A grim coincidence: I posted the faux tweet about Arlene Francis' death from Alzheimer's just before I learned that Peter Falk had lost his own battle with the disease. Time grinds us all down, he said sententiously. But it's true, it's true.I was a hopeless Columbo fan back in the day. The reverse-mystery gimmick always fascinated me. We knew whodunit, now what was Columbo up to when he looked at the seemingly random clues? The shows weren't always classics. Sometimes Columbo's targets just couldn't wait to give up, even when the evidence was less than overwhelming.
But if the plotting occasionally wasn't perfect, Falk never failed as the rumpled, unprepossessing lieutenant. His constant pestering of the hapless suspects could get old, but that was part of the shtick.
Peter Falk compiled a modest portfolio of game show appearances: Stump the Stars, Hollywood Squares, I've Got a Secret, and the syndicated What's My Line. Couldn't locate any of his game show clips on the web, but there's some Columbo on YouTube to remember him by.
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