July 4, 2025: The Columbo rewatch continues with The Bye Bye Sky-High I.Q. Murder Case!

This episode aired May 22, 1977.

Theodore Bikel, who played Oliver Brandt, was a real life member of MENSA.

Bikel on his Columbo experience: “I remember we had twenty-two shooting days for a ninety minute episode. That was wonderful. The whole experience was a lot of fun. I read mysteries and like them, so it was a pleasure to do a Columbo. Peter is not what he plays. He’s much more cultured. He had a lot of artistic control and he used it to make other artists comfortable. He’d tell me he would go for as many takes until I was pleased with it. That’s very rare in television.”

An eighteen-year-old Jamie Lee Curtis has a small part as the waitress who confiscates Columbo’s donut.

Carol Jones, who played 14-year-old prodigy Caroline Treynor, was actually 22.

This episode saw Richard Alan Simmons come on as a producer on the show, something that no doubt helped convince Falk to eventually sign on for a seventh season. According to Falk: “Dick Simmons had a slightly different approach. Dick tried to create a lot more tension between Columbo and the murderers. So he made the entrances a little more formidable. Columbo was no longer looking for his pen. In the first shows, the adversaries were totally confident and Columbo represented some minor annoyance. I don’t think Dick quite believed that. Dick wanted more tension. It was another way of looking at it. On reflection, the entrances in Dick’s shows aren’t all that dissimilar to what Levinson and Link wrote for prescription: Murder. There is a certain amount of tension when he first meets the murderer.”

In one memorable scene, Columbo is caught without his signature raincoat in the middle of a downpour. According to series co-creator Dick Levinson: “We always wanted the last show to be a story in which he doesn’t wear his raincoat during the entire case. It’s being dry-cleaned. At the very end, with the case solved, he walks outside and it’s starting to rain. He puts his hands in the air and we have a freeze-frame. That’s how we wanted the series to end.”

My thoughts on this episode in chronological viewing order…

I find this tickling sequence bizarre.

“I think I just drank my contact lens.” Love it. Goes to show geniuses aren’t brilliant at everything.

I know of no middle-aged men who tickle their friends. I don’t know. Maybe I need to expand my social circle.

“I’ll have to kill you.” Refreshingly honest!

This is a pretty elaborately staged murder.

“Here I’ve been talking with the most intelligent people in the world and I didn’t even notice.” Burn.

Love the fact that everyone has conflicting accounts of the murder. “Well, that clears that up,”says Columbo.

Mrs. Columbo is apparently a whiz at puzzles!

What was the point of that red car narrowly missing Columbo’s car?

“We must put Bertie out of our minds.” He’s been dead less than 24 hours!

“You’ve been behaving very strangely lately.” Setting aside the fact his best friend was just found murdered.

This female receptionist happily explaining that women aren’t hired as secretaries because they are not given the opportunity to move up in the company! Hoo boy.

Odd that Brandt uses a handkerchief to handle the gun, but then uses his bare hand.

Great bit of Columbo surprising him as he’s about to dump the gun. The entire suspenseful sequence with the trash can is one of two highlights of this episode for me.

Boy, there’s a lot of discussion about that umbrella. Is Columbo triggered from his experience in “Dagger of the Mind”?

14-year-old genius Caroline suspects murder. I hope she helps Columbo solve the crime. Now THAT would be a spinoff series I would check out.

“You not only have a terrific mind. You’re also a remarkably pretty girl.”
“You know something, lieutenant. That’s the very first time anybody told me they liked me for my body instead of my mind.”
Er, wut?

This genius suspects Bertie committed suicide, but made it look like murder by using an elastic band. Seemingly preposterous, but I believe this was actually done in Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None.

The one time Columbo isn’t wearing his raincoat, he gets caught int he rain.

Columbo didn’t even touch his wine!

He lands on her and apologizes. Her: “I enjoyed it.”
She seems like fun!

Is she high? “I like the way you wear your hair.”

Oh, back in the days of carpeted restaurants. Gross.

Love the Jamie Lee Curtis waitress confiscating his donut.

Columbo is already in his office. A classic move.

“You are the mother of my predicament.” Great line.

Vivan wants nothing to do with Oliver’s admission of embezzlement. I mean, what can SHE do about it now after all?

“Mr. Brandt. I know exactly what you did and how you did it.” Off his shocked look, Columbo reveals he’s referring to the puzzle he gave him. Columbo is toying with him.

Mr. and Mrs. Columbo teaming to solve a puzzle I likely never would have figured out.

Love the dark and stormy night backdrop.

This scene in which the two men confide in each other is tremendous – and the second highlight of this episode. We gain insight into Columbo, about how he persevered amid much smarter co-workers by simply working harder.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you. Last night when I was at your house, I took the wrong umbrella.” Columbo has him on the ropes.

“He would have to be a genius.”
“I think so too, sir.”
Absolutely toying with him.

Love the dual crescendo of the scene and music. Columbo stokes and prods his ego until Brandt blunders.

“Come to bed. I need you.” Pretty suggestive.
“Alas, my dear. I shall not be needing you…anymore.”
Who could say no to Samantha Eggar?

Brandt realizes Columbo is a genius as well. Appearances can be deceiving!

“Lieutenant have you ever considered a different line of work?
“Me, sir? No, Never. I couldn’t do that.”
Is this a hint at his return for season 7?

Not a bad episode. I did like the set-up, seeing Columbo’s battle of wits against a bonafide genius, and there were some truly great moments like the aforementioned episode highlights (the trash scene and the scene in which Columbo and Brandt confide in one another), Columbo’s interaction with the rest of the brainiacs, and the donut confiscation. Not sure I bought the carefully orchestrated murder (A lot of things had to go right for it to work – and they did) and while I love the idea of Brandt’s ego leading to his downfall, it did feel too convenient and dramatically unsatisfying.

My revised episode rankings: 1. Forgotten Lady, 2. Now You See Him, 3. Fade in to Murder, 4. Negative Reaction, 5. Any Old Port in a Storm, 6. Double Exposure, 7. A Friend In Deed, 8. Double Shock, 9. A Stitch in Crime, 10. Death Lends a Hand, 11. Suitable for Framing, 12. Publish or Perish, 13. Dagger of the Mind, 14. Requiem for a Falling Star, 15. Prescription: Murder, 16. Murder by the Book/Ransom for a Dead Man (tie), 17. By Dawn’s Early Light, 18. Swan Song, 10. Troubled Waters, 20. Lady in Waiting, 21. An Exercise in Fatality, 22. Etude in Black, 23. Playback, 24. The Most Crucial Game, 25. Blueprint for Murder, 26. Lovely But Lethal, 27. The Bye Bye Sky-High IQ Murder Case, 29. A Deadly State of Mind, 28. The Most Dangerous Match, 30. The Greenhouse Jungle 31. Identity Crisis, 32. Dead Weight, 33. Short Fuse, 34. A Case of Immunity, 35. Candidate for Crime, 36. Mind Over Mayhem, 37. Old Fashioned Murder, 38. Last Salute to the Commodore.

Finally, let’s consider whether or Columbo has enough evidence for a conviction. Will Brandt be found GUILTY or is he looking at an ACQUITTAL? Given the fact that the umbrella evidence would be inadmissible, I think the prosecutor would have their work cut out for them given the complexity of the murder. Throwing out Brandt’s admission of guilt, I would say ACQUITTAL.

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