Yeah, this episode is on the dumb side, but it's the only Columbo episode that I can call my "guilty pleasure". I mean, these 70's labs..! They look so... 70's! It's like a time capsule and a bit of nostalgia for anyone who was around then... Ahh the tape-based computers of the old days... I also have a weakness for any episode that features anyone from Star Trek!

I like to think Columbo has had many cases where he solves them in a second and just shakes his head, laughing into his cigar.

You make me laugh! I truly enjoyed this review. This episode is very low on my list as well for all the same reasons. Thank you for all the work you put into your reviews and you do a wonderful job editing.

You’re totally right with your review! Excellent!

He may have been a scientific genius. But a criminal mastermind he was not.

I heartily agree with you . This episode is one of the most hated by me 😮

Your review cracks me up. Do you know of a show called “the closer”? Police tactics. In order to get a confession, police are allowed to lie. What columbo does to get the killer is what he has to do because he needs the confession. Remember, we’re talking about a cold blooded killer. I never have that much sympathy for them in the end. But I do cheer for Columbo.

I actually like the ending but agreed the plot is weak. Still enjoyable though as all Columbo :-)

Thanks Schlock. Yes, an odd WTF episode. Thanks.

A good defense attorney would try to get that confession thrown out, and the son could file a lawsuit against the city and Columbo personally for false arrest.

I really love these and hope you'll do the entire run of Columbo. The pronunciation of "robot" must be a classic American thing because it's all through classic Sci-Fi radio dramas from the 40s and 50s like "Dimension X" and "X Minus One". I love it.

As one of the weakest 70s episodes, and *the* weakest up to this point in the series, it’s still a masterpiece compared to some of the 90s dreck. I had to look up who wrote this. I was disappointed to see it was Steven Bochco … and Dean Hargrove … and Roland Kibbee … from a story by Robert Sprecht. That proves a useful rule of thumb: the more writing credits there are, the weaker the script tends to be. The other combination teleplay effort Hargrove and Kibbee worked on, Candidate for Crime, was better than this, which was the final Columbo writing credit for both.

I always gave Cahill a little leeway since he didn't have much time to come up with his murder planning despite the fact that he is a "genius". With that said, I always wondered why the hell he confessed at the end. I would think he would believe his son and at a minimum, wait and see what happens when he is arrested and only confess if the fake evidence and witnesses are actually true or enough to convict.

Well done and very funny--thanks! Maybe they could have programmed Robby to do a polish on the script? Smoke 'em, if you got 'em!

Schlock: “This shows a wildly different bit of Columbo’s personality” Me: *Wait till you watch season 5’s Last Salute To The Commodore*

When words like “worst” are tossed around here, I assume you’re only discussing the 70’s version of Columbo and not the final 6 dreadful seasons.

At last , somebody sees what I did , the horrible behavior of the columbo character.

"Murder In Malibu" is overall my least favorite episode. I don't dislike the later era of the show, the older episodes had their own fair share of padding moments & little bits that didn't factor into the plot just as much as the new era did(the tuba scene is at least more interesting than the control room "dancing monitor graphics" scene), but it has an uninteresting, unlikeable killer, an unlikeable sister to the victim, a "twist" that tossed out legality(desecration of a body & attempted murder would still stand) & a plot that stretched itself out with the ending reveal being about the only interesting part. But this one... I feel it's overall a boring episode that ended on a lame spot because somehow all the evidence he did have wasn't enough? The characters are boring, the murder too complicated(as noted the heroin was in a box with a chemical label, not something a junkie would find) & a Robbie cameo that seems there as if they knew the episode needed a gimmick to get viewers in. Watching that claw smash the keyboard is a bit cringe too. I've seen every episode at least 10 times, as the show was often my preferred "out it on while I work" thing(I now own the DVD box set but had the video files on a PC hard drive for years). While I don't have any episodes I hate or really skip, those 2 are at the bottom for me.

i always adore the really outdated "Sci-Fi" Technic

I think these kind of ending plots happened at least 2 or 3 times...

The police are frequently unethical in the pursuit of justice. If your dislike of Colombo being unethical is because it makes the main character look like a heel or that it does not fit solidly in the howcatchem genre I can understand that. Yet his lack of ethics in apprehending a person he knows is guilty of murder makes his character appear more realistic.

Is there a better way? Maybe Columbo could have learned of the plagiarism (the motive) in some clever way, thereby prompting Ferrer to confess, under the tacit agreement that Columbo clam up about the plagiarism? He also does not beat the killer at his own game. Is there some way the robot could have been programmed to fool the professor into taking a particular action? Or Columbo learns some limitation of the device, a weakness that betrays a flaw in the plan?

Yesterday I saw “investigation of a citizen above suspicion” and even him didn’t leave so many clues on the crime scene

One of the worst episodes from Columbo, I only re-watch it for it's goofiness of how 70's people thought science would work on "top secret" institutes!

You're right. Awful episode. And (though it's the least of the episode's problems), if you're going to cast two people as Parent and Child, they should have at least a *ballpark* physical resemblance!

would've been more interesting if the robutt did it 🙂

Yes, the murder is pretty stupid, and the ending is, to say the least, problematic, but I still find the episode quite enjoyable.

Robot B9 & Will on Lost in Space called him a "Robotoid".

I agree with your comments but I don't hate the episode. The robot is stupid and the killer IS wooden but it's got some good bits.

There are parts of this episode that make it passable…but barely. Couldn’t agree more with many of your opinions. This is an episode I never get excited for on any rewatch. Which is a damn shame considering you have Columbo in a potential sci fi world out of his element. Could have made for great fun.

Yes it was a shocker

If you don't like Columbo's actions in this one, I can imagine how you feel about Strange Bedfellows...

That's the Twilight Zone "robot" pronunciation! lol

oh no im nearly done with S3 (watching for the first time) and im seeing that you didnt do s4 yet. Hope you get to it some day! and yea this episode is one of the worst

You commented about the 2 men pronouncing robot funny. I remember an episode of Twilight Zone where Rod Serling kept pronouning the word the same odd way, even more.

9:05 The WORST? What about that one episode that ended Season 5?

I don't know many true crime stories, but Cahill is a little like Leopold and Loeb. He's a genius but his murder is full of big mistakes.

👍

This is an episode I always avoided.

I got the impression that Lovely but Lethal would be your least favorite episode for season 3.

Yeah , unfortunately this episode had dog shit written all over it , you nailed it

I can't believe they were still using that stupid robot in 1974. It ruins the episode.

? ???????

Definitely the weakest of season 3.

is not good but not worst episode

Dead on review in every particular. It's pretty bad all around, even the humor isn't that great. Two great actors, Ferrer and Walters, don't even come off as convincing. You know it's bad when the best acting and most interesting scenes are those with the precocious boy.

Too many F words.

I don't like this episode.

Commentary ok. No need for the f-bombs. They sound forced and artificial.