Columbo (TV series)

Columbo
Peter Falk as Lt. Columbo
Format	Television movie Mystery Police procedural
Created by	Richard Levinson William Link
Starring	Peter Falk
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of episodes	69 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Philip Saltzman[1]
Camera setup	Single-camera
Running time	30 x 73 minutes 39 x 98 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	NBC
Picture format	Film
Audio format	Monaural Stereophonic sound
Original run	February 20, 1968 – January 30, 2003

Columbo is an American crime fiction TV series, starring Peter Falk as Lieutenant Columbo, a homicide detective with the Los Angeles Police Department. It was created by William Link and Richard Levinson. The show popularized the inverted detective story format. With the exception of a couple of special episodes with added twists, almost every episode began by showing the commission of the crime and its perpetrator, sometimes in a sympathetic light. Thus there is no "whodunit" element. The plot mainly revolves around how the perpetrator, whose identity is known, would finally be exposed and arrested. The show's creator once referred to it as a "howcatchem".

The character first appeared in a 1960 episode of the television-anthology series The Chevy Mystery Show, which was itself partly derived from a short story by Levinson and Link published in an issue of the Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine as 'Dear Corpus Delecti'. Levinson and Link adapted the TV drama into the stage play Prescription: Murder, and a TV-movie based on the play was broadcast in 1968. The series began on a Wednesday presentation of the "NBC Mystery Movie" rotation: McCloud, McMillan & Wife, and other whodunits. After one season, the series moved as a group to Sundays and were replaced on Wednesdays by a series with a similar format with fare such as The Snoop Sisters, Cool Million, and Banacek. Columbo aired regularly from 1971 to 1978 on NBC, and then less frequently on ABC beginning in 1989. The most recent episode was broadcast in 2003.^[2]

Lt. Columbo is a disheveled-looking, seemingly naive Italian American police detective who is consistently underestimated by his fellow officers and by the murderer du jour. The subjects of his investigations are initially both reassured and distracted by his circumstantial speech and increasingly irritating asides. Despite his unprepossessing appearance and apparent absentmindedness, he shrewdly solves all of his cases and secures all evidence needed for indictment. His formidable eye for detail and meticulous and dedicated approach only become apparent late in the storyline.

The episodes are all movie-length, between 75 and 100 minutes long, excluding commercials.

Contents 1 Series format 2 Creating and casting the character 2.1 Bert Freed as Columbo 2.2 Thomas Mitchell as Columbo 2.3 Peter Falk as Columbo 2.4 Dirk Benedict as Columbo 3 Character profile 3.1 Style of investigation 3.2 Character biography 3.2.1 First name 3.2.1.1 The "Philip Columbo" myth 3.2.2 Rank 3.2.3 Mrs. Columbo 3.3 Columbo's car 4 Guest contributions 4.1 Directors/writers 4.2 Guest stars 4.3 Miscellaneous guest stars 4.4 Recurring actors/roles 5 Spin-off 6 Future of onscreen Columbo 7 List of episodes 8 DVD releases 9 Other appearances 10 Music score 11 Books 12 Influence 13 International 14 See also 15 Bibliography 16 References 17 External links

Series format

The series is noted by TV critics and historians for the way it reversed the cliché of the standard whodunit mystery. TV Guide referred to the basic plot structure as a "howcatchem", although it is more properly known as an inverted detective story.

In a typical murder mystery, the identity of the murderer is not revealed until the climax of the story, and the hero uncovers clues pointing to the killer. In almost all the episodes of Columbo, by contrast, the audience sees the crime unfold at the beginning and knows exactly who did it and how it was done; the "mystery", from the audience's perspective, is spotting the clues that will lead Columbo to discover the killer and the tricks used to obtain a confession in the absence of other non-circumstantial proof. This allows the story to unfold simultaneously from the point of view of Columbo and the murderer, as they play cat and mouse, rather than solely from that of the detective.

In some episodes, such as the first pilot, "Prescription: Murder", Columbo does not appear until as late as 30 minutes into the story, the preceding time being taken up depicting the complex nature of the crime, including the history of the killer-victim relationship and the effort by the killer to conceal his guilt.

A Columbo mystery therefore tends to be driven by the characters and by the gathering of subtly damning proof in the field, rather than by forensic science labs, whose personnel are largely unseen and their findings merely announced in passing or by general canvasses or rigorous squad room interviews, as portrayed in programs like Homicide: Life on the Street or NYPD Blue.

The audience observes the criminal's reaction to the ongoing investigation, and to the increasingly intrusive presence of Columbo, whose personality and manners are initially disarming and non-intimidating. Columbo is unfailingly polite to a suspect as an investigation proceeds. Class tension is often apparent between Columbo — with his working class origins — and the killer — who is usually affluent, well-positioned or naturally condescending. The killer often "helps" Columbo with his investigation, with his/her level of irritation, arrogance or panic escalating as Columbo gets closer to exposing them as the killer, discovering too late that the Lieutenant is not nearly as simple-minded as he appears. When the final arrest comes, the killer always goes quietly after revealing both his/her guilt and his/her motives. Columbo usually manipulates the killer(s) into self-incrimination.

