Lt. Columbo Hangs Up His Trenchcoat

The only forensic tool at Columbo's disposal was his high-powered brain -- a weapon he camouflaged behind an unkempt appearance and a deliberately vague manner.

Although actor Peter Falk’s Alzheimer's diagnosis was well known, his death on Friday hit me unexpectedly hard. Over the years I had grown very fond of Peter Falk and his grand defining role as Lieutenant Columbo (the character's first name was never revealed).

Since I am in my early 20s I never got to see any of the various incarnations of Columbo when they originally aired, so I relived the scruffy police officer's cases via various DVD boxed sets.

In an era of glossy CSI and NCIS series, it was a real relief to discover such a subtle yet sublime crime series as Columbo.

The only forensic tool at this detective's disposal was his high-powered brain -- a weapon he did his best to camouflage behind an unkempt appearance and a deliberately vague manner.

Furthermore with the increasing dependence of TV crime dramas on CGI effects, graphic content and Top Model-like casts, Columbo provided a healthy contrast for those interested in a detective's deductive processes rather than rapid-fire close-ups shots of ginger lieutenants whipping off their sunglasses.

Columbo's cases weren't classic "whodunits" -- viewers always knew who the murderer was from the outset: rather, to borrow a phrase coined by one of the show's creators, the character's adventures were "howdhecatchems".

Nevertheless, Los Angeles Police Department homicide investigator Lieutenant Columbo managed to keep you watching -- and uphold the show's suspense quotient -- with his understated charisma and counter-intuitive line of reasoning. The character, the acting and the plots carried Columbo --  a far cry from today's crime shows with their overreliance on 3D autopsy scans, digital fingerprint databases and foxy assistants. A beat-up trenchcoat, a chewed-down cigar and eccentric but relentless questioning -- summed up by the trademark line, “There’s just one more thing" --  are what grasped audiences over decades.

If it wasn’t for the Central Intelligence Agency rejecting Falk’s application back in 1950, who knows if Peter Falk would have ever graced us with his presence in the cinema or on our TV screens. But as things transpired, Peter Falk's 35-year-run as Lieutenant Columbo (he played the character intermittently between 1968 and 2003) became urban America's answer to Sherlock Holmes  -- a deductive genius sporting a rumpled raincoat rather than an Inverness cape.

Oh yeah, there’s just one more thing ... Thank you, Mr. Falk.