Interesting...the lesbian undertones in "Perfect Murder" were obvious to me but I never picked up on any kind of gay undertones in "The Conspirators."

In Dawidziak's (sp?) book, he mentions that none of the Columbo killers were black, yet there were some actors that would have made excellent murderers but perhaps producers were too afraid of going there (James Earl Jones was mentioned in the book as great potential). However, they tossed aside political correctness in "Identity Crisis" when Brenner frames a person whose race Columbo immediately mentions, perhaps the most politically incorrect statement in the series, aside from all those minority actors used to play servants ("Lady in Waiting," "Etude in Black").

Ëven though I know everyone hates talking about the 90's episodes, I just watched "Butterfly in Shades of Grey." I kept expecting Columbo to mention that he or his wife was a fan of Fielding's conservative radio talk show, but the writers obviously didn't want to paint Columbo as a conservative (although he had a relative that was a big fan). Speaking of "Butterfly" and gay characters, we see the first openly gay character as a victim, and the killer framing the boyfriend. Well, okay, I've prattled enough....

shomrig....you could never prattle enough!!! Prattle on!!