Bryce, can you be more specific about the issue (and page) that has this article? I appreciate that you've said it was just a short blurb, but so far I haven't been able to find it in the issue now in supermarkets -- dated November 18, with Kerry Washington on the cover. Maybe it was in the previous issue, and I missed it? Or is it in one of the "special" issues also on the stands? Probably I should also ask whether you are talking about the USA magazine, not another version.

Thanks for any specifics to help me hunt it down, and thanks for your original tip about it.

I have some inside info on the final episode of Columbo, no studio was willing to pick up the final script. So Peter Falk and remaining cast members were secretly funding the production and were filming a final episode in hopes that ABC would pick it up. The screen play was written entirely by Peter Faulk himself and his friends and cast members decided to go ahead and produce it with or without a studio backing. There was enough filmed to release this as a full episode as the final scene had been filmed along with some key elements of the story. Peter wrote in a few exciting changes to go out with a climatic finale to end the Columbo series.

The plot involves Columbo being promoted to Captain. Captain Columbo switches from cigar to smoking a pipe, and trades in his raincoat for a bright red cape and black leather boots. Sgt. Wilson is promoted to Lieutenant and becomes Captain Columbo's trusty side kick wearing green shorts and yellow tights. The Peugeot is retro fit with mag wheels, racing stripes and a big red blinking light on the roof. Robert Culp returns as a painted faced villain who repeatedly avoids interviews and interrogations by slipping into secret tunnels and passage ways. After a big bowl of Corn Flakes for lunch Captain Columbo eventually breaks down our villian by sneaking into his fortress of solitude and tricking him into admitting his guilt by putting truth dust in his air vent.