I was watching “Candidate for Crime” last night and I discovered a rather hilarious moment. That was when Columbo stopped for directions from a California Highway Patrol officer and was sent in for his car inspection. Needless to say, his car failed miserably. I recall when I was growing up that the CHP stopped my grandfather’s car for the same inspection (his Cadillac faired better than Columbo’s car). The CHP did these checks regularly in the 70’s.

And another one is Columbo driving the tow truck. That’s hilarious in an off beat way because shouldn’t his car be on the back-end of a tow truck?? And of course getting the $65+ dollar bill for the repairs and not having a way to pay for it. Classic stuff. Reminded me of another episode where it was determined that he didn’t “qualify” on the pistol range for 10 years and he asked a Sergeant to go down to the range and qualify for him. Great!!

yeah...from forgotten lady...classic columbo!

i loved his windshield wipers in that scene in candidate! hysterical!!
and then of course there is the vito scotti scene...pure comedy genius and timing.

I watched that one last night too, but what always got to me was that a gas station mechanic would allow a perfect stranger to "borrow" a truck like that to do some running around while his car was being repaired. I mean, Columbo didn't reveal the fact that he was an LA cop until it was time to pay!