Episode 002: High School Government Class and "Columbo"

In this second episode, Frank tells a story from his senior year high school government class where they wrote faux bills as if in the Texas Legislature.  Both were "defeated", but the second had some legs and interest.  However, an actual bill similar to the second was later passed in to law, and he tries to make the point that even if is sounds corny or dumb, or "why should I care?", his ideas are at least worth listening to and giving some thought.

Then he begins his review segment of Priscilla Barnes, starting off with her brief appearance in a 1975 Columbo episode.  Believed to be her first acting role, she plays a nurse sort foreshadowing her role on Three's Company.  He discusses the episode in detail including the main cast, guest starts, plot, and certain scenes and finishes with a very favorable review.

The theme song is called Retro Funk by SoulProdMusic and can be found at pixabay.com.

Columbo episodes like this one can be found on Freevee, Peacock, and Tubi or wherever finer TV shows are found.

--The best way to contact is:
Twitter: @frankwebertx
Web:  frankwebertx.com
Email:  frankoweber@hotmail.com 

Transcript

Frank: 0:00

This episode of Frank Weber's party. The second episode that we've done. I'm going to tell you a little story from fairly distant past. From high school, government class and relate it to. Some of my ideas and content for my show. And then we're going to get into reviewing. Priscilla Barnes very first. TV appearance may be acting gig. I'm not 100% sure on that, but, it's an episode from Colombo in 1975. And. I think you're really going to enjoy it. So stay tuned and sit back and relax. And. Have a good time. Welcome once again to Frank Weber's party. I'm so glad that you could be with us today. You make it all worthwhile. I'm your host, Frank Weber. And today I have a little story to tell you. That was actually way back when I was in high school. But it kind of relates to this show. I'm trying to make sure that some of these stories early on kind of relate to what I'm doing here. And then we'll get into a review of one of the episodes of Colombo. The one Priscilla Barnes w Dan. And so I just wanted to, start with this story. when I was a senior in high school, we took high school government class in Texas. And. We had a great teacher and Ms. Craig and she made it really fun for us. And. We had a, a project. Where we pretended to be a Texas legislator. And we were going to write some bills. And pretend to get the bills through. Uh, the house and the Senate so that they could be signed by the governor and whatnot. And so. The first one that I did was a, a proposal to make fireworks sales year round in Texas. They're only allowed. A total during the year of like 20, some odd days, about half of them at new years and half of them at 4th of July. And the law, as it stands right now has a lot to do with, Probably property protection, most likely and not causing wildfire fires, but since we've had a lot of rain. these last couple of weeks, we're probably not going to have a wild fire problem for 4th of July this year. Thank goodness. But, I like to blow things up as a kid and. Do fireworks and grandma would say, oh, the little boys are gonna pee in their pants. And. Anyway, So I wrote this proposal and apparently some kid in class, just pigeonholed it, basically just put it in his desk so that it never saw the light of day, never had a debate or a vote on it. And it was like this little turd. This little asshole kept me from doing that. Always kind of pissed me off. But anyway. We had the opportunity to write a second bill a short time later. And, this one. It's a little unusual because we were seniors in high school. Right. And we were about to get out of there and go to college or. Whatever we were planning on doing after graduation. And I wrote a bill where basically I said, there had been a problem for a few years in Texas public schools because. The start date of school had gotten earlier and earlier and earlier. And. in the eighties that had been around September 1st. And this was now 1995. Our senior year. I think we started August 14th, which was ridiculously early. And I think by sixth grade it said been August 28th. And it just got earlier and earlier and earlier, and I'm like, what the hell is going on here? Why is it getting so early? Like this. And, I decided to put a bill and say, Hey, the legislature can tell these school districts that they can't start before a certain date. Right. And, they seem to have some other agenda, whether it was a year round school or whatever, I don't know. But, I tried and I got up in the front of the class and try to present the bill and. One of the ways that