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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 275855" data-attributes="member: 23">Short Fuse / Blueprint For Murder continuedForrest Tucker was last seen in O’Drama vision in an episode of The Bionic Woman where he played a powerful right wing mogul who I described at the time as the Bioniverse’s answer to Paul Galveston. In Columbo I was instantly put in mind of Jock Ewing when he strutted on screen. I could swear he called someone “boy” before giving him a gentle-but-threatening backhanded slap round the face. Forrest is the episode’s victim, Beau Williamson killed by Patrick O’Neal’s Elliot Markham. Patrick isn’t an actor with whom I’m familiar. At risk of sounding derogatory, he has the kind of solid-but-unassuming presence I’d associate with secondary characters on carefully cast TV shows. This somewhat low-key screen presence worked well for his character as it’s easy to imagine him appearing less of a threat than he is. By the time he’s flexing his muscles a bit and clashing with Lt. Columbo later in the episode one almost feels that Columbo is humouring Markham. Which, as it turns out, he is. But perhaps not in the way Markham had expected. In terms of supporting actors, this is one of my favourites to date. Pamela Austin was Beau’s pretty-but-dim younger second wife, Jennifer. I struggled to know where character ended and actress began, as her delivery was a little flat. But it all worked perfectly for the character - particularly once the first wife arrived on the scene and started running Jennifer down. Janis Paige stole the entire show for me as Beau’s brassy first wife Goldie. She was just terrific with every single line. And she had some great lines, such as this one in her first scene:Her cynical-but-earthy outlook and wry observations were so much fun and her chemistry with Peter Falk so sparkling that I kind of wish she’d somehow become a recurring character.I also have to mention the heart specialist that Columbo visited. The juxtaposition of his grave warnings about smoking being delivered in John Fiedler’s slightly comical high pitched voice made for some real enjoyment. There are some nice little Columboisms, such as the scene where he visits Markham's classroom and helps wipe clean his blackboard as they talk. There comes a height where Columbo can't reach and has to ask or Markham's help. There's also a nice, rare insight into red tape as Columbo visits department after department and joins queue after queue in order to get permission for the offending pile to be removed from the foundation of Markham's building. With the last couple of episodes, my memory seems to be coming back a little more. Either that or, God forbid, they’ve been more predictable. As we got to the last act, I could see how the Gotcha was going to play out. Whatever the case, Markham goading Columbo into removing the huge pile - at great expense to the city - in order for Markham to then dump the body he was concealing was a nicely written bit of business, perfectly played. This is the only Columbo episode directed by Peter Falk. I was impressed how subtle and un-showy it was. It's the "less is more" approach, but it still looked really good. I appreciated that it allowed the story to take precedence without distracting. It seems like Peter knows what worked for this kind of show and felt that this was more important than putting his stamp on it. </blockquote>

Verification: What month follows July?