History Awesome / Columbo

* One of the rare times Columbo is seen upset is in "A Stitch In Crime," when he's facing Leonard Nimoy's character of Dr. Mayfield. Dr. Mayfield is an open heart surgeon who's working on a crucial research project with a senior partner, Dr. Hiderman. Mayfield also has to operate on his partner, by repairing his heart valves with permanent sutures. He instead uses dissolving sutures, which when dissolved will cause his partner's heart to rupture, killing him in a few weeks, leaving Mayfield to hog all the credit for the project. Sharon Martin, a nurse, discovers this and Mayfield kills her (which is how Columbo first gets on the case). In a genuinely chilling moment, Columbo abruptly drops all pretense and actually slams a beverage pitcher onto a table! He angrily informs Mayfield that [[spoiler:if his partner dies anytime soon, Columbo will have a full autopsy performed to see if the real cause of death was that the sutures that were supposed to keep his heart valves in place were no longer there. This forces Mayfield to re-operate on his partner, forcing him to save the life of the man he was initially plotting to murder.]]

* Real life example- after Falk's death, his estranged daughter from his first marriage, Catherine Falk, tried to sue for control of his estate. The judge denied her request and left Shera Danese as executor. This is awesome as Catherine Falk had not even spoken to her father or showed him any attention while he was alive and especially not in the years when he was dying, whereas Shera Danese had been with him since they met on set to the day he died.
* Another real life example, from behind-the-scenes- during filming of "Murder with Too Many Notes", actor Billy Connolly was often drunk and difficult to work with(knowing this, one has to wonder if his drunken state in the bungalow scene with Columbo was acting, or if he was really hammered). Patrick [=McGoohan=] finally got tired of this and spend 20 minutes chewing him out on set. Connolly remained sober for the remainder of the production.

* One of the rare times Columbo is seen upset is in "A Stitch In Crime," when he's facing Leonard Nimoy's character of Dr. Mayfield. Dr. Mayfield is an open heart surgeon who's working on a crucial research project with a senior partner, Dr. Hiderman. Mayfield also has to operate on his partner, by repairing his heart valves with permanent sutures. He instead uses dissolving sutures, which when dissolved will cause his partner's heart to rupture, killing him in a few weeks, leaving Mayfield to hog all the credit for the project. Sharon Martin, a nurse, discovers this and Mayfield kills her (which is how Columbo first gets on the case). In a genuinely chilling moment, Columbo abruptly drops all pretense and actually slams a coffee carafe onto a table! He angrily informs Mayfield that [[spoiler:if his partner dies anytime soon, Columbo will have a full autopsy performed to see if the real cause of death was that the sutures that were supposed to keep his heart valves in place were no longer there. This forces Mayfield to re-operate on his partner, forcing him to save the life of the man he was initially plotting to murder.]]

* One of the rare times Columbo is seen upset is in "A Stitch In Crime," when he's facing Leonard Nimoy's character of Dr. Mayfield. Dr. Mayfield is an open heart surgeon who's working on a crucial research project with a senior partner, Dr. Hiderman. Mayfield also has to operate on his partner, by repairing his heart valves with permanent sutures. He instead uses dissolving sutures, which when dissolved will cause his partner's heart to rupture, killing him in a few weeks, leaving Mayfield to hog all the credit for the project. Sharon Martin, a nurse, discovers this and Mayfield kills her (which is how Columbo first gets on the case). In a genuinely chilling moment, Columbo abruptly drops all pretense and actually slams a coffee cup onto a table! He angrily informs Mayfield that [[spoiler:if his partner dies anytime soon, Columbo will have a full autopsy performed to see if the real cause of death was that the sutures that were supposed to keep his heart valves in place were no longer there. This forces Mayfield to re-operate on his partner, forcing him to save the life of the man he was initially plotting to murder.]]

* The ending of the early episode ''Suitable for Framing,'' where the greedy art critic murders his uncle for his valuable paintings, then tries to frame the uncle's ex-wife for the crime by planting the paintings at her house. When they'e discovered, Columbo orders fingerprint testing. The murder smugly assures him that it wouldn't matter, since he'd frequently handled the paintings anyway. They find fingerprints. [[spoiler: But not the murder's; Columbo's. See, earlier in the show he'd met the murderer while he was carrying the stolen paintings in a case and casually reached in, professing interest in seeing them before the murderer stopped him.]] The murderer then furiously accuses the detective of planting the evidence just now, causing Columbo to [[spoiler: pull his hands out of his pocket, revealing that he's wearing gloves.]] The look on the art critic's face is priceless.

* One of the rare times Columbo is seen upset is in "A Stitch In Crime," when he's facing Leonard Nimoy's character of Dr. Mayfield. Dr. Mayfield is an open heart surgeon who's working on a crucial research project with a senior partner, Dr. Hiderman. Mayfield also has to operate on his partner, by repairing his heart valves with permanent sutures. He instead uses dissolving sutures, which when dissolved will cause his partner's heart to rupture, killing him in a few weeks, leaving Mayfield to hog all the credit for the project. Sharon Martin, a nurse, discovers this and Mayfield kills her (which is how Columbo first gets on the case). In a genuinely chilling moment, Columbo abruptly drops all pretense and actually slams a coffee cup onto a table! He angrily informs Mayfield that [[spoiler:if his partner dies anytime soon, Columbo will have a full autopsy performed to see if the real cause of death was that the surtures that were so supposed to keep his heart valves in place were no longer there. This forces Mayfield to re-operate on his partner, forcing him to save the life of the man he was initially plotting to murder.]]
* In "An Exercise in Fatality," Columbo gets so fed up with Milo Janus that he tells him "she thinks you killed her husband, and you want to know something? So do I!"

