Season 4 continues with "Playback," an episode starring another Cassavetes alum, Gina Rowlands.  Unfortunately, she's sidelined as a innocent bystander and wife to the episode's murderer, played by Oskar Werner.   He's a fan of gizmos which aid his plan to murder his mother-in-law but, of course, they're ultimately his undoing.   

Set sail for murder as Lt. Columbo takes a cruise to Mexico with his wife only to be asked to help solve the murder of lounge singer Rosanna Wells (Poupée Bocar) at the hands of used car sales exec Hayden Danzinger (Robert Vaughn). It's the return of Bernard Hill and Dean Stockwell in an episode Chris Stachiw says may be the best of the season.

Welcome to the show Mr. Patrick McGoohan as Colonel Rumford, headmaster at an all-boys military academy and devotee of rules and regulations. When his reign is threatened he retaliates by killing his rival with a cannon! Now it's up to Lt. Columbo to stick around the academy and solve the crime in one of the more solid episodes of Season 4.

Season 4 of Columbo continues with a favorite of Mike's, Negative Reaction wherein Dick Van Dyke plays photographer Paul Galesko who think he's committed the perfect murder of his wife (Antoniette Bower) and patsy (Don Gordon). Unfortunately for him, Columbo is on the case. This episode features great roles for Vito Scotti, John Ashton, Joyce Van Patten, Larry Storch, and Michael Strong.

This episode of The Shabby Detective also features an interview with author David Koenig about his new book, Unshot Columbo: Cracking the Cases That Never Got Filmed.  Get it today at https://amzn.to/3Sh9VCj

We start off the fourth season of Columbo with a discussion of Exercise in Fatality in which our titular detective squares off with tough guy and fitness guru Milo Janus (Robert Conrad) in a case that gets everyone tied up in knots. 

This episode also features an interview with Amelie Hastie, author of Columbo: Make Me a Perfect Murder, a close reading of the series.  Get it now at https://amzn.to/3xf8Pjk

Chris Stachiw and Mike White are taking a break between the third and fourth seasons of The Shabby Detective: Yet Another Columbo Podcast and discussing one of Peter Falk's later roles as the patriach of the Romano family which includes Paulie (Peter Berg) and Peter (Chris Penn) along with black sheep Corky (Chris Kattan).

We discuss Kattan's career, the panning of Corky Romano, and the Happy Madison universe.

We wrap up the third season of Columbo with a solid episode wherein Columbo (Peter Falk) is put on the case of a pair of murders including the death of police commissioner (Richard Kiley)'s wife. Written by Peter S. Fischer, the episode was directed by Falk's friend Ben Gazzara.

Chris and Mike discuss the Columbo episode where Peter Falk was in danger of being overshadowed by his co-star when Johnny Cash stars as a gospel singer who's under the thumb of Ida Lupino as she's lording over him being prosecuted under the Mann Act.

Mike and Chris look at Mind Over Mayhem, the 6th episode of the 3rd season wherein Lt. Columbo is faced with a puzzling murder that takes place on the campus of a think tank where the lead scientist, Jose Ferrer, wants to protect his son from an accusation of plagiarism.

Jack Cassidy is back to square off against Lt. Columbo. He's gone from author to publisher in "Publish or Perish" where he knocks off the prize author (Mickey Spillane) who is about to move to his rival's publishing house. The twist this time is that Cassidy is setting himself up as the murder as well as providing himself with an air-tight alibi courtesy of a mad bomber.

Robert Culp is back for his third time in the villain position as Dr. Bart Kepple, a big shot media consultant who uses subliminal images to murder one of his clients as well as his projectionist Chuck McCann ("The Far Out Space Nuts") in a solid turn from Stephen J. Cannell.