Short Fuse - S1-E7
Continuity mistake: When Buckner's car leaves the chemical plant, it's a stretch limo with three bench seats. When it explodes on the mountain road a few scenes later, it's only a two-seat limo. (Buckner, who was initially in the distant rear seat, is suddenly close enough to reach up and take the cigar box the chauffeur hands him from the front seat. The entire middle section of the limo has disappeared.) (00:13:40 - 00:15:30)
Short Fuse - S1-E7
Continuity mistake: As Roger helps Columbo remove the pink Silly-String from his hair, the amount and configuration of the string differs radically with each change of camera angle. (00:37:30)
Short Fuse - S1-E7
Continuity mistake: While riding in a chauffeur-driven car, Mr. Buckner wants to smoke a cigar. He picks up a wooden cigar box. The lid is secured by two pieces of black tape. He peels up one piece of tape. After a close-up of his face is shown, he peels up the second piece of tape and the first piece is now back in its original position across the lid.
Short Fuse - S1-E7
Continuity mistake: In the cable car climax, Roger opens the cable car door to throw out the cigars. Then while he is scrabbling on the floor, and there is dialogue, the doors are shut. Then, at the end, the doors are open again.
Short Fuse - S1-E7
Continuity mistake: A chauffeur is driving Mr. Buckner to a mountain cabin. It is 7:30 pm and a very heavy rain is falling. The car explodes, killing both men. When their bodies are located the following morning, the road and the surrounding hills are completely dry. There are not even any puddles.
Short Fuse - S1-E7
Plot hole: We are told several times that the road to the mountain house is very narrow and difficult to negotiate. How did the very large crane get there so quickly to lift the bodies after the crash?
Continuity mistake: When Columbo confronts Markham in the lecture hall and helps him erase the chalk board, most of the word "architecture" remains, visible over Columbo's shoulder. In the next shot, it disappears. (00:31:00)
Factual error: When Columbo initially latches onto the radio dilemma (which ultimately solves the case) the dial is tuned all the way to the left. He later tells someone that the radio is set to 'Classical 52', but an AM radio starts at 54, meaning 540KHz. There is no 52.
Character mistake: Columbo talks to the cardiologist. The doctor gives him information about his patient, Mr. Williamson. Columbo has no warrant, so the doctor is violating privilege. He wouldn't give that information to Columbo.
Continuity mistake: When Columbo meets Goldie for the first time she is having a massage. She then proceeds to dress by tying a dressing gown with a bow at the front. In the next shot the dressing gown is open with the tie at the back.
Character mistake: When Columbo is in Mr Benedict's house with Mr Benedict, he calculates the cost of Mr Benedict's house at $720,000. A moment later Mr Benedict asks Columbo; "How did you arrive with that figure, $750,000?" (00:43:20)
Continuity mistake: When Columbo questions her about the carnations, Janice Benedict's sweater is either off her shoulders or covering them completely, depending on the shot. (01:11:00)
Character mistake: Columbo discusses the murder of Jennifer Welles with Alex Benedict - who killed her - and he reveals that the odometer reading of Benedict's car showed an extra nine miles despite the fact that it was supposedly immobilised in a garage on the night of the murder. Benedict challenges Columbo, saying that he assumes that he has established the distance between the garage and Jennifer's apartment. "Yes, sir." says Columbo. "Exactly nine miles." Since the murderer would have had to have driven to and from the garage to the scene of the murder - the car was back in the garage when the police searched it the next day - shouldn't he have said "Exactly four and a half miles."?
Continuity mistake: Towards the end of the episode when Columbo is about to expose the killer he asks the conductor and his wife to adjourn to the recording studio from the stage. When his wife walks off the stage she has one hairstyle, but when she enters the recording studio she has a completely different hairstyle.
Character mistake: In the performances, Benedict is not conducting; he is waving his arms around.
Character mistake: During a rehearsal, conductor Alex Benedict instructs the orchestra to play "quasi un fantasia." Columbo asks Benedict's wife Janice what those words mean. She tells him, "It's Latin for 'like a fantasy." The words are Italian, not Latin.
Other mistake: When Benedict puts his briefcase in the back of the Jaguar, the hatch does not close properly. It is still not closed properly when he picks up the car from the repair shop.
Plot hole: Unless Jarvis Goodland has the world's most stupid lawyer, he has nothing to worry about. Columbo searches the greenhouse and uses a metal detector to find the bullet which, supposedly, shows Goodland's gun is the murder weapon. He conducts the search without a warrant and against Goodland's wishes - he asks him several times to desist with the search and leave. Any evidence discovered or collected during the search is inadmissible in court.
Plot hole: Jarvis Goodland, who grows orchids in a greenhouse, shoots and kills his nephew. A year earlier, Goodland had fired a shot at an intruder who was attempting to steal some orchids. The shot missed and went into the dirt of a flower pot. Columbo finds the bullet and it helps to prove Goodland killed his nephew. A bullet fired from a .32-caliber pistol would have shattered the pot.
Other mistake: When Columbo is examining the crashed Jaguar, we see silvery tape around the opening where the smashed headlight had been. The tape shouldn't be there.
Answer: "Apparent" drowning answers your question - things are not always as they seem. Drowning could be accidental, but it could also be a murder in disguise. Moreover, the actual cause of death has not yet been determined - accident, suicide, murder, or natural cause (e.g, heart attack while swimming). Columbo would be there to investigate if anything looks unusual for it to be a mere drowning or if there is evidence or suspicion of something else.
KeyZOid
This was just on TMZ.com's "Aaron Carter Dead at 34" (11/05/2022): "Law enforcement sources tell TMZ... homicide detectives have been dispatched to the scene but we have no information or evidence of foul play. It's standard operating procedure for homicide detectives to investigate such [drowning] death scenes."
KeyZOid