Hargrove on Classic TV Crime Dramas

I must thank Bill Koenig for noting, in The Spy Command, that the Writers Guild Foundation recently posted online a multi-part interview with American TV writer/producer Dean Hargrove.

The whole package is delightful, covering Hargrove’s work as a writer for The Bob Newhart Show, his labors on behalf of The Man from U.N.C.L.E., It Takes a Thief, McCloud, and Matlock, and his efforts to convince Raymond Burr that he should return to television in the role of Perry Mason. But I was especially drawn to two segments in which the now 80-year-old Hargrove talks about his work as a writer and executive producer of Peter Falk’s Columbo. I’ve embedded those videos below. Ignore the sloppy subtitling; focus instead on Hargrove’s often entertaining and insightful recollections.