List of Columbo episodes

The following is an episode list for the crime fiction television series Columbo. After two pilot episodes, the show originally aired on NBC from 1971 to 1978 as one of the rotating programs of The NBC Mystery Movie. Columbo then aired less frequently on ABC beginning in 1989. The last installment was broadcast in 2003.

Because the Columbo episodes from 1989 to 2003 aired infrequently, different DVD sets have been released around the world. In Region 2 and 4, all episodes have now been released as 10 seasons, with the 10th season covering the last 14 shows from "Columbo Goes to College" (1990) to the most recent "Columbo Likes the Nightlife" (2003).^[1][2] However, in France, and The Netherlands (also Region 2) the DVDs were released as 12 seasons.^[3] And in Region 1, all episodes from season 8 are grouped differently; all the episodes that are originally aired on ABC were released as the COLUMBO: The Mystery Movie Collections.^[4] For the sake of clarity, all episodes in this article are arranged as they appear in the UK release.

Series overview

Episodes

Before Peter Falk

Before Peter Falk was cast in the role of Columbo, Bert Freed played the character in "Enough Rope", a 1960 episode of The Chevy Mystery Show, a TV anthology series. In 1962, that episode became a stage play titled "Prescription: Murder" (starring Thomas Mitchell as Columbo). The play was adapted as a made-for-TV movie in 1968, with Falk debuting in the role. In this pilot episode, Columbo--rather than making the rumpled presentation that would later become the character's trademark--is less shabbily dressed, wearing suits, shorter hair, and heavier stage makeup. He carries a raincoat, which would become a staple, during some scenes. He also appears somewhat more aggressive when confronting suspects.

The NBC years (1968–1978)

Pilot episodes

Season 1

Season 2

Season 3

Season 4

Season 5

Season 6

Season 7

The ABC years (1989–2003)

Season 8

Season 9

Season 10 and specials

Repeat offenders

Here is a list of the actors who starred as murderers in more than one episode:

• Patrick McGoohan starred in four episodes as the murderer: By Dawn's Early Light (Emmy Award) (1974), Identity Crisis (1975), Agenda for Murder (Emmy Award) (1990), and Ashes to Ashes (1998).
• Jack Cassidy starred in three episodes as the murderer: Murder by the Book (1971), Publish or Perish (1974), and Now You See Him... (1976).
• Robert Culp starred in three episodes as the murderer: Death Lends a Hand (1971), The Most Crucial Game (1972), and Double Exposure (1973). Also appeared in one episode as the father of the murderer: Columbo Goes to College (1990).
• George Hamilton starred in two episodes as the murderer: A Deadly State of Mind (1975) and Caution: Murder Can Be Hazardous to Your Health (1991).
• William Shatner starred in two episodes as the murderer: Fade in to Murder (1976) and Butterfly in Shades of Grey (1994).
• Robert Vaughn starred in one episode as the murderer: "Troubled Waters" (1975) but is believed to be the murderer in "Last Salute to the Commodore" (1976) until his character also gets killed.
• Ray Milland starred in only one episode as the murderer, The Greenhouse Jungle (1972), but he also starred in another episode as the husband of a victim, not the murderer, Death Lends a Hand (1971).
• Dabney Coleman starred in one episode as the murderer, "Columbo and the Murder of a Rock Star" (1991) but had previously been a police sergeant in "Double Shock" (1973)
• Patrick O'Neal starred in one episode as the murderer "Blueprint for Murder" (1972) and appeared in "Make Me a Perfect Murder" (1978) as the boss of both the murderer and the victim.

