Watching more Columbo last night and I was particularly tickled by the episode, featuring Patrick McGoohan, in his second appearance (He also directed the episode). He is a CIA agent, working under deep cover as an advertising agency head, who murders Leslie Nielsen, to help cover up a scheme to bilk money out of the agency with a fake seller of information. McGoohan plants all kinds of in-jokes about spy fiction and his series, Danger Man (aka Secret Agent) and The Prisoner. Several times his characters tells another "Be seeing you," the phrase used in The Village, when people part. His character drives a Citroen SM, which was a sport version of the Citroen, with a Maserati engine, making for a sleek "spy car," ala the Aston Martin DB5, in Goldfinger. Leslie Nielsen's character checks into a hotel, at the beginning of the episode and removes his shoulder holster, which is a Berns & Martin Lightnin' holster, which suspends a revolver upside down, with stiff leather holding it in place, for fast draw. Ian Fleming, in Dr No, has Bond issued with a new Walther PPK (after carrying a .25 Beretta, in previous novels) and a Berns & Martin Triple Draw holster. The holster was a mistake, by Fleming, as it was designed for revolvers and the Walther, with it's flatter lines, would fall out. Geoffrey Boothroyd, a weapons expert who had written to Fleming about the Beretta that Bond used ("A lady's gun!"), had suggested other weapons, but his main one was a Smith & Wesson Centennial Airweight .38 cal revolver, with a Berns & Martin Holster. He had also suggested the Walther as an alternate weapon and Fleming liked the sound of its name better, but kept the revolver holster. he them mistakenly has Bond issues the S&W revolver for long range work; but, a .38 is too light a caliber for such things (Boothroyd had recommended a .357 or .45 cal revolver).

McGoohan is a hoot, throughout, playing it very arch, ala The Prisoner, seemingly bemused by Columbo and his manner, as well as his intellect, when he starts asking the hard questions and presents lines of logic that refute McGoohan's suggestions. His voice has a tendency to go up when he is bemused, giving the character a rather theatrical air.

For even more fun, Columbo is pulled into a clandestine meeting with the Director of the CIA, played by David White, aka Larry Tate, on Bewitched (and J Jonah Jameson, in the Spider-Man tv series). It is next to impossible to take White seriously as a CIA head, after years of Bewitched. He shows Columbo his identification, which says "Phil Corrigan, Secret Agent X-9." Phil Corrigan was (eventually) the name given to the hero of the newspaper strip Secret Agent X-9, created by Dashiell Hammett. It is ridiculous for both the joke (as Secret Agent Corrigan, as it was then called, was still a widely syndicated strip) and because the identification carries such a code name on it, let alone one that says "secret agent."

Further adding to the fun is Vitto Scotti, in another of his 6 appearances in the series (both original and the later tv movies), as a wine vendor, who is a client of McGoohan's, whose speech gives Columbo clues about McGoohan's whereabouts, at the time of the murder. Columbo and Scotti's character converse in Italian, in a scene, with obvious delight.

Later, when Columbo confronts McGoohan in his home, we see a photo of McGoohan, inserted into the picture of a pilot next to a military aircraft. Also on the wall is a photo of McGoohan, in costume, from the film Mary Queen of Scots. It is darkened, to hide the costuming; but, you can see the ruff, at the neckline.

Barbara Rhoades also appears, as a fairground photographer, snapping picture of guests, who catches McGoohan and Nielsen on film. She also appeared in a previous Columbo episode, with Leslie Nielson ("The Lady in Waiting").

One of the interesting things about the episode, seen now, is that there are two scenes with adult characters, talking to children, who they don't know. Early on, at the fairground, McGoohan and Nielsen meet, to set up Nielsen for the murder (he is given a mission to meet the fake info broker, at a pier, in the evening) and the pair go to a target booth and shoot 10 out of 10 ducks to win large stuffed pandas (Nielsen gives his back, after the carny says he usually only gives one of those out every 6 months and 2 will break him). After they talk, they stop at another booth and McGoohan strikes up a conversation with a young girl, with no adult around her and then gives her the panda bear. Later, Columbo is at "Travel Town," a sort of transport museum, with old locomotives and cars, as well as planes and other vehicles. Columbo gets a hot dog and sits down at a picnic table, occupied by a woman and two little girls. Columbo speaks to one little girl, sitting on his side, telling her she is very pretty and telling her about his dog, named Dog. These days, he would be pounced upon by police, as a potential pedophile.

McGoohan had previously appeared in the Season 4 episode, "By Dawn's Early Light," where he is a military school commandant, who murders the owner of the school, to prevent it from being made a co-ed junior college. McGoohan rigs plastic explosives in a ceremonial blank charge, for the firing of a cannon, on Founder's Day. The episode was filmed on the grounds of the Citadel, with the checkerboard square and white barracks buildings, as seen in The Lords of Discipline. When I was stationed in Charleston, I used to see the cadets about town, in uniform, though I was usually off duty, in civies. Also appearing in the episode is a very young Bruno Kirby (Good Morning Vietnam), as one of the cadets. His father, Bruce Kirby, plays a police sergeant, in the episode, a recurring role for him, in the later seasons of Columbo, including the spy episode.

McGoohan ended up appearing in 4 episodes of Columbo (two in the original series and 2 tv movie versions) and directed 5 (3 in which he appeared and two in which he did not). You can tell he obviously enjoyed the series and working with Peter Falk.

Never saw that one, but did see a bit of Love That Bob, when we first got cable, in the early 80s. One of the few places I saw Ann B Davis, aside from The Brady Bunch.

It's actually a "baby doll" nightie that she was wearing.  You definitely were not going to see a teddy on 1960s tv, unlike 90s tv....

Here's the Censored opening of My Living Doll with the "whatever she's wearing"

He should head out to the desert, in a jeep!

I watched the TV Movie-Pilot Episode of The Immortal. Pretty good I must say
The story is based on a SF Novel called The Immortal by James Gunn, a prolific SF writer in the 50's and 60's who was held in high regard. Gunn was awarded a Grand Master Lifetime Achievement honor, inducted into the SF Hall Of Fame and won a Hugo for his Isaac Asimov Critical Analysis book

No, no; That was Hans Gudegast...



See....Hans...........Gudegast.

Next you'll try to tell me that Arnold Schwarzenegger did a Hercules movie where his voice was dubbed....