Season 2, Episode 8, Columbo - Double Shock (1973)

Season 2 Episode 8:  “Columbo” Double Shock (TV Episode 1973)

This episode was directed by Robert Butler, and written by Jackson Gillis, Steven Bochco, and Richard Levinson. 

The three best outfits in this episode are: 

1) Dexter’s plaid suit with suede accents:

 

 

Dexter is wearing a full on matching suit of Glen plaid tweed wool. The blazer has side slits and western-style maroon suede trim on the epaulets, pockets, and back yoke. 

 

 

 

 

 

He wears a red turtleneck underneath: 

 

 

 

2) Lisa Chambers’ Macbeth tartan blazer over white: 

 

  

She is running around like a cat in a white butterfly collared blouse, unbuttoned, white flare pants, white heels, and a wide white headband: 

 

 

She is a health nut about to marry someone twice her age and her energy is bubbling over

 

 

 

3) Dexter’s navy and gold textured blazer during the cooking show: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The navy blue butterfly collar shirt and matching navy flare pants are perfect for a "smarmy TV chef."
 

Honorable mention for outfit goes out to Lisa’s leotard:

 

 

 

 

 

 And Mrs. Peck’s psychedelic orange blouse:

 

 

 

 

This episode has wall-to-wall funny lines: 

The relationship between Mrs. Peck and Columbo is fraught to say the least. She tells him right off the bat he belongs in a pig sty: 

 

 

 

Columbo gets Dexter to admit to having flat feet by praising his own “terrific arches”: 

 

 

 

Dexter refers to Columbo on the cooking show as the “everyday, average, typical downtrodden American husband”:

 

 

 

 

And calls the audience a “gorgeous gaggle of gals:”

 

 

 

 Much, much hilarity ensues: 

 

 

 

Mrs. Peck lunges at Columbo yelling “Bum! You’re a bum!” for putting his cigar out in an antique silver dish:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He has one at home just like it: 

 

 

 

Also hilarious is when Mrs. Peck tells Columbo, “You have turned everything into chaos, and now you have bungled my television set!” 

 

 

 

 

 

Columbo has a heart to heart with Mrs. Peck, telling her he knows he’s untidy, he can’t help it, but he has feelings, too: 

 

 

 

 

And she responds by offering him some health cookies and milk: 

 

 

To which he replies: “I’m extremely fond of health cookies.”

 

 

Perfect. 

 

Last funny line is when Dexter tells his twin brother Norman that he can’t tell the difference between a Rorschach test and Picasso and Norman says, “Can anyone?”

 

 

 

 

Bonus points for decor go out to Lisa Chambers’ red phone. This part is played by Julie Newmar, aka Catwoman, and this is supposedly the actual bat phone: 

 

 

Extra points for decor also awarded to to Clifford Paris’ green bathroom:

 

 

 Love the green tiles and archways and inexplicably damp fringed tiki towels.