Columbo: The Complete Series [DVD]

Another reviewer mentioned Columbo's "humbleness" and I have to agree. He let jerky people be jerks and he just listened instead of sassing back or showing his hand. He didn't argue with jerks until he had all the information he needed. I've started trying to follow this in my personal life: just smile and listen and don't try to show off or prove you're better (why worry? Columbo knew he was better than the murderer intelligence-wise and morally). Be humble, listen more than you speak and smile, smile, smile. You might find that quite rapidly you're day-to-day life will improve.First, the boring technical stuff as of March 2018:The discs play just fine. I'm a librarian, specifically an audio visual cataloger and I deal with people bringing me DVDs that "don't play" yet look fine. The discs play just fine on our computers and test DVD player. Usually the problem is someone with an old player--worse yet--an old player that's never had its lens cleaned. We pop the same discs into a computer or new/clean player and they work fine. So: there are no authoring problems on the discs I've played so far, although it does happen. Recently I bought the NCIS 1-14 season set and season 6 wouldn't play in any player!These are full frame videos that are probably the old 4:3 aspect ratio? This means there are no black bars at the top and bottom of the screen. There is no pan-and-scan weirdness. Just a nice, full screen video just like it originally looked when it aired on TV.There are only 2 episodes per disc and only 6-8 episodes per season: because the episodes were 1.5 to 2 hours long. So every 3 or 4 hours you have to get up and change the disc. Each season fits in a normal width case. The cases are the clear/frosted clear cases. Let me tell you: as an AV librarian I've had hundreds of broken black DVD cases, but only 4 broken clear cases (they were run over by a delivery truck). These are quality materials, not cheap thin garbage. I catalog around 100 DVDs per month and this set is top quality material-wise. However, DVD sets can be reproduced at one factory in large numbers, then a year or two later sent to a different factory to be reproduce-so you never really know from batch to batch of the quality. As of March 2018 the quality was top notch.Some of the discs (but not all) have advertisements, however a pop-up notice tells you right away to just hit "Menu" to bypass these advertisements if you don't want to watch them. The only thing you cannot bypass is the FBI anti-piracy warning screen.Sort of hidden bonus episodes: I didn't notice at first, but after watching both episodes you go back to the menu screen, however on the last disc of season 3 there was a little thing that said "Bonus Episode". I almost ejected the disc, but clicked on that episode and was treated to an episode of "Mrs. Columbo"! There are 3 of these episodes throughout the set: look at the back of each season's case and they tell you which seasons have these episodes. It's really easy to miss them!Mrs. Columbo was played by an actress (Kate Mulgrew) who was WAY too young to be married to the detective. There was also a very young daughter. If you just imagine her to be the (barely) adult daughter of Columbo it's less un-believable. The actress later played the captain on one of the Star Trek TV shows called Star Trek Voyager. I'm not saying a charming man like Peter Falk couldn't get a beautiful young wife, but it was sort of established in the show that his wife was about his age (middle age+) although maybe the detective just said that to trick a suspect. Donald Pleasence is the bad guy, but in the Mrs. Columbo episode he is really humorous, which is nice because in the Columbo episode he was in, right in that same season, he was sort of mean, weird and sad (as a character).Through most of the first season the killer leaves an important clue behind and the walks out of the scene...only to return and grab the piece of evidence at the last second and then re-exiting the screen. It was a neat trick that they stopped doing before season 2.As the seasons progress Columbo's shoes get worse and worse. By the first episode of season 4 you see his shoes up close a lot in the episode and they barely look like shoes anymore. That episode also marks the first time Columbo angrily accuses a suspect sort of early on in the episode. The next episode though is really, really funny: he drives his terrible car to a junkyard murder scene and they think he's there to dump it off; later he goes to a soup kitchen and they think he's homeless.Columbo's cough: he adds a weird 'fake' cough to his questioning routine...just as his car is getting worse and worse and spitting out more smoke. Maybe he was getting carbon monoxide poisoning from his car?PAPER! PAPER! PAPER! All my life I've loved feeling and writing on crinkled paper. Almost every episode has crinkly paper, scribbling and writing. If you are a graphophile or paperphile you'll love this show. The way he palms his notes on scraps of paper. I met a parent with a child with autism and they LOVED the feel of paper. I found them a stack of different kinds of paper to fold and touch and they loved it! There is a relaxation technique (popular on YouTube) of watching videos of people playing with paper and smoothing lightly crinkled butcher paper, etc. I know it sounds crazy, but it's called "ASMR" and if you love all the paper-handling in the show you'll find great enjoyment on Youtube, just search "Paper ASMR" or "Crinkle ASMR".Oh, uh, just one more thing: a lot of the murderers utilize various phone systems and answering machines to aid in their alibis. That gets sort of annoying, but it's still neat seeing that old technology (not just the old landline phones, but like reel-to-reel answering machines and computer punch card programmed answering machines, etc.).Mike from Detroit

