How Cast Columbo really felt about working with Steven Spielberg

Before Steven Spielberg was the Steven Spielberg, he was a 22 -year -old young television director working under a contract for Universal Studios. In the early 1970s, directing the television was not almost as magical from a film directed job, and Spielberg bounced around between various properties on the general lot as he tried to experience what he could do. Some of his early credits include directing an episode of Rod Sterling’s sequence to “The Twilight Zone” called “Night Gallery,” a future episode of “The Name of the Game,” and two chapters of a procedural drama called “The Psychiatist.”

The work posts for these hiring only come from the Spielberg a glimmer of the hiring and loved, but this was his next directing meat where he actually came to Shine: directing the first episode of the classic detective show “Columbo.”

By the time Spielberg arrived to direct “Murder by the Book,” the first episode of “Columbo” following his pilot, Peter Falk was already an actor for a former 20 -year -older actor. While there was no network choice for the post (NBC executives tried to cast them Bing Crosby Croner in the Role), Falk owned the role as soon as he stepped on screen. So how did Falk and the rest of the cast feel about working with the young Maestro hiding among them? One of the actors on a set told everyone in an interview for the book “The Ultimate Columbo.”

“Murder by the Book” tells the story of a break -up writing duo, and the less talented partner decides to kill his former partner in a fit of jealous rage. Rosemary Forsyth plays the role of Joanna Ferris, the wife of the novelist killed, who turns to Lieutenant Frank Columbo for guidance, and in return helps Columbo solve the winding story this murderous novelist is invented to cover her tracks.

Forsyth was Interviewed by author Jim Benson For his book “The Ultimate Columbo”, and she tells the story of what it was like to be on a set with the young Steven Spielberg. Despite being only three years older than Spielberg, the baby face director looked so young that her first thought when walking on the set:

“This is a child I work with.”

Despite his looks, Forsyth found that Spielberg was a particularly skilled filmmaker, confident enough to allow the older actors to bring their own spin on the material and naked them in the right direction when needed. “Steven, as I remember, was not a person who tells Peter (Falk) or I what to do with him,” he said. “You know, maybe he said one or two things, but basically he let us go, and if he wasn’t right, then he would do what he wanted to be … my memory is that it all gone so smoothly.”

Looking back on it now, Forsyth is pleased that the episode is considered a classic of not only the “Columbo” series, but the whole genre of TV detective shows, helping set the template for what the whole genre would look to this day.

Despite being a “Columbo star,” Peter Falk had no ego about his role in the success of the series. He does not even think he is the reason the show is dear, instead give credit to the Show “Howcatchem?” structure. And in retrospect at how Steven Spielberg re -draws the direction of the episode, Falk was gobsmacked by his “exceptional” work changed his perception of television forever:

“The show with Steven Spielberg was the first time in my acting career I made a scene where I wasn’t aware of where the camera was. In TV, the camera is always right there. And we made a scene, and said ‘action,’ and we started shooting, and in the middle of the scene I said, ‘Where the hell is the camera?'”

At the time, the direction of television was relatively naked bones, favoring simple sets and the attention of the actors. Spielberg began to change that by bringing a stronger sense of direction to “Columbo,” and the results speak for themselves. “Columbo” has become a cultural institution, with a beloved portrait of Peter Falk from the rumped detective standing the test of time, all thanks to the work of the young Steven Spielberg.