Colombo always had a such hilarious proletariat vs bourgeois "Marxist" class struggle element hidden just below the surface of a major Hollywood series whose pi

Colombo always had a such hilarious proletariat vs bourgeois "Marxist" class struggle element hidden just below the surface of a major Hollywood series whose pilot was directed by a promising new young kid named Steven Spielberg. The criminals were always rich, powerful, famous. Columbo was an unimpressive civil servant dressed in a shabby overcoat and driving an equally unimpressive old Peugeot. Every episode contained some bit of banter in which he or the villain called out explicitly the huge gulf in class between them, generally including some mention of Mrs. Columbo, who was never seen in the real series but was always held up by Columbo as cultured, intellectual, and wise in all the ways he professed to be ignorant (yes, they did eventually spin off a series about her, but it was terrible in as many ways as Columbo was great). At the end of every episode, the honorable masses would triumph over the evil bourgeois as Columbo caught and humiliated yet another arrogant villain just before viewers were advised what brand of products to buy to look better than their neighbors.