Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3632 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-03-31
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: PAL, Colour, Full Screen
• Number of discs: 2

Synopsis
One of the most famous detectives to ever hit the television screen, Columbo (Peter Falk) has become an iconic character in popular culture. Forever clad in a raincoat and chomping a cigar, the dishevelled Columbo seems as scatterbrained as his appearance would suggest. However, even when it appears that his investigation is going nowhere, Columbo's keen mind is absorbing details and clues, until finally he reveals that he knows everything that's happened. Each episode opens with a murder, followed by Columbo's investigation, and finally his revelation of how he put the events together. Columbo became popular and famous for its clever dramatic structure and Peter Falk's winning portrayal of the detective. This release includes the complete eight series of the show.

Customer Reviews

Columbo - Series 8
These episodes were made 17 years after the first series, and I think you have to expect some differences. Yes, they are more padded out and if anything a little less precise on plot sophistication. It's just a sign of the times. The first four series were shorter (75 mins with a few 90 mins. features) and were snappier, edgier, and more a product of well-crafted early 1970s US TV 'tec dramas. These later episodes are almost a different Columbo from the early ones but they're still well worth watching. If you're a newcomer to Columbo I'd suggest trying the early ones first and then working your way through.....

Don't confuse different releases!
For those who are collecting the PLAYBACK series releases, do not worry, this release is perfectly correct, and there is nothing missing. (In fact, if you are already collecting these, I expect you aren't worried, but this may interest those who might be starting to collect Columbo.)

Judging by other reviewers comments submitted here, one would have to think that we live in an authoritarian state with a sole Bureau responsible for releasing DVDs and therefore it would never be possible to have multiple overlapping releases. What a load of nonsense!

UK TV Series broadcasts usually match the calendar years, but in the US they rarely do, a so-called "Season" rather beginning in Autumn and ending in Spring the following year.

This PLAYBACK release, clearly stated as "The Complete Eighth Season" (inappropriately labeled Series 8" by Amazon), contains only those episodes that belonged to the eighth Season, just as did the previous Season releases.

The UNIVERSAL release called "Mystery Movie Collection 1989" contains all the episodes that were broadcast in 1989, one of which (the "missing" one other reviewers have been complaining about here) belongs to the Ninth Season. I feel confident that this episode will appear in the PLAYBACK Ninth Season release when they get around to it.

While I'm on the topic, this reminds me of the never-ending complaints by reviewers about how US releases often appear to be longer (supposedly "uncut!") than European releases. It is true of course, that there are differences in length that result from cutting scenes out (or adding them back in). However, more often than not this is not the case, and the difference in length is really due to the difference in frame-rate conversion between the original film (24fps) and PAL (25fps). Because NTSC uses a different method, the play-back time remains the same as the original, but a 90-minute movie will play back in 86 minutes and 24 seconds in PAL.

All this information is freely available in our internet world, so please, please try to find out the facts before making false accusations and complaints!

Expensive for 4 episodes. . .
Contains all 4 episodes from Season 8

46 Columbo Goes to the Guillotine--06/02/89--(Season 8)
47 Murder, Smoke and Shadows--27/02/89--(Season 8)
48 Sex and the Married Detective--03/04/89--(Season 8)
49 Grand Deception--01/05/89--(Season 8)