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Welcome to another summer miniseries on The Amazing World of Radio! This time around, we’re featuring actors who played memorable killers on Columbo and revisiting their work from the Golden Age of Radio.
Our first featured performer is Eddie Albert, who appeared in the Season One Columbo episode “Dead Weight” as Major General Martin Hollister. Before television audiences knew him as a military legend with deadly secrets, Albert starred in this moving adaptation of The Farmer Takes a Wife from Great Scenes from Great Plays.
Originally broadcast on January 14, 1949, this radio drama captures a vanished chapter of American life along the Erie Canal, as changing times threaten an entire way of living. Co-starring Albert’s wife Margo, the play explores love, loyalty, and the painful challenge of embracing change in a rapidly modernizing world.
Then, after the drama, we take a deep dive into the Columbo episode “Dead Weight,” examining Eddie Albert’s nuanced performance, the production troubles behind the scenes, and the fascinating emotional undercurrents that make the episode more compelling than its reputation suggests.
In This Episode
- The origins of the “Columbo’s Killers in Old Time Radio” summer series
- Inspiration from Shauna’s Watching It For Days YouTube channel
- Eddie Albert stars in The Farmer Takes a Wife
- Life and culture along the Erie Canal in 1835
- Themes of change, progress, and stability in postwar America
- Eddie Albert’s performance and career reflections
- A discussion of the Columbo episode “Dead Weight”
- Production problems during Season One of Columbo
- Character analysis of Major General Martin Hollister
- Suzanne Pleshette’s role as Helen Stewart
- Why “Dead Weight” works better as a character study than a traditional Columbo mystery
Featured Cast
- Eddie Albert
- Margo
- Walter Hampden
- Suzanne Pleshette
- Peter Falk
Series Information
Program: Great Scenes from Great Plays
Episode: “The Farmer Takes a Wife”
Original Broadcast: January 14, 1949
Listen for more entries in our “Columbo’s Killers in Old Time Radio” series throughout the summer.
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