A bust of Alfred Hitchcock is prominently displayed between the two arcade games in Alex Brady's office. Hitchcock was a shareholder in MCA-Universal studios and spent his last 20 years at the studio.
Rare for a later Columbo episode, Falk appears briefly without his trademark Raincoat, using it to test a theory about how the murderer moved the body.
As Columbo discusses the ice cream glasses, they are filled. He leaves, while the film maker returns to wash up the glasses, which are now nearly empty. After he dumps them, he smashes them in the sink. For insurance and safety reasons, sugar glasses are used so as to protect the actor from glass shards accidentally cutting his arms or face. For monetary reasons (sugar glasses being much more expensive), actual glasses are used prior to Columbo leaving, in case of a flub. While he exits the room, a crew member out of shot replaced the real glass with the sugar glasses, which could now be destroyed because the scene played out as intended.
When Columbo visits Alex at the studio he is stood in front of a desert scene which changes to a Colonial Viper firing on 2 Cylon Raiders from Battlestar Galactica but the laser sounds are different from the ones used in the show.
Alex Bradley, the hugely successful young director, is presumably based on Stephen Spielberg. Spielberg was not only the hottest director at the time this was filmed, he was the same age and wore the same style of glasses. Spielberg also directed the pilot episode of the original series and they've referenced him in previous episodes.