Watching ‘Columbo‘ on TV was a part of my growing up; his TV ‘cases’ always seemed to be the same… some over privileged twit commits a murder with a perfect alibi… Lieutenant Columbo comes in to ask a few questions and blunders around, seemingly impressed by the twit’s power and prestige. The twit patronizes the unkempt detective (who seems straight out of Brooklyn) and grows impatient at the seemingly inane questions, and, just before leaving, Columbo catches the murderer in a web of lies and forces a confession.
After all the gritty and dramatic cop shows over the decades that followed, this would probably seem like pretty tame stuff, but I remember loving it as a kid, mostly because Falk’s Columbo was so likable and charismatic and his opponents always underestimated him. If I remember right, Columbo wasn’t one of those detective shows that kept the identity of the murderer a secret; you saw who committed the murder right at the start. The ‘reveal’ was not finding out ‘whodunnit‘ but what tiny and overlooked detail would bring the murderer to justice.