Columbo rarely displays anger toward the (usually well-to-do) suspects, though he sometimes does at non-suspect witnesses,^[3] and in an impromptu speech to a ladies' club meeting hosted by Gordon's character, at which he shows up uninvited, he admits that over the course of many of his investigations he grew to like and respect the suspect. Among the few instances of his expressions of genuine anger with a suspect were in the episodes, "An Exercise in Fatality" and "A Stitch in Crime". In the latter, when Columbo's investigative techniques initially appear to prove futile against a heart surgeon (Leonard Nimoy) he thinks is a murderer, Columbo drops the facade, reveals his cards, and angrily promises that if the patient dies, the body would be autopsied to collect the evidence required to put the doctor in jail.

Columbo rarely carries a gun, and is never required to exercise physical force, though in the episodes "R.I.P. Mrs. Columbo" and "Columbo Goes to the Guillotine" he allows himself, as part of the solution, to place himself in a predicament in which the killer thought he might be able to kill the Lieutenant and escape, or at least to think about doing so, as in the episode "Swan Song" featuring Johnny Cash. The only episode in which he does carry a gun is 1992's "No Time to Die".

Creating and casting the character

The character of Columbo was created by William Link, who claimed that Columbo was partially inspired by Crime and Punishment character Porfiry Petrovich as well as G. K. Chesterton's humble clerical detective Father Brown. Other sources claim Columbo's character is also influenced by Inspector Fichet from the 1955 French suspense-thriller Les Diaboliques^[4].

Bert Freed as Columbo

The Columbo character first appeared, portrayed by Bert Freed, in a 1960 episode of the television anthology series The Chevy Mystery Show, which was entitled "Enough Rope". This episode was adapted into a 1962 stage play called "Prescription: Murder" with Thomas Mitchell in the role of Columbo. "Prescription: Murder" then became a made-for-TV movie in 1968, with Peter Falk as Columbo. Falk continued in the role when the TV series began in 1971, and played the role until 2003.

Bert Freed was a stocky character actor with a thatchy grey mane of hair. His episode, "Enough Rope", was adapted by Levinson and Link from their short story "May I Come In" (originally entitled "Dear Corpus Delicti"), in which the character of Columbo did not appear. Link's name was listed first in the billing for the writers at the beginning of the show.

Freed wore a rumpled suit and smoked a cigar to play Columbo, but played the part somewhat straighter than either of his two successors in the role, with few of the familiar Columbo mannerisms. However, the character is still recognizably Columbo and uses some of the same methods of misdirection on his prey. During the course of the show, the increasingly frightened murderer brings pressure from the district attorney's office to have Columbo taken off the case, but the detective fights back with his own contacts. There is one particularly visible mistake in the live telecast (aside from the usual constant boom microphone shadows), with a momentarily flustered Columbo introducing himself to a receptionist as "Dr. Columbo", but she magically deduces that he's actually "Lt. Columbo" when she notifies her supervisor.

Although Bert Freed received third billing, he wound up with almost as much screen time as the killer, once he appeared immediately after the first commercial, several minutes into the show. Unlike many live television shows, this one continues to exist and is available for viewing in the archives of the Paley Center for Media in New York City and Los Angeles.

Thomas Mitchell as Columbo

The "Enough Rope" teleplay in turn was adapted into a stage play called Prescription: Murder, with revered character actor Thomas Mitchell in the role; the 70-year-old Mitchell had previously played the drunken Doc in John Ford's Stagecoach (1939), for which he won an Academy Award, as well as Scarlett O'Hara's father in Gone with the Wind that same year, and also portrayed the absent-minded Uncle Billy in Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (1946). The stage production starred two veterans of Orson Welles's Mercury Theatre and Citizen Kane: Joseph Cotten as the murderer and Agnes Moorehead as the victim. Mitchell died of cancer while the play was touring in out-of-town tryouts; Columbo was his last role.

Peter Falk as Columbo

In 1968, the play was made into a two-hour television movie that aired on NBC. The writers suggested Lee J. Cobb and Bing Crosby for the role of Columbo, but Cobb was unavailable and Crosby turned it down. Director Richard Irving convinced Dick Levinson and Bill Link that Falk, who wanted the role, could pull it off even though he was much younger than the writers had in mind.

Originally a one-off TV Movie of the Week, 1968's "Prescription: Murder" has Falk's Columbo pitted against a psychiatrist (Gene Barry) whose alibi Columbo breaks. Barry essentially played the same role that Joseph Cotten had played onstage in the play of the same name. Due to the success of the first film, NBC requested that a pilot for a potential series be made to see if the character could be sustained on a regular basis, leading to the 1971 hour and a half film, Ransom For a Dead Man, with Lee Grant playing the killer.

