Columbo

Columbo

Actually, Mrs. Columbo is probably my favorite TV character of all time. As far as I know, she never appeared on an episode of Columbo, but she always came up at just the right moment, giving Peter Falk that crucial opportunity to scratch his head self-consciously and ask the one last seemingly harmless question that inevitably caught the murderer off guard. And that's what was so great about Columbo himself: his lack of pretense, his bumbling appearance, the fact that he seemed to be more interested in digging up a piece of trivia for his wife than in grilling a possible suspect. No, he didn't carry a gun, and God help him if he ever had to chase a criminal on foot or in his broken-down car. He was Poirot without pretense, Sipowicz minus the bad temper. And -- who knows? -- maybe the Lieutenant wasn't even really married. Maybe it was all a ruse. Now that would be brilliant. And I wouldn't put it past him.

-- Matt Ashare