the kids had been, or my classmates had been. I don't want to say brainwashed, but they had been kind of convinced that this was a good idea is because when school started that early, apparently they could have their fall semester finals before. The, Christmas break. Which is a good perk. I admit. But we let the kids that had come before us and even us in earlier years, didn't have that privilege and it worked out fine. So anyway, I think the bill came up for a vote and it was defeated by our, my classmates and. I was disappointed in that. I probably should have sold those bills a lot better. the point of the story here though, too, though, is that the real state legislature a few years later? Past something similar. That they said you couldn't start before a certain date. It wasn't September 1st, as I had proposed, there was a little bit earlier. But they pass that concept for real a few years later and the governor signed it and. I find an interesting connection to that. my idea was really good. or ultimately it was good. And, Anyway. since then they have exceptions to the rule. Now, apparently school districts can get out of it. If they consider themselves special or something like that. But. Anyway, the point is. As I'm. Writing this show and show prepping and trying to make some good, interesting content for you. I hope you that you like my ideas. They might seem a little outlandish or far-fetched, or. You know, he might wonder why I value. Doing a certain thing so much like that. I think that they're good and they're entertaining and. I think you'll enjoy them. And I certainly appreciate whatever feedback you can give me, obviously I put. my email and my Twitter in particular. at the end of the show notes so that you can give feedback it's obviously a work in progress, but we're getting there and. And I'm glad that you're a part of this and. I hope that you're telling your family and friends and hitting subscribe. Let's take a real short break and then we'll get into our review of. Colombo episode from 1975. So we'll be right back. All right. So we're going to review, an episode of Colombo today that. Priscilla Barnes. I believe made her debut in 1975. her first TV role, maybe her first acting role. Peter Falk apparently was one of the people that discovered her and gave her. three lines in the show. And when we do this, we're going to not necessarily do them all in order. we're just probably go back and forth. but nothing in chronological order is what I'm trying to say. We'll analyze this show. really enjoyed this show. I had never really been much of a Colombo fan, but it really is well put together and has a different concept to it. So without further ado. We're looking at Colombo season four, episode six. Called a deadly state of mind. And it aired on April 26th, 1975. The, overview and history of the show. You had pilots in 19 68, 19 71. I believe those were both on NBC. And then you had a run on NBC from 1971 to 78 and then ABC. A little bit further down the road from 1989 to 2003. and the show was unusual because. It wasn't a weekly hour long episodic show. It was more of a feature length, meaning an hour and a half to two hours. and it was a re irregular and it's showing, they were at its peak was probably doing about five to six episodes a year. Lieutenant Colombo was the detectives name, of the LAPD. Homicide detective. So most of the shows were about murder. and Colombo had a few trademarks. he wore a worn beige rain coat. Usually had fairly disheveled hair. But pretty laid back kind of easygoing, usually chomped cigars. drove a. A Peugeot, which is of course a French car. An old one too, by the way. He loved Chile con Carney. Usually mentioned an unseen wife. Uh, but she obviously she was unseen, so she was never really in the show. And then he always came back to ask, uh, witnesses or potential suspects. One more thing. He said, One more thing and then I'll leave you alone. That sort of thing. These little traits. Anyway, the bad guys would look at him and think that he's really no big deal. There's no way this guy is going to solve the case. And so they took him pretty lightly. He wasn't bumbling in the sense of say an inspector Crusoe. Like Peter Sellers did. And the pink Panther movies. Where the bad guys probably felt the same way about him, but he was, uh, he was definitely. Did not give the appearance that he was going to. Solve the case. And. bring it to justice in other words. And then the other thing about this show, It was really kind of a backwards detective story, very unusual where. The audience knows early on, who did it? that is out there pretty early. And then Colombo has to go through. And. collect the evidence and ask questions and gather all this data