 Many people erroneously accuse the TV series "Columbo" of stealing  the story for this episode. In fact Steven Bochco (qv) originally  wrote a virtually identical episode for "Columbo" in 1973. However,  Peter Falk (I) (qv) did not feel the script was good enough and,  as a result, it did not get made at the time. Bochco then used the  story for this series. Years later, Falk changed his mind and made  the original Bochco script into a Columbo movie in  _Columbo: Uneasy Lies the Crown (1990) (TV)_ (qv)