Columbo Explains the Seventies
Original Airdates: Jan. 30-Feb. 2, 2026
TVC 723.1: Ed welcomes Glenn Stewart, an adjunct professor at Westfield State University (Westfield, Massachusetts) whose background in media includes twenty-five years in radio, both as an on-air personality and as a station programmer for many stations across the United States. Glenn’s new book, Columbo Explains the Seventies: A TV Cop’s Pop Culture Journey, asks the question “If you sealed all forty-five episodes of the original Columbo (NBC, 1971-1978) in a time capsule and unearthed them one hundred years later, what would those episodes of Columbo tell us about the culture of the 1970s?” Columbo Explains the Seventies is available through Bonaventure Press and Amazon.com. Topics this segment include how the original Columbo is more a clash of styles versus a study in class conflict; how social capital is portrayed in Columbo; and the extent to which the series reflects the melting pot of Los Angeles in the 1970s.
Why Columbo is Eminently Rewatchable
Original Airdates: Jan. 30-Feb. 2, 2026
TVC 723.2: Glenn Stewart, author of Columbo Explains the Seventies, discusses some of the differences between the original Columbo (NBC, 1971-1978) and the revival of Columbo in the 1990s (ABC, 1989-2003), and how one of his goals for the book is to get readers to revisit the NBC series. Columbo Explains the Seventies is available through Bonaventure Press and Amazon.com.
Peter Falk, Patrick McGoohan, and Columbo
Original Airdates: Jan. 30-Feb. 2, 2026
TVC 723.3: Glenn Stewart, author of Columbo Explains the Seventies, talks to Ed about Patrick McGoohan’s peculiar relationship with Columbo as an actor, writer, and director. While McGoohan starred in two of the very best episodes of the original Columbo (“By Dawn’s Early Light,” “Identity Crisis”) and one of the better episodes of the ABC series (“Agenda for Murder”), he also contributed to some of the problems that plagued Columbo in the 1990s (including, most notably, the episode “Murder with Too Many Notes”). Columbo Explains the Seventies is available through Bonaventure Press and Amazon.com.
