MovieChat Forums > Columbo (1971) Discussion > Take a trip to a different time...

Take a trip to a different time...

posted 8 years ago by ratherbebocce
17 replies | jump to latest

...when a mixed drink cost a buck and a half and a pack of nails cost 65 c. and came w/ matches out of a machine.
Ive been watching these early in the AM on Halmark ch. while having a cuppa and I have to say - Where the hell did the last forty years go ? This morning we have Patckick McGoohan, Leslie Nielsen, and even Vito Scotti (only a line or two) in "Identity Crisis".
We also get to see Patrick M. driving a sleek shiny new Citroen (Not sure which model) !
I could go on and on like an old fart....

[–] raimund-berger 8 years ago

And when you wanted to make a call you had to find a phone. No idea how humanity managed to survive that.

Just try to imagine the number of extremely urgent and important calls that couldn't be placed. Has to be in the realm of thrice the number of subatomic particles in our universe or something.

[–] duckyslattery 8 years ago

The whole phone relay Columbo has to execute everywhere he goes so people can reach him. I doubt that's what actually happened. It's almost like they knew where to call. Maybe he gave them a list of the 100 places he could be with the phone numbers. But whoever is calling probably got it right the first time because it is a TV show after all.

Anything with technology has changed the most-cell phones, instant replay, answering machines, etc.

[–] raimund-berger 8 years ago

It's almost like they knew where to call.

Not sure. Back then, if you were about to drive out to Mr. Murder and waiting for a test result to come in, I guess you actually would have left note about where you could be reached. He occasionally mentions that, too, that he told his people where he could be found.

You might just as well have phoned back from wherever you were though. Or waited til you were back in the office.

But what we very probably may consider "tv show" magic is that the call usually comes in at a dramatically convenient moment.

[–] crockett_john 8 years ago

Yeah, I have to agree with you. A lot of it is for plot convenience and conservation of details.

---
I blame autocorrect.

You may all go to hell, and I will go to Texas.

[–] OldSamVimes 8 years ago

And when you wanted to make a call you had to find a phone. No idea how humanity managed to survive that.

I've never owned a cell phone and I survive just fine.

Maybe I'll get one when it's around 200$ a month.

[–] fredgarv79 8 years ago

heck just watch Seinfeld even. when they are in the chinese restaurant, waiting for a table and george desperately needs to call a girl, he has to wait for an annoying guy taking too much time on the phone on the wall! and they had big cordless phones for the apartment.

[–] MaximRecoil (4615) 4 months ago

That was highly contrived though. They were in NYC in 1991; payphones were everywhere. George could have just went next door or across the street to find another one.

[–] avortac4 (3744) 3 years ago

I own a cell phone, because landlines are too expensive and so rare you can't even get them anymore, and even if you could, it wouldn't be worth the cost, and you still couldn't use text messaging, and they would nowadays be based on digital stuff anyway, so there would be no benefit anyway.

I have never owned a 'smartphone', though, and I have never had a need or urge to do so - I don't know what people do with those things, but I don't like how it removes them from the world and makes them zombies that don't notice their surroundings at all anymore. It just looks horrible how no one is able to just be in the world or live, admire a tree or whatnot; all they can do now is whip out the worshipped rectancle (or cling to them like their life depended on the rectangles touching their palm at all times, NEVER able to put them down even when they're not using them, which is rare anyway) and mindlessly and soullessly stare at it like it's a GOD telling them what to do and think every second.

Sadly, that's exactly what it seems to be to them.

[–] avortac4 (3744) 3 years ago

"Maybe I'll get one when it's around 200$ a month. "

Owning a cell phone doesn't cost you anything after the initial price.

Using it to make calls and write and receive text messages can cost you, but 200 a month??

Have you ever heard of "Prepaid cards"? I use one, and I have to pay like 20 bucks a YEAR, and even that's only to keep the connection up (they will shut it down if I don't buy more 'value' for it every six months).

My expenses on that prepaid are practically zero, and those prepaid cards are so cheap, you could buy 40 of them with 200 bucks. Why would you even buy one per month, when you can just use the one you already bought?

