SPEAKER_00 0:06

Every mystery has an answer. Every conversation has just one more thing. Join this father-daughter podcasting duo as they revisit television's most disarming detective. One raincoat, one cigar, and one final question at a time. You are listening to the Just One More Thing podcast. And here are your hosts, Fletch and Abby.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

Hey, welcome to Just

Introduction

SPEAKER_01 0:34

One More Thing, a Colombo Rewatch podcast. I'm Fletch. And I'm Abby. And today we are watching the second Made-for TV Colombo movie before the series. This one is called Ransom for a Dead Man. And if you heard our episode last week, I did a little bit of an intro and I'll continue it here. So Columbo started in the early 60s. They ordered a TV movie based on that original 60s television series where Peter Falk came out as the Columbo we know and love in a prescription murder. And then three years later, NBC ordered another television movie, and that was Ransom for a Dead Man. And so this is this is almost Abby like the um pilot episode where they ordered this, and based on how this responded, they were going to decide if they wanted more. And those two combined were a huge success for NBC. So Ransom for a Dead Man, the the success of this TV show is what kicked off the series that Columbo became, which was it was a rotating NBC murder mystery show. And there were other series that were part of it. One was called McMillan and Wife, and I forget, there's there's a whole bunch of different ones, but he was just part of a rotation, and that's what became the series. So Ransom for a Dead Man. Did you like this one?

SPEAKER_02 2:00

I did like this one. I don't feel like it was one of my favorites, but I did like it.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

Yeah, so this is one you and I both said this is one we don't really remember watching that often. Like I don't have I didn't have great memories of this one.

SPEAKER_02 2:14

Right. And I think it's because it's separate on or I'm watching on Peacock. That's how I watch these, and it's separate from the show, and for some reason I don't because the cover of it is not Columbo, I I forget that it's a Columbo episode.

SPEAKER_01 2:30

And so I watch Prescription Murder because he's in the image for that one, and then I watch Columbo, and then I I skip this one, I guess, because it doesn't I'm just a dummy and I'm just like this

Episode Description

SPEAKER_01 2:41

one different from the last one because right off the bat you meet the murderer and you see her doing a ransom note, she's splicing some audio tape together. And and this one is once again set in a jor gorgeous Los Angeles mansion with ceilings that are at least 20 feet high. This one, the murder happens right away. So the husband, what appears to be a husband, comes in the front door, drops off his mail, and he walks into what looks like the living room, and his wife is sitting there in a chair, and bamboo she shoots him point blank and he drops. She gets the body, wraps up the body in what appears to be some sort of a bag, ropes him off. And I love again so much fun camera angles on this one. She puts him apparently in a like takes him out herself, puts him in the trunk, and in this case, much like the episode where the handkerchief was left behind, this one she leaves a briefcase behind and then comes back in, gets the briefcase, goes back out, takes him out to a cliff, dumps him off the cliff, and then mails the ransom note. What we find out in this episode is that the murderer is an attorney, and she's clearly a defense attorney, and you go right into a courtroom, and during that court scene, she's with her assistant checking in on her husband, can't find her husband. She's very much playing the role of, I haven't reached him, I don't know where he is. And then from there you realize the FBI's involved, and they are looking for a missing person. And she she gets a fake phone call, finds out that there's a ransom. There you go, ransom for a dead man. And in this case, 12 minutes into the episode, last time it took almost 40 minutes, 12 minutes into the episode, the Columbo that we love, not the one that we saw in the first episode that was serious, but the bumbling Columbo is on the front porch of this house and he's lost his pen. And he's searching around in the dark for his pen. And even though she offers a light and a flashlight, he goes, That's okay. I'll just use my matches. And he's looking around for his pen. You find out that he's very much in the background of an FBI investigation, and they've they're using aerial maps. You find out that what they've asked is for her to get some money, $300,000, put it in an unmarked bag. There's supposed to be unmarked bills, obviously, no cops, we don't want to be followed. Drive over and drop it at a certain spot, and she's supposed to drop this bag out of an airplane, and then when the CHP gets there, there's no money in the bag. It looks like the bad guys got away, which the FBI said was going to happen. She comes back, lands the plane at the airport, because she's a because she's a pilot, because she's not only a murderer and a prominent defense attorney, but she's also a pilot, and that plays into the the ransom. The the bad guys knew that she was a pilot and knew that she could do this. Right out of the bat, though, she gets home, she hides the money in a hidden closet, and comes downstairs, and much like she scared her husband, there's this great jump scare scene with apparently a stepdaughter. Her husband that she murdered had a daughter named Margaret. And she immediately, Margaret, assumes that the stepmom killed the dad. And then we get into the cat and mouse game of Columbo showing up everywhere that Columbo shows up. He follows her around. It turns out then that it's a murder. They find a body, and because it's a murder, it's now Columbo's job to solve a murder, not the FBI's job to solve a missing person. There's a great funeral scene where the husband is buried. There's a great interaction between the stepdaughter and the mother where she gets slapped at the at the funeral. You have a great scene where Columbo's lurking next to one of the tombstones. Yeah. Right. Tells the stepdaughter, I'm here for you. Right. You come to find out that the daughter has come home from school in Switzerland, and it's just nothing but tension between the stepmother and the daughter. You get down a little further in the episode, and you know, Columbo keeps showing up at the law firm. He's showing up all over the place. Eventually, he wants to ask her some questions, just little things to clear up, and she decides to take Columbo for a plane ride. And you find out that Columbo is afraid of planes. There's more cat and mouse, and then the stepdaughter shows up at the restaurant that Columbo goes to often in these episodes. He gives her an idea of what it's going to take to catch the stepmom. And then Margaret takes it in her hands to try and do that. And Columbo scolds the stepdaughter for doing that. And along the way, you find out that he's playing this whole game with the stepdaughter using her to get to the stepmom. And what ultimately happens, how he ultimately captures this murderer, is he convinces the stepdaughter to threaten the stepmom. So Margaret threatens Leslie, and Leslie says, I will buy you out of your trust. And she uses the money that she never did the drop with to pay off the daughter, the stepdaughter. And at the airport, there's a great scene where Columbo confronts the woman with the money that she paid the daughter off with, and that's how he catches her at her game. So there's my very brief overview of this episode. If you watched it, you know what we're talking about. But let's

