The Bye-Bye Sky High I.Q. Murder Case - S6-E3
Factual error: A "silencer" (properly called a "suppressor") does not muffle a gunshot to a whisper. An unsuppressed gunshot is about 160 dB, equivalent to a jet airliner taking off, but a suppressed gunshot still registers about 100 dB, equivalent to a power lawn mower. Also, a suppressor on a revolver is totally useless, because most of the noise comes from the gap between the front of the cylinder and the rear of the barrel.
Factual error: Devlin proclaims himself to be a staunch Irish Republican but he refers to the Northern Irish city of Derry as "Londonderry." This is the name imposed upon the place by the British and is despised and rejected by Republicans. Devlin would refer to the city as "Derry."
Plot hole: Columbo is in the Pauley's hotel room trying to figure out how the bottle landed upright next to his body after he was shot. Devlin - the murderer - turns up unannounced and uninvited. How did Devlin explain that he knew where the victim was staying when he was murdered? Media reports might have mentioned the name of the hotel but there is no way they would have included the room number.
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.
Character mistake: Columbo explains to Hayward (the killer) how the accepted version of events is impossible, because when he was shot Harry Stone was standing in a dark garage and the killer could not have angled the headlights of his car in such a way that he was made visible (in order to be shot). But neither he nor Hayward even consider the possibility that the killer could have been carrying a torch, which would not only have illuminated the scene, it would have dazzled the victim and hidden the shooter.
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."?
Plot hole: Dr Kepple is finally caught when he rushes to the hiding place of the calibration converter that he hid in the lamp after the murder. Why is it still there? It was a great hiding place initially when the police were searching people and the building in the hours after the murder but Kepple had plenty of opportunities after that to get rid of it. It is the only piece of evidence linking him to the crime and it is in his office so you would think that his main priority would be to dispose of it as soon as possible.
Plot hole: In the last scene Columbo convicts Hanlon of murder by playing back the recording of Hanlon's final call to the victim Wagner (the phone-box call near the crime scene is Hanlon's alibi. He is pretending to be in his VIP-box in the football stadium, which is too far away at the time he murders Wagner). The point is that the recording is missing the loud clock chimes from a little clock inside the VIP-box, which means Hanlon's alibi is "destroyed", he was not in his VIP-box, he must be somewhere else at that moment. Problem is the missing clock chimes are not hard evidence. Hanlon could say the clock was not working that day or the battery was empty and so on. Beside that it would be much easier to catch Hanlon if Columbo would check the outgoing phone calls asking the telephone company.
Plot hole: Just before Joe Devlin kills Vincent Pauly in the hotel room, he picks up the Full's Irish Dew whisky bottle with his bare hands. The same bottle falls to the floor when Pauly is shot, and Devlin then kicks it over to the body. Devlin didn't wipe the bottle clean at any point, therefore it will be covered in his fingerprints, but this is never mentioned throughout the episode. There's no way the police would overlook such a basic clue.
Continuity mistake: Dr. Murcheson is not wearing gloves when he scrapes the women's faces. Then he goes into another room and removes a gray glove from his left hand.
Dead Weight - S1-E4
Character mistake: When Columbo first comes to the general's apartment, the general is showing Columbo a submachinegun. He also shows him a magazine and says it is an "extra clip." A retired general would know the difference between a clip and a magazine; the terms are not interchangeable.
Columbo and the Murder of a Rock Star - S10-E3
Factual error: They talk about Wednesday as day of the murder. On the other hand, we see a speeding ticket with 3-11-91. In 1991, March 11 was a Monday and November 3 was a Sunday, so whichever way the date is written the day is wrong. (01:17:53)
Columbo and the Murder of a Rock Star - S10-E3
Factual error: Champagne corks have a metal cap between the cork and the wire cage. (They can be seen when both Creighton and Columbo open bottles.) When Creighton injects the chloral hydrate into the champagne, he does not have the difficulty he should have getting through the metal. The needle does not come out damaged as it should, and it did not go far enough into the cork to put the liquid into the champagne-it would get lost in the cork itself.
Character mistake: Piloting a helicopter, Leslie ends a radio conversation by saying "Over and out." "Over" means "I'm done talking; please respond." "Out" means "I'm done talking and I'm ending this communication." An experienced pilot would never say "Over and out." They are two different terms.
Character mistake: Columbo drives to a car lot to question salesman Charlie Shoup. Admiring Columbo's Peugeot, the salesman says, "We don't see many of these. What's it got on it? 20,000 miles? 30,000?" When Columbo tells him "100,000," he replies, "Well, I don't care what's on the speedometer." He meant to say "odometer."
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.
Deliberate mistake: Beth shoots Bryce three times in the chest, and he falls face down on the floor. She then drags his body across the floor, also face down, to in front of the sliding door, but there is no sign of blood anywhere.
Factual error: In the series, Columbo does not carry a gun, and in several episodes it is mentioned that he doesn't like guns and/or that he doesn't know very much about them. In the real world, all LAPD officers must carry guns, and they must re-qualify with them at the range six times each year. Also, due to the very nature of their work, they are knowledgeable about numerous types, makes, and models of guns.
Any Old Port in a Storm - S3-E2
Plot hole: Carsini has a wine vault (with very expensive wine in it) with an integrated air conditioner. There are indeed wine vaults like that. But mostly active cooling wine vault are used by "amateur" wine lovers (who can't afford an underground cellar) but not by wine connoisseurs like Carsini. Active coolings are not very reliable. A power failure or a simple malfunction and Carsini would lose all of his expansive wines he collected for many years (like we saw in the episode). So why shouldn't a huge wine connoisseur build a cellar, surrounded by cooling soil where temperatures never rise that high? He is rich, he as a big estate, a villa, and he knows better to store the jewels of his passion adequately. Why store wines in a potential oven where high temperatures (without air conditioning) can even kill a man (his brother) in the first place? It is a far fetched and an unnecessary gambling just to have a murder-plot.
Character mistake: In the performances, Benedict is not conducting; he is waving his arms around.
Suggested correction: He very likely will. As we've seen, Columbo is very thorough. The missing clock chimes aren't meant to be definitive proof, just enough to warrant an arrest. Columbo will continue to work the case and gather evidence.
Columbo will continue to work the case and gather evidence? Well with that sentence they could stop every Columbo episode after 5 minutes. Hey guys, Columbo has nearly nothing against the murderer but he will continue to work the case outside this episode be sure.
It's the detective's job to investigate the crime and gather sufficient evidence to warrant an arrest and potential conviction. Yes, this would apply to every episode, and yes it applies to all detectives. Many of Columbo's investigations result in him using circumstantial evidence to arrest the killer. In one episode he arrests a man based on how the victim's shoes were tied. That wasn't his only evidence, however. In many cases a preponderance of circumstantial evidence is enough.
It's a TV show, Columbo was made for entertainment, not to be used as a script to prosecute a potential criminal.
No judge would allow this "evidence" to even be presented to a grand jury. Just because Hanlon wasn't in his booth at the time doesn't mean he was at the murder scene.