Mondays with Columbo: AN EXERCISE IN FATALITY

(Revised 12/21/2024) 

I'm going to say this once: Robert Conrad should be receiving the kind of ironic respect that is showered on William Shatner.

You know - a guy who has a well-defined image, who doesn't take himself too seriously, and who - unlike Shatner - did all of his own stunts.

And if this Columbo episode proves anything, it's that Robert Conrad could act if given the right script.

Think of it this way - An Exercise in Fatality was produced five years after The Wild Wild West was canceled....not by low ratings, mind you, but by the then-prevalent movement to reduce violence on television. It would have been easy for Conrad to descend into his eventual image of a tough guy who knew no limits. We've all seen the commercial:


But here's Conrad taking a well-deserved risk: he plays Milo Janus, a fitness guru who has been engaging in what my father might refer to as "creative bookkeeping". When one of his franchise owners starts digging, well....let's just say the phrase "killer workout" will apply.

And one of the great things that I love about this Columbo - perhaps more than any other - is that there is a palpable sense of threat against the detective. Sure, Falk does his best to diffuse Conrad with humor (trust me, nothing says "comedy gold" like Columbo in a sweatsuit), but the script takes great pains to not only make Janus a very clever adversary....but also quite a formidable one as well.

(Unlike Ross Martin, who seems more annoyed than malevolent in Suitable for Framing, or even Shatner's turn in Fade Into Murder which felt too self-referential....but those are posts for another time)


To be honest, I felt the ending reveal was....well, a bit weak. (Given that Peter S. Fischer - who later co-created Murder She Wrote - and Larry Cohen were involved, I'm quite surprised). However, when watching it again, I realized that Conrad had such a presence throughout An Exercise in Fatality that on some level, I was hoping he would get away with murder.

(Also, extra bonus - a brief walk-on by the actor who played Ham in Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze)

This is one of the better Columbo episodes and worth checking out on Tubi.

My Adventures in Editing: LANCE STAR Volume 4

It seems like only two weeks ago that I had announced my last editing project for Airship 27 Productions....

....actually, I take that back. It was two weeks ago.

This time, I'm here to announce the release of Lance Star-Sky Ranger Volume 4 . Four tales of high-flying aviation, action, adventure, and all sorts of fun stuff. It's a darn good read, and available via paperback and Kindle (and if you don't own a Kindle, you can either download the app for Android/iOs, or simply use Amazon's Online Kindle Reader for Chrome or Firefox).

But if you're looking for a nice, trial read, you can't go wrong with pal Ron's The Wind Up Kid . For less than a cup of Starbuck's, you can enjoy this nice, short story in e-book form focusing on a metallic gunslinger in the Wild West. (If you like a certain 1960s show featuring Robert Conrad and Ross Martin, this will be your cup of tea). Trust me - it's an easy, breezy read that you'll really find entertaining.

On that note, a slight commercial plug - as many of you know, I have an affiliate relationship with Amazon.com, and would like to cordially invite you to purchase any of the fine titles I've worked on. I get a small return on any purchases - just enough to keep the blog rolling. But think of it like this - if you're looking to read some really cool stories, or just want to help out an indie publisher, here's a great way to do it....and thanks!

Why I Love THE WILD WILD WEST

Only the late 1960's could an episode of a show - a Western with slight science fiction elements - contain

A chimp wearing a Civil War Uniform....

...a bar fight involving clowns....

....and a leading man who seems to be having fun while making this episode.

(Screencaps from the episode The Night of The Tyrant, the final episode of The Wild Wild West on the Complete Series boxed set. Only drawback to this episode: none of the whimsical charm of Ross Martin).

THE WILD, WILD WEST: Alan Moore's Favorite TV Show?

(Updated on 2/2/2020; contains affiliate links) 

Often, I lay awake in bed at night, wondering if Alan Moore watched television as a child.

Yes, it's one of those unusual thoughts that I have frequently. But in watching and viewing media, I often see connections that may or may not necessarily be there, whether through synchronicity or coincidence.

Because there's rather a lot of similarities between both volumes (soon to be three) of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and The Wild Wild West (available on DVD).

It may be a stretch, but WWW was steampunk before there was such a term. Like LOEG, it was a heady mixture of secret agents (it was produced in the late 60s, after all, and managed to make the Secret Service look cool), westerns, a liberal approach to technology (showing things like machine guns, torpedos, and computer dating ahead of their time) and a sly, slightly knowing 20th-century sense of humor. Like many shows at the time, it does have a slightly patronizing attitude towards women (after all, secret agents were always the most handsome men in the world). It is good, solid escapist entertainment, and was eventually canceled not because of ratings, but because it was perceived as being "too violent". (The first season, in black and white, has a slightly more serious tone, embracing its pulp roots). It was a heady brew of genre-mixing, just-this-close-to-anachronistic entertainment that was 30 years ahead of its time.

Much of the success of the show has to fall on its two leads - first, Robert Conrad. Grew up, like many cool people, on the south side of Chicago. Able to play the role of Jim West at just the right level - not too campy or not too serious. Challenged people in the 1970s to knock batteries off his shoulder. Has the sheer power of both the Silver Age and current Wildcat. The only other person on the planet who is cooler than Shatner.

I said it. Cooler. Than. Shatner. Deal.

(It's that knowing, sly sense of humor that helped make the show, and why Will Smith was such a bad choice for the movie version. Mario Van Peebles could have pulled it off. Trust me on this).

The other key was Ross Martin, who played Artemus Gordon, Man of 1,000 Faces (unlike Terry Sloane, Man of 1,000 Talents, or Lefty Brown, Man of 1,000 Mixes who, despite popular rumor, is not the same person as I am. My apologies, Lefty). As "Artie", Martin played a rather fussy, almost egotistical actor, and the comic interplay with Conrad contains genuine affection. (Hey, if you want to go for subtext, that's fine too - their chemistry avoids the overt affectations of, say, another dynamic duo). Plus, since his character was a "master of disguise", Martin handled each of his "disguises" as separate characters (even caricatures, if you want to be honest), doing makeup and avoiding the "latex-mask-and-jump-cut" cliches of most spy shows of the era.)

EDIT: Intrepid comics fans might want to hunt down the four-issue "Night of the Iron Tyrants" mini-series from Millennium comics. It's a great note-by-note recreation, and worth investigating.

Now, admittedly, Alan Moore's writing is not as basic as WWW's - simply put, it's a great, pulpy piece of entertainment. (It's one of the few shows that, when it comes on, I must sit and watch). It is slightly sexist and ethnocentric, but it was produced during a time when we were an extremely unenlightened culture. But who knows, maybe between viewings of each episode, and between trips to the library to check out Victorian literature, Alan Moore's creativity was sparked...

...at the very least, it is one of the coolest (and underappreciated) television shows of the 1960s. Worth a look.