Columbo: Columbo Goes to College (1990) (TV)

Director:

E.W. Swackhamer

Writers:

Richard Levinson (creator) &
William Link (creator) ...

Release Date:

9 December 1990 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Thriller | Drama | Mystery

Plot:

The popular tv detective investigates a murder at a college where two students kill their professor who was trying to expel them...

Plot Keywords:

College | Murder | Detective | Police Detective | Murder Suspect

Cast

Peter Falk	...	Columbo
Stephen Caffrey	...	Justin Rowe
Gary Hershberger	...	Cooper Redman
James Sutorius	...	Prof. D.E. Rusk
William Lucking	...	Dominic Doyle
Katherine Cannon	...	June Clark
Alan Fudge	...	Mr. Redman
Maree Cheatham
Bridget Hanley	...	Mrs. Rusk
Jim Antonio	...	Joe Doyle
Steven Gilborn	...	George
Guy Stockwell	...	Club Owner
Robert Culp	...	Jordan Rowe
Les Lannom	...	Malloy
Elizabeth Swackhamer	...	Sara

Runtime:

Germany:90 min | USA:120 min (including commercials)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Company:

Universal TV

Trivia:

In "Columbo Goes To College", Columbo is a guest lecturer at a criminology class. He reminisces about the prior season's "Columbo: Agenda for Murder (#9.3)" (1990), describing how he obtained a piece of chewing gum belonging to murder suspect Oscar Finch (Patrick McGoohan), which was matched to teeth-marks on a piece of cheese left at the murder scene.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Columbo is sitting in Justin's room with him and Cooper he is given a can of Budweiser which he holds in his right hand. When the camera is on a close up of Columbo he is shown using both hands freely without holding the can of beer. When the camera goes back to the original view he is shown holding the can again.

Quotes:

Lt. Columbo: Well, sometimes, when you know something, it's better to keep it to yourself. You don't have to blab everything right away. Wait. Who knows what will happen? Timing. That's important. And lucky. You got to be lucky.

Movie Connections:

Followed by Columbo: Strange Bedfellows (1995) (TV)

Murder is committed with the culprits sitting right in front of Columbo! How can that be???

Columbo is guest lecturer for a criminology class. The students invite him along for their after-class get-together. Transiting the nearby parking garage, they discover their regular teacher, next to his car, dead from a gunshot wound. (No, Columbo was not after the man's job.) As a class project, Columbo involves the students in his sleuthing.

Two students, tentatively identified by the viewer as culprits, were in the lecture hall for the entire class. Furthermore, surveillance camera tapes of the parking garage show that no one other than the professor entered or left after he was last seen unexpectedly departing the lecture hall.

Reversing the normal routine, Columbo is the one that is pestered by the evil (?) duo, eager for progress reports and an ear for their theories. Forensic evidence is almost nonexistent. Solution of the case hinges on some eventual and interesting good luck.

On first viewing, it seemed that Columbo had swallowed whole the culprits' misdirection; however, on repeat viewing, small details revealed that not to have been the case at all.

This reviewer has yet to tire of "Columbo Goes to College."