Episode Discussion

SPEAKER_01 8:48

get into it. What did you think about this murder?

SPEAKER_02 8:52

Here's the very first note I put down about this murder. The whole scene was so dramatic because, well, you the episode enters with the murder, which was very, like we said, very different from the last episode. And then they just jump into these very dramatic slow-mo with this like music in the background, like this eerie Colombo music as the man the murderer, no, see, as the husband falls down from being shot and as she shoots him.

SPEAKER_01 9:27

Do you remember this whole scene where you're just like, photography, slow-mo. So so dramatic. Gunshot, camera angles, everything.

SPEAKER_02 9:35

I felt like the premise of I'm gonna murder him and then set it up. I'm gonna murder him first, and then set it up to be a ransom, so risky. So risky. And I felt that from the very minute. So many moving parts, so risky. And I really felt like that was probably if I were to murder somebody, one of the last things that I would have come up with as an idea of here's what I'm gonna do. I would never do a murder this way. And so I really felt like it was risky, and I really felt like ultimately it was clearly well done because she wasn't caught until the very end. And there were so many things that I think she wouldn't have gotten away with today, but but because it was back then, she was able to get away with it, and clearly it worked for her.

SPEAKER_01 10:22

Well, I mean, you're right. There's so many pieces that I thought this one's a ridiculous one. But she thought through it. That's the one thing. And she is a defense attorney, so she was thinking through this one, much like the psychiatrist in episode one was thinking through the murder like a psychiatrist would do and playing mind games. She was dealing with Colombo as a defense attorney. And that that to me is the overarching theme through this one.

SPEAKER_02 10:49

And she knew that sh if if I do get caught, or if I do get accused, I'm gonna have to stand on trial. And here are all the things that I can get away with maybe on trial or or they can't really accuse me of. And so I thought that was a good angle because sometimes I watch Columbo episodes and I think to myself, at the end of the day, you don't just get caught and go to jail, like you get caught, and then you have a whole trial to deal with. And that plays into how strong Columbo's evidence is and and what if that person would really actually get you know condemned to to jail. And so I thought that was unique about this murder was you know, she was thinking about it from that angle.

SPEAKER_01 11:30

Well, we we do see Colombo as we love him, like I said, at the at the doorstep, and I love that he's lost his pen. That's the first thing. Like, I'm confused, I'm bumbling, I've lost my pen. And I do like everybody wants to offer him a flashlight, and that statement that I said at the beginning is like, that's okay, I'll just use my matches. By the way, this episode is brought to you by Flor de las Santillas. It's the cigar I'm smoking. If they could sponsor our show, this is my father's cigars. That's what we need to get, Abby. We need to get a cigar sponsor for the Just One More Thing podcast.

