MYSTERY MANSION - MISSING LINK BETWEEN "COLUMBO" & "BARNABY JONES"

From Steve Skayman, writing in the "Columbo TV" Facebook page:
Alex lives in a nice house with a very rich wife, but when his mistress threatens to tell all then murder is not too far away and pretty soon unwanted callers will be knocking at the door...

Alex Benedict in "Etude in Black"? Yep but it's also Bill Bixby as Alex Chandler in the 'Barnaby Jones' season one episode "To Denise, With Love & Murder"

And here's some of the evidence he provided:

An excellent catch by Steve there, who's working his way through the first season of 'Barnaby Jones'.  (Click here to see his previous contribution to the Toobworld Dynamic.)

'COLUMBO'

"ÉTUDE IN BLACK"

Episode aired 17 September 1972

From TV.com:

The mistress of a conductor becomes a target for murder after threatening to tell all to her lover's wife.

'BARNABY JONES'

"TO DENISE, WITH LOVE AND MURDER"
Episode aired 22 April 1973

From TV.com:

Alex Chandler kills his mistress Denise during a quarrel, because she talked to his rich wife Hazel hoping to encourage a divorce. A disappointed Hazel leaves home and as she does not return her brother hires Barnaby to find out whether Alex murdered Hazel.

As most of you in Team Toobworld know about my particular fixation with the realm of Earth Prime-Time, I don't consider this to be a case of the same location being used again for different TV show episodes.  I have to find the "splainin" within the reality of the TV Universe.

This one seems relatively simple to solve.  Once Janice Benedict turned against her husband.  ("I could have stood for anything, Alex.  Anything in the world, but not murder."), and Alex was arrested, she and her mother decided that the best thing to do in order to put that part of her life behind her would be to sell the house.  She didn't need yet another reminder of Alex Benedict, especially since she was pregnant with his child.*

Her mother, Lizzie Fielding, took charge of the transaction and sold it as quickly as possible.  By coincidence, she arranged for it to be sold to another man named Alex - Alex Chandler.  And in less than a year, Alex Chandler had followed in Alex Benedict's footsteps and murdered his mistress as well.

The most basic premise of Toobworld is that we try to absorb as many TV shows into one universe.  So the claim that this mansion is the same one is an easy one to accept.  Where it gets tricky, however, is the fact that the Pasadena mansion used in these two examples showed up again in Toobworld.  (Luckily for me I don't get involved with the Cineverse because it showed up in quite a few movies as well!)

But as far as Toobworld goes....

'Starsky & Hutch'
“Targets Without A Badge, Part 2”

The Bay City mansion was owned by a man named Gunther.

‘Murder, She Wrote’
“A Death In Hong Kong”

It could also be found outside of the United States in Hong Kong.

But perhaps its most famous appearance is in the sitcom ‘Benson’ as the residence of the Governor. 

I don’t have anything else to base this on, but I believe ‘Benson’ took place in my home state of Connecticut because the Governor at that time was the cousin of Jessica Tate.  She lived in Dunn’s River, Connecticut, as depicted in the sitcom ‘Soap’.

That the same mansion should be found from one end of the country to the other and beyond to Hong Kong can be attributed to the same reason as other similar copies of buildings in other TV series.  It’s all because they were built by the same architect who simply used the same design over and over again.

I was hoping to find another TV character by the name of “Alex” in a TV show from the 1940s to the 1960s, someone who didn’t have much of a backstory. I could then have claimed that this Alex had committed a murder in that mansion and his spirit still haunted the place, causing others bearing his name to do the same.  Unfortunately I never did find one to fit the bill.

No matter.  Just the fact that, with Steve’s incredible research, I’m able to make a credible connection between ‘Columbo’ and ‘Barnaby Jones’ is good enough.  It’s a link that didn’t exist before.

BCnU!