The popularity of the second film prompted the creation of a regular series on NBC that premiered in the fall of 1971 as part of the wheel series NBC Mystery Movie. The network hedged its bets by arranging for the Columbo segments to air once a month on Wednesday nights. Columbo was an immediate hit in the Nielsen ratings and Falk won an Emmy Award for his role in the show's first year, with the character quickly becoming an icon on American television. In its second year the Mystery Movie series was moved to Sunday nights, where it then remained, running in all for seven seasons. The show became the anchor of NBC's Sunday night line up; and a fixture of the Network's programming scheme of the period to (in the days before hundreds of cable channel choices) hold viewers in a fixed time slot each week even though their favored show did not air weekly. After its cancellation by NBC in 1978 Columbo was revived on ABC between 1989 and 2003 in occasional made-for-TV movies.

Columbo's wardrobe was provided by Peter Falk himself; they were his own clothes, including the trenchcoat which made its first appearance in the second episode. Falk would often ad libitum "Columbo-isms" (fumbling through his pockets for a piece of evidence and discovering a grocery list, asking to borrow a pencil, becoming distracted by something irrelevant in the room at a dramatic point in a conversation with a suspect, etc.), inserting these into his performance as a way to keep his fellow actors off-balance. He felt it helped to make their confused and impatient reactions to Columbo's antics more genuine.^[5]

Dirk Benedict as Columbo

In 2010 the original stage play "Prescription: Murder" was revived for a tour of Great Britain with Dirk Benedict in the title role.

Character profile

Style of investigation

Police Lieutenant Columbo is a shabbily-dressed, seemingly slow-witted police detective whose fumbling, overly polite manner makes him an unlikely choice to solve any crime, let alone a complex murder. However, his demeanor is revealed to be a complex put-on designed to lull suspects into a false sense of security; Columbo is actually a brilliant detective with an eye for minute details and the ability to piece together seemingly unrelated incidents and information to solve crimes.^[6]

Columbo most often confirms a criminal's guilt by lulling them into a false sense of security and then setting up circumstances which encourage them, in their newfound hubris, to incriminate themselves. Columbo's signature interrogation technique is to conduct a seemingly innocuous interview, politely conclude it and exit the scene, only to stop in the doorway or return moments later and ask, "Just one more thing..." The "one more thing" (also called the false exit) is always a jarring question regarding an inconsistency in either the crime scene, the suspect's alibi, or his explanation of the supposedly-ended interview. The banality of the interview, combined with Columbo's apparent absentmindedness and incompetency, makes the suspect feel as though he or she is beyond the reach of law and thus plays on his or her arrogance. Columbo's "one more thing" catches them off guard and leaves them vulnerable, usually resulting in the suspect accidentally revealing information about their own guilt. Columbo will also often "befriend" a suspect, making them believe that he is investigating another individual and enlisting the suspect's "aid" in gathering information.

Thus the suspect inevitably lets down their guard; because they are "working" with Columbo, he is present to observe any gaffes on the suspect's part which might incriminate them. In the end, most of the killers stand stunned when they are caught, unable to believe that they've been fooled. In some episodes, murderers who believed themselves to have committed the "perfect crime" congratulate Columbo before being arrested. On several occasions ("Murder under Glass", "How to Dial a Murder", and "Rest in Peace, Mrs. Columbo") the suspect attempts to murder Columbo.

"Death Lends a Hand" first established that Columbo does not carry a gun. He has such low confidence in his ability to pass a routine departmental marksmanship test that in the episode "Forgotten Lady", he convinces a fellow officer to take the test for him, saying he himself could never hit the target. He rarely visits the Police Headquarters in Downtown Los Angeles, and in fact some members of the Department have never seen him there, a criticism to which he responds in the episode "Forgotten Lady" by commenting, "That's rarely where the murders take place!" His reputation among his superiors tends to vary from person to person. Some regard him with poorly-hidden distaste, put off by his seemingly slipshod techniques. Yet he is often specifically assigned to high-profile cases that require the Department's most skilled investigator. He is uniformly respected and defended by people who have worked with him to the conclusion of a case.

Character biography

The following details of Lt Columbo's life have been gleaned from statements the character has made or observations of the character's behavior in the show. He may have been lying about some of these to establish a rapport with the person he was speaking to, though in a number of these instances, he was speaking to someone unrelated to the investigation, even at times before he began it, as when he mentioned his mother-in-law to his veterinarian in "The Most Dangerous Match".