SPEAKER_02 12:04

Yeah, that'd be cool. I'm down. Let's do it.

SPEAKER_01 12:07

So he's smoking his green cigar, he's smoking his candela right off the bat. If you don't know what we're talking about, make sure you've watched this episode. You'll see that when he comes in to this giant, what is it with the giant mansions?

SPEAKER_02 12:19

I know. Every time they're just beautiful. I don't know what that's about.

SPEAKER_01 12:23

One of the things that I immediately laughed at, right off the bat, it's a pilot episode, and she's a pilot. I mean, yeah, they are working in so many angles to this episode. And the FBI is there, they're putting a phone tap on her phone, you know, to catch the to listen to what the person says when they call. One of the things I noticed is that when they when they did the they put the money in the bag, they go to the bank, she empties out all the trust accounts, all the money to get $300,000, puts it in a bag, then does the bag swap. When she dumps it out of the airplane, and they're they're falling behind in a helicopter, right? And she's in a plane, and she's you know, they're talking over radio, she's like, I drop the bag. When they get to the ground to where they find the bag, every cop touches the bag without gloves. Every and I'm thinking, the first thing you're gonna want is get fingerprint evidence off this bag, and every cop touches the bag. Right off the bat, Colombo searches the locker when he gets back to the airport. Because he obviously is already wondering, you know, oh mm-hmm what's going

Columbo's First Hunch

SPEAKER_01 13:36

on with that. And can we talk?

SPEAKER_02 13:38

He's suspicious of her right off the bat. There are so many things that he asks and does because I mean, and I guess he's that way with everything, but he's just every little detail, even down to the bag you're mentioning, he says, Why didn't the ransom people take the bag with them? Why did they just take the money and leave the bag behind?

SPEAKER_01 13:56

And do you do you know what it is in this episode, which is the first thing that makes him wonder? So in the last episode, it was, yes. It was it's he came in the house and he didn't ask for his wife. What is it about this episode? What's the first thing that throws Columbo off?

SPEAKER_02 14:12

He was suspicious that she didn't ask how her husband was doing. Right. So it was when she received the fake call from her husband, which she had taken a recording of his voice from something else and spliced it. Kind of chopped it up and spliced it and made it sound like it was him, which again, so risky because who's to say that it was going to be her who answered the phone?

SPEAKER_01 14:40

And that they'd have a they'd have an audio recording already. That they would already have that set up.

SPEAKER_02 14:46

Right. So so it's very, very much she took a lot of chances that things would go her way, and they did because it's a TV show. And she picks up the phone and she knows her script. She knows it. And so she says her script along with the fake phone call recording that she made. And she doesn't ask, you know, how are you doing? And so Columbo gets suspicious of that, and I think she I think he brings it up to the FBI agent.

SPEAKER_01 15:16

He brings it up to the head FBI agent.

SPEAKER_02 15:17

Yeah, the FBI agent. Yeah, and he says, Why didn't she ask how he was doing? And he was basically like, You're that's very insensitive of you to ask that, you know, kind of like tries to clock Columbo on that. So yeah, that was his first suspicion. And then there was another time he asks another question of, you know, why didn't she? I can't remember what it was, but why didn't she say this? Why shouldn't she say that? And that's when he starts to piece together who she is and how her brain works.

SPEAKER_01 15:43

Well, what about that jump scare? Wasn't that great? I mean, yeah, Margaret is kind of a creepy-looking girl to begin with. Oh, it's got the glasses on.

SPEAKER_02 15:53

I don't know what it is with the some of these Columbo characters, they just come on and I'm like, you look haunted. Yeah, you actually look haunted. You got your long gangly 70s hair, your little glasses, and you're so pale, are we a ghost?

SPEAKER_01 16:11

And I love her first statement. Let's drop the charade, Leslie.

SPEAKER_02 16:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:17

That's where you go, okay, who is this? So dramatic. Who is this? And then you're like, oh, it's the stepdaughter. Then I don't know if you caught this. This is a little bit of trivia for our listeners. If you watch the episode the next morning after they sleep on it or whatever, because remember the the doctor gives Leslie some sleeping pills. Because it's been hard. You know, it's been hard. This whole this whole situation's hard. And they all leave the house and she takes the sleeping pills and she throws them in the fire. Like, yeah, I don't need sleeping pills. I'm getting away with murder. And then she turns around and there's the jump scare.

