GAME OF THE NAME - STORY ABOUT THAT CHIEF

'COLUMBO'

"NOW YOU SEE HIM"

STAGE MANAGER:

And now, ladies and gentlemen, The Cabaret of Magic is proud to present The Great Santini! 

SANTINI:
Ladies and gentlemen, each evening here at The Cabaret of Magic, we like to ask a member of our audience, a volunteer, to step forward on the stage to be Santini's attendant or assistant, if you would.

Perhaps a beautiful young woman......

[Lt. Columbo jumps up to the stage.]

SANTINI:
We have a beautiful young man instead.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are honored because this gentleman who stands before you is none other than Lieutenant Columbo of the Los Angeles Police Department.

Welcome, Lieutenant.

Lieutenant, you look like a man who enjoys a game of chance.  You play cards? 

COLUMBO:

Yes, sir.

SANTINI:
Down at the station? 

COLUMBO:

Yes, sir.

SANTINI:
Does the Chief know about that, Lieutenant?

 

COLUMBO:

No, sir.

Although it most likely was never meant to be a reference by the writer of the episode, "The Chief" would be Amos Burke who had recently been elevated to be a deputy chief in the Homicide Division.  This is the position he held from the end of 1975 until his retirement twenty years later due to the onset of Alzheimer's*.

For the main Toobworld, there was no interregnum in which Amos Burke left the Los Angeles Police Department to become a spy working for a secret government agency and answering to "The Man".  That occurred in an alternate TV dimension but was forced on the audience in the Trueniverse by the View Continuum.

This is a picture of actors Peter Falk and Gene Barry in the first pilot for the 'Columbo' TV series.  Falk is portraying Lt. Columbo (as you would expect) and Barry is Dr. Ray Flemming, the murderer.  (Relax - if you've never seen the show, you should know that the identity of the murderer was a mystery only three times in the series.)  I've often stated that photos from other TV series can't be used to represent the action in another show.  And that means I can't use this to say it's a picture of Columbo with Chief Burke.  The same is true of any picture of the two of them in the 'Name Of The Game' episode "A Sister From Napoli", in which Gene Barry starred as publisher Glenn Howard while Peter Falk made a guest star appearance as reporter Lewis Corbett.

However, I do use informal, off-screen pictures and screencaps from movies.  So if one of those shows up of Falk and Barry between shots, then I can use it to be Columbo and Burke.

At any rate, I'm marking this mention of "the Chief" to be a link back to 'Burke's Law'......

BCnU!