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Fun fact: In the first few seasons, Colombo had continuing problems with his car, which was always an excuse for being late or showing up unexpectedly. But, li
by drfuchs 5y ago
Fun fact: In the first few seasons, Colombo had continuing problems with his car, which was always an excuse for being late or showing up unexpectedly. But, like his wife, the car never showed up on screen. By the later seasons, they wanted to do scenes where you see him arrive at a golf course, or whatever, and the prop department had to create a car that looked like an old clunker, and they made it out of unidentifiable pieces of various different real automobiles of different manufacturers, all so that no car company would complain that their cars were being maligned as unreliable.
- yodon 5y agoThis is a wonderful story but I'm sorry to have to report that the car Columbo drove wasn't built by the props department, it was a 1959 Peugeot 403[0]. [0]https://www.cartalk.com/blogs/jim-motavalli/columbos-car-it-was-rare-and-ratty-1959-peugeot-403-cabriolet https://www.cartalk.com/blogs/jim-motavalli/columbos-car-it-...
- drfuchs 5y agoHuh. I thought I'd heard the story in an interview with Peter Falk, or one of the producers. Oh, well.
- goodJobWalrus 5y agoWas Peugeot ever sold in th US?
- banana_giraffe 5y agoYep https://www.periodpaper.com/products/1959-ad-peugeot-403-station-wagon-vintage-mpg-pricing-original-advertising-058752-tm3-1227 https://www.periodpaper.com/products/1959-ad-peugeot-403-sta... There were a few hundred Peugeot dealers in North America.
- svat 5y agoAlso, Columbo's Peugeot 403 Cabriolet shows up in each of the first-season episodes (according to imcdb.org the "Internet Movie Cars Database" that I just discovered the existence of): • 1. "Murder by the Book" https://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_147439-Peugeot-403-Cabriolet-1960.html https://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_147439-Peugeot-403-Cabriolet-1... • 2. "Death Lends a Hand" https://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_88435-Peugeot-403-Cabriolet-1960.html https://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_88435-Peugeot-403-Cabriolet-19... • 3. "Dead Weight" https://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_66108-Peugeot-403-Cabriolet-1960.html https://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_66108-Peugeot-403-Cabriolet-19... • 4. "Suitable for Framing" https://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_94005-Peugeot-403-Cabriolet-1960.html https://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_94005-Peugeot-403-Cabriolet-19... • 5. "Lady in Waiting" https://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_71913-Peugeot-403-Cabriolet-1960.html https://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_71913-Peugeot-403-Cabriolet-19... • 6. "Short Fuse" https://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_36906-Peugeot-403-Cabriolet-1960.html https://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_36906-Peugeot-403-Cabriolet-19... • 7. "Blueprint for Murder" https://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_75558-Peugeot-403-Cabriolet-1960.html https://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_75558-Peugeot-403-Cabriolet-19... But there were two TV movies (the second one made as a "pilot") before it became a TV series, and in the first one Columbo is briefly shown with a different car, a Chevrolet C-Series: "Prescription: Murder" https://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_876671-Chevrolet-C-Series-1967.html https://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_876671-Chevrolet-C-Series-1967... (He doesn't seem to complain about his car in either of them though, so by the time he's complained about it, the car has already been shown on screen, including multiple times in the first episode.)
- technothrasher 5y agoHuh? The car was a very recognizable Peugeot 403.