Corrected entry: When Columbo and the staffer are looking through the orders from MAC supplier, they mention tweezers. Hospitals use "forceps", not tweezers.
Bishop73
24th Oct 2023
Columbo (1971)
10th Jan 2020
Columbo (1971)
Character mistake: This episode opens with James Ferris typing the final chapter of a mystery novel. He is using all-capital letters, No professional writer would do that.
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Suggested correction: It's not meant to be all capital letters, but block letters. Just look at the title card and credits in the opening - they're block letters too.
1st May 2020
Columbo (1971)
Character mistake: In the grocery store scene Robert Culp sits on a display of pumpkins but there are 2 signs that say watermelons.
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Suggested correction: As a retail worker of 18 years, I know that POS (signage) mistakes happen in supermarkets, for example a product is moved and the correct POS is not replaced. This scene seems to be filmed in a real supermarket meaning this is not a mistake made by the show's producers, however if this was filmed in a studio, "Character Mistake" would be the wrong category as the mistake would have been made by the set designers.
While I've never seen mislabeled items I know mistakes can happen. But since the characters aren't real, every mistake they make is the fault of someone on the crew, whether it's the actor, writer, or set designer. For example, misspellings are considered character mistakes (unless intentional), even though it would have been made by the person who created it.
27th Feb 2017
Columbo (1971)
Corrected entry: During the opening credits, the film of a fountain in front of a mansion is running backwards. The water is flowing upwards from the pool back into the water jet.
Correction: The film is not running backwards. It's called the "wagon-wheel effect" where the camera's film rate isn't fast enough to capture the flow of the water. This is a natural phenomenon and not a movie mistake, you can simulate the same effects with strobe lights or blinking rapidly.
30th May 2017
Columbo (1971)
Corrected entry: On the phone with Columbo, Graham McVay says he's "at the Bay Leaf Restaurant, on Kelsey east of Wilshire." There is no such location. Wilshire Boulevard is an east-west street.
Correction: There are times when Wilshire Blvd will run in a SW to NE or NE to SE direction where you can have streets east of it.
1st Mar 2017
Columbo (1971)
Corrected entry: Lauren Dayton has a package sent to Columbo. It contains a bed for his basset hound. Later when she meets Columbo at a restaurant and sees the box, she says, "You didn't open it." Since the box and the lid were each separately wrapped in red paper, there is no way she could have known if the box had been opened.
5th Jul 2012
Columbo (1971)
Corrected entry: Riley pays hired killer Eddie off with a wad of bills which he says totals a thousand dollars. But just the top note in the cash roll he hands Eddie is a $1000 bill - so obviously, it's more than a thousand dollars. (00:05:00)
Correction: It is not a $1,000 bill, but a $100 bill. The $1,000 bill (last printed in 1945) has either a large portrait of the bald eagle or the words United States of America (depending on the year). The bill seen has neither of these, and in fact you can see part of the Independence Hall portrait that's on the $100 bill. Additional evidence it is a $100 is the way 100 is printed, curving around the border, the $1,000 bill has the numbers flat or curving in the opposite direction.
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Correction: There is a difference between tweezers and forceps, and many hospitals, if not most or all, use both.
Bishop73
Yes, forceps are used medically for grasping or holding larger objects, while tweezers are used mainly for manipulating or moving tiny ones, and also for dissection. Interestingly, in many surgical suites, the staff will use the term "pickups" instead of forceps.