I think to some people having a TV show is not a great sign of success. I've heard of several instances where children of prominent doctors, lawyers, politicians etc have children that want to go into music or acting and the parents are like "that's not a real job". Maybe his brother didn't see having a TV show as something to be proud of.

It might be saying the obvious, but I think Dexter is one of those COLUMBO characters based very loosely on real people. In his case, Graham Kerr, "The Galloping Gourmet." Including Dexter's tradition of asking an audience member to help him cook the dish.

Glenn, I wouldn't lose too much sleep over this kid Charles. I made a lot of prank phone calls when I was a kid and I always thought that the next generation of kids would get me back, lol. Of course today we have the internet so kids use that.

This is an interesting episode because Peter Falk and Martin Landau were clearly off script with the humor and bantering going back and forth. They were trying their best to hold it together.

This has always been my favorite episode. Sure it has plenty of plot holes but it has some of the most humorous scenes, especially with Mrs. Peck.

I have to agree with you 100%. I recently watched this episode and couldn't believe how bad it was. I really favor the older episodes too, a lot of the newer ones are too corny and the quality of the writing just isn't there.

But this was so bad it was hard to get through. At one point I was just praying that Columbo would throw Mrs. Peck down the stairs or strangle her. One of the most annoying characters I've ever seen on screen.

But everything was bad about this episode, writing, directing, editing etc. Dig the scene on the cooking program where Columbo rolls up his sleeves to separate the yolks, then they cut and his sleeve is down and he rolls it up again. Just a sloppy episode.

In addition to the fact that Mrs. Peck is infuriating on all levels, what I don't like about this episode is how in the end its a ridiculously easy item (phone records of calls between the brothers) that's supposed to be the other key to nabbing them. It's not much of a clue and is the kind of thing that Columbo would have learned much *earlier* in the process, much in the same way that "Lady In Waiting" is done in by the fact that the "payoff" clue is something that Columbo would have logically known about the first night much earlier in the going.