Here's 3 that I could think of and that I have mentioned before about possible plot line goofs.

1)Ward Fowler's faked alibi in "Fade into Murder". He drugs his friend, tapes the ballgame, commits the murder, rewinds the tape to the point where his friend fell asleep, resets the clock and wakes his friend. So what kind of alibi is that?! If he fell asleep at 8.50pm and Ward sneaks out to commit the murder say at 9.10pm and returns and wakes his friend who thinks it is still 8.50pm, Ward takes him to his bedroom for his friend to sleep it off, then Ward has no alibi because all Columbo need to ask was what time did you nod off and he would reply 8.50pm and Columbo would say to Ward so no one can varify your whereabouts after 8.50pm!

2) Emmet Clayton at the memorial chess matches for Dudek. Clayton loses a game of chess to a member of the public in 4 moves ie Fool's mate, the shortest game that can be won in chess. I find it incredible that a chess grandmaster could lose to Fool's mate. Also Clayton said to the amateur "a new game" but he must have made at least one move before he made the second fatal move!

3)The missing fingerprints on the photos, glue and newspaper in Negative Reaction. Galesko wears gloves when he makes the fake ransom note, takes the photos of his "hostage" wife. So his fingerprints are not on the ransom note. He hands the ransom note over to Deschler before he kills him so Deschler's prints are on the note.

Things Columbo should have spotted and asked about

a) Why is Galesko's prints are not on the ransom note? I mean you would expect his prints to be on them as he would have opened the note.

b) Why was Deschler's fingerprints on the ransom note but not on the photos, glue and newspaper? Columbo should have asked himself why is it he wore gloves whilst using the glue and the newspaper to construct ransom note, to take photos of the hostage and yet the ransom note have his fingerprints on it? Inconsistent


Has anyone got anymore?

"Any Old Port in a Storm" has a really bad plot line, but I still enjoy it.
(1) Adrian and Ric have their big argument with Adrian screaming his head off ("the 50 cents a gallon Merino Brothers!!!") a couple of rooms away from where his three guests are waiting and they hear nothing. He also beans Ric and they don't hear him fall to the floor.
(2) Columbo says "it was 109 degrees outside and in the wine cellar the temperature went way up, to 150 degrees".
First of all, this was only a couple days after it was a cold and rainy day, and it is rare in Southern California to have such extreme changes in such a short time. What's worse is that the writer doesn't know anything about wine cellars. They were invented thousands of years before air conditioning and they are designed to remain cool, even if it is very hot outsided. Thus, even if it was 109 degrees outside, it wouldn't get out of the 80's inside, much too cool to oxidize the wine Columbo stole.
Thirdly, Columbo couldn't have stolen it. We see him leave the cellar..the bottle is heavy and bulky but it is clear from the way his ubiquitour raincoat moves that there is no bottle hidden under the coat. Columbo was taking a very big risk doing that.
Finally, I can't believe that Adrian would completely go bananas and destroy so much valuable wine because of the oxidation which everyone admitted only a few experts in the world like Carsini would even notice!
Still, it is an entertaining episode--Donald Pleasance saves it from the bad script.

The thing that bothers me about "Any Old Port" is that even if it got to be more than 150 degrees in the wine cellar and the wine oxidized, so what? How exactly does knowing this solve the murder?

Another one that bugs me is "Identity Crisis", which, again, is still a good episode in spite of its big flaw.
Nelson Brenner blew it big time by meeting Geronimo at the amusement park. Geronimo himself noted that but Brenner feels the "safest place" to hold a clandestine
meeting is a crowded public place. However, the danger is that someone will remember the two of them being together, as did the shooting gallery operator...not to mention the photographer who got them on film. DUMB, DUMB, DUMB!

Boy, Guys! These were great! You really ripped them apart!!! But really, very interesting points.

Sorry to talk about Etude in Black again..but there are a few things that have always bothered me.

First the flower! Columbo is sooooooo observant....why the heck didn't he notice it on the floor...it was right there. He surely should have seen it...or even some of the other officers who were present at the time.

And fingerprints! Alex Benedict had obviously been to Jenifer Welles' apartment numerous times. His fingerprints had to be all over the place. Even when he entered that night he wasn't wearing gloves at the time...he had to have left prints on the door knob. And the same could be said for Paul Rifkin's prints too...he visited her often as well and yet there is no mention of finding his or Alex's prints anywhere. What the heck were the police dusting??

Maybe Columbo left the flower where it was in the hope that someone would pick it up! good point about the prints.

Regarding fingerprints, I would imagine that
Joe Devlin left a lot on the the bottle of
"Full's Irish Dew" that he kicked with his
foot over to the body of Vincent Pauley
in "The Conspirators". He clearly
had no chance to wipe them off after
the shooting, and fingerprints are
probably better proof than the
scratch marks.

Alcohol dissolves fingerprints, I believe. So, the spilled whiskey took care of that.

Joe

Galesko had Alvin inspect the properties for him. So, presumably Alvin's fingerprints are all over the houses, including the crime scene. But not on the alarm clock. Why?

Boy! aren't we all so smart and observant!!! I love it!!

In Lovely but Lethal, Viveca's prints should be on the magazine that she wrote on to offer Carl more money. Columbo looks at it closely enough to notice that the figures were written with a make-up pencil, but why doesn't he see or check for any prints?

And 2 telephone problems....
In How to Dial a Murder...couldn't they check the phone records to see if Dr. Mason had called from the examining room when he was having his test done?
And on the same note...in Old Fashioned Murder...couldn't they check the phone records of the museum to see if Milton Schaeffer actually called his brother from there?

And I always thought Dr. Mason was quite lucky that there was a telephone in the examination room, that he could get an outside line, and that he knew the code for an outside line. And that the doctor would leave him alone at exactly 3:00. Also, what if Charlie wouldn't have answered the phone? It's not his house, not his phone...I wouldn't have answered it.

But this is still one of my favorite episodes!

All excellent points!!
And it is probably my second favorite episode. I love it.

"Let's run away and be Indians, Charlie."

Tim O'Connor is recording on tape all the artefacts on tape. Surely the noise of the gunshot will be on the tape?

Great point Kev. Boy you people are so smart!!

All of the artifacts are being taped by Tim O'Connor. The sound of the gunshot must have been captured on video, right? basketball stars