Overview

For decades, generations of television fans have been enraptured by Lt. Columbo, played by Peter Falk, as he unravels clues to catch killers who believe they are above the law. In her investigation of the 1970s series co-created by Richard Levinson and William Link, Amelie Hastie explores television history through an emphasis on issues of stardom, authorship, and its interconnections with classical and New Hollywood cinema. Through close textual analysis, attentive to issues of class relations and connections to other work by Falk as well as Levinson and Link, Colombo: Make Me a Perfect Murder sees American television as an intertextual system, from its origins as a commercial broadcast medium to its iterations within contemporary streaming platforms. Ultimately, Hastie argues, in the titular detective's constant state of learning about cultural trends and media forms, Columbo offers viewers the opportunity to learn with him and, through his tutelage, to become detectives of television itself.

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9781478025450

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Reviews

“Amelie Hastie makes a compelling case for revisiting a series that had a global footprint in its heyday and continues to be a staple in rerun syndication. Hastie uses Columbo’s famous tagline ‘Just one more thing’ to think about the series—and by extension television as cultural form—in relation to a complex intertextual network of quotation, iteration, and intertexts. Columbo is an exciting book by a wonderful critic, historian, and writer.” -- Lynn Spigel, author of * TV Snapshots: An Archive of Everyday Life * “In Columbo, Amelie Hastie offers a comprehensive look at this essential popular television show, explaining its iconic status in the landscape of American popular culture along with the iconic status of its lead actor, Peter Falk. Hastie provides extensive information about the production history of the series as well as an analysis of specific motifs and narratives. Columbo will stand as the go-to work for study of the series.” -- Dana Polan, Martin Scorsese Professor of Cinema Studies, New York University

“In Columbo, Amelie Hastie makes a compelling case for revisiting a series which had a global footprint in its heyday and continues to be a staple in rerun syndication. Hastie uses Columbo’s famous tagline ‘Just one more thing’ to think about the series—and by extension television as cultural form—in relation to a complex intertextual network of quotation, iteration, and intertexts. Columbo is an exciting book by a wonderful critic, historian, and writer.” -- Lynn Spigel, author of * TV Snapshots: An Archive of Everyday Life * “In Columbo, Amelie Hastie offers a comprehensive look at this essential popular television show, explaining its iconic status in the landscape of American popular culture along with the iconic status of its lead actor, Peter Falk. Hastie provides extensive information about the production history of the series, as well as an analysis of specific motifs and narratives. Columbo will stand as the go-to work for study of the series.” -- Dana Polan, Cinema Studies, New York University

Author Information

Amelie Hastie is Nancy and Douglas D. Abbey ’71 Professor of Film and Media Studies and English at Amherst College and author of Cupboards of Curiosity: Women, Recollection, and Film History, also published by Duke University Press.

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