We've all enjoyed seeing our everyman hero bring down political candidates, radio talkshow hosts, self-help gurus, and entertainment figures (among others). What profession or occupation has he not investigated that y'all (I'm from North Carolina!) might want to see him get involved in. I'd like to see him solve a crime concerning public education. A murder of a public school teacher because he/she wouldn't knuckle under to an administrator and falsely report standardized test scores?

Heck, we can take this one letter by letter...

A is for ... astronomer, astrologer, animator, aviator, arms dealer, agriculturist, .....

Joe

My idea was to think of a profession/occupation and a credible situation in which a murder would occur worthy of our hero's investigation skills.

In my Columbo script that I wrote for fun, the murderer is a yacht broker. But perhaps that's too similar to Last Salute's atmosphere. (Although I did include a scene in an observatory tower as well!)

Mark

How about Osama Bin Laden?? (if he is still alive!) Osama knocks off some guy he meets in a bar because the guy makes fun of his beard.

Michael I loved your idea about the administrator and the faking of the standardized tests...my son is in high school and I understand what you mean.
And Mark....I would love love love to read your script!!

I think arms dealers were profiled in Conspirators.

I used to be in accounting, that's been covered in Sky High I.Q.

It would have to be a more lucrative profession, since that's the usual Columbo scheme. So I guess lingerie models would fit in. Wonder if they'll do a spoof of the Victoria's Secrets catalogue?

Now that's a winner!!

Calm down boys!!

I always thought a cartoonist would have been a good idea. Sort of like a Jim Davis type who did "Garfield" with a similar type character that just happened to be a Bassett Hound. Or maybe take it a step further like a Walt Disney type character who built a cartoon character into a theme park.

Oh, yes, a cartoonist is a must. Charles Schulz, Chester Gould, Jim Davis, et al rake, or raked, in the money with a back hoe. Plenty of room for professional jealousy, plagiarism, etc. Or maybe the creator of a famous comic book character like a man of steel or a crawling arachnid fellow.

Joe

yeah, I think the cartoonist angle is a great one--plenty of material there. Many of us have followed the controversies of Trudeau's Doonesberry or Marlette's politcal cartoons.

Yup, Trudeau, Oliphant, Marlette, Tinsely, are political cartoonists.

Comic strip creators would include Chester Gould, Jim Davis, Hank Ketchum, and others.

Comic book creators would cover Stan, the Man, Lee, or Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.

And, finally, Nina we Nina have a Nina cariciturist, the late, great, Al Hirscfeld.

Joe 3

The political cartoonist could have the angle of a cartoonist seemingly knowing more than what he reads in the newspapers about a politcal boss--and getting murdered for it. Clues could be in his final cartoon.

Hi guys,
I was always a little mystified as to why they never used a pilot. Closest we got was Johhny Cash. Seems like a no-brainer to me.

Good choice I think. What could a story line be? Pilot kills wife and uses his complex flight schedule to claim he was elsewhere? And Columbo's fear of heights could be used well, too.

As a former daily newspaper reporter, I've always felt a police beat reporter would be perfect -- he or she could shadow Columbo, get the tidbits the cops aren't supposed to release, and even manipulate coverage to cover his or her tracks.

A great one!!!