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