Columbo was born and raised in New York City in a neighborhood near Chinatown. In the episode "Murder Under Glass", he reveals that he ate more egg rolls than cannelloni in his childhood. He is Italian on both sides. The Columbo household included the future police officer's grandfather, parents, five brothers, one named George, and a sister. His father wore glasses and did the cooking when his mother was in the hospital having another baby. His grandfather "was a tailgunner on a beer truck during Prohibition" and let him stomp the grapes when they made wine in the cellar. In "No Time to Die", he attends the wedding of his nephew, who is also a police officer. He mentions his wife frequently, and once stated he employs her opinion on his ideas. In "Short Fuse", he states his wife's younger brother is a photography buff, and in "Blueprint for Murder", he says he has a brother-in-law who is an attorney. In "Requiem for a Falling Star", he tells the murderer, a famous actress named Nora Chandler, that he has a brother-in-law named George, and has her speak to him over the phone. At the end of "Dead Weight", he states that he has a niece named Cynthia, who is the daughter of his wife's sister. He mentions his mother-in-law was alive in "The Most Dangerous Match". They may or may not have children; in two scenes in "Any Old Port in a Storm", he refers to the difficulty of getting a babysitter. He also mentions in that episode taking his wife and child on a picnic, and alludes to his child in "The Most Crucial Game". He says in "Rest In Peace, Mrs. Columbo" that he and his wife have no children, though in the Mrs. Columbo episode, "A Riddle for Puppets," they have a daughter Jenny, played by Lili Haydn. The couple own a basset hound^[7] named Dog. Falk has stated during an interview on Inside the Actor's Studio that he wasn't truly sure how many relatives Columbo had aside from his wife.

Columbo's father, who never earned more than $5,000 a year and bought only one new car in his life, taught him how to play pool, an obsession that stuck with the future detective. His boyhood hero was Joe DiMaggio, and he also liked gangster pictures. Hardly a model child, Columbo broke street lamps, played pinball and ran with a crowd of boys that enjoyed a good prank. The trick of putting a potato in a car exhaust — which purportedly prevents the car from starting without causing permanent damage — served well on one of his cases. He jokes that he became a cop in part to make up for these juvenile pranks.

During high school, he dropped chemistry and took wood shop.^[8] While dating a girl named Theresa in high school, he met his future wife. After serving in the Army during the Korean War, Columbo joined the New York City police force and was assigned to the 12th precinct. He trained under Sergeant Gilhooley, a genial Irishman who tried to teach him the game of darts. He moved to Los Angeles in 1958. While studying to make Detective, he confessed that he had nowhere near the intelligence of his fellow candidates, but determined that he could even the odds by working harder than any of them, reading all of the required books and paying attention to every detail.

His trademark costume (raincoat over a two-piece suit, with a bone-colored shirt and a rayon tie) never varies from case to case or year to year. When on duty he is never seen without it, except in rare cases when circumstances (such as a formal event) require alternate attire. He takes his "uniform" so seriously that in the episode "Troubled Waters", after a murder was committed while he is enjoying a Mexican cruise with his wife, Columbo changed out of his cruisewear and wore his familiar suit exclusively until the case was solved.

Columbo is prone to airsickness^[9] and seasickness,^[10] and he cannot swim, though he has been known to row a boat. He is squeamish, and does not like hospitals or autopsies, or even looking at graphic photographs of murders.^[11] He is also afraid of heights,^[8] once remarking to an FAA investigator who offered him a job, "To tell you the truth, I don't even like being this tall."^[12] In "Dead Weight", when General Hollister (Eddie Albert) comments on Columbo's seasickness by asking why someone with the name "Columbo" would not be at home on a boat, the detective responds, "It must have been another branch of the family."

Columbo is not good with numbers. He likes cooking, limericks, Westerns, Italian opera, Strauss waltzes, golf (which he is very good at), classical music, bowling, and American football on television. He also plays the tuba. He is a self-proclaimed expert at tuning-in TV sets. In 1972, he earned $11,000 a year. For his 25th wedding anniversary, rather than buying his wife silver he considered taking her camping. His parents and his grandfather are dead.

Columbo's dog, a basset hound named "Dog", is depicted as an extremely lazy and perhaps overly pampered pet. Columbo is generally shown as having to carry his rather large and overweight dog from place to place instead of letting the dog try to move under his own power. In one episode, Columbo places his dog on a small wheeled table and rolls the table and dog directly in front of a television set so the dog can "watch" TV while Columbo conducts his investigation.

Columbo, although a policeman, does not carry a gun, but keeps it at LAPD Police Headquarters in Downtown Los Angeles. He doesn't carry a firearm because he says he hates guns and is a horrible shot. He also says that if he fired a gun off the end of a dock, he couldn't hit the water.

