Columbo: Season 3 & The Dick Cavett Show

Photo Credit: © Universal Studios Home Video

The advent of season-by-season television on DVD was a beautiful thing. Indeed, it has sparked a minor revolution in the way people watch TV and they way they view it. If anything, the ability to devour a season of television at your own pace like a good (or not-so-good) novel has led to a renewed appreciation for just how good the best TV is.

Of course, this has also led to nearly everything that has ever been aired (except for the things I really want to see, naturally) ending up on a silver platter. Hence, we here at Cinemalogue are launching a TV-on-DVD roundup which will run as frequently as resources permit.

This week, Peter Falk and Dick Cavett grace our presence, and we are the better for it!

Peter Falk, of course, played Columbo back in the days when NBC devoted two hours a week to original murder mysteries. These veered from the very good (Columbo) to the mostly palatable (McCloud) to the incredibly boring (McMillan and Wife). Still, as televised detectives are more popular than ever (even if the best of them in UPN’s Veronica Mars sees the lowest ratings), it makes sense for Universal to release its massive back catalog of these sorts of shows.

Of all of these releases, it’s Columbo you should pick up if you enjoy this sort of program. Peter Falk, of course, was made for this role, and he makes each and every episode at least enjoyable, regardless of the episode’s overall quality.

As with all television shows, Columbo varies from episode to episode, but the overall quality of the recently released third season is quite high for the type of show it is. It’s nothing profound, but watching Falk catch the criminals always makes for an enjoyable afternoon. It’s the sort of thing you might pop in on a rainy afternoon while digging in to a big bowl of popcorn.

The DVD is of high quality as well. It’s not going to win any transfer awards, but the transfer is fairly good. There are only a few extras, the oddest of which is the inclusion of the Mrs. Columbo pilot. It’s easy to see why this show never made it very far as it just isn’t as interesting or good.

Columbo launched the careers of a number of people, including Steven Bochco—perhaps the most influential television producer ever—and Steven Spielberg (though Spielberg’s work is included on earlier sets). These DVDs are entertaining, if nothing remarkably profound.

The new compilation of rock star interviews from The Dick Cavett Show, however, threatens to turn profound every so often. At the very least, the interviews provide a revealing look at an America that was pulling in all directions and provide a much more accurate time capsule than, say, Bewitched.

Cavett’s show used to be the place for intellectual discourse, and it’s a little disheartening that Shout Factory didn’t aim to release some of the authors or philosophers Cavett would have on. While I never got to see these shows during their original broadcasts (not being born and all), their reputation is legendary, and it would be nice to see Gore Vidal and the gang.

But I’ll take what I can get. This is a nice set, put together by the wonderful Shout Factory, which is rapidly making a name for itself as the Criterion of the TV-on-DVD world.

Some other recent releases worth checking out include the first season of The Muppet Show (still one of television’s finest variety shows based solely on its sheer, loony willingness to do just about anything for your entertainment—indeed, it almost hearkens back to vaudeville), the only season of Undeclared (while not quite the show Freaks and Geeks was, this comedy from the same producers gets college life like no other show has) and the sixth season of The Simpsons (when the show was still at its creative peak).