Remote Patrol

It looks like ABC is less interested in the "Frasier" audience than the "Diagnosis Murder" crowd. How else to explain the return of one of TV's longest-running franchises in "Columbo: Ashes to Ashes" at 8 tonight on Channel 9? Peter Falk dons the rumpled raincoat one more time to solve a mystery that only older viewers are likely to buy: the disappearance of a Sunday-night gossip queen (whose dog, hint hint, is named Louella). As usual, the crime is fully explained in the first act, and the drama, such as it is, revolves around the cat-and-mouse between the eccentric detective and the savvy if guilt-stricken perp.