Just wondered if anyone else found a few things odd in Make Me a Perfect Murder.
1) The older couple sitting outside of Kay's office after she tells her secretary she wants a shrimp salad. Why would an older couple be sitting in a waiting room area at a TV executive's office.
2) Kay gives the Peace sign to Mark's secretary and says Peace before she goes into Mark's office.
3) Why is the cleaning cart continuously outside of Marks office near the elevator? In fact, when Kay went to shoot Mark, you would think she would have feared that the cleaning staff was there.

Anyone else notice this or find any of this odd?

The Peace thing is really interesting. Like a lot of things in this episode, I seriously don't know what they were trying to do. But I have a theory...

My theory is that Kay and Madge were supposed to have had a past in the counterculture, maybe they even knew each other from those days.

Thanks for the theory Clay, that's an interesting one :)

Good questions.

I think it is very possible that the writers wrote in that line to show some counter culture past or sympathy. Or at least to show some of their own. It could also be that they wrote in that line to show some irony. She says peace but does not act as a very peaceful person.

I guess the studio used and actress and an actor from another job for that scene. They needed two extras and picked two out of who ever was available that day without giving it much thought. I don't know that much about the business but have been told that extras are called in to work in one area and since they are being paid for the day the studio will use them again.

Lucky for that couple - they got to tell their friends to be on the look out for them in a Columbo.

The cleaning cart question is very interesting. Its there and a killer should have wondered if someone was around. If the character paused a second to give a look around we could figure that the cart was purposely put there for affect. But she doesn't. So I think it is one one of those small things that the director should have noticed but didn't. Good catch.

Thanks Ed, love the feedback.

I agree, that was a lucky couple. That would have been a dream to me to be an extra on any Columbo (especially the 70's).

I also think it would be fun as a director to throw those quirky little things in an episode. Maybe the peace sign was even some inside, off the cuff ad lib deviation from the script with the cast/crew. Wish we had an insider's perspective :)

And of course the director James Frawley did a bit of joke casting by casting himself as the actor in the TV pilot.
(One of the things you can see him in as an actor is the famous Outer Limits episode "The Inheritors."

Yes, I thought that was really clever. I only realized that not long ago when I was studying the credits regarding the George C. Scott discussion. I think it listed Frawley as Roark, but I only put it all together when I looked up Frawley's picture and realized it was the guy in "The Professional". Love these little finds.

Speaking of James Frawley sightings, on the back of the Season 6/7 DVD cases (the American version, at least), the third photo from the left shows who I believe to be Frawley apparently giving directions to Ruth Gordon in "Try and Catch Me". For the longest time that picture puzzled me, as all the other photos on the case are screen captures from actual scenes from episodes, rather than being production photos. Interestingly, I believe that picture is the only photo I've seen of a "Columbo" director working on the set, or for that matter, the only production photo I've seen at all.
In any case, a great "Columbo" director who put such great details in his episodes, as has been pointed out in this topic already.

Oh, thank you, Mitch! That is indeed the picture. If you don't mind my asking, do you happen to know if there are similar production-type photos floating around the internet, or where they can be found? I'd love to see more. Thanks again!

James Frawley also directed many MONKEES episodes. I'm not sure which one it was, but the ending of one had one of those scenes where you're reminded it's a TV show, because he actually steps out in front of the camera while giving them directions, wearing very trendy late ' 60s clothes. (I of course never seem to get embarrassed - even in a joke way - when I see someone wearing those.)

Thank you, Mitch! That other photo is interesting, too, although I can't quite place the scenery depicted there, though Peter Falk seems to have the distinct appearance in the photo that he had throughout the seventh season.

I hadn't realized that James Frawley directed episodes for "The Monkees", but that's interesting; in fact, I might just have to locate those episodes, as I'm quite intrigued by his style, and only vaguely remember the show from when it was being rerun on some channel in the mid or late "80s. The only project other than "Columbo" that I knew he had directed was the original "Muppet Movie", which also has that sort of self-awareness in regards to television/film direction, like in the "Monkees" scene you pointed out, Grant. And as you pointed out earlier, "Make Me" has that same self-referential style, as does "How to Dial a Murder" to some degree. Was that a general theme running through most of his other films, as well, possibly?
Anyway, thanks for pointing that out!

The second photo looks like it might be from The Most Crucial Game, toward the end when Columbo was at the stadium pondering Hanlon's "perfect" alibi.

Thank you both for those insights! I suppose in both those cases I'd definitely be wrong about it being in the seventh season. Looking at it some more, the building almost kind of reminds me of Carsini's winery in "Any Old Port", though it's been awhile since I last saw that episode, so perhaps I'm misremembering.

In The Most Crucial Game, in that scene at the stadium near the end, Columbo walks under a little tunnel that looks like the tunnel in the picture. Did Hanlon's escape route in the ice cream truck involve passing under that tunnel? Maybe that is why Columbo was there looking for clues.

I believe that the picture of Falk with the fancy car is Carlos Montoya's Rolls Royce from a "Matter of Honor". I could be wrong but it looks like the background is from the ranch.

I should have known! After guessing it was Carsini's place, I started thinking that it looked kind of like the area in front of Nelson Brenner's home in "Identity Crisis", where Columbo's car was parked during his second visit. I can't recall at the moment exactly how either Carsini's or Brenner's places look, so maybe those guesses were even more far off the mark than I realize.