Columbo himself was never this stylish.
July 22, 2014 8:34 PM   Subscribe

Columboldies is a tumblr featuring furniture/clothing/etc. from the tv show Columbo.
posted by Room 641-A (30 comments total) 23 users marked this as a favorite
 
This has been on the back burner for a while, but I see it's being updated again!
posted by Room 641-A at 8:34 PM on July 22, 2014


This is really not hurting the case for Mark Ruffalo, I don't think.

(Also, excuse me while I look at this and stare into the middle distance at crossover opportunities.)
posted by dogheart at 8:44 PM on July 22, 2014 [5 favorites]


Columbo's jump the shark moment.
posted by stbalbach at 9:20 PM on July 22, 2014 [6 favorites]


Pony request: Another Fanfare but only Columbo is aloud. Peteyfalk.metafilter.com.
posted by downtohisturtles at 9:43 PM on July 22, 2014


(Also, excuse me while I look at this and stare into the middle distance at crossover opportunities.)

But hopefully not with this.
posted by Room 641-A at 9:52 PM on July 22, 2014 [3 favorites]


there are definitely a few Columbgoodies in here.
posted by boo_radley at 10:08 PM on July 22, 2014 [1 favorite]


$25? I only wanted a watch band, not the whole watch.
posted by device55 at 10:11 PM on July 22, 2014 [1 favorite]


Ah, Patrick McGoohan. Some of the episodes he directed and/or played in are pure WTF and Falk just seems to revel in it.

I know. I shouldn't be surprised.
posted by sevenless at 10:35 PM on July 22, 2014 [5 favorites]




Years ago, I went on the Universal Studio Tour with my sister and my cousin. Highlights were seeing John Schuck walking to the set and waving to us (they were shooting McMillan & Wife at the time) and Edith Head's leg (she was walking into her office).

Regrettably, we didn't see Peter Falk or his little car, even though we drove past the prop car lot. Boo.
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 12:13 AM on July 23, 2014


The tape recorders and Selectrics are so fabulous... never mind the amazing interior design and those clothes!

I too took the Universal Studios Tour at about this time; for us the highlights were seeing the filming of "The Sting" (we assumed it was some kind of science-fiction thing as the tour guide offered only the title) from a great distance, and beholding the makeup stations where Susan St. James and Rock Hudson were done for McMillan & Wife. Those were the days when the tour went through the actual studio. Spotted no stars though.

Two days later Chad Everett rudely line-jumped ahead of me at a street vendor which somewhat made up for not seeing stars on the tour. Also spotted Marty Ingels in a theater lobby buying popcorn.
posted by kinnakeet at 2:56 AM on July 23, 2014 [3 favorites]


So were those mostly existing houses and offices or did they build new sets for each episode?
posted by octothorpe at 4:22 AM on July 23, 2014


The 70s... so much paneling. (Our large family room was no exception.)

Ah, Patrick McGoohan. Some of the episodes he directed and/or played in are pure WTF

Yeah, we went down the nostalgia trail and did a Columbo marathon on Netflix a couple years ago (something like 80-90% of them were available, it seemed like when I compared the Netflix list to the wikipedia episode lists); but anyhow, while McGoohan acted in several episodes with varying degrees of character oddness during the show's long run, one Columbo episode in particular which McGoohan directed (Robert Vaughn was the villian I think), "Last Salute to the Commodore," is totally off-the-wall, departing from the usual Columbo "inverted procedural" plot conventions into a surreal maybe-parody of the tv detective genre.

One gets the sense in parts that the actors are actually improvising their dialogue, somewhat disconcertingly. To me it was somethign like The Prisoner's sensibility superimposed onto Columbo, for this one brief nova of tv drama insanity. Toward the end of the episode you get the sense Peter Falk may ne having trouble not busting out laughing in every scene (my understanding is he and McGoohan were buddies).
posted by aught at 6:04 AM on July 23, 2014 [5 favorites]


Guys, where can I buy this dress? OMG where?
posted by prefpara at 6:44 AM on July 23, 2014


we didn't see Peter Falk or his little car,

I also posted this in the Mark Ruffalo thread, but someone noticed Columbo's car in the opening scene of the pilot for The Rockford Files.
posted by Room 641-A at 6:45 AM on July 23, 2014 [1 favorite]


Last Salute to the Commodore

I think I actually want to watch this episode.
posted by winna at 6:51 AM on July 23, 2014 [1 favorite]


An interesting reminder of how stagey and low-budget a lot of 70s TV looked. As opposed to the overdecorated sets of TV shows now, they were very sparse.