His favorite food is chili with crackers, which he eats at a greasy spoon^[13] named Barney's Beanery, though in later episodes he is found eating chili at various different places, each one at which he is indicated to be a "regular". He also eats raisins and candy, which he has been known to carry in his pocket and offer around — especially at uncomfortable moments during one of his unassuming interrogations. He eats hard boiled eggs for breakfast. He also loves coffee and drinks it black. He has been known to have the occasional beer, or a glass of wine or spirits,^[14] and is not above sharing one last drink with someone he is about to put away.^[15]

When called to a case in the early hours he brings a hard-boiled egg to serve as his breakfast. He loves cigars (usually of the stubby, very smelly, "Toscano" variety), which he smokes regularly (although more than once he gives up smoking during the series, only to restart in the next episode). He speaks Italian and a little Spanish. In the episode "Murder Under Glass", he spoke Italian to Mario (Antony Alda).

In almost every episode of the ABC revival he is heard whistling the children's song "This Old Man". If he does not whistle it, it appears somewhere else, such as in the underscore. Its significance comes from the line "knick knack paddywhack, give a dog a bone" in the lyrics, since Columbo's standard tactic is to worry at a case like a dog worries at a bone.

In "How to Dial a Murder" he says that he loves billiards, and is seen playing pool in "Ransom for a Dead Man" and "The Greenhouse Jungle". He considers the comedian W. C. Fields a genius, and Citizen Kane a terrific movie.

First name

In the 1971 episode "Dead Weight", when Columbo introduces himself to General Hollister the audience is shown a brief close-up of Columbo's badge and warrant card, complete with signature, which appears to read "Frank Columbo". The same ID badge and warrant card is seen in numerous other episodes, and the signature "Frank Columbo" is clearly visible in the season 5 episode "A Matter of Honor".

Universal Studios, in the boxset release of seasons 1-4 under their Playback label, included a picture of Columbo's police badge on the back of the box, with signature "Frank Columbo" and the name "Lt Frank Columbo" in type. This appears to be a different badge from the one seen in "Dead Weight", with a different signature.

The "Philip Columbo" myth

Several sources cite the lieutenant's name as "Philip Columbo", variously claiming that the name was either in the original script for Prescription: Murder, or that it was visible on his police badge. For instance: A rumour that Columbo's first name—which is never mentioned by him in any episode—is actually "Peter" has been denied by the star; if he has a name at all, says Falk, it is "Philip," which was the name used in the original story, Prescription: Murder."^[16] Peugeot ran an advertising campaign that mentioned "Lt Philip Columbo" as the most famous driver of the Peugeot 403 convertible. The name, "Philip Columbo," was, in fact, invented by Fred L. Worth, in whose book, The Trivia Encyclopedia, the fictitious entry about Columbo's first name was actually a "copyright trap"—a deliberately false statement intended to reveal subsequent copyright infringement.^[17]

Ultimately, however, Worth's ploy was not successful. In 1984, he filed a $300 million lawsuit against the distributors of the board game, Trivial Pursuit, claiming that they had sourced their questions from his book, even to the point of reproducing typographical errors contained in the book. Worth's suit revolved around the use of the name, "Philip Columbo", included in a game-question about Lt Columbo. The makers of Trivial Pursuit did not deny that they sourced material from Worth's book, but argued there was nothing improper about using the book, as one of a number of other references, in the process of building game-questions. The judge agreed, ruling in favor of Trivial Pursuit, and the case was thrown out.^[17]

Rank

In Peter Falk's first appearance as Columbo in the 1968 TV-movie, Prescription: Murder, the character had the rank of police lieutenant. Despite solving numerous murders over the next few decades, Columbo never received another promotion from the Los Angeles Police Department. In Falk's last appearance as Columbo in the 2003 cable-TV movie Columbo: Columbo Likes the Nightlife, the detective is still only a lieutenant.

Falk has a glass eye and it remained a mystery for 25 years whether the character had one as well, until 1997's "Columbo: A Trace of Murder", whereupon asking another character to revisit the crime scene with him he jokes: “You know, three eyes are better than one.”

Mrs. Columbo

During the first incarnation of the series, between 1971 and 1978, it was widely believed in Hollywood that Columbo's "wife" was a fictional ploy used only for conversation with his prey, and that the character actually lived alone in a furnished room. Falk is reported in magazine profiles to have strongly believed this.

In the episode "Troubled Waters" other characters describe meeting and speaking to Mrs. Columbo, although she never appears on screen. In three further episodes ("An Exercise in Fatality", "Any Old Port in a Storm" and "Rest in Peace, Mrs. Columbo"), Columbo is seen talking on the telephone with her, and in the episode "Identity Crisis", murderer Nelson Brenner (Patrick McGoohan) bugs Columbo's home and learns her favorite piece of music.

In the episode "Rest in Peace, Mrs. Columbo", Columbo's unseen wife is herself targeted by a killer (Helen Shaver). During the investigation Columbo states that his wife loves Chopin, and describes her as being busy with church, volunteering at the hospital, watching her sister's children, and walking the dog five times a day. He mentions that she has a sister named Ruth, and later while talking with his wife on the phone he refers also to her having another sister, Rita. This episode teases the audience as to whether or not Mrs. Columbo has actually been murdered, and by featuring prominently displayed photographs of Mrs. Columbo, apparently finally disclosing her appearance to viewers. However, the photos are revealed not to be of Columbo's wife after all.