SPEAKER_02 16:56

And there's Margaret. And you know what is so funny to me about this? They're like, we injected Margaret. So so there was no like we gave her pills and then she's awake. Oh, she didn't take the pills, obviously. It was we injected her with this whatever they gave her to get her to sleep. Probably a barbiturate. Probably a barbiturate.

unknown 17:15

What?

SPEAKER_02 17:16

So, so, and then she's awake somehow. Sure. Somehow she's like awake from and comes downstairs and sees Leslie B the most obvious, suspicious murderer. She's like, I'm better than Olivia. I'm gonna throw these away.

SPEAKER_01 17:32

So, do you the my trivia is the next morning? Margaret's sitting and watching television. Do you know what she's watching on the television?

SPEAKER_02 17:40

No, but I knew you would. Oh I knew you were gonna bring it up.

SPEAKER_01 17:44

She's watching a show called Double Indemnity. It's a movie, and it's about a woman who kills her husband for insurance. I love how they just put that into this episode as a little nugget for us. Okay, so one of my favorite lines is there the FBI agent is constantly waiting for Columbo, no matter where they are. He's like, Columbo, can we go now? Can we leave now, Columbo? Can we go now, Colombo? And he he finally says, you know, I think you can be done here. And Colombo goes, Well, the way I see it, this is now a murder. So I'll see you around. Like, this is now mine, and I love it. I love that he just likes just drops.

SPEAKER_02 18:31

Which do you have any idea why he was there in the first place? Because I was wondering that, like, this isn't a homicide. I wrote that. Why is Columbo even there as a homicide detective? Have they established that he's a homicide detective?

SPEAKER_01 18:44

Yes, but he's there as local police. Okay. He's there as local police because there's a missing person. I think it's interesting that Leslie is surrounded by yes men. You know, her entire law firm are people that say yes to her. I love that Margaret doesn't play part of that game. She's she

Margaret Knows

SPEAKER_01 19:05

immediately gets sarcastic, calls her mother dear. You know, this whole thing, you know, maybe it's smart if you go back to school. I don't think so, mother. I think I'm going to stay here because and she just says right off the bat, you you this is my home too, and you killed my father. And that's where you find out that her trusted kid is gone. Because she she realizes, and and and Leslie says, Maybe it's time you get a job because your allowance is gone.

SPEAKER_02 19:32

Which was so I just felt like she fumbled the ball a lot of times in this episode, and that was one of the times because she immediately pushes back on this one person who's pushing back on her, and that's where you fumble, you don't do that. You if you're if you think your steps daughter is spoiled, then you need to continue spoiling her to get her off your back. And and we see this happen with murderers a lot of times in Colombo, where they just immediately start making changes because they've assumed they've gotten away with the murder, and that's when it all of a sudden be gets really, really specific suspicious.

SPEAKER_01 20:10

I so the the first two episodes of Columbo, the first thing you need to learn be sorrowful and be worried about your spouse. That should be the first thing. Where where's my husband? How are you? You know, so next day he goes to the law firm. Clearly,

Classic Columbo Behavior

SPEAKER_01 20:25

we are in prime Colombo territory. He's there early. And the the young associate, Sarah, is like, how'd you get in? Oh, the janitor left me in. I have this terrible habit of always showing up early. Right. Oh, God, that's that's for Colombo fans like me, that's juicy when he says that. And then he asks that question You're an associate attorney? You work for a woman?

SPEAKER_02 20:54

Oh, I love that. I wrote a note for that. I don't know how you do it. Do what? Work for a woman. Oh I was like, okay.

SPEAKER_01 21:05

That's that is 1971 at its height. So that's that was one of my like what makes this clearly a 1970s show? It's that statement right there.

SPEAKER_02 21:15

Right. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 21:16

How do you work for a woman? Well, she's the best trial attorney in the state. Then he gets into her office and he asks that question. Ah, you big on gadgets? So you know he's already starting to worry about that. And she she tells him about this electric phone, you know, for recording clients or for for leaving. Yeah, it's like everything she used to do the murder. She's showing him. And he goes, I need to take the name of this thing down. Do you have a pen? Oh my gosh. I mean, this whole scene is just juicy Colombo.

