Great thought provoker...... Dutch Uncle was used in Suitable for Framing by Ross Martin when talking to Don Ameche. He wanted him to talk to Kim Hunter, you know, like a Dutch uncle, to get her to consent to having her house searched the police "to clear her".

My two cents.

Quite eerie, Cosmic!

One of the "throws off sparks" episodes was "Blueprint For Murder." It was said by the only Columbo character whose last name is the same as my own (Sherman).

Oh.....ok....the secretary. Very good David Sherman!

excellent...everyone is absolutely right so far.

you guys know your columbo details.

i just checked, and steven bochco wrote both "murder by the book" and "blueprint for murder." i was wondering if the writer was the same person...

dutch uncle-- Sky-High Bye Bye IQ

excellent work, all.

the other bird reference occurs in season seven, and i was hoping someone could explain it to me. :) i guess i'm not a "clever girl."

the other reference to "throwing off sparks" occurs in the same other steven bochco episode. i just thought it was interesting that those phrases, "throwing off sparks" and "corpus delicti" both showed up in both episodes...definitely evidence of his particular writing style, i think.

The reference is the nightingale in "Try and Catch Me."

I think Abigail was just testing to see if Veronica could hear the tape recorder through the safe, to make sure that nobody would be able to hear Edmund's screams.

thank you, E! i never got the connection to the tape recorder before.

okay, now it makes sense.

You can add this:

"I guess your bird has flown, eh Columbo?"

- Dirk in Dagger of the Mind, explaining that Columbo's theory is no good.