COLUMBO, THE MAN IN THE RUMPLED RAINCOAT

This show premiered in 1968, the year I returned from hitchhiking around the U.S. and joined the Army. So most of the episodes I've seen have been reruns. Lt. Columbo, played by Peter Falk who really did have a glass right eye, was television's greatest detective, successfully hiding his intelligence behind cigar smoke as he relentlessly and obnoxiously hounded the criminal, while wrapped in his rumpled trench coat and driving a dilapidated Peugeot. Definitely lower class, and that's what made the show so good. Most all of the criminals were upper class and successful, and people love to see the proud taken down by the humble. It was a different sort of "mystery." The crime was committed at the beginning of the show, appeared to be the "perfect crime," and the viewer knew right away who did it. The mystery lay in how Columbo will discover and prove he or she did it. And the final arrest was always gentlemanly. If ever there was a feel-good murder mystery series, this was it.  Peter Falk passed away last June.  He is greatly missed; but he left us all a great legacy in his wonderful talent as an actor and a character with whom we can relate.




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