THEORY OF RELATEEVEETY - OF SUARI BLOOD

On October 12, 1975, NBC debuted the ‘Columbo’ episode “A Case Of Immunity”.  The First Secretary Hassan Sallah at the Suarian legation in California committed two murders as part of  long-range plan to overthrow the King of Suari.  (This is never stated outright, but inferred in dialogue near the end of the episode.)

A month later*, on November 2, 1975, NBC aired the next episode of ‘Columbo’ – my personal favorite, “Identity Crisis”.  A spy – excuse me – an operative named Nelson Brenner (also known to the Other Side as “Curtis”) murdered a fellow agent code-named Geronimo who had damning evidence against him.

There are probably less than a dozen connections between ‘Columbo’ episodes, most of those references to past episodes like “Candidate For Crime” and “Troubled Waters”.  But there are a few others that are inferences to past episodes.  For instance, in “The Most Crucial Game”, it is my contention that Lt. Columbo heard a replay of the symphony performance which proved to be the last one conducted by Alex Benedict.

And we have another such inference here which I can theorize to be a connection between both episodes.

“A CASE OF IMMUNITY”

 Columbo showed up at the Suari legation at an inopportune time (for Sallah) – during a reception for King Ahmed Khamil who was visiting the United States.  In the background we can hear Middle Eastern flavored music which set the mood for conversations among the guests.

“IDENTITY CRISIS”

The last place where “Geronimo” was seen was in the bar on the pier which had a Middle Eastern motif.  That same music was playing while the belly dancer displayed her talents, much to Columbo’s enjoyment when he went there later to meet the witness, Louie the bartender.

I think that it was a looping tape playing both in the legation and in the bar, playing the same tune by an unknown Suarian musician.

Also, I like to think that Louie the bartender, whose last name was never revealed, was of Suari descent, probably a first generation American son of immigrants.  He was known as Louie in his American identity, but his Suarian parents may have given him the name  لويس‎ or لؤي as his birth name.

There have been times when Toobworld Central has gone off on a wild theory to connect shows together.  And my theories of relateeveety have not been immune to that.

But I'm not going to go the "King Ralph" route and claim that retired cop/natural schlub Louie the bartender is related to King Ahmid Khamil, no matter how distantly!

I wonder if there have been any fictional DNA testing companies which have shown up in Toobworld?

BCnU!

*For those who never saw ‘Columbo’ in its original broadcast and who are accustomed to seeing it on a daily basis on several retro channels, it was part of a “wheel” of NBC mystery series, usually of 90 minutes in length, sometimes two hours.  This gave each production team the time to craft the best episode possible for their series.  It certainly shows with the ‘Columbo’ episodes.