Interesting comments. I never thought of your idea that this episode
was shortened, and i although i enjoyed this episode i did have the feeling of something missing....

- It would have been nice to at least have a seen with Tanya Baker. Why is
Mr. Norris threatening Dr. Kepple with "asking the D.A. to look in to it"; when he is the one that evidently had an affair?

- When Dr.Kepple asks Columbo if he's talked to Mrs. Norris and Columbo kind of dismisses her as a suspect; then Dr. Kepple appears disappointed? I know Kepple told Columbo that "70% of murdered spouse are committed by the other spouse" but it was strange he showed his disappointment to Columbo that early on. Maybe that scene was moved up in sequence a bit?

No, I don't think it was moved up, I think the disappointment probably explained why Kepple then went to the trouble of breaking into the Norris home and stealing that particular gun to kill Roger, in the hopes of throwing suspicion back on her. What was to stop him from just using his own gun with the calibrating device to kill Roger?

The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced the missing Columbo-Mrs. Norris scene took place after Roger's murder to establish for Columbo that her house had been broken into and she had an alibi for that murder. She might also have given Columbo more insights into her husband that could make him see more Kepple's likely motive for killing him.

One thing that always bothered me about this episode, as well as another Robert Culp episode (Death Lends a Hand), is that why would someone with a highly successful business resort to blackmail. Particularly in this episode, it is way too risky to resort to this kind of activity. In Death Lends a Hand, I know it was supposed to help with information for his existing business, but there were better ways to do that. However, they are still two of my favourite episodes.

That's a good point. If Kepple's so brilliant and respected then he really doesn't have to resort to any of these stunts to curry favor with advertising agencies. Maybe if it were an extension of his own relationship with Tanya that might have provided an insight.

In Brimmer's case, it was more understandable. I think he felt that by having Mrs. Kennicutt give him what he wanted, that way he didn't have to waste the manpower of his own team to find out the info.

Yes, Brimmer's much more understandable, but quite expectedly risky as proven by the outcome. But Kepple was also an author of many books in his field, with a doctorate as mentioned multiple times, which made it very odd that he would run his business that way when you stopped to think about it. I agree it would have been great to have Arlene as the model, it would have tied it all together a bit better. I guess they didn't foresee all of us Columbo fans caring about continuity and details.

Thanks for the feedback Eric!

What makes the murder of Norris harder to understand is that (unlike Lenore Kennecut) he doesn't threaten to ruin the blackmailer himself. So Keppler really should have just dropped it.

One thing I find odd about Arlene Martel being missing from it is the model in that one frame of film, who ISN'T Arlene Martel. You'd think Tanya Baker would be the girl in that photo, especially since you also hear that she's THE model that the company uses, as opposed to one of several. I've said it before, but if she'd been in that photo, she'd at least be in the episode in a technical way.

And of course, she and Robert Culp having no scenes together (in the finished version) is a real missed opportunity, especially to anyone who's seen their OUTER LIMITS episode.

All the footage we saw in the "documentary" though clearly came from pieces of material in the Universal stock library. The shot of lower Manhattan we see in the second showing of it is a shot that appears in many Universal productions (even though it was out of date at the time, not showing the World Trade Center). I have to assume the model in the shot was a generic piece of stock footage already there, because that would have been cheaper than having Arlene pose in a swimsuit just for something that quick.

Yes, that makes sense.

I just saw it again, and one slightly odd thing in the final scene is the way gun-hating Columbo recites the names of those guns in the case. But then, he almost always goes through a crash course in some subject or other, so maybe he finally got around to the subject of guns in this episode?