Mrs. Columbo's first name was once indicated by Falk to be Rose, in a sketch in which he performed in-character in a 1978 episode of The Dean Martin's Celebrity Roasts, in which Frank Sinatra was the guest of honor.

Columbo's car

Columbo prefers to drive a dirty 1959 Peugeot 403 convertible (which is equipped with a police radio), rather than an official LAPD car while on duty. Peter Falk selected the car personally, after seeing it in a parking lot at Universal Studios.^[18] In the show, Columbo boasts that the car is a rare automobile, as it really was: from June 1956 to July 1961 only 2050 were produced,^[19] and only 504 were produced for model year 1959.^[20] In the episode "Identity Crisis", Columbo tells the murderer that his is one of only three in the country.

Columbo damages the car at least four times: in "Make Me a Perfect Murder" when he t-bones one police car and is hit from behind by another while trying to repair his rear view mirror; in "A Matter of Honor" when he rear-ends another car; in "Caution: Murder Can Be Hazardous to Your Health" when it takes him three tries to crash into the killer's car; and in "Old Fashioned Murder" when he crashes into the back of a police car as he arrives at the murder scene. He also has many other problems with the car.^[21]

During the show's initial run on NBC, the license number was 044-APD. The car was sold after cancellation of the series, and when the show resurfaced on ABC in 1989 a similar car was found in Ohio,^[22] and received a new license plate number, 448-DBZ.

Guest contributions

Directors/writers

The first season premiere "Murder by the Book" was written by Steven Bochco and directed by Steven Spielberg. Jonathan Demme directed the seventh season episode "Murder Under Glass". Jonathan Latimer was also a writer. Ben Gazzara directed the 1974 episode "A Friend in Deed" and the 1975 episode "Troubled Waters".

Falk himself directed the last episode of the first season, "Blueprint For Murder". Actor Nicholas Colasanto, best-known for playing Coach on Cheers, directed several episodes, including "Swan Song" with Johnny Cash. "Étude in Black", is credited to Colasanto, as well.

Patrick McGoohan directed five episodes (including three of the four in which he played the murderer) and wrote and produced two (including one of these). Vincent McEveety was a frequent director, and homage was paid to him by a humorous mention of a character with his surname in the episode "Undercover" (which he directed).

Guest stars

Columbo was noted for its high-profile guest stars, often as either the murderer or victim.

Noted actors appearing on Columbo include:

Murderers	Anthony Andrews, Eddie Albert, Richard Basehart, Anne Baxter, Gene Barry, Ed Begley, Jr., Theodore Bikel, Honor Blackman, Ian Buchanan, Stephen Caffrey, Johnny Cash, John Cassavetes, Jack Cassidy, Claudia Christian, Susan Clark, Dabney Coleman, Billy Connolly, Robert Conrad, Jackie Cooper, Robert Culp, Tyne Daly, Faye Dunaway, Dick Van Dyke, Hector Elizondo, José Ferrer, Ruth Gordon, Lee Grant, George Hamilton, Laurence Harvey, Louis Jourdan, Richard Kiley, Martin Landau (as identical twin brothers), Janet Leigh, Ross Martin, Roddy McDowall, Patrick McGoohan, Vera Miles, Ray Milland, Ricardo Montalban, Leonard Nimoy, Donald Pleasence, James Read, Clive Revill, Matthew Rhys, William Shatner, Helen Shaver, Fisher Stevens, Rip Torn, Trish Van Devere, Joyce Van Patten, Robert Vaughn, George Wendt, Oskar Werner, Nicol Williamson.	Patrick McGoohan appeared in a record four episodes of Columbo. Robert Culp and Jack Cassidy both appeared three times as murderers. Culp appeared a fourth time as the father of a collegiate killer. Ray Milland, Dean Stockwell, George Hamilton, William Shatner and Robert Vaughn and Ed Begley, Jr. all appeared in two episodes. Hamilton and Shatner played the killer both times; Vaughn played both a killer and a victim, and Milland played both killer and the husband of the victim (Pat Crowley, killed by Culp). Begley played both an innocent third party and a killer. Coleman appeared as a murderer ("Columbo and the Murder of a Rock Star") and in an earlier episode as a cop working on a case with Columbo ("Double Shock").
Victims	Lola Albright, Richard Anderson, Sorrell Booke, Barbara Colby, Anjanette Comer, Pat Crowley, John Dehner, Bradford Dillman, Greg Evigan, Joel Fabiani, Nina Foch, Anne Francis, Charles Frank, Will Geer, Leslie Nielsen, James Gregory, Deidre Hall, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Sam Jaffe, John Kerr, Jack Kruschen, Ida Lupino, Chuck McCann, Rue McClanahan, Martin Milner, Rosemary Murphy, Tim O'Connor, Nehemiah Persoff, Martha Scott, Pippa Scott, Martin Sheen, Tom Simcox, Mickey Spillane, Dean Stockwell, Forrest Tucker, Robert Vaughn, Lesley Ann Warren, John Williams, Jeff Yagher.	Ida Lupino appeared twice, once as a victim and once as the spouse of a victim. Leslie Nielsen appeared twice, once as the victim and once as the boyfriend of the murderer. Barbara Colby, a newcomer, played a victim, albeit not the intended victim, but rather a potential blackmailer who is killed for that reason. Sian Barbara Allen and Chuck McCann's characters were also killed (in separate episodes) for attempting blackmail.

