Thanks Lee for sharing the research information you gathered. I understand what Peter is saying but view it from the angle that Peter was speaking in terms of extreme absolutes when a character such as Tommy Brown or Beth Chadwick to a lesser extent or Kay Freestone, for example, may be considered sympathetic villains. Again, thanks for your research.

I can't help thinking that James McEachin would have made a good killer, along with the two roles he did play. And he was all over TV at the time, so a third COLUMBO wouldn't be strange.
Maybe he never got completely out of the "character actor" category, but in a way that's true of some other actors who played killers, like Clive Revill (at least in this country).

James would have been an excellent choice.

It's late, I'm tired, I want to go to sleep but I don't like your answer Ted for too many reasons. No matter what the 'times' that this particular show was produced, writers are all about creativity and different techniques. They were smart enough to have done a show or shows with African-American lead actors.

I can't speak for Peter Falk but, in fairness, I'm not sure he would have had the same thoughts on this subject in the 1990s, or would have given the same quote, as he did during the original series.

In answering the question at the event I saw, which was in the 1990's, Falk seemed to decide right at that moment that things might have changed enough for it to work. He was not running out to call casting agents, but he acknowledged that race relations had progressed in the previous 20 years.

And just to clarify...there was no implied racism in Falk's analysis at all! Just the opposite, actually, as he cited prejudicial treatment of black Americans as the reason he had not favored the casting choice earlier.