Did you ever notice that the repair guy at the gas station lends a total stranger the casual use of that huge GMC tow truck a before he even knew he was a cop?

That little fact doesn't emerge until Columbo identifies himself facing a sudden repair bill crisis, but could you imagine a mechanic rendering a courtesy like that to a customer today?

Of course not, but it shows you how far gone this country is, because it was perfectly natural to trust your neighbors that way in the one that raised me.

That's why the inferences immortalized in these photoplays stand out as clearly to me as the occasional marquee I'll see in the backdrop for premium fuel at 65 cents a gallon.

Yup, at this disparaging rate folks, I give us one more decade of our illusions ... maybe less.

Another example was mentioned in a recent thread....in "Identity Crisis", Columbo starts up a chat with two little girls when he is waiting to meet "the Top Man" at Traveltown in Los Angeles' Griffith Park. Today he would be arrested. In "By Dawn's Early Light" we see the seeds of this when Columbo asks the girl who is leaving the girl's academy where Cadet Springer's girlfriend is. She tells Columbo "I'm not supposed to talk with strangers". THIS IS A TERRIBLE THING TO TEACH CHILDREN. It is teaching them that every other person in the is a potential threat to them or an enemy. Instead one should teach their children not to GO anywhere with a stranger.
Sad commentary on modern society.

Well stated YM -- the same thoughts cross my mind every time I watch those episodes, or encounter anything else that might remind me of neighborly trust.