Miscellaneous guest stars

Actors such as Diane Baker, Priscilla Barnes, Kim Cattrall, Sondra Currie, Jamie Lee Curtis, Samantha Eggar, Blythe Danner, Fionnuala Flanagan, John Fraser, Jeff Goldblum, Valerie Harper, Mariette Hartley, Joyce Jillson, Bruno Kirby, Walter Koenig, Donald Moffat, Pat Morita, Trisha Noble, Richard Pearson, Suzanne Pleshette, Barry Robins, Gena Rowlands, Katey Sagal (whose father Boris Sagal directed several episodes), Cynthia Sikes, James Sikking and Vic Tayback, among many others, had roles of varying sizes early in their careers. Falk's real-life wife, actress Shera Danese, appeared in six Columbo episodes in various roles.

More seasoned actors to appear, later in their careers, included Don Ameche, Maurice Evans, Bernard Fox, Jane Greer, Julie Harris, Edith Head (as herself), Celeste Holm, Kim Hunter, Jessie Royce Landis, Robert Loggia, Myrna Loy, Patrick Macnee, Juliet Mills, Sal Mineo, Thayer David, Julie Newmar, Leslie Nielsen, Janis Paige, John Payne, Vincent Price, Kate Reid, Madeleine Sherwood, Robert F. Simon, Rod Steiger, David White, Roddy McDowall and William Windom (who appeared in the first pilot, in 1968).

Recurring actors/roles

Actors J. P. Finnegan (6 times), Robert Culp (4 times), Vito Scotti (6 times), Bruce Kirby (8 appearances, 4 of them as Sergeant Kramer), Bob Dishy (as Sergeant Wilson in two episodes), Dr. Benson (Columbo's dog's vet, played by Michael Fox in two episodes) and Burt (the chili dispenser at Columbo's favorite greasy spoon, played by Timothy Carey) played recurring characters.

Spin-off

A spinoff about Mrs. Columbo was opposed by series creators Levinson and Link, as well as by Peter Falk. In an interview with Columbo Phile author Mark Dawidziak, published prior to the 1989 Columbo revival, Richard Levinson joked, "If there was ever another Columbo we were going to have him say, 'There's a woman running around pretending to be my wife. She's changing things. She's a young girl. I wish my wife was like that. She's an impostor.'"

Nonetheless, a spin-off TV series, Mrs. Columbo starring Kate Mulgrew, was aired in 1979, but it received a dismal reception and was eventually canceled.

Columbo himself was never seen on Mrs. Columbo. However, certain obvious connections were made to the original Columbo series, notably the presence of Columbo's beat-up car and pet dog in the show's opening sequence. References were also made to Kate's husband being a police lieutenant. However, there were also notable discrepancies between the two shows. Kate's physical appearance did not match with certain descriptions Lt. Columbo had provided of his wife in various Columbo episodes over the years — the actress playing "Mrs. Columbo" was too young (Mulgrew was 24 at the time) and too thin to be the wife described in the Columbo episodes.

Furthermore, in the episode "Double Exposure", Lt. Columbo declared that his wife "had no head for crime" and that she "always picked the wrong guy as the murderer" whenever they watched a mystery movie.

Due to the negative critical and public reaction to the show, the producers fairly quickly started making changes. The spin-off was renamed Kate Columbo, followed by Kate the Detective, and finally Kate Loves a Mystery. The main character was likewise renamed "Kate Callahan", and all references to and ties with the original Columbo show were dropped — the character was no longer supposed to be Mrs. Columbo or to have any connection with him at all. The series lasted only thirteen episodes. An episode of Mrs. Columbo was included as a bonus feature on the Region 1 DVD releases of the third, fourth and fifth seasons.

