An “Obsessive Preoccupation with Gadgetry”: Columbo's Investigation of Media Technologies

This chapter investigates Columbo’s “obsession” with the technological gadgets—objects like film projectors, answering machines, video recorders, and even a robot—that appear throughout its 1970s run. These technological objects on display are embedded with history: they narrate a history of the technological changes of the era, and they discretely link technology with time. Frequently, these gadgets offer a final clue to the solution of the murder, and therefore the detective learns about technology as much as, or more than, he does about the culprits he investigates. Allowing for the detective’s study of such emerging devices, the series also implicitly invites an investigation into the work and the myths of television itself as a technological form.