This episode was recently on TV here in the United States. I watched it yet again. This is probably the fourth time I've seen it. And no matter how hard I try I just cant get into it.

Shoving an umbrella up the chimney? And then that umbrella miraculously appears in Columbo's possession. What is the real likelihood of that? And I did not like the performance turned in by S. Booke. Seemed sub par compared to other things that he has been in. Am I off my rocker or does anybody else feel this way?

He stole the umbrella the. night it was raining and he.visited Bikel

What gets me about this episode are the supposedly geniuses giving Columbo the stupidest of theories to the killing!

I've always had a fondness for this one. I don't know why but I quite like some of the performances in it. I agree with those who say that the members of the group, for people who are supposed to be highly inteligent, seem quite stupid but then I have an old saying about inteligent people, often "they can calculate the circumference of the Jam Jar but they need instructions on how to open it".

Also, in the UK we have a crime drama called Father Brown about a roman catholic priest in the 1950's who also acts as a crime solving sleuth. In one episode a man wants to frame someone for his murder so he ties a the gun to some rope, passes it up through the chimney where the other end is tied to a heavy rock. After he kills himself obviously the gun falls out of his hand and the rock slides down the roof pulling the gun up the chimney and hiding hte murder weapon. Because the roof is high up, the rock is obscured from below and no one can see it.

As soon as I saw that the first thing that came to mind was this the Bye Bye episode.

I've always found the title a bit silly.

I have one similar problem with Swan Song. In that one, Sorrell Booke doesn't have a BAD part, but he gets so little to do in his one single scene.

Theodore Bikel is an excellent actor, so that makes for some special moments: (1) the eye roll he gives in the club after Caroline explains the multiple meanings of "carina" (2) the chewing out of Alvin and (3) His scene with Columbo near the end where each character explains a little about themselves. Columbo explains his having to "work harder than everybody else, put in the time." Oliver Brandt explains what it was like to be "born smart". Both actors are terrific in this scene, one of the better scenes in the entire series. However, the rest of the episode does seem a bit lacking. The idiocy of the "gun snapping away" theory, etc., I mean, c'mon, man.