SPEAKER_02 21:50

And then on top of that, he's like, I I want to see your reaction if I reenact. He's he always does this, he knows exactly how the murder happens, which I don't he's Got spidey senses. He knows exactly how it happens, and he he this isn't the first time he does this where he reenacts the murder to see what the murderer will do. And so he does that in her office. He's like, Okay, you've shown me how the phone works. Now here's what I think happened. And and she's clearly her fragile womann-ness, I guess, because working for a woman would be terrible. She like kind of freaks out a little bit and shows a little bit of like anxiety. I think, right? She has that because then there's a second time where the stepdaughter does kind of a similar thing.

SPEAKER_01 22:34

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:34

She like totally panics.

SPEAKER_01 22:36

Well, I I do also like this whole statement with her. He has this whole conversation in that office where he goes, you know, I'm a strange guy, I'm a worrier. Right. It's the little details. My my wife says that I can be a pain. And then I love, he goes, Hey, does this lighter work? He like immediately goes off to some random thing over here, and he fumbles with the lighter. And she's and she's trying like a lot of the murders, they want like, well, what's bugging you? What what what is what's the problem that I can get this off your list? And he that's when he says the bag, he goes, Well, the bag bothers me. You know, they didn't take the bag. It's funny, they didn't take the bag. He's like, It's one of those, and she goes, idiosyncrasies? And he goes, That's a great word. Idiosyncras. And I'm like, oh my gosh. This the whole office scene, every part of it. And then, like you said, he he reenacts it. He he does the angle of the bullet. Remember, and he says it was a the the murderer used a 22, like they didn't want the bullet to go through the body, right? And the kidnapping doesn't end up, and you know, blah blah blah. He's just he explains everything that she did, and he goes, I'm beginning to think the kidnapping was a ruse. And that's where she suggests a plane ride,

The Plane Ride

SPEAKER_01 23:54

because of course you would take the lead detective of a homicide on a plane ride to help figure out the answers, right? Right.

SPEAKER_02 24:07

And on that note with the plane ride, I feel like there are so this episode is great because they had a list of Columboisms that show up throughout the show, and they did all of them in this episode. They did the chili, they did the fear of heights, they did the fumbling with whatever object, they did the I'm gonna bring up some random person in my life that has something in relation to what we're talking about. They did yeah, his cousin Ralph, who reminded him of the husband and how he was a perfect boar. Oh, you know. Oh yes. And yeah, so there's just so many things that I felt like, man, that's a Columbo thing. That's a Columbo thing, that's a Columbo thing. Oh, another one was when he shows up to and introduces himself to the wife, she offers to help him. And that is classic. Like I have often thought in my life, if I ever murder somebody and the detective introduces me themselves to me, I will never say, Let me know what you need help with.

SPEAKER_01 25:09

Oh, right off the bat, I'm here to help you solve this.

SPEAKER_02 25:12

I'm not here to help, and I'm gonna go cry in my room and become a basket case because those are the two things every murderer doesn't do, and they always get caught.

SPEAKER_01 25:22

I had some other things. Oh, you mentioned

First Appearance Of Barney's Beanery

SPEAKER_01 25:25

it. We see Barney's Beanery for the first time. That's where Colombo goes to eat what? Chili. Chili. And what makes chili? What makes the chili? The crackers.

SPEAKER_02 25:38

Oh, yeah. Right. Mood.

SPEAKER_01 25:41

Yeah, and who shows up when he's eating Barney's beanery is Margaret. She shows up at the at the restaurant, he tells her she should have some chili, and it's the crackers that make it. He gives her some information, and she gives him some information. She tells him the whole backstory of the father and how he'd come out to Switzerland and said that he'd become a boar and she was gonna leave him, and she gave him all this information.

SPEAKER_02 26:06

And that's when you've you really realize, because for so long you don't know why she killed him.

SPEAKER_01 26:12

Right.

SPEAKER_02 26:13

And I didn't know if they would ever bring it up. And I was thinking to myself, like, don't you kind of need a motive as one of those check marks of why you think this person murdered whoever was murdered. And so then Margaret comes in and says, Hey, here's here's what I think the motive is, and here's some context.

SPEAKER_01 26:33

Right. And then he gives her a theory about the car seat, remember? The car seat wasn't in the right position, and she goes, Was it like a woman was driving the car? Right. And I'm like, Oh, right, that's a that's a giveaway right there, because women drive closer to the steering wheel than men. Also, when they were in the plane, what does she say? You gotta treat the plane like a woman.

