I wish I could remember where I read or heard this, but I believe this episode (written by Steve Bochco) was written during Columbo's original run, maybe as early as the first season. His mother read his script and something like, "Oh no, you can't have a dentist as a killer." So he tabled the script. Bochco gets sole credit for writing this episode, and I have a feeling that the episode is as strong as it is because it feels very "old school" Columbo.

That, I believe is the actual account of this episode. It was used as a near identical episode of McMillan & Wife years earlier. Wesley is one of my favorite slimey villains. A slacker who will do anything but a day's work. And anything, absolutely anything, to stay in his father in laws pockets. Giggling into Columbo's face at the race track lounge when he orders a milk, "It's my lucky drink". What a creep. Telling the wife he had framed for murder, "What I did to you was no worse than what you did to me". Total spoiled brat. Using a term of endearment, "Dad" for the father in law he is draining. This guy is utterly without a redeemable quality. What a fine job by James Read.

Joe

I think Bochco also wrote that episode of 'McMillan'. I know I wrote about it here in the fan forum, last year I believe. I guess a search of the site would bring it up.

Larry Hagman played the dentist in that version. And if I'm not mistaken, Lloyd Nolan played the father in law.

This is a good later Columbo episode. The interplay between Columbo and Wesley is vintage stuff. I do have several problems with this episode.

1. I really don't like Columbo's with trick endings and this one is particularly bad. It's signalled with the laundry blueing earlier in the episode and the 'science' bit is drawn out and painful to watch.

2. That 'comedy' scene with the coffee machine is one of the worst comedy interludes in the entire Columbo cannon. A complete loss of quality control in my opinion.

3. Columbo visiting that dentist for a crown - come on!! There is only so far I can suspend my disbelief. The entire case hangs on Columbo having to visit the dentist whilst investigating a dentist. Terrible, terrible, terrible.

4. The clunky exposition of the disolving tablet at the cafe. Just dreadful.

I don't like most of trick endings either.But there are a few ones that I find quite interesting, and this one is among them. The point and similarity of them is that: We didn't realize it's a trick until the killer confessed to his guilt, or made some fatal mistake. That kind of trick I really love! Other gems in that caterlogy are:

A Friend in Deed (Not particularly fond of this ep, but the final trick is amazing)
A Deadly State of Mind
Negative Reaction

These tricks really ring the bell to me.

I thought the laundry bluing was not good because a dentist is likely to have qualifications in stuff like physics and especially chemistry, so he'd either know it was a bluff or not admit guilt knowing it probably would be a bluff.