The Lt. Columbo Forum

An area where fans from all over can ask each other questions and voice their own ideas and opinions on anything Columbo.

This Forum is fondly dedicated in memory of  "cassavetes45"  (Carleen Zink),
Columbo's greatest fan and a great friend to us all.
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Murder With Too Many Notes (MWTMN) original ending.

So I recently discovered this website by looking at reviews on IMDB for MWTMN, I recently watched the episode, I thought it was decent instalment, certainly nothing incredible, but it was an enjoyable episode and I felt Billy Connolly done a good job with Findlay Crawford, although there was some filler that went on for too long.
The ending did feel confusing, but I read many great posts explaining why Columbo actually has a pretty solid case against the culprit, but these posts mentioned that the ending was changed by Patrick McGoohan to stick with the musical theme, the original ending apparently involved an excellent gotcha which nailed Findlay making sure he had no way out.
Would anybody be willing to tell me the ending if they know it?

Re: Murder With Too Many Notes (MWTMN) original ending.

I have a theory about the ending, although it's most definitely musical in nature.

People are very coy about this "original" ending you refer to, and I've never found a post that outlines exactly what it might be.

Re: Murder With Too Many Notes (MWTMN) original ending.

I must stress this is a complete guess and I have no knowledge of alternative endings for this episode but how about it involves the love notes B E C C A being found in all of Gabriel's works like a sort of watermark. It doesn't appear in any of Crawfords scores, even the ones they co-wrote.

Something like that would make sense because other than that, the emphasis on that clue is pretty weak and doesn't really add up to much.

Re: Murder With Too Many Notes (MWTMN) original ending.

When I first saw this episode and Columbo gave his explanation on the roof at the end, I thought that I had missed something. But on rewatching it, the "gotcha" clue made even less sense. Perhaps the B-E-C-C-A sequence of notes being in the score showed that Findlay Crawford wasn't actually the composer because Becca wasn't his girlfriend, she was Gabes. This thereby proved that.....I guess Gabe actually wrote the music and therefore...err couldn't have killed himself because...umm Findlay didn't write...ugh forget it. It still makes no sense.

My guess is that they had a logical story that was changed in production due to a deadline and the producers decided to air it the way it was and hoped nobody would notice. I’ve probably said this before, but I picture Kay Freestone tearing up pages and crossing out lines and saying: “Don’t worry boys, they’ll never know what they missed”. Except we definitely did.