i agree ym. it is a very sad commentary. i know when my husband and i are out at the grocery store and there is a little girl there he invariably says hello to her and maybe starts a little conversation with her......but the looks from the mothers are downright horrible. my husband is a very friendly person and he likes to talk to people. but some of these women take it as if he were trying to kidnap their daughters or something! HE IS STANDING THERE WITH ME!!
i just find the whole thing quite sad.

ok...sorry for ranting...

as far as the topic goes....i love all the scenes in forgotten lady dealing with Dog. he buys him an ice cream cone...and then he drives to grace wheeler's house and when he gets out of the car he sees that Dog has ice cream all over his face!! and he tells Dog that he has to clean his own face!! it is so adorable!

He also has a neat little interaction with the son of Brimmer's favorite employee in "Death Lends a Hand." Leo's wife actually DOES run up, angry and scared about this strange man in a raincoat pushing her son on the swing.

You can definitely see that it was a different time, though. As Cassa noted, his playfulness with the girls in "Identity Crisis"--especially telling them both that they are pretty--would upset some people today.

RE: the Bye Bye Sky High IQ case, I also wonder what Caroline Treynor's parents would think in 2006 if she went home from the Sigma Club and told her parents that the police lieutenant told her he liked her for her body instead of her mind.

Columbo also touches girls and women more than would be acceptable today--e.g., laying his hand over Joanne Nichols's clavicle before he leaves, while she is dressed in a robe. I imagine some young college women would find that gesture a little disconcerting from a police officer they just met.

Wow, you guys really impress me with your eye for details!!

Let's not forget Columbo's relationship with the killer's mother's dog in "Lady in Waiting."

It is great how witnessing Columbo's affection for that dog actually adds to Beth Chadwick's frustration with him. Very deep episode.

Ah yes . . . Fred Draper's "you're a sport" scene.