What was Lt.Columbo's first name ?

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Request for Question Clarification by justaskscott-ga on 09 Jun 2003 16:24 PDT

I think that you should allow pinkfreud to post her comment as an
answer.

One page asserts that the spin-off "Kate Loves a Mystery" really did
give Lt. Columbo's first name as "Philip".  However, nothing I have
seen confirms that this to be true.  Rather, it seems that the first
name "Philip" was invented for the trivia encyclopedia as pinkfreud
has said.

"You Asked Us" (June 9, 2000)
TV Guide [Canada]
http://www.tvguide.ca/you-asked-us/060900.html

"Columbo’s First Name and The Supreme Court  - The 'Philip Columbo'
Story"
The Ultimate Lieutenant Columbo Site
http://www.columbo-site.freeuk.com/firstnamecourt.htm

So that pinkfreud can get the benefit of her work, should she post her
comment as an answer for your question?

Here's a bit of info in lieu of an answer:

Patrick McGoohan (Star of "The Prisoner" BBC Tv Series) holds two
distinctions as a guest star. He is the only one to appear on the tv
show more than three times as a murderor and he is the only one to
ever ask Lieutenant Columbo what his first name was (In "By Dawn's
Early Light"). By the way, his first name was never revealed.

http://www.geocities.com/TvPilotGuy/columbo.html

...the first name of Lt. Columbo was never revealed on either series.
His name has erroneously been stated as "Philip" in a number of
sources. This name was actually invented by Fred L. Worth, the writer
of The Complete Unabridged Super Trivia Encyclopedia. He used the name
"Philip" (found on page 107 of his book) as a check word to prove
whether anyone cited his work in their publications. In a lawsuit,
against the makers of the Trivial Pursuit game, Worth’s lawyers proved
the game’s creators had used Worth’s book as a primary source for
their game material because one of their game cards asked "What is Lt.
Columbo’s first name." Their game card answer was "Philip."

http://www.tvacres.com/char_columbo.htm

Since we never see Mrs. Columbo, the odds against learning his first
name are prohibitive. By now, viewers were demanding to know Columbo's
first name. It was never given, but columnists have mistakenly said
it's Frank and Joseph. Falk had a stock answer. Whenever anybody asked
him Columbo's first name, he would say it's "Lieutenant." About ten
veers after "By Dawn's Early Light" aired, a popular trivia-minded
board came incorrectly gave Columbo's first name as Phillip.

http://www.columbo-site.freeuk.com/dawn2.htm

Here's some interesting material on the matter of Columbo's first name:

http://www.columbo-site.freeuk.com/name.htm

I actually ran across this question in a game of Trivial Pursuit last
night.
I was asking the question of my opponent, but having previously read
this post, and pinkfreud's wonderfuil comment, I chose to discard that
question and ask pick from another card (in the interest of fairness).

To be honest, I was quite disappointed in the quality of some of the
questions in that game. They were often very poorly worded or vague to
the point of misleading.