Episodes

  • 2.3: The Chef's Kiss

    2.3: The Chef's Kiss
    Feb 25 2022
    There’s something fishy about the murder in this episode. Novelist W. M. Akers joins us to talk about Murder Under Glass, an episode from the final season of the original NBC run of Columbo featuring Louis Jourdan as a food critic and, of course, a murderer. It is maybe not the most perfect episode, but well worth a visit for the variations on the formula—people are actually happy to see the good Lieutenant for once, and he gets to show off some serious culinary skills. We also get to talking about Will’s own mystery novels. Somehow, we wind up talking about Mack Bolan, the Executioner, of all things. And role playing games. And baseball. Oh, and there’s a little touch of film noir right at the start…

    David J. Loehr with W. M. Akers.
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    53 mins
  • 2.2: 70 is the New 40

    2.2: 70 is the New 40
    Nov 11 2021
    As podcasters and fans of podcasts—as well as good murder mysteries—we’ve convened a panel to talk about Only Murders in the Building, the new Hulu series starring Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez, created by Steve Martin and John Hoffman. Yes, there are spoilers, so go watch the series first, trust us. Then come back and listen to us talk about murders, cats, sex toys, animations, El Paso, generation gaps, and dips. As you do. And remember, he’s 76 years old! That takes the slapstick in a whole new direction.

    David J. Loehr with Annette Wierstra, Antony Johnston and Kelly Guimont.
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    1 hr and 17 mins
  • 2.1: What Happened to the Other Guy?

    2.1: What Happened to the Other Guy?
    Apr 2 2021
    Yes, it’s April 1, but this isn’t a joke, Afoot is back from the grave as it were. And that question doesn’t refer to Glenn—or does it?—but to Lt. Columbo, one of the rare television characters to become as iconic as Holmes, Poirot, Miss Marple, et al, and almost instantly from his first appearance. Or, well, Peter Falk’s first appearance. Because he wasn’t the first actor to portray the good lieutenant… The UCLA Film and TV Archive presented a special stream of an episode of The Chevy Mystery Show, a 13 episode summer replacement series from 1960. The title? Enough Rope, written by Richard Levinson and William Link, originally aired July 31, 1960. It is the story they would later expand into a stage play, then a tv movie titled Prescription: Murder. The rest is mystery. History. One of those.

    David J. Loehr with Jean MacDonald and James Dempsey.
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    40 mins
  • 13: Mysteries We Dropped

    13: Mysteries We Dropped
    Jan 28 2018
    We’ve all started reading down mystery series or authors, and then hit a point where we said, “nah, I’m good.” In this episode, we talk about what we gave up on and why, and some we loved all throughout. This comes from a place of love: we enjoyed early installments enough that we kept reading, but something eventually got lost for us. In fact, we often recommend the first few or even several novels, and tell you when the best point to stop is — the subtitle of this episode is “exactly when to stop reading.” An important note: this episode was accidentally recorded with macabre timing. The first author we discuss on this show, Sue Grafton, passed away while we were recording the episode — that same evening. We obviously didn’t know while recording, and found out the next morning. Thus, we speak about her as a current writer. We’ve edited the episode to remove some discussion about the planned final novel in her series, Z, which her family says wasn’t written and which they won’t hire someone else to write. Some Afoot news: we haven’t been able to get enough panelists together for regular tapings, so we’re going on hiatus. We will produce episodes occasionally in the future.

    Glenn Fleishman with James Callan, Katie Lane, David J. Loehr and Shannon Sudderth.
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    1 hr and 4 mins
  • 12: Forget It, Fake, It's Chinatown

    12: Forget It, Fake, It's Chinatown
    Mar 30 2017
    Forty years ago, Neil Simon wrote a pair of parodies in the mystery vein: the 1976 film Murder By Death, which sent up the great movie detectives, and The Cheap Detective in 1978, which took on hard-boiled Bogart characters, like Sam Spade. The two films have a lot in common, including Robert Moore as director, Peter Falk as the Bogie analog, and Madeline Kahn in a wonderful supporting role in each. But the Afoot panel prefers one to the other. Which one? You’ll have to listen to find out. We have spoiler-free parts of this podcast for each film, so if you just want our overview without any giveaways — hey, they’re parodies, but they’re still mysteries — use the chapter markers in your podcast app or these timestamps: 14:03: We start in on Murder By Death spoilers. 38:59: We blow the unspoiler horn to start talking about The Cheap Detective, spoiler-free. 46:22: Once more, the horn, and we get into the details of The Cheap Detective.

    Glenn Fleishman with David J. Loehr, Erika Ensign, John McCoy and Suzi Steffen.
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    1 hr and 15 mins
  • 11: When You Come to a Falk in the Road, Take It

    11: When You Come to a Falk in the Road, Take It
    Mar 11 2017
    The original rumpled detective, Columbo, broke the mold of the urbane cogitator or hardboiled world-weary dick who merely needed to assemble all the clues — and keep from being killed. Nearly every episode of the long-running TV character (across two series and 69 episodes) showed viewers the murder at its start. Columbo, a police detective, is brought in on the case, and we see the killer becoming increasingly agitated as he relentlessly circles his prey. We talk about episodes and actors, and why Falk created an enduring character.

    David J. Loehr with James Callan and Jean MacDonald.
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    1 hr and 24 mins
  • 10: Phryne with a Fringe on Top

    10: Phryne with a Fringe on Top
    Feb 10 2017
    She’s smoothly sensual, a sharp dresser, and has a wicked uppercut. We travel to the Antipodes to visit with Phryne Fisher, the protagonist of a series of 20 murder mystery books and three seasons of an adaptation to television. We like the cut of her jib and the stab of her knife. If you’d like to prep before listening, we read three of the books: Cocaine Blues, our introduction to the cast, which grows and grows; Murder in Montparnasse, which fleshes out her backstory; and Murder in the Dark, which takes place on a rambly country estate and features a sex cult. We fire off the spoiler horn after our initial background discussion.

    Glenn Fleishman with Jean MacDonald, Katie Lane, Shannon Sudderth and Suzi Steffen.
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    1 hr and 13 mins
  • 9: Bugs Meany Was Framed

    9: Bugs Meany Was Framed
    Dec 13 2016
    We talk about mysteries written for kids, which are often good reads for adults! Among panelists, we count six children at home and all of us remain kids at heart. The episode also features special guest Rex Fleishman for a brief discussion of a series he loves. We have dozens and recommendations, and have tried to list most in the show notes.

    Glenn Fleishman with James Callan, Erika Ensign, David J. Loehr and Shannon Sudderth.
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    1 hr and 15 mins