Julian Stone

Lt. Columbo is pitted against a nationally recognized criminal defense lawyer who murders his rock star girlfriend when he discovers she is seeing another man.

Lois' former lover arrives in Metropolis in search of treasure--at any cost. Clark wants to date Lois again.

To stem a rash of thefts in the office, Dave installs a security door to keep out unwanted strangers. However, while Dave is intent on seeing that the station is safe, the rest of the staff sees it as an inconvenience to be circumvented. Meanwhile, as Jimmy carefully monitors the station's news broadcasts, Bill asks Lisa to be his agent for a television commercial. But he still can't keep from interfering with her negotiations. As Dave continues to tout their need for the door, his colleagues try to make it seem unnecessary, and even dangerous. While trying to prove its worthiness, Dave is accidentally locked outside without his key. So in an attempt to demonstrate it's need, he stages an elaborate presentation. Meanwhile, when Bill fears being taken advantage of in the TV commercial deal, Lisa tries to bolster his confidence. When Lisa joins Bill at the taping of his commercial, she's surprised to find he's taken an embarrassing role that could damage his credibility on the air. However, when she tries to intervene on his behalf, it turns out that Bill isn't embarrassed at all. Finally, the staff confronts Dave's fears in an intervention that ends up taking the station off the air. And though Jimmy is sure Dave is overreacting about their need for security, the theft of a briefcase proves otherwise.

At Christmas, Mitch tries to reunite Joey with her mother; C.J. worries that a priest is leaving the church for her and Matt investigates whether Santa's elves are really vacationing at Baywatch.

As Christmas nears, Mitch and Tracy fall in love. Mitch and Hobie let a lost boy stay with them during the holidays, only to discover he's a con artist. C.J. believes a priest has developed romantic feelings for her. Matt suspects that a group of vacationing little people are really Santa's elves.