodes and I can certainly see why we followed the series religiously in my family in the 70s. It's pretty cool. Well, not "cool" like Fonzie but you know wha' ah mean.

The box I got contains the complete season 1 and also includes the two feature length pilots that were made prior to the series. There's no other extras.

When I watched the first episode (directed by Steven Spielberg no less!) I couldn't help thinking there was something that didn't quite sit well with me; Then I discovered the cause: it was in colour!!! The show was filmed in colour alright but we never WATCHED it in colour cos in my family we didn't get a colour TV until (I think) around 1980!! So obviously I switched off the colours and watched the rest in black & white. :-) :-) :-)

8 comments:

  1. You are getting nostalgic Jack, that's something for us oldies.Are you grey already ? But I agree with you,remember it as it was then, makes you feel like a little nose-picking boy again. Films like Laurel and Hardy should be watched in black and white also with a piano playing its background music.

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  2. Haha, I don't know if I'm being nostalgic. When I try and re-experience something from the past I usually test it to see if it still holds water. Is it still good. If I discover that I don't like it any more I usually move on. Nostalgia is alright in small doses but nostalgia for nostalgia's own sake doesn't really hold my interest.

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  3. Sjovt at læse dit indlæg, jeg er selv lige begyndt at gense Columbo efter flere års pause. Købte sæson 5 forleden fra Play.com til kun 9.49 EUR. Sættet inkluderer en episode af den velfortjent (næsten) glemte spin-off "Mrs. Columbo".

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  4. Cool! jeg overvejede at købe en af de engelske bokse med hele den originale serie med de første syv sæsoner (der er to forskellige udgivelser, den ene har sæson 1-7 og den anden 1-8), men en del brugere på Amazon skriver, at skiverne ligger i papetuier og der er ikke episode-info på! Hvis man køber dem enkeltvis, går jeg ud fra de er i alm. plastic-bokse ligesom den danske udgave, jeg fik af #1 (til 100 kr. i Bilka). Desværre blir det bare dobbelt så dyrt med enkelt-sæsonerne. Der er også en danske boks med #1-7, men til det dobbelte af de engelske bokse. You just can't win!

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  5. Pap, huh? Tak for advarslen. Havde selv kig på 1-8 boksen, men da jeg ejer et par sæsoner i forvejen føltes det lidt dumt. Desuden er jeg ikke interesseret i sæson 8 ie de "nye" Columboer. Pudsigt nok er hver af de sæt jeg foreløbig har købt forskelligt pakket. Sæson 1 var sådan en "bladreboks" a la Alien boksen. Sæson 5 kom i tre slimline etuier. Sæson 6-7 kom samlet på tre discs fordelt på to normaletuier. Udvalget af undertekster varierer også fra sæt til sæt! Jeg køber dem, når de kommer på tilbud, synes det er hyggeligt at gå og vente på "endnu en omgang" Columbo. BTW prøv at check tilbudene på amazon.co.uk marketplace, du kan spare en del.

    Vh Obs.-Henrik

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  6. Tak for tippet. Jeg checker skam altid marketplace-sælgerne på Amazon UK, før jeg køber noget. :-)

    Den danske udgave af Sæson 1 er en boks med 3 slimline etuier indeni. For en gangs skyld er jeg fristet til at købe de danske, hvis de alle er udgivet i samme stil, men uheldigvis har jeg ikke kunnet finde ud af, om ekstra-materialet (hvor sparsomt det end måtte være) er med eller ej.

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  7. Damn, I'm going to need babblefish it read all those comments. :)
    I too watched Columbo in B&W, as my parents didn't get color TV until I was in college. Yeah, they waited for me to leave, then got the new TV.
    What's fun about watching the DVD's is how much you can see that in detail. I don't think we ever were able to see such clear pictures in the US on ANY broadcast image. So you can see the "glisten" on the plastic telephones and watch the special guest star's hair piece blow in the wind.

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  8. Tim, hopefully you'll be able to make sense of the Bablefish translation! Sometimes they turn into some Bizarro World lingo, haha. Btw, I have a Google translator at the bottom of this page.

    About Columbo, it's been so long since I watched the episodes originally so I don't really remember but I have a feeling the DVD picture is much sharper than the Danish broadcasts, also.

    Another thing I've begun to notice is how funny Columbo is; Sometimes he's taking the piss out of his opponent. As I kid I always thought he didn't figure out who the killer was till the end but for instance in episode 2 it's clear that he knows almost right away.

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