MacGougan at Large

Notes on Laws That Aren't Really Laws - 6

Burke’s Law - Rich Guys Can Solve Crimes, Too

OK. Burke’s Law isn’t like the other laws-that-aren’t-really-laws that have been featured in this series. It isn’t a fixed kernel of insight. It’s a TV series from the 1960s that was revived for a while in the 1990s. It’s sort of a mirror-image of Columbo. It came first, so technically Columbo is a mirror-image of Burke’s Law.

Like Columbo, it was a murder mystery. Each episode was a separate case and featured lots of guest-star suspects. The case was always solved by the titular star of the show.

But - while Columbo was a seemingly ordinary guy in rumpled clothes driving a beater car - Burke was a debonair millionaire being chauffeured to the crime scene in his Rolls.

While Columbo would regularly feign ignorance, Burke liked to dispense wisdom from his experience. In each episode, he’d deliver one or more pithy sayings that would always end with the words “Burke’s Law”. (“There’s nothing more dangerous than a prime suspect with a short fuse: Burke’s Law.”)

One other connection: Gene Barry, the actor who played Burke, also played the murderer in the very first Columbo episode. I’m thinking this might be a clue that Columbo was deliberately borrowing from - and inverting - the Burke’s Law template.

Why do I remember Burke’s Law? I think it must have spoken to something aspirational in the young me. When you’re a kid, you can’t help wondering about what you should be when you grow up. Without Burke’s Law, it might never have occurred to me that I should be a debonair, wisdom-spouting, crime-solving millionaire.