SPEAKER_02 26:56

Right.

SPEAKER_01 26:57

There was so many great little lines like this. We also have, I don't know if you remember this, this was two episodes in a row where he's called off the case. Because he tells her, I've been called off the case, there's a murder, I caught a murder out in Malibu. I need to go research. Right. He lies to her and says he was taken off the case. So she feels once again she's scot-free. But we do have this one little scene that happened between Margaret and Leslie, and it's where Leslie comes down and says, I have the keys, which were the missing car keys that Columbo said would wrap up this case. And then he says, Margaret, we've had someone stalking this house. We saw you brought a locksmith out, we saw you made a set of keys, you have forged evidence, and she slaps Columbo

Columbo Snaps

SPEAKER_01 27:46

and he snaps at her. And then you get to that scene that you said was a repeat where Margaret is sitting in the chair with the blanks and she shoots Leslie multiple times with a gun and kind of chases her around the room. Are you kidding me? Like, what kid can get a gun and blanks to fake shoot their stepmother? Which gets us to the absolute end where he catches her.

SPEAKER_02 28:11

And that's where I feel like earlier in the episode he kind of realizes that about her. Oh, this is a woman who doesn't care about anybody else. She only cares about, you know, money and status.

unknown 28:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:27

Uh and then she says the line I love. She goes, you know what? You're lucky. He goes, she goes, Nope, you're smart. And he does give her the option to finish her sherry. But do you remember what Columbo's drinking in the airport? Doctor Root beer. Root beer. It's just great. It's so great. And then at the very end, he can't pay the bill. And what does he ask the waitress? Yeah, he says, Can I borrow your pen? Yeah. It was perfect. I mean, when it comes to like writing by Levinson and Link, they just from the very first scene where he's lost his pencil all the way to the end, till he needs a pen to sign his bill. So what do we have in here that was classic 70s other than the the women stuff? What else do we have?

SPEAKER_02 29:16

Right.

Classic 70's Details

SPEAKER_02 29:17

I don't think that the I'm gonna kill him and do the whole ransom thing, that was very that would not have happened today because I think they would have known he was killed so much earlier than what was seemed the timeline he was seemed to have been killed.

SPEAKER_01 29:36

Right, right, right, right.

SPEAKER_02 29:37

They would have timeled the the time of they would have known when he died and they would have made known it was a recording, and they would have known all these things, like where it came from. There would have been so much more tracking happening. And I think even with the ransom, do ransoms even happen anymore? Like because I think they can track just a your basic ransom so much better. Ergo, this murder would not have happened this way.

SPEAKER_01 30:05

Well, ransoms come up a lot in Colombo where someone is right being told do this.

SPEAKER_02 30:10

Oh, it's a fake ransom.

SPEAKER_01 30:11

Yeah. Mine was I a couple of things I don't think would have happened. There's no way she could have killed her husband, not left any blood at the scene, and then also carried his body him so out to the car. I mean I didn't even think about that. I mean, she could have dragged him out, maybe, but that's gonna leave a trail of evidence out to the car. That was that was one I'm like, nah, it's not gonna happen. I already mentioned the fingerprints everywhere. And then the fact that the cops touched the bag, that that was what the c uh fingerprints all over the mail. The the letter that she sent. Or just the letters that she used to make the ransom note. She did the classic cutout.

SPEAKER_02 30:55

And there's another scene, there's another episode, I mean, where they have a cutout letter, and there's a whole big thing on the evidence of that, and where was the evidence of it and whatever. And he didn't even care about any of that this time. He didn't go in, like lay in on where is I don't know, anything like which I guess he wouldn't, but anyway, yeah, that's not touched on at all.

SPEAKER_01 31:15

I thought the the taped voice, you know, you wouldn't get away with that now. A spliced tape. They would use vocal analysis to know that that wasn't all said in one statement, that that was a spliced thing.

SPEAKER_02 31:31

And and you know, maybe it's murders like this that nowadays they're like, we're checking right away.

SPEAKER_01 31:36

Yeah, it's because of Columbo.

SPEAKER_02 31:38

Now they This is their learning times.

SPEAKER_01 31:40

When they go to the academy, they watch Columbo and they go, Okay, this is we're not gonna do this in the future. All right, so 70s. We said there's the women thing, the giant house with the absolute gaudy decorations. This is a classic 70s TV show. I mean, this house, like I said, 20 foot ceilings. Oh, yeah Oh, the car. I loved this. When she parked the car and turned it off, the headlights dropped like eyelids.

