Watched my favorite episode this morning ("A Friend in Deed").

Anyone ever notice the street scene on skid row with the Hard Rock Café in the background? It's at around 1 hr 30 min.

It got me curious and I found this 1974 clip on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp9tHGyF54E

The youtube video shows not one, but two Hard Rock Cafés, one with the Café written in script (at about 55 sec) and one in all block letters (at about 1:40)like in the Columbo episode. From a little reading, it looks like the one shown in the Columbo episode is the Hard Rock Café, made famous by The Doors and the inspiration for the famous restaurant/bar chain.

What's more, the youtube clip also shows another location (I think it's the seedy rooming house, but I've already forgotten :grin: ---could be the bar). I can't make out the rooming house/bar, but at about 1:23, I can make out the Hotel Lorane and a sign for Club 528, both of which are shown in the Columbo episode.

And just to show I have way too much time on my hands, Hotel Lorane seems to have made an appearance in the first Rocky movie.

http://totalrocky.com/filming-location-guide/hotel-lorane.html

Don't know if these scenes ever came up for the readers who were trying to track down filming locations, but the Café was at 300 E 5th St and the hotel was on the next block.

Wait! There's more!

http://www.iamnotastalker.com/2010/03/15/the-pool-hallbar-from-michael-jacksons-beat-it-video/

Wonder if that's true.

Thanks for the research, I always appreciate knowing where locations are because I'm a total Colombo addict! I always wondered where the down beat bar was as it looked totally genuine. Thank you.

I loved that Skid Row video. It’s interesting to see where a guy like Artie Jessup would hang out. When I get power back (big storm in NY) I’m going to watch A Friend In Deed.

Good luck Pete. We were lucky. Power was only out for 13 hours for us, put there are folks who have been without power since mid-afternoon Friday here in Eastern PA.