Of course I don't really make calls and my text messaging is really rare as well, so those six-month payments actually accumulate and in effect, I have 'endless amount', because I spend a tiny fraction of what I add to it, so even if I had to start calling and texting like crazy, I could easily afford it - and when it is all spent, I couldn't sink into debt, because the prepaid would just be empty and useless, that's all that would happen.

Then I could buy another 5-buck prepaid and start over.

200 a month?

WHAT?

[–] avortac4 (3744) 3 years ago

"Just try to imagine the number of extremely urgent and important calls that couldn't be placed. "

First of all, landline phones were more common back then, and there were these magical things called 'Phone Booths'. It wasn't very difficult to find a phone if you were in any kind of even relatively populated area.

Secondly, what qualifies as 'extremely urgent' (as opposed to just 'urgent' or 'very urgent'?) and important? I'd say such calls were, are and are always going to be pretty darn rare, compared to the trivial crap people constantly bother each other with, including selfies, memes, photos of meals and idiotic text messages. Maybe it was BETTER that you couldn't always be bothered by these 'extremely urgent and important calls'.

Now that all of those calls CAN be placed, the price to pay is to never have a peace of mind again, while we are all drowning in the sea of triviality and superficial copypasted crap people spread instead of actually saying anything by themselves - not that anyone has anything to say anyway these days.

Don't talk about atoms, particles or the Universe, if you have the kind of mentality that people can't survive without constantly harassing each other via electronic means. That kind of people do not deserve to survive emergencies or accidents - I say LET them crash.

[–] lanceus 8 years ago

Also the next time you come across that episode, take a glimpse at the snack and game prices at the pier/boardwalk!

[–] mesdale 8 years ago

Not sure which model

It was a Citroën SM - known as the "Citroën Maserati".

[–] Vic_Hitler 8 years ago

Patrick M. driving a sleek shiny new Citroen

Columbo counting out nickels and dimes for gas - then Patrick M loans him 5 bucks.

5 bucks for gas.

[–] nyctc7 8 years ago

I remember an episode where Columbo said his lieutenant's salary was $11,000/year.

I was a teenager when the show originally aired. Things were cheap--even accounting for inflation, as many things have outpaced inflation (college tuition, anyone?).

Yep, Columbo is a great 1970s time capsule.

[–] amyghost 8 years ago

In the early Seventies, a salary of $25,000.00 a year was about at the level of 85,000.00 dollars plus in today's currency. Only well-placed professionals made that sort of money...hard to believe, ain't it? Today twenty-five grand annually is just above the poverty level.

50 Is The New Cutoff Age.

[–] fredgarv79 8 years ago

to me columbo is a sunday night treat every sunday. I'd actually rather watch it on METV the same time the same night every week in standard definition rather than watch it in HD or streaming. I like the less perfectly clear sharp columbo the way it used to be on tv. when I saw it on streaming netflix it sort of shocked me how it was just too clear, too perfect. every little hair or skin blemish you start to notice. it's just too much for such an old show.half the fun it seeing the old cars, the old streets of LA, the old gas stations etc from when you grew up. plus peter faulk is just a pleasure to watch even if youv'e seen this episode 28 times.

for me it works out cause I always forget the endings anyway, how exactly he gets them trapped. so watching them again I go , Oh yeah! that's how he got him!
the music is great too. the newer movies lacked that music. the great henry mancinni. I could watch faulk and spock, faulk and jack cassidy, faulk and donald pleasance or louis jordain, over and over and over again. it never gets old

[–] liscarkat (18410) 22 days ago

When I got my driver's license in 1970 there was still "regular" gas for 20 to 25 cents a gallon, and it was 92 octane. When the fake gas shortage hit a few years later, the price started going up (which was the whole point). Around 1976 it got to around 40 cents, and I thought "if it goes up to 45 or 50 cents, I'll have to stop driving!". That was in California, so of course it was even cheaper everywhere else. Now, whenever it drops below $4.00 a gallon, it seems like Christmas. (Vote for Newsom in '28 if you want the same thing where you live!)