We officially kick off the first season of Columbo with “Murder by the Book,” which hits the ground running with a great first appearance by Jack Cassidy as the Murderer of the Week. The episode was also directed and written by nobodies Steven Spielberg and Steven Bochco. I wonder whatever happened to them…
In this episode, Thad and Carl discuss “Ransom for a Dead Man,” the second Columbo pilot produced by NBC. In addition to dissecting the seemingly perfect murder plan, we also comment on an overuse of green in Lee Grant’s office and spend an inordinate amount of time obsessing about a television.
Join Licence to Spiel this episode as we leave the world of spies and espionage to start a new series that we admit will take us a while. We are going to be covering the entirety of “Columbo,” the fictional TV police detective who solves crimes that we have already seen be committed.
And we are, of course, starting at the beginning with the 1968 television movie that started it all: “Prescription: Murder,” in which we see Gene Barry as Dr. Ray Flemming play the role of the first in a long line of famous murderers on the show. Peter Falk hits the ground running as the titular detective, despite being overly kempt for this outing. We also have lots of comments about Dr. Flemming’s choices in art, questionable police procedures, and the complete lack of booth seating on airplanes today.
Programming Note: since recording this episode, Thad, Carl, and the show have all left the Platform Formerly Known as Twitter. You can find us all at the following handles on Bluesky:
Also, because we are talking about a lot of visual things in this episode, we have put some photos in as chapter art so you can see what we are talking about. Please let us know on Bluesky if you have trouble seeing them. Thanks!
For those listening on our website:
Credits70s PartiesCake Fire HazardGreen Shag and an End TableAirplane LobbyNot Dead Body OutlineColumbo Being ColumboFlemming’s Secret Bar
We close out the Robert Langdon Cinematic Universe with a discussion of 2016’s INFERNO—a perfectly adequate action thriller…unless you’ve read the book. Hear Thad and Carl lament what Hollywood’s Dumb-it-down-extraordinaire David Koepp does with Dan Brown’s most daring novel. Meanwhile, friend of the show and actual historian Chrissie De Clerck-Szilagyi explains all the things the film gets wrong about the plague. We also go on all the side tangents you’ve come to expect from this show and even equate this film to the mess on an adaptation that is 1997’s THE LOST WORLD: JURASSIC PARK (also written by David Koepp).
Thad and Carl are joined once again by Chrissie De Clerck-Szilagyi for a discussion of ANGELS & DEMONS (2009), the second film in the Robert Langdon Cinematic Universe. While there are still some things that Dan Brown gets blatantly wrong (e.g., the Illuminati), we all felt that this was a much better effort by all involved. That doesn’t mean we don’t critique things like stupid airtight rooms and spend way too much time debating whether priests are allowed to “beat the bishop.”*
Editor’s Warning: For whatever reason, Thad decided to let loose that most terrifying of creatures, the Moopsy, during recording. While it makes a couple of appearances during the show, we want to put our listeners at ease by stressing that all three hosts are ok. That said, remain ever vigilant and look out for the Moopsy, because it drinks your bones.
* we promise this is 100% plot-relevant. So much so that the alternate title of this episode is “I’ve closed my masturbation tabs.”
Dan Brown’s penchant for historical inaccuracies inspired us to invite an actual historian to join us for a discussion of THE DA VINCI CODE (2006). Both the Priory of Scion and Opus Dei are real organizations. Neither is how they are described by Dan Brown, nor are the Crusades, the Knights Templar, and a whole lot of other things.
Delayed almost as long as the film we are talking about, Licence to Spiel finally returns with a full discussion of MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE—DEAD RECKONING PART 1. While we both agree that this is an overlong setup for the upcoming sequel, it’s still a fun movie that we enjoyed talking about again. Of course, we still managed to find time to rant about the lack of 3D home releases and some other ratholes (while still coming in at under half of the movie’s runtime).
Note: if you are interested to hear our “fresh from the theater” takes on this film, check out our previous episode from July 2023: “Accidentally Topical.“
We come full circle this episode by discussing the television miniseries version of The Bourne Identity (1988) starring Richard Chamberlain, Jaclyn Smith, and a whole slew of “that guys.”
Despite the low expectations that typically come with a made-for-tv movie from the 80s, we both enjoyed this one a lot. We do still find time to do our usual things like quibble over things like the complete lack of any police response in Europe and reminisce about microfiche.
The Jason Bourne franchise concludes, at least for now, with the appropriately named JASON BOURNE (2016), a movie that we both enjoyed a lot more than we remembered. Of course, we still find time to poke fun at laptop choices, a hacktivist with the worst internet security we have ever seen, and the most amazing jacket ever committed to (19th century) film.
We’re back! After a long and unexpected hiatus, Licence to Spiel returns with a discussion of 2012’s THE BOURNE LEGACY (a.k.a. the Bourne film that doesn’t have Bourne in it). We would have returned sooner, but we got too distracted by the ins and outs of Rachel Weisz’s telephone.