SPEAKER_02 32:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 32:10

This was a 70s car. And in my mind, I'm going, you know, every car I own, the headlights are just exposed to the wind and the rain. What was it about this 1970s car that the the headlights had to fold in on themselves so they they were hidden? Like, you don't know a car has headlights? Even my 1930 Model A has headlights. Like, what was it about these 70s cars? Like, oh, this is this is a feature. If you're in this 1970s, you know, linking continental, did we tell you the headlights close? Yeah. Oh, it sounds like a good job.

SPEAKER_02 32:42

Did you know you could link with your car?

SPEAKER_01 32:44

Because that's just one more thing to go wrong with a car. Right. The headlights didn't open up. Right? Totally. I didn't pull anything else out of this that was 70s. Although I will say No, I got one. Oh, what else?

SPEAKER_02 32:56

I was thinking this because when I watched this episode, I had my hair in curlers. I was, and this is why I thought this at the time. Uh, because I was blow or doing a blowout on my hair.

SPEAKER_01 33:07

Curlers, what are you? 1970s?

SPEAKER_02 33:09

Exactly. I'm watching this episode, and there's this one scene where she's talking to her stepdaughter, and I'm like, good lord, you've got a dolly parton going on right now. You have some huge hair, like huge. It's just like this tall. Like a helmet you're listening to my voice. But it's it's a helmet. This is a wig, not really, but your hair is huge to a point where it's a little bit silly.

SPEAKER_01 33:36

Also impressive, there's a girl going to school in Switzerland. You know, right. Well, we just send our daughters away. We send our daughters away to Switzerland. Right. All right. I think does

Wrap Up - Just One More Thing

SPEAKER_01 33:47

that wrap it up? Does that wrap up this episode pretty well? I think so. I think our listeners, if you really want to get the most out of this podcast, you have to pre-watch the episode in order to enjoy this. And we do want to put this out. If you see something that we missed and you want to bring it up, you can just scroll down in your show notes and leave us a message. It says send a message to Fletch and Abbey. And we'll talk about it in future episodes. We've only got the first couple, you know, done here. But as we do more of these, if you've watched an episode and you want to comment on something that we missed, let us know. We're yeah, we would love to hear what you're seeing that we missed. So we're to that part of the episode. Just one more thing. Do you have just one more thing on this episode?

SPEAKER_02 34:30

I do. My just one more thing is I think because we've only done the two episodes, there was such a stark difference between this episode and the one before it, where you don't know what the motive is for a long time. And I liked that because it really kind of kept me questioning for a long time of why did she murder him? And are we gonna get to know what that is, and will that ever be revealed? And so it was interesting to not know what the motive was for so long, but to see the murder right away felt very different from last episode.

SPEAKER_01 35:01

Well, we'll see more of that, right? As we keep going on. My just one more thing is if you would like a description of Columbo, this episode is perfect at it. And it's not just by watching it that you get it. It's by actually listening to the character of Leslie when she describes Columbo to himself. And she goes, you know what? You're almost likable in a shabby kind of way. And then she just perfectly describes Columbo, and she's like, I actually kind of appreciate it. You've reduced yourself to a vaudeville character. And this this whole scene when they're in the office together, and as I as I'm listening to her, I'm making notes, I'm like, this is how I would describe Columbo. So if you have not watched enough of these yet, go back and watch that office scene. Listen to how she describes him, and that will define Columbo for the rest of the series. She did a perfect job at it. Totally. Alright, so that is Ransom for a Dead Man wrapped up. We want to hear from you. Uh, next episode, we are watching Murder by the Book. It's one of my favorites. It's the first time we get to see Jack Cassidy as a murderer. He's he's in Columbo a few times, uh, and Martin Milner, his writing partner. This one is actually really good because I think it plays into so much murder mystery writing and stories. So that is your task for the week. Watch Murder by the Book. And again, if you have anything you want to let us know, let us know. You can just scroll down in your show notes and send us a message. But until next time, thank you for listening to Just One More Thing. I'm Fletch.

SPEAKER_00 36:47

And I'm Abby. See ya. Thank you for listening to Just One More Thing, a Columbo Rewatch podcast. For more information or to contact the hosts of this show, simply scroll down the show notes and send us a message.