and really goes out of his way to deduce. Things in order to get to who did it. And that was one of the most amazing interesting parts of how this show came down. This a particular episode. We'll go ahead and. Talk about main characters. Obviously Peter Falk played Colombo. like I said, he helped Priscilla Barnes get into acting. She has three lines in this. Show. But as uncredited. So if you look up her filmography on something like Wikipedia, we probably won't be on there. He's been in a lot of things. a number of them actually as a detective. some credits include this as a mad, mad, mad, mad world, which is a pretty funny movie. I recommend it if you got three hours or so. very long for a comedy. it was also in the great race murder by death, which is another. wonderful movie kind of like clue that was also came out in the seventies. So no clue was in the eighties, but murder by death came out not too long. After this episode. and I would definitely recommend it because Peter Sellers and Alec Guinness and some other people are in it. he was also in the chief detective, the princess bride, of course. And then he was actually, in a movie again with Priscilla. near the end of his career, his final film role was an American cows slip. And I think he passed away about two years after that. Let's go into some guest stars here. The main, the two main guest stars and. Recognizable names here. You got George Hamilton, plain. Dr. Collier. he's known for his suntan and his Devin air appearance. My brother, Tom, and I know him most from. an early eighties movie. 81. I think it was called Zora the gay blade. And of course he, and the episode is Zorro. And he romances. Lauren Hutton and. Zoro happens to have a twin. Brother who happens to be gay? And Zorro. manages to get some kind of injury and is out. From being able to fight the bad guys. And so his gay twin comes in and. Steps in forum and where's all these colorful outfits. it's definitely worth a look. I consider it a. Great comedic. Cinematic masterpiece. George Hamilton could definitely do. Some comedy. and he, I was actually was in a movie a little bit before that. Love at first by it, which was a Dracula type of movie. About a comedy. And then later was in things like godfather part three. But leave the last of the godfather films and. And then I don't remember this for some reason. but apparently he was in the movie doc Hollywood with Michael J. Fox. A movie. I remember more for a Juli war coming out of the lake if you've ever seen that movie. But anyway, also interesting about him is that he had a, an unusual repeat appearance as a different character. on Colombo. In 1991. Different character, but also played a murderer. And then the other person that I recognize and have seen in a few films. And this movie is Leslie Ann Warren who plays Mrs. Donner. she really started as a Broadway actress. But she was in a lot of TV and movies. Uh, such as Victor Victoria and clue, which we just briefly mentioned there. Worth winning, which was Mark Harmon movie. I know her and I think my brother, Tom, you know, we're both in a lot of comedy. We both know her from life stinks, which was a Mel Brooks movie from. 1991. It wasn't his funniest movie. But it was okay. And. And then not too long after that, she was in pure country with George Strait where. He of course played a country singer. That was. Kind of wanting to be a little bit low key. Her work that I. Have seen, makes me think that she would. I'm sure she's a really great person in real life and has been at some other roles of course, but she makes me think that she would be a great nagging. Why for boss? She just seems to have a certain look and demeanor to her in that regard. but I'm quite certain. She also has some more range. let's go ahead and get into the plot. there's other people in the movie. I kind of vaguely remember them. Maybe in some other things. I don't remember exactly what, but, They certainly weren't first bill here. But, Essentially what's going on is that Dr. Collier played by George Hamilton. Is having an affair with his patient, which is Mrs. Donner, that's played by. Leslie and Warren. they have apparently. Been at this affair for seven months. Dr. Collier is a psychiatrist and a researcher and behavior. Who apparently has been taking meds like barbiturates and other things that are not really used for sedation or hypnosis or anything anymore. He's been taking the meds from his lab. And research. Building to hypnotize her. and. they're doing therapy sessions as well. They're also having an affair. He apparently is writing a book in addition to the research with mice. Mrs. Donner is also part of his research and therefore the book. apparently. The research is not really