History YMMV / Columbo

** Is Columbo a ManipulativeBastard? He's overly nice to people in a bloodhound sort of way; he convinces people that he's just a country bumpkin more interested in whatever 'hat' the villain wears than solving the crime, only to reveal in the end a cold detachment and clinical mind that the bumpkin persona allowed free reign. He plays with the feelings of the criminals, making them like him (more often than not) or at least pity him and drop their guard, or he pushes them subtly and continuously to the point where they break. The answers to some of these questions depend on what you consider {{canon}}. Core canon is the Creator/{{NBC}} series, natch. But if you accept the Creator/{{ABC}} Columbo movies as canon, then ObfuscatingStupidity and ManipulativeBastard are both {{canon}} (since we get to see glimpses of them).

* MemeticMutation: "An exciting meal has been ruined by the presence of this... [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqU4d4Rej5A LIQUID FILTH!]]

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: While fairly popular in the US where it was made, Columbo was a smash hit in Japan, to the point where there were several novelizations of its episodes in Japanese and some episodes were released on home video there that weren't released in the US (until the full series was released on DVD decades later)

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: While fairly popular in the US where it was made, Columbo was a smash hit in Japan, to the point where there were several novelizations of its episodes in Japanese and some episodes were released commercially there that weren't released in the US.

** Creator/LeonardNimoy, most famous for playing the Vulcan Spock on ''Star Trek'' played one of the killers in season 2. Some 25 years later, Lt. Tuvok, another Vulcan character, would make use of the "one more thing" Columbo line a few times on ''Series/StarTrekVoyager''(and that's not getting into that series starring Creaotr/KateMulgrew, who played the title role in ''Mrs. Columbo''....)

** There are some clear hints that, while he might not exactly be a literal genius and might be genuinely absent-minded and eccentric, at least some of it is for show or played up in order to throw the killer off guard. For example, in "Death Lends A Hand", when Columbo is only around the victim's husband -- who he does not suspect is the killer -- he acts in a professional and reasonably intelligent fashion. It's only when the actual killer (a private investigator hired by the husband) shows up, and Columbo gets a reason to suspect him (the ring the killer wears, which matches a cut on the victim's face from when he struck her) that he starts to act the clumsy oaf.

*** In a way this information also sheds an oddly-tragic light on Columbo's interactions toward the Mensa-style organization seen in "The Bye-Bye Sky-High IQ Murder Case." Columbo ducks the question of his IQ several times and refuses to take an IQ test when offered, even after the episode's killer acknowledges that he's clearly a genius. Columbo stoically claims that even when he was a new recruit he was never any brighter than any other officer.

** Speaking of ''Mrs. Columbo'', it puts Columbo's stock response to Fielding Chase in a new light in ''"Butterfly in Shades of Gray"''.
** "Double Shock" is about two brothers, Dexter & Norman Paris and it is initially ambiguous who the real killer is. [[spoiler: They both are actually helping each other.]] Then in 2006, a show about a SerialKillerKiller named [[{{Series/Dexter}} Dexter Morgan]] premieres and he finds out he has a brother in the first season. [[spoiler: Dexter's brother is the arch villain of said season.]]

** {{Exploited}} in "Last Salute to the Commodore", in which the audience is led to believe that the killer is Creator/RobertVaughn, who had already played the killer in a previous episode- we don't see him commit the murder, but he gets rid of the body, he is established as having a strong motive, and generally acts suspicious, and Columbo treats him as the prime suspect. It later turns out that he is innocent, [[spoiler: and he actually becomes a victim himself]], revealing the episode to be a true "whodonnuit".
* {{Padding}}: Many of the two-hour episodes suffer noticeably from this; since the Lieutenant didn't have a personal life by conceptual mandate, the writers were forced to stuff in scenes like him taking the dog to the vet or asking a suspect where he'd bought his shoes.
** Probably worst in "Make Me A Perfect Murder" where he plays with the control console in a TV broadcast studio, making various 2D shapes "dance" with simple animations on the screens while music plays (this being the mid-70s, so don't expect anything too fancy out of these simple vector images), as he has a cheerful expression on his face. This goes on for about five minutes or longer and has zero bearing on the plot or character development whatsoever, and it makes it clear that a lot of Columbo's behaviour throughout the series may not be that much of an act, because no one is even around to watch him!

* TheProblemWithLicensedGames: In a rare example predating video games, there was a Columbo board game. The problem was, it really had little to do with the character and the only image of Columbo was a simple drawing showing him from the back, one can assume because they didn't have permission to use Peter Falk's likeness.

** "Mind Over Mayhem" features a robot programmed by a boy genius which is used by the killer to operate the war room computer to establish an alibi for the time of the murder. However, the robot's claws are so large that it presses several keys at once when it types.

