I got a laugh when the airforce colonel tells Columbo that the phone is "really for official use only." Oh, and Columbo's reaction to the plane ride that he took was classic.

"Elevators bother me too. By the way, I don't even like being this tall !"
Great character colorizing when you piece together bits from several episodes. Almost all episodes at a certain point started to have referential laughs.

I also liked the scene with the Air Force "it might be an alert" Colonel. He kinda reminded me of character that might have been in the Doctor Strangelove film.

Good point about the thermos, which relates to another subtle gaff they allowed to slip by.

In response to Tommy's supposition about it,
Columbo states "You see, a thermos wouldn't be consumed by fire ... METAL INSIDE OF GLASS."

Of course, we never saw a thermos constructed that way, but I'm sure the pre-household-VCR producers of these shows never anticipated such microscopic scrutiny this many years down the road either.

I mean, sure, we catch their errors now, but how can we fault the fast-paced studios back then for avoiding costly retakes to re-shoot otherwise perfect scenes? After all, that's why they recycle music, character actors and stock footage.

i have to say i totally enjoyed this one myself...i love johnny cash but i liked the repoire between columbo and the murderer..you could see that he doesnt really underestimate columbo as the others usually do and that he thought maybe he could get away with it...he truly is one of the characters that had true remorse at the end...