Just One More Thing: A Friend In Deed

Notes and screenshots for A Friend In Deed: Originally broadcast on May 5, 1974, starring Richard Kiley as a Deputy Police Commissioner who uses his position to facilitate the murder of his wife, Michael McGuire as a family friend blackmailed into helping, Rosemary Murphy as the victim, character actor John Finnegan (as a cop, this time!), and, of course, Peter Falk as Columbo.

"A police commissioner provides a false alibi for a neighbor who killed his wife in a fit of rage. He then kills his own wife in cold blood and blackmails the neighbor into faking an alibi for himself. Lt. Columbo has to untangle this mess."

-IMDB Summary

"In “A Friend in Deed,” (dir. Ben Gazzara!) Richard Kiley is an LA police commissioner who helps a pal cover up the murder of his wife. Then, on top of it, Kiley tries to crisscross-Strangers-on-A-Train the guy into helping with the murder of his wife! Not cool. How does Columbo manage the case when he suspects the boss’ boss’ boss? Pretty well, actually. Author and critic Ron Hogan (Beatrice.com, The Stewardess Is Flying the Plane!: American Films of the 1970s) talks about what is an awfully good episode and our odd meta theories (Did you know that television is an organism? It’s true, ask your pastor!). Plus, Jon & RJ address a recent serious item."

-RJ's episode summary

Listen to the original podcast episode here:

Episode 49: Quid Quo Pro with our guest Ron Hogan.

A Friend In Deed

Season 3, Episode #8

Director: Ben Gazzarra 

Writers: Peter S. Fischer

To expand on my totally bonkers theory, as expressed in the podcast, about Columbo-the-show being an antibody in the organism of television broadcasting: I was trying to think of what other shows might fall into this category. You need an unflappable crimefighter on a program brimming with guest stars in colorful roles, and at least the majority of the guest stars need to be dealt with in a one-and-done scenario.

Well, obviously, the number one contender for fellow-antibody would be the 1966 Batman tv series starring Adam West and Burt Ward!

I can’t think of another one, although there clearly must have been cop shows out the wahzoo which fit this formula. I’ll leave it to you to do the legwork.

Meanwhile, don’t let our dizzy theory distract from what may just be my favorite episode of the - at this point - 26 we’ve covered on the show. Columbo has never seemed quite so much like a film as it did in the hands of Ben Gazzara. This may not be the most typical ever episode of Columbo, but it’s certainly a great one to introduce the show to friends if you’d like to explain the cinematic quality of the 1970s era Columbos ...

As mentioned on the podcast, here’s Richard Kiley in “A Friend In Deed” appearing to be posing for the Mastermind game box.

“A Friend In Deed” was possibly one of the best-looking episodes of Columbo, owing in no small part to the eye of director Ben Gazzara, and I couldn’t let it rest at just the first ten screencaps. Here’s another collection of great shots from the episode - notice the “Hard Rock Cafe” in the background of one of the photos. It was a very different Los Angeles back in the early 70s, and I’m sure that was a very different Hard Rock Cafe too ...

Next episode: An Exercise In Fatality