going well. And we see his publisher come in. A time or two in the movie. I suppose he has a book deadline or a manuscript deadline. And. Mr Donner apparently knows of the affair. And, They're at a beach house that Mr. Donner owns and Dr. Collier shows up there one night and. Mrs. Donna was there too. And, Confrontation happens. And Dr. Collier winds up killing Mr. Donner with a fire poker. And then Dr. Collier and Mrs. Donner. Mrs. Donner's a little shaken, you know, didn't want to see her husband died, but she also. It gets the value out of this affair. Then they then make up a story. About what they're going to tell the police regarding. How this happened. they always want to cover for Dr. Collier, but they. Basically it said two thugs, two burglars came in and wanted jewelry and. Et cetera. And. Made off of some of the jewelry after killing Mr. Donner. But they wound up. Like hiding the jewelry themselves. and then call your winds up, leaving. He almost hits a blind man walking his dog when he leaves. The beach house. And he hits, a lamp post actually. What he does. And then he goes to back to his lab. Dr. Collier appears to be. Having an affair. With his research partner, Dr. Borden as well. And then Colombo, our hero comes in and he collects evidence, ask questions. basically does all of his amazing work. One of the things about. The show just as an aside. Not just this episode, but the other episodes, as well as that, he. Well, he doesn't have the appearance of somebody who could do anything. The bad guy has never really threatened him or mistreat. Colombo or anything like that. And I think that's another. important. Point there. there's a number of, there's obviously a number of different scenes and which I'll get into some of those here. But later on, I don't want to tell you everything, Cause I'm hoping that you'll go out and watch it For your own there, but Mrs. Donner later falls. To her death, trying to dive into a pool about five stories below. And that happened because Dr. Collier hypnotized her. in order to prevent her from doing a lie detector test. As Colombo is telling Dr. Collier that well, her stories don't add up. because he's figuring everything out. Uh, eventually. Call your as found guilty when he admits or not. Not in the core of course, but he later admits. That the man he saw was blind. in the very last scene. kind of a slight of hand seen because the man. The blind man had a twin. brother who was not blind and Colombo used. The brother that was not blind to go ahead and read and stuff. And then apparently got it out of Collier. That. Oh, the man I saw was blind and then the blind man comes out and then Colliers guilty. The only issue that really didn't have closure at the end. And they were Dr. Collier and. Colombia, we're talking about this, Colombo. Suspected the death of Mrs. Donner was a. A murder and not a suicide. And. Apparently that was not figured out at the end. But Maybe it was after. After all that took place and they had a trial and all that. Just wanting to go over some scenes after that. There was an interesting scene, a guy on a YouTube. put a video out here. Pointing this out because I didn't notice this. When I first watched it, but. Apparently Willie is the name of a mouse in Dr. Borden's lab. And. Dr. Collier's publisher comes by his building one time. to visit and whatnot and talk about the book. I'm sure. And he's talking to Dr. Borden. And she's telling them, oh yeah, we're just checking about the mice. Have to go through these mazes in order to get the food and. And all that stuff. And she tells him that his name is Willy. And then the publisher says. for some reason I don't have a Willy. You know, and obviously, really, of course, Is slang for apparently the guy. Has no Dick, if you only want to, bring it to that conclusion, But that was pretty funny. I appreciate that. At YouTube post or who put that out there. another thing that I've noticed, there's a ton of smoking. In this. Episode. And that was common in earlier days of TV. We don't see that much anymore because smoking has been so vilified. Of course Colombo has his cigars and Trump's cigars. But Dr. Collier, interestingly. Who's an MD. As a psychiatrist, medical doctor. Carrie is a bunch of cigarettes and a brass or possibly gold-plated case. There are some other people on. As I recall smoking during the film, but it was really interesting. really interesting to see that since we just don't see that much anymore. Let's talk about the Priscilla's scene. So anyway. Priscilla barn scene and she's playing a nurse. And she has actually, I counted three lines as the nurse. Which perhaps foreshadows her role as a nurse Terry Alden. On three's company. And. Basically what happens is she's