It's a little-known fact that all homes were required to have at least one room entirely paneled in dark brown wood in the 70s.
posted by emjaybee at 6:56 AM on July 23, 2014


Model pose!

It's a little-known fact that all homes were required to have at least one room entirely paneled in dark brown wood in the 70s.

My childhood bedroom was paneled in plywood panels that were painted white with pale blue "woodgrain" and "seams". It went really well with the dark blue shag carpet.

Mom had the more wood-coloured wood paneling. The living room had one wall that was floor-to-ceiling mirror tiles with gold marble effect on them. And lime green shag carpet.

I think what I'm saying is that if there was a Colombo episode where he needed to talk to a witness who lived in the poorer area of North Long Beach, he would've gone to my house.
posted by Katemonkey at 7:06 AM on July 23, 2014 [2 favorites]


Arcolumboldi: the Peter Falk / 2666 connection, revealed.
posted by grumpybear69 at 7:23 AM on July 23, 2014


It's a little-known fact that all homes were required to have at least one room entirely paneled in dark brown wood in the 70s.

I remember when Gerald Ford pushed this through Congress. It was his signature piece of legislation.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 7:23 AM on July 23, 2014 [3 favorites]


Katemonkey, I had the exact same pastel paneling! And the traditional wood paneling was over in our living room, and one of the rooms in the house had orange shag carpeting (we lost Legos in it all the time). Other coast, though.

One of my friends in college had a huge crush on Columbo. "He's smart, and funny -- so sexy!" she'd trill. I didn't entirely get it then, but now I think she was a trailblazer.
posted by Iris Gambol at 7:35 AM on July 23, 2014


Model pose!

Some of these are begging to be turned into Memes For Olds.

I think we had this clock! (Actually, I think everyone had that clock.)

I don't really remember much of it, but I know from photos that when I was very little our house was totally furnished with gorgeous mid-century contemporary Danish furniture. When we moved to California in...'71 I think...my parents sold it all (probably for nothing) and then furnished the new place in all that awful, heavy, dark oak stuff. She tried to sell it in the 90s and practically had to pay people to take it off her hands.

As far as this tumblr goes, I think the choice of using a plain white background nicely conveys the coldness that a lot of the murderers and their homes exhibited. As far as other tumblrs go, someone should totally do this for the old Lets Make A Deal. All that fucking Broyhill furniture, shag carpeting, avocado appliances? And Carol Merrill's clothing?? I mean, come on.
posted by Room 641-A at 7:45 AM on July 23, 2014 [1 favorite]


Last Salute to the Commodore

I think I actually want to watch this episode.


"By Dawn's Early Light", "Identity Crisis", and "Last Salute to the Commodore" are the Patrick McGoohan trilogy in the '70s episodes. They're all on US Netflix at the moment. They get progressively crazier.
posted by sevenless at 8:09 AM on July 23, 2014 [4 favorites]


stbalbach: Robbie has a long history in detective work.
posted by ckape at 9:18 AM on July 23, 2014 [2 favorites]


Well, at least we know what Mad Men season 8 would have looked like now.
posted by JoeZydeco at 9:26 AM on July 23, 2014 [1 favorite]


ckape: "stbalbach: Robbie has a long history in detective work."

WARNING! DANGER, JOHN WATSON! MY COCAINE-ADDLED CLAWS ARE FLAILING WILDLY!
posted by Strange Interlude at 11:13 AM on July 23, 2014


what fascinates me is '70s "low style" meaning the stuff you'd get at Sears or Montgomery Wards. I love that stuff. It wasn't that good, which is what makes it good.
posted by Ironmouth at 11:15 AM on July 23, 2014


(Also, excuse me while I look at this and stare into the middle distance at crossover opportunities.)

But hopefully not with this.


Or this.
posted by randomkeystrike at 11:46 AM on July 23, 2014 [2 favorites]


I miss dial telephones with real push-buttons, especially the red Hold button.
posted by MtDewd at 12:17 PM on July 23, 2014


My wife and I did a marathon Columbo viewing on Netflix a year or so ago. What stood out for us was the furnishings of the rich (non-working class like Columbo) people's houses. The same items showed up again and again, particularly one ceramic monstrosity that was in everyone's living room. I was disappointed not to spot it in the Tumblr. The truly horrible part was that we remembered living rooms like that, along with the flared trousers, wing collars, teased hair, etc. Some day 70s Taste will be revived as a Hip Thing. If I am still alive, I will shake my head and mutter while cool young people giggle and point at me.
posted by CCBC at 4:02 PM on July 23, 2014


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