* The real killer in ''Murder in Malibu'' is caught due to their [[spoiler: mistake of dressing the victim with the panties on backwards]]. Seeing the victim's sister yell in grief how much hates them is and getting closure is so satisfying, even if they'll be in turmoil for a while over their loss.

* The real killer in ''Murder in Malibu'' is caught due to their [[spoiler: mistake of dressing the victim with the panties on backwards]]. Seeing the victim's sister yell in grief how much hates them is and get closure is so satisfying, even if they'll be in turmoil for a while over their loss.

* ''Uneasy Lies the Crown'': The dentist, who is drowning in gambling debt and failed investments, tries to conceal the source of the lethal Digitalis dose in a tooth crown he laced with the drug (to murder the actor who is marrying his ex wife). [[spoiler: Columbo uses the dentist's admitted lack of chemistry knowledge against him, to lure him into confession. Columbo convinces him that the underside of the crown turned blue because digitalis reacts that way at body temperature, "providing" that's where he planted The overdose.]]

* Any of the four episodes with [[ThePrisoner Patrick [=McGoohan=]]] as the guest villain. Pure classics, and [=McGoohan=] won two Emmys for his guest roles. (He also directed five episodes and wrote the scripts for two).

** Real life example- after Falk's death, his estranged daughter from his first marriage, Catherine Falk, tried to sue for control of his estate. The judge denied her request and left Shera Danese as executor. This is awesome as Catherine Falk had not even spoken to her father or showed him any attention while he was alive and especially not in the years when he was dying, whereas Shera Danese had been with him since they met on set to the day he died.

* In "An Exercise in Fatality," Columbo gets so fed up with Milo Janus that he tells him "she thinks you killed him, and you want to know something? So do I!"

* In "An Exercise in Fatality," Columbo gets so fed up with Milo Janus that he tells him "she thinks you killed him, and you know what? So do I."

* In one episode the normally-patient Columbo has to wait for an interminably long time to get the information he needs from an uncooperative receptionist, who then directs him to the pay-phone to call the witness...who is out. Columbo gets his little revenge for the inconvenience via the message he leaves, which he makes sure is loud enough for the receptionist to hear so that she knows who exactly she was jerking around:

** The CrowningMomentOfFunny[=/=]CrowningMomentOfAwesome of "Undercover" is how when Columbo is undercover, Mo Weinberg and Geraldine Ferguson are very much convinced Columbo is a cop, [[EveryoneCanSeeIt even if he claims]] [[BlatantLies he isn't]].

* In "An Exercise in Fatality," Columbo gets so fed up with Milo Janus that he tells him "she thinks you killed him, and you know what? So do I."

** Then there's "A Friend in Need", where he catches Mark Halperin, the police commissioner: [[spoiler:"He doesn't live here. ''I'' live here,"]] ruining the DetectivePatsy gambit.

* One of the rare times Columbo is seen upset is when he's facing Leonard Nimoy's character of Dr. Mayfield. Dr. Mayfield is playing an open heart surgeon who's working on a crucial research project with a senior partner, Dr. Hiderman. Mayfield also has to operate on his partner, by repairing his heart valves with permanent sutures. He instead uses dissolving sutures, which when dissolved will cause his partner's heart to rupture, killing him in a few weeks, leaving Mayfield to hog all the credit for the project. Sharon Martin, a nurse, discovers this and Mayfield kills her (which is how Columbo first gets on the case). In a genuinely chilling moment, Columbo abruptly drops all pretense and actually slams a coffee cup onto a table! He angrily informs Mayfield that [[spoiler:if his partner dies anytime soon, Columbo will have a full autopsy performed to see if the real cause of death was that the surtures that were so supposed to keep his heart valves in place were no longer there. This forces Mayfield to re-operate on his partner, forcing him to save the life of the man he was initially plotting to murder.]]

** Another episode. [[spoiler:At the beginning of one episode, Columbo says he believes in astrology and palm reading, then to prove a point, he reads the palms of the murderer and the husband of the victim. It's easy to throw that just as another of his ObfuscatingStupidity quirks... until the end of the episode, where it's revealed Columbo carefully inspected the ring the murderer was wearing and was able to match it to the cut on the victim's cheek, which then led to him focusing his efforts on the murderer. The murderer's face upon hearing that is priceless. Then, seconds later, it turns out the way the murderer was caught was a particularly clever {{plan}} by Columbo.]]
** An InsufferableGenius who had murdered a fellow member of a Mensa-like organization asked Columbo if he had ever been tested himself. After Columbo said no, the killer pulled down a book with an example test in it and asked him a random question, which Columbo answered correctly after only a moment's thought. The killer was almost relieved to have been caught by what he now considered a WorthyOpponent.

* In the second pilot movie, Columbo explains to Leslie Williams [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech what her mistake was]]: "Mrs. Williams, you have no conscience and that's your weakness. Did it ever occur to you that there are very few people who would [[spoiler:take money to forget about a murder?]] It didn't, did it? I knew it wouldn't."
* "Undercover": Columbo, undercover as Artie Stokes, is walking to the apartment of Mo Weinberg, one of the criminals to meet him for an arranged deal. He looks through the key hole and sees the guy with a gun. Columbo [[spoiler:takes out his notepad, writes "you're a horse's ass" on a piece of paper and slips it through the crack in the door. As the criminal takes the paper, Columbo kicks the door in and points his own gun at the guy!]] It was quite a moment of TookALevelInBadass for Columbo.