** In "Death Lends A Hand", Columbo in one scene is caught by a woman pushing her kid on the swings, before he even introduces himself as a detective. The woman is not even a suspect, but the wife of a witness who has gone abroad. Obviously most police forces today would be in serious trouble if a woman complained that a middle-aged man in a trench coat claiming to be an officer randomly started playing with her child in a park- seemingly innocent in TheSeventies, but looks outright predatory in the modern era.

** One has to feel sorry for Karen Fielding, Adrian Carsini's secretary in "Any Old Port in A Storm", as she was willing to marry Adrian to keep him out of prison and he rebuffed her.

** Probably worst in "Make Me A Perfect Murder" where he plays with the control console in a TV broadcast studio, making various 2D shapes "dance" with simple animations on the screens while music plays(this being the mid-70s, so don't expect anything too fancy out of these simple vector images), as he has a cheerful expression on his face. This goes on for about five minutes or longer and has zero bearing on the plot or character development whatsoever, and it makes it clear that a lot of Columbo's behaviour throughout the series may not be that much of an act, because no one is even around to watch him!

* MagnificentBastard: Columbo himself, as well many of the killers (notably the ones portrayed by [=McGoohan=] and Cassidy).
** [[LastNameBasis Columbo]], is a veteran police lieutenant for the Los Angeles police who, under his indifferent and debonair façade, is actually firmly dedicated to the pursuit of justice. Facing killer who often premeditated the murder and hid it into either an accident or a disappearance so as to be above any suspicions, Columbo is always able to see through the killer's machination, quickly deducing their guilt in a matter of minutes after meeting them. Appearing simple-minded in order to make the killer-of-the-week lower their guard, Columbo uses annoying insistence, derivative informations, and even manipulations of events, to lead or outright trick suspects into confessing, or at least reveal incriminating information. In the mean time he also uses double-entendre to pressures the suspects, seemingly only to make them sweat. When that doesn't work, he instead focuses on the details that “trouble him”, and, working very hard, is able to establish links between seemingly unrelated coincidences and reconstitute the entire murder to prove the guilt of the killer. Simple, honest, hard-working, and incredibly intelligent with NervesOfSteel, Columbo remains one of the most iconic detective in television history, the show he starred in having massively popularized the concept of ReverseWhodunnit.

* SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct: In "Fade in to Murder," Creator/WilliamShatner's chillingly persuasive and ambiguous portrayal of an actor who may or may not have split personality disorder comes as a bit of a shock to those familiar with his usual hamtastic style.

** "Last Salute to the Commodore" feels like the script was written while doing drugs. Columbo invades personal space a couple times, the cast acts like they're on tranquilizers, and the pacing feels like nobody even cares about finding the killer. The film opens with a ferry called "TITANIC" carrying a rather happy group of people who seem to magically teleport onto the boat. [[https://youtu.be/RWrtEYtNFQc A YouTube review highlights the episode.]]

** Two actors who played murder victims later became victims of actual murder: Barbara Colby ("Murder By The Book") and Sal Mineo ("A Case of Immunity").

* SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct: Creator/WilliamShatner's chillingly persuasive and ambiguous portrayal of an actor who may or may not have split personality disorder comes as a bit of a shock to those familiar with his usual hamtastic style.

* SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct: William Shatner's chillingly persuasive and ambiguous portrayal of an actor who may or may not have split personality disorder comes as a bit of a shock to those familiar with his usual hamtastic style.

** 20 years before ''Film/TheProfessional'' existed, a subplot of "Make Me a Perfect Murder" revolves around a TV studio producing a film by the same title, also about a professional hitman.

** Leonard Nimoy, most famous for playing the Vulcan Spock on ''Star Trek'' played one of the killers in season 2. Some 25 years later, Lt. Tuvok, another Vulcan character, would make use of the "one more thing" Columbo line a few times on ''Star Trek Voyager''(and that's not getting into that series starring Kate Mulgrew, who played the title role in ''Mrs. Columbo''....)

* NarrowedItDownToTheGuyIRecognize: Zig-zagged. The "narrowed it down" bit is missing due to the show's format, but very often memorable actors like Johnny Cash or Leonard Nimoy would be in episodes as the killer (the killer often takes up the most screentime in an episode, even more than Columbo himself). Other episodes would have big-name actors in minor roles. The episode "Lovely But Lethal" features both Vincent Price and Martin Sheen, who are the killer's professional rival and the murder victim respectively.
** {{Exploited}} in "Last Salute to the Commodore", in which the audience is led to believe that the killer is Robert Vaughn, who had already played the killer in a previous episode- we don't see him commit the murder, but he gets rid of the body, he is established as having a strong motive, and generally acts suspicious, and Columbo treats him as the prime suspect. It later turns out that he is innocent, [[spoiler: and he actually becomes a victim himself]], revealing the episode to be a true "whodonnuit".

