Didn't it strike you odd that a part-starved "dime-a-dozen" little actress would be living in such a palatial Hollywood Hills home?

If you never really noticed before, you will the next time you watch the episode. We know Fleming wasn't footing her bills yet anyway, so an apartment setting would have made more sense.

I always get a kick out of the phony backdrop to the penthouse balcony too. Maybe the studios were more forgiving in those days, or perhaps less concerned with such lighting details, but Ray's glass-shattering shadow on the painted-canvas cityscape behind him is so laughably obvious, it appears deliberate.

Which just goes to show that props and the such
are NOT what makes a good TV or movie, but
rather good acting, directing and scripts.
What is
great about Columbo is that, at its peak,
it had it all, including beautiful
sets, including Alex Benedict's house,
Nelson Brenner's house and numerous others (although when
they filmed something on a set that represented
the entrance into a house and the front door
was "open", the background which represents
the outside of the house was often very poorly
done and looked like a cheap watercolor).