Let us be thankful at this very appropriate time for the following things........


1 ...that Ray Flemming assumed his mistress had committed suicide.

2 ...that Leslie Williams had no conscience.

3 ...that Jim Ferris, not such an idiot, wrote it down.

4 ...that Brimmer did not try to swallow the contact lens.

5 ...that Hollister did not get rid of the gun.

6 ...that Dale Kingston did not dispose of the stolen paintings.

7 ...that the altered situation disrupted the order of Beth Chadwick's plan.

8 ...that Roger Stanford had a short fuse.

9 ...that Elliott Markham had not met Eric Prince.

10 ...that Alex Benedict did not wait until after the murder to pin on his flower.

11 ...that Jarvis Goodland took shots at the burglar.

12 ...that Paul Hanlon did not make the call at a quarter after or a quarter of the hour.

13 ...that Sir Roger Haversham lost his temper and smashed the necklace.

14 ...that Nora Chandler committed a previous murder . (Ghastly yet realistic.)

15 ...that Barry Mayfield did not have the ability of The Great Santini to burn the evidence a second after Columbo left the room.

16 ...that Emmett Clayton was deaf without his hearing aid.

17 ...that Mrs. Peck's television set went off.

18 ...that Viveca Scott became infected with poison ivy.

19 ...that the temperature went up to 109 degrees while Adrienne Carsini was away in New York.

20 ...that Nelson Hayward did not pick up the phone and make a few personal calls after firing that bullet through the glass.

21 ...that Bart Kepple let that converter sit there in the lamp the whole time, even after committing a second murder.

22 ...that Alan Mallory was convinced to change the ending of his story.

23 ...that Marshall Cahill smoked cigars.

24 ...that there was no opportune times for Tommy Brown to get rid of the parachute until it was too late.

25 ...that Columbo admired real estate in Artie Jessup's type of neighborhood.

26 ...that Milo Janus claimed that Gene Stafford had already changed into his gym clothes.

27 ...that Paul Galesko was so arrogant and talkative that he incriminated himself.

28 ...that Lyle Rumford's desire to rid the campus of cider fermenters weighed more than his desire to get away with murder.

29 ...that Haydn Danzinger allowed himself to be goaded into taking further steps to frame Lloyd Harrington.

30 ...that Harold Van Wyck did not pick up the invitation until after committing the murder.

31 ...that Mr. Morris decided to take a walk at the same time Marc Collier raced out of the murder scene.

32 ...that Grace Wheeler's film reel went haywire.

33 ...that King Ahmid Kamal was understanding of Columbo's dilemma.

34 ...that Nelson Brenner listened to the radio sports report on the way to work the morning after the murder.

35 ...that Luis Montoya remained afraid of bulls even after committing murder.

36 ...that Santini did not have time to destroy the entire typewriter.

37 ...that the commodore's watch was smashed at the scene of the crime.

38 ...that Ward Fowler left fingerprints.

39 ...that Ruth Litton could not decide whether or not to frame her niece.

40 ...that Oliver Brandt was proud enough of his precisely calculated plan to give himself away and not be bested by a ridiculously chance "vibrations" theory.

41 ...that Edmund did not die instantly upon being locked in the safe.

42 ...that Paul Gerard was fearful enough to try to kill Columbo.

43 ...that Kay Freestone fell for the decoy gun trap.

44 ...that Eric Mason left enough clues to sink a ship.

45 ...that Columbo did go far before saying "no farther."

Phew! You must have been exhausted after writing that! Really thought-provoking stuff David, brilliant!

Great List David. Excellent!!
I particularlly liked #4. Just think of the type of search warrants that Columbo would have had to file if Brimmer had swallowed the lens..........not a pretty thought!!
And as far as #9 is concerned...who is Eric Prince? I'm a little confused.

Again...Terrific Job!

I'm puzzled too...who is the Eric Prince that you refer to? He's not in the cast & characters list on IMDB; was he somebody who Elliot Marhham refers to in the episode, perhaps the person who gave him the idea of building Williamson city?

Leighton, I did a search on Eric Prince....um.....well...the only results I got were gay porn sites...I'm sorry, but I am a bit befuddled. I thought maybe he was a terrific architect that I hadn't heard of. I'm sure David will fill us in.

Eric Prince was the killer in "Ashes to Ashes." It was a reference that Prince had disposed of the body by cremation and perhaps that is what Elliott Markham should have done.

Regarding no. 6 "Dale Kingston not disposing
of the stolen paintings". I would go farther
and say Columbo should have given thanks that
Kingston brought them into the house RIGHT UNDER
COLUMBO's NOSE and gave Columbo the opportunity
to touch them. The idiot could see that Columbo
was dozing, all he had to do was turn around and
put the paintings back in his car, or stash them
around the back of his house, or something similar
until Columbo left. WHAT A MORON! (or dumb writer
who couldn't figure out a better way for Columbo
to solve the case!)

Thank you David. I have never seen Ashes To Ashes so I had no idea who Eric Prince was.

... and I am thankful that you have taken the time to compose such a delightful post!

I thought I would bump this up to the top so we could again enjoy David's wonderful Thanksgiving post!

A lot of fun and clever ideas here!

i'm so glad you did e! david had done a fantastic job on this.