This show brings back memories and my Grandma loved it for her birthday. Quick shipping for Christmas. All discs were in new condition and packaging was flawless. 5 star.

Good value.

Great set if you’re a fan!

I love Columbo. The DVDs were excellent.

I'll be the first to admit that I am greatly biased toward Columbo. I absolutely adore the late, great Peter Falk and have been a fan of his most famous character since childhood. There really isn't much one can say negative about this series except that with just 69, there were too few episodes/movies!Peter Falk was always brilliant in everything he was in. He was equally as comfortable in a flat-out comedy role as he was drama. He brought all of his characters to life and you cared about them because they had that something special that a truly good character always does.Lt. Frank Columbo was no exception to that.The good Lt. always had an idea from the start who the murderer was. The joy of each episode was watching him expertly lead the killer into giving him/herself away. It didn't matter how carefully they thought they had planned out the crime, once Columbo was on the case, he would exploit their greatest weaknesses and end up letting the bad guy catch himself.Along the way, there was a lot of humor to lighten the atmosphere, but the shows never turned into a comedy. Let's face it, murder isn't exactly a light-hearted thing so it can always be welcome when our hero can bring a smile into an otherwise dark situation. Whether it was always commenting on what he and Mrs. Columbo enjoyed or liked (Mrs. Columbo has to have had some of the most eclectic interests and tastes of any human being as she was a fan of everyone and everything!), Columbo whistling "This Old Man" or even bringing Dog along on the investigation, he could always make you smile. Rarely did he lose his temper and even when he did, you couldn't fault him for it.The "Columbo" series can also boast something that so precious few series of today can: superior writing. A good mystery is nothing if the writing is poor and doesn't have the characters to back it up. The crimes in "Columbo" were unique for their time and kept you on your toes looking for that one thing that told Lt. Columbo that his prime suspect was guilty. The supporting characters were just as well-written as the regular series characters. None of them were there just for the sake of bringing in a big name guest star. They had background and could be pretty complex.And about those guest stars. Some of the biggest and best names in Hollywood were on the receiving end of Lt. Columbo's razor-sharp wit or were the victim he fought so hard to find justice for. Leonard Nemoy, George Hamilton, Patrick McGoohan (he also directed five episodes), Robert Culp, Robert Vaughn, William Shatner, Jeanette Nolan, Ray Milland, Jack Cassidy, Ida Lupino, John Dehner, Leslie Neilson, Dean Stockwell, Dabney Coleman and dozens of others. To say "Columbo" was 'star-studded' would be an understatement. We even get to see Peter Falk's real-life wife, Shera Danese in six episodes.Along with well-known actors and actresses, some of the cream of the Hollywood crop worked behind the scenes. Steven Speilberg, Steven Bochco and Johnathan Demme served in roles of directors and writers. Two of the episodes were based upon two of Ed McBain's "87th Precinct" novels. Even Peter Falk himself served a double role as actor and director for the last episode of the first season. Henry Mancini and Mike Post were two of the many, and very talented, composers who worked on the show. Over the course of its run, Columbo won thirteen Emmys and two each of Edgar Awards and Golden Globes. Well deserved recognition for such a fine show!There is a reason why "Columbo" ran from 1968 to 2003. The quality of the acting and writing was top-notch, The story lines were unique and compelling. It was a pleasure to learn a new Columbo movie was on the network schedule because you knew that the two hours you would spend watching the show meant a great way to spend an evening with good entertainment that challenged your mind.Oh, and just one more thing...you'll really regret it if you don't add this brilliant complete series to your DVD collection. Anyone who is a fan of well-written, brilliantly acted drama would be proud to own this collection!