** "Butterfly in Shades of Gray" features an over-acting William Shatner playing Fielding Chase. It's like he was having a laugh playing the role, and he was given permission to fool around and act over dramatic.

* ValuesDissonance: The ending of "Prescription: Murder" originally had Columbo saying lines to the effect that he believed that Miss Hudson was a weak-willed woman who would eventually run her mouth about the crime no matter what. The dialog was eventually cut and all modern releases of the episodes lack the lines in question.
** In the episode ''Death Lends A Hand'', Columbo in one scene is caught by a woman pushing her kid on the swings, before he even introduces himself as a detective. The woman is not even a suspect, but the wife of a witness who has gone abroad. Obviously most police forces today would be in serious trouble if a woman complained that a middle-aged man in a trench coat claiming to be an officer randomly started playing with her child in a park- seemingly innocent in the 70's, but looks outright predatory in the modern era.

** Creator/JorgeGarcia briefly appears as a nightclub bouncer in the final episode, "Columbo Loves the Nightlife."

* Creator/JorgeGarcia briefly appears as a nightclub bouncer in the final episode, "Columbo Loves the Nightlife."

** In "Mind Over Mayhem" the boy genius remarks that he's "too smart" to become a police officer. At the time this was written off as him being too much of a genius to work in anything other than a scientific field. HOWEVER, 30 years later, [[http://abcnews.go.com/US/court-oks-barring-high-iqs-cops/story?id=95836 we find out that they actually do refuse to hire police applicants if their IQ is too high.]]

** Probably worst in "Make Me A Perfect Murder" where he plays with the control console in a TV broadcast studio, making various 2D shapes "dance" with simple animations on the screens while music plays(this being the mid-70s, so don't expect anything too fancy out of these simple vector images), as he has a cheerful expression on his face. This goes on for about five minutes or longer and has zero bearing on the plot or character development whatsoever, and it makes it clear that a lot of Columbo's behaviour throughout the series may not be that much of an act, because no one is even around to" watch him!

** [[LastNameBasis Columbo]], is a veteran police lieutenant for the Los Angeles police who, under his indifferent and debonair façade, is actually firmly dedicated to the pursuit of justice. Facing killer who often premeditated the murder and hid it into either an accident or a disappearance so as to be above any suspicions, Columbo is always able to see through the killer's machination, quickly deducing their guilt in a matter of minutes after meeting them. Using a combination of ObfuscatingStupidity, annoying insistence, derivative informations, and even manipulations of events, Columbo leads or outright tricks suspects into confessing or at least reveal incriminating information. When that doesn't work, he instead focuses on the details that “trouble him”, and, working very hard, is able to establish links between seemingly unrelated coincidences and reconstitute the entire murder to demonstrate the killer guilty. Simple, honest, hard-working, and incredibly intelligent with NervesOfSteel, Columbo remains one of the most iconic detective in television history, the show he starred in having massively popularized the concept of ReverseWhodunnit.

** {{Exploited}} in "Last Salute to the Commodore", in which the audience is led to believe that the killer is Robert Vaughn, who had already played the killer in a previous episode- we don't see him commit the murder, but he gets rid of the body, he is established as having a strong motive, and generally acts suspicious, and Columbo treats him as the prime suspect. It later turns out that he is innocent [[spoiler: and he actually becomes a victim himself]], revealing the episode to be a true "whodonnuit".

** {{Exploited}} in "Last Salute to the Commodore", in which the audience is led to believe that the killer is Robert Vaughn, who had already played the killer in a previous episode- we don't see him commit the murder, but he gets rid of the body, he is established as having a strong motive, and generally acts suspicious, and Columbo treats him as the prime suspect. It later turns out that he is innocent [[spoiler: and he actually becomes a victim of the real killer himself]].

** Probably worst in "Make Me A Perfect Murder" where he plays with the control console in a TV broadcast studio, making various 2D shapes "dance" with simple animations on the screens while music plays(this being the mid-70s, so don't expect anything too fancy out of these simple vector images), as he has a cheerful expression on his face. This goes on for about five minutes or longer and has zero bearing on the plot or character development whatsoever, and it makes it clear that a lot of Columbo's behavior throughout the series may not be that much of an act, because no one is even around to" watch him!

** "Double Shock" is about two brothers, Dexter & Norman Paris and it is initially ambiguous who the real killer is. [[spoiler: They both are actually helping each other.]] Then in 2006, a show about a SerialKillerKiller named [[{{Series/Dexter}} Dexter Morgan]] premiers and he finds out he has a brother in the first season. [[spoiler: Dexter's brother is the arch villain of said season.]]

** "Last Salute to the Commodore" has many detractors on the IMDB, due to PacingProblems with the plot. Much of the film has Columbo learning nautical vocabulary, while Columbo's usual chemistry with interviewing the murderer is absent, due to the episode being a WhoDunIt.