Index of killers by episode

Pilot episodes

• Prescription Murder: Gene Barry (1968)
• Ransom for a Dead Man: Lee Grant (1971)

Season 1 (1971–1972)

• Murder by the Book: Jack Cassidy
• Death Lends a Hand: Robert Culp
• Dead Weight: Eddie Albert
• Suitable for Framing: Ross Martin
• Lady in Waiting: Susan Clark
• Short Fuse: Roddy McDowall
• Blueprint for Murder: Patrick O'Neal

Season 2 (1972–1973)

• Étude in Black: John Cassavetes
• The Greenhouse Jungle: Ray Milland
• The Most Crucial Game: Robert Culp
• Dagger of the Mind: Richard Basehart and Honor Blackman
• Requiem for a Falling Star: Anne Baxter
• A Stitch in Crime: Leonard Nimoy
• The Most Dangerous Match: Laurence Harvey
• Double Shock: Martin Landau

Season 3 (1973–1974)

• Lovely But Lethal: Vera Miles
• Any Old Port in a Storm: Donald Pleasence
• Candidate for Crime: Jackie Cooper
• Double Exposure: Robert Culp
• Publish or Perish: Jack Cassidy
• Mind Over Mayhem: José Ferrer
• Swan Song: Johnny Cash
• A Friend in Deed: Richard Kiley and Michael McGuire

Season 4 (1974–1975)

• An Exercise in Fatality: Robert Conrad
• Negative Reaction: Dick Van Dyke
• By Dawn's Early Light: Patrick McGoohan
• Troubled Waters: Robert Vaughn
• Playback: Oskar Werner
• A Deadly State of Mind: George Hamilton

Season 5 (1975–1976)

• Forgotten Lady: Janet Leigh
• A Case of Immunity: Hector Elizondo
• Identity Crisis: Patrick McGoohan
• A Matter of Honor: Ricardo Montalban
• Now You See Him...: Jack Cassidy
• Last Salute to the Commodore: Fred Draper

Season 6 (1976–1977)

• Fade in to Murder: William Shatner
• Old Fashioned Murder: Joyce Van Patten
• The Bye-Bye Sky High IQ Murder Case: Theodore Bikel

Season 7 (1977–1978)

• Try and Catch Me: Ruth Gordon
• Murder Under Glass: Louis Jourdan
• Make Me a Perfect Murder: Trish Van Devere
• How to Dial a Murder: Nicol Williamson
• The Conspirators: Clive Revill

Season 8 (1989)

• Columbo Goes to the Guillotine: Anthony Andrews
• Murder, Smoke, and Shadows: Fisher Stevens
• Sex and the Married Detective: Lindsay Crouse
• Grand Deceptions: Robert Foxworth

Season 9 (1989–1990)

• Murder: A Self Portrait: Patrick Bauchau
• Columbo Cries Wolf: Ian Buchanan
• Agenda for Murder: Patrick McGoohan
• Rest in Peace, Mrs. Columbo: Helen Shaver
• Uneasy Lies the Crown: James Read
• Murder in Malibu: Andrew Stevens

Season 10 and specials (1990–2003)

• Columbo Goes to College: Stephen Caffrey and Gary Hershberger (1990)
• Caution: Murder Can Be Hazardous to Your Health: George Hamilton (1991)
• Columbo and the Murder of a Rock Star: Dabney Coleman (1991)
• Death Hits the Jackpot: Rip Torn (1991)
• No Time to Die: (This is the only episode where no one is murdered. Daniel McDonald plays the villain.) (1992)
• A Bird in the Hand...: Tyne Daly and Greg Evigan (1992)
• It's All in the Game: Faye Dunaway and Claudia Christian (1993)
• Butterfly in Shades of Grey: William Shatner (1994)
• Undercover: Ed Begley Jr. (1994)
• Strange Bedfellows: George Wendt (1995)
• A Trace of Murder - 25th Anniversary Movie: David Rasche (1997)
• Ashes to Ashes: Patrick McGoohan (1998)
• Murder With Too Many Notes: Billy Connolly (2001)
• Columbo Likes the Nightlife: Jennifer Sky and Matthew Rhys (2003)

Notes

References

• Dawidziak, Mark (1989). The Columbo Phile : A Casebook. New York: Mysterious Press. ISBN 978-0-89296-984-5.