“The Dust of Death”.
Never heard that title for it - I’ve seen it as “The Death Dealers” and as “A Whiff of Death”
It’s a great episode, but you know, when he puts his head in the guillotine and he’s just blathering away, it still makes me anxious as hell. 
I still watch Columbo on MeTV. Among my favorite episodes are…
- “ The Bye-Bye Sky High I.Q. Murder Case”, in which Theodore Bikel, president of a Mensa-like club of geniuses, sneers at Columbo for most of the episode. His Rube Goldberg method for establishing his alibi ultimately fails under Columbo‘s keen eye.
_ “Columbus Goes to College”, in which two smarmy college students spend most of the episode mocking Columbo. - “How to Dial a Murder”, in which an expert Pavlovian comes up with an unusual way to kill someone.
According to the “10 Things you Might Not Know About Columbo” article, the name “Philip” was intentionally made up by the author of a book on trivia as a copyright trap. When it turned up as an answer in a Trivial Pursuit game, he sued the game makers for $300 million. Unfortunately for him, the suit was quite properly dismissed as not actionable.
Yes, I know. I posted the link.
Especially when he faked his wife’s death in Rest in Peace, Mrs. Columbo.
I was just providing a fuller explanation on an interesting point for those who may not have read the article. I quoted you just to provide some context. 
I’m confused. There was a Mrs Columbo, with a show, but she isn’t canon or something? It was Unauthorized?
It was a very cheesy idea of the legendary Fred Silverman… It starred Kate Mulgrew and went through several changes in title and backstory during its short life. And no, it had no connection to Peter Falk’s series, other than the name.
I just recently saw an episode where Columbo solves a murder on board a cruise ship. Mrs. Columbo is never seen, but there are a few times when other characters mention having interacted with her, so it’s not just a case of Columbo making her up out of whole cloth.
I know! I first watched that with my dad as a kid and I was like 
Now I feel like watching a bunch of these again!
And although Peter Falk was not a real sleuth, you couldn’t necessarily pull one over on him:
Also, it was fun recently seeing Fade in to Murder with William Shatner as the villain.
//i\\
I remember my first impression as a kid that Columbo was a low-key badass. I had started reading Sherlock Holmes stories at 7 so Columbo was right in my wheelhouse. Anyway, the killer thought he was much smarter than Columbo and was fooling him the entire time, until, finally, The Jig Was Up and he confessed. Then the killer asked Columbo “when did you first suspect me?”
Columbo (matter-of-factly): when we first spoke.
Killer: (shocked) wha WHAAAAH? How can that be?
Columbo: you never asked how the victim was killed.
Mike_Mabes wrote:
any time you try a decent crime , you got fifty ways you ’ re gonna fuck up . If you think of twenty-five of them, then you ’ re a genius.
Who remembers who said that?
“…And you’re no genius.” Mickey Rourke said it in Body Heat. He was selling William Hurt’s character a gun or something to whack Kathleen Turner’s husband.
One brilliant thing about Columbo was, there were no recurring characters, but lots of recurring actors. Jack Cassidy was on 2 or 3 times as the bad guy, and he made a really good one. He could rock a blazer and ascot like nobody else!
One interesting aspect of Columbo is that his cases often involve “high technology” for the era - VCRs when they were an expensive toy for the rich, a phone that can automatically forward calls, cell phones (in the later series), closed circuit TV, etc.
Yes! Jack Cassidy was great. And Robert Culp killed people three times, and was an investigator on another one.
Well, sooner or later the cops figure a guy’s an expert, so they might as well consult with him. 
This one also had Walter Koenig in a minor role as an LAPD sergeant.
And the one with Jack Cassidy as a magician had Columbo amazed by what was then a high-tech typewriter (with a ball, not individual typebars)