really just. Giving Colombo directions in a building that is amaze, which is not unusual for seventies, design and architecture. And, it was really interesting because. and the scene right before this Colombo is talking to the receptionist and she says, Oh, yes. Dr. Collier he's in the east wing. Just follow the blue line. Because this building has a bunch of lines, multicolored lines on the floor. And, uh, It was not unusual in that day. As I said, for buildings to be. Design and sort of amaze form. and that you needed to have extra directions in order to get around. I believe that dental school in San Antonio, the UT dental school there. Uh, or at least the old building, which I'm not sure they use anymore was very much amazed, but they didn't have the multicolor lines on the floor. So the receptionist said, we'll just follow the blue line and then. Colombo gets in there and ask directions of this. Unnamed nurse played by Priscilla and. I think he even asked, do I just follow one of these lines or whatever, even though he was already. Told, it was the blue line, so I wasn't sure what was going on there. Exactly. But. It was a nice little debut for Priscilla and. Good to get out there. Get started in and her long career. Well, the two other scenes. I kind of told you a little bit about the ending and the blind man or the one blind man and his. Not blind brother. But we also see there was an unusual party scene in this show where. at the same time, Mrs. Donner was falling into her death. Columbia was going over there to talk to. Dr. Collier primarily I don't. Recall. If he knew that Dr. Collier was going to be at Dr. Borden's place. But anyway, Dr. Borden is hosting this cocktail party and there's a lot of guests there. And, it gets really. Interesting because I believe Dr. Collier introduces Columbia to all the guests and then they take a real interest. In his detective work and. And this particular case, it was really. Interesting. They asked Columbia about the case. And he divulged as a lot of information about the evidence that he's gathered so far. and he's, conversing with them about this case in a friendly manner. Of course. The odd thing is that Dr. Collier is right there, you know? He's the main suspect. And, you kind of think that this would violate some sort of rule. Uh, I would think in detective work or police work. As far as confidentiality goes, of course, in dentistry we have tons of. confidentiality rules and such. So. I thought that that was really unusual and. You just have to see it. I mean, you'll know what I mean by it really. And then of course, we already mentioned the scene. Where everything was wrapped up at the end. sort of a slight of hand. Where, you know, you see a guy. Who looks like the blind man, but as actually a twin brother who can read. And then Colombo. And actually Dr. Collier has the guy read a few lines Then Dr. Collier says basically, well, the guy I saw was blind and then the blind man comes out and. And basically Dr. Collier has then incriminated himself. So it was really an interesting way. They put that all together at the end. Like I said, the only thing lacking is we didn't really find out. If they really prove the murder of, Mrs Donner on there. But, Overall. It was a really good show. I understand why that was so popular for so long. I think that's about it here. as a detective show and the investigation and all that, it was very suspenseful, even though we are ready. Knew who committed the crime. So. I gave the overall show in a way I give Priscilla in a, for her debut. I was really intrigued by this just to give you a little. Forethought and the next show we're going to. Review an episode of hers on the, The old Robert Urich Vegas detective show. And I came out of watching both of these shows, thinking that Colombo was light. years ahead of. Vegas in terms of its content and suspense and just overall content. So. That's about all that I have for today. I know it's another fairly short episode. I think we're going to be in. Less than half an hour. On it. Obviously, I'm looking forward to hearing from you. Taking your feedback and reviews. like I said, either through. Twitter or Facebook, or my email address. Uh, how we can continue to make this show better, still trying to. To get some interviews lined up that may take a few shows still, And anyway, just hope you're enjoying the party here. we're still trying to jazz it up but I'm glad that you're tuning in and join everything. And. If you like it, certainly hit subscribe, tell your family and tell your friends. Anyway until next time. This is your party host Frank Weber sign off. From Frank Rivers party. The theme song is called retro funk. Bye soul prod music and can be found@pixabay.com.