So what happened to the Stanford Chemical Plant after Columbo put Rodger away for the murder of his uncle? Well, according to the horrible and misguided series "Galactica 1980", by 1980 the manager was a guy named Stockwell and he was dumping pollutants into a nearby river causing sickness and death!

The reason we know its the same plant is because the "Galactica 1980" episode uses stock footage from "Short Fuse" to show us the plant and it's called the "Stanford Chemical Plant" throughout the episode (the name was changed in its script to accommodate the Columbo stock footage).

All in keeping with how Columbo props and costumes would turn up in other Universal shows in the era. I imagine there are other instances of scenes originally shot for a "Columbo" that ended up in other Universal shows. Columbo of course sometimes had stock footage from shows that came before it, like the image of the glass table shattering when Lenore Kennicutt is murdered in "Death Lends A Hand" which originally came from the Spielberg directed segment of the "Night Gallery" pilot (when Joan Crawford meets her demise).

Great trivia!

It's also fun to look at pictures of THE CITADEL in South Carolina and imagine By Dawn's Early Light being filmed there. Start with Google Images.