That's a great exchange in Ashes to Ashes. McGoohan is almost mocking Columbo because he thinks all of the evidence is burned. But, as usual, Columbo gets his man.

There's another great exchange in Columbo Goes To The Guillotine as well. Eliot Blake keeps putting on his phoney baloney psychic act and Columbo pretends to be so impressed:

Columbo: Wow! Suicide, Sir? And you got all that from the air?......But it couldn't have been suicide, Sir.

Columbo keeps shooting down all of Blake's phony theories on how Max Dyson was killed. He shows Blake some corned beef and cabbage, explains the difference between Phillips and slotted screws and only at the end does he reveal that the shoulder panel has blood traces. He knew all along but kept pretending to be impressed by Blake's "psychic" abilities. As Blake leaves, Columbo tells him: "When we catch the murderer Sir, you can help us read his mind". It cracks me up and you can see fancypants Blake realizing that he may have underestimated the Lieutenant.

That's the first of the "new" episodes and I knew right then that Columbo was back!

Of course that was before they aired "No Time To Die", lol.

I am totally agreeing with all of the comments so far, about the good and the "guilty pleasure" later episodes.

To the list of totally respectable ABC episodes I would certainly add "Columbo Cries Wolf", and maybe even "RIP, Mrs Columbo".

Unfortunately I have no inside info on why those particular (or any) third-tier celebrities were used in "Uneasy Lies the Crown" -- I can only assume it was because they were available on the lot, more or less. It's been revealed here before that this episode was a flat-out remake of a non-Columbo episode, I think "McMillan and Wife," which makes me wonder if there were similar C-list celebs in the original. Nancy Walker of course was in the cast of "McMillan and Wife" so there's one connection!

I don't think I've mentioned here that the "cheesy impressionist," John Roarke, was a guy I actually knew when I was at Boston College -- one of my 5 housemates was an aspiring cinematographer, who helped John make audition tapes while he was knocking-around the comedy clubs. He was one of the first to do a first-class Ronald Reagan impression. Anyway it was a fun surprise to see him later show up on "Columbo".

Knoocking-down my own speculation about the "McMillan & Wife" that was the basis of "Uneasy Lies the Crown," I actually found it online. The episode was "Affair of the Heart". The card game is about 12 minutes into this segment (assuming Bravenet lets me post the URL), https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6ilkjr , and nope, there are no celebrities playing "themselves". Also Rock Hudson is there at the card game, which Columbo was not, as far as I recall. The killer dentist was Larry Hagman. I'll have to watch the rest, for comparison to the "Columbo" movie -- should be interesting.

Big "Columbo Cries Wolf" fan right here. One of those rare (if only?) times you see Columbo get totally played by others. But we all know he got his revenge with the infamous "GOTCHA" scene.

Definitely can't get in to the later episodes as much but it was good that they did bring it back. It's scary that i think of those as the 'new' episodes and some of those are over 30 years old. That means i'm getting old. For whatever reason, Murder,Smoke and Shadows is one i enjoyed. Fisher Stevens plays a good cocky spoiled brat of a murderer.

My favorite of the older shows was "Columbo Goes to College." Some of his old shows were brought up by the students and it was just all around good. Thanks for brining up the topic.

I have to make a correction, in "Columbo Goes to College," he talked about "Agenda for Murder," concerning the cheese. He tells the students that he follows his nose and when he got Oscar Finch he used the cheese to catch him. "Agenda for Murder" was another favorite of mine. As others have mentioned, you can't beat Patrick McGoohan.

Columbo goes to college was a disappointment to me, his cluelessness wasn’t an act, what would he have done if the murder hadn’t been accidentally broadcast? He never really follows up the fake restaurant booking, and he never gets the motive. OK, we can end with that defiant ‘we did it because we could ending’, but I don’t think Columbo would ever include this case in future lectures. Only the planted car is real Columbo, the razor-sharp intellect is otherwise too hidden away.

Uneasy lies the Crown has the worst gotcha ever, what would have happened if the murderer had brazened it out and had the tooth pulled?

Columbo also becomes a REALLY bad driver in his second outing, I hate that. Bad driving can kill people, Columbo the killer?

So the best new episodes? Columbo still razor sharp, and gripping onto the killer like a bulldog, irritating the killer enough to get him/her to make mistakes without descending into hopeless buffoonery ...

There are a few that tick the boxes, rewatched A Trace of Murder last night, and despite the insider trying to sabotage the case, Columbo was ahead of everyone right from the start, grabbed every relevant clue along the way, and saw through the smokescreens.

In Columbo Goes To College, Columbo learned from the restaurant reservation that "Mr. Rowe" is someone to keep his eye on (bad pun alert). Columbo also planted the idea of plane tickets to Phoenix and Justin and Coop took the bait. As for his lucky break with the murder being broadcast, I think almost every Columbo episode has something like that which requires the suspension of disbelief: Seeing a reverse negative in the photo store, watching a kid have somebody else tie his shoes, noticing a man with a sweat stain on his back sitting in a leather chair, etc.

Columbo is "always in the neighborhood" at exactly the right time. He's at the shipyard when Joe Devlin is talking to the Captain, Dale Kingston's house on the night he brings the stolen paintings home, the military academy when the cider is being investigated and he's in the infirmary when a feather is dropped. I forget the episode where he says: "Thats me, I'm lucky!", but he sure is, although he tends to make his own luck.

I can see why you may not like Columbo Goes To College, the murder is ridiculous for one. But to me the interaction with the kids compensates. The cocky little snots completely underestimated Columbo (as did Justin's father) and they got what they deserved.

I can't say that I'm shocked that somebody knew which episode the line was from. This is an awfully hard group to stump when the category is "Columbo". I miss the quizzes that others used to put up. Maybe I'll try my hand at it.

I look forward to the quiz.