Peter Falk was a guest on The Johnny Carson Show tonight, April 9th, 2016.

The original telecast date was May 20th, 1977. Falk talked about the episode of "Columbo" which was airing two days later, Sunday May 22nd, 1977. He told Johnny and the audience that the episode centered around a club that really exists, but that he (Falk) had never known of. The "club" is Mensa. So that tells you immediately which episode Falk was talking about.

Carson knew about the Mensa angle of the upcoming episode and had his crew contact a Mensa Society in Brooklyn and ask for a couple of test questions which appear on a Mensa application form. The first question was "Which one does not belong? Chess, Bridge, Go, Mahjong, Backgammon?" (Answer below.)

Falk got a great laugh from Carson and the audience when, at one point, he put on a pair of glasses to read the Mensa questions. Carson looked at the glasses on Falk's face and asked, "How can you even see through those?" Falk answered, "I only have to keep one lens clean." ! ! !

They showed a clip of the episode, "The Bye-Bye, Sky-High, I. Q. Murder Case". It was the scene where Columbo enters a restaurant to meet with someone. Columbo brings a doughnut in with him. The waitress (the then unknown Jamie Lee Curtis) gives him a nasty look for bringing an "outside" doughnut into her restaurant. The scene got a great laugh from Carson's audience.

Falk presented the audience with the episode's puzzle: the bags filled with Gold. After considering the puzzle a moment, Carson claimed he had already figured it out. Falk begged him not to reveal the answer because he wanted everyone to tune in and watch the episode for the answer. (I was left wondering as to whether or not Carson truly did know the answer, or if he was just getting the better of Falk!)

Falk also talked about his new movie, "The Cheap Detective", after which Carson went to a commercial. When the show came back, Carson said he knew Falk had to leave and Falk gave the audience a wave goodbye. Other guests on the show were Steve Landesberg and Carl Sagan. Muhammed Ali had been the first guest out.

It is so wonderful to be able to see "The Johnny Carson Show" again and to see these great guests like Peter Falk.

(The answer to the Mensa question is "Bridge".)

I can't help thinking that Johnny DID know the answer to that puzzle, because magic (the stage kind) was something he had made a partial career out of. Maybe this puzzle isn't the same as magic, but it's in sort of the same area. At any rate, he would have LIKE to know.