Future of onscreen Columbo

In May 2007, it was announced that Peter Falk had chosen a script for one last Columbo episode, Columbo: Hear No Evil. The script was renamed Columbo's Last Case. ABC, the network which has aired the new Columbo series since 1989, declined the project. In response, producers for the series announced they were attempting to shop the project to foreign production companies.^[23][24] However, it seems unlikely that any new episodes of Columbo will be filmed, owing to Peter Falk suffering from dementia. Clark R. Byam, who is a lawyer appointed by the court to represent Peter Falk and has seen him, said he doubted Falk would remember any visits by his daughter because of his condition.^[25][26]

List of episodes

DVD releases

Universal Studios Home Entertainment is continually releasing new episodes of Columbo on DVD.^[27] The episodes are released in the same chronological order as they were originally broadcast. In the UK, (Region 2) all episodes have now been released as ten seasons, the tenth season covering all the shows from "Columbo Goes to College" (1990) to the finale "Columbo Likes the Nightlife" (2003). However in France, and The Netherlands (also Region 2) the DVDs were released as twelve seasons.

DVD name	Ep#	Release dates
		Region 1	Region 2	Region 4
The Complete First Season	9	September 7, 2004	September 13, 2004	December 3, 2004
The Complete Second Season	8	March 8, 2005	July 18, 2005	July 13, 2005
The Complete Third Season	8	August 9, 2005	November 14, 2005	July 20, 2006
The Complete Fourth Season	6	March 14, 2006	September 18, 2006	September 19, 2006
The Complete Fifth Season	6	June 27, 2006	February 12, 2007	Unknown 2007
The Complete Sixth & Seventh Seasons	8	November 21, 2006	April 30, 2007	May 2, 2007
The Mystery Movie Collection 1989 (R1) The Complete Eighth Season (R2)	5 (R1) 4 (R2)	April 24, 2007	March 31, 2008	June 4, 2008
The Mystery Movie Collection 1990 (R1) The Complete Ninth Season (R2/4)	6 (R1) 6 (R2)	February 3, 2009	March 30, 2009	May 6, 2009
The Tenth Season - Volume 1 (R2) The Tenth Season - Volume 2 (R2)	8 6	N/A	June 15, 2009 July 27, 2009	2009
Seasons 1 - 4	31	N/A	November 20, 2006	N/A
Seasons 1 - 7	45	N/A	October 22, 2007	N/A
Seasons 1 - 8	49	N/A	October 13, 2008	N/A
Columbo: The Complete Series		N/A	October 19, 2009	N/A

Other appearances

• Falk appeared as Columbo in a faux episode of Alias produced for a 2003 TV special celebrating the 50th anniversary of ABC. Featuring most of the regular cast of the spy series, the skit began with Jack Bristow preparing agents Sydney Bristow and Michael Vaughn for a mission, and informing them that they will have a new partner - Detective Columbo. Columbo proceeds to wreak havoc at CIA headquarters, accidentally shooting Vaughn with an anesthetic dart and volunteering to wear a skimpy bikini intended for Sydney during the mission. Columbo reveals that his mission is not to aid the CIA but rather to help Walt Disney Company/ABC head Michael Eisner better understand the show. His work completed, Columbo departs, leaving Jack Bristow to utter a confused, "Dear God, that was strange."
• Falk also appeared as Columbo in the 1977 episode of The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast of Frank Sinatra.
• Falk appears as himself (but dressed as Columbo) in the Wim Wenders films Wings of Desire and Faraway, So Close! In the first he appears as an actor in a film about Berlin's Nazi past, and in the second he pretends to be scouting locations for a movie in order to distract some security guards.
• Columbo is highlighted in volume 7 of the Case Closed manga edition of Gosho Aoyoma's Mystery Library, a section of the graphic novels (usually the last page) where the author introduces a different detective (or occasionally, a villain) from mystery literature, television, or other media.

Music score

• Jeff Alexander
• Dick DeBenedictis
• Billy Goldenberg
• Dave Grusin
• Henry Mancini (The Mystery Movie Theme for the NBC Mystery Movie wheel, which included Columbo, McCloud, McMillan & Wife, Banacek, The Snoop Sisters, Quincy, M.E., and six other short-lived series. NOTE: Unlike the other elements of the NBC Mystery Movie series, Columbo never had actual theme music.)
• Gil Mellé
• Oliver Nelson
• Bob Price
• Bernardo Segall
• Jonathan Tunick
• Patrick Williams

Books

A Columbo series of books was published by MCA Publishing in 1972 by authors Alfred Lawrence, Henry Clement and Lee Hays, mostly adapted from the TV series.^[28]

Columbo was also used as the protagonist for a series of novels published between 1994 and 1999 by Forge Books, an imprint of Tor Books. All of these books were written by William Harrington.

William Link, the co-creator of the series, has written a collection of Columbo short stories, entitled The Columbo Collection, which was published in May 2010 by Crippen & Landru, the specialty mystery publisher.^[29]

Influence

• The children's educational show Sesame Street featured a sheep detective named "Colambo".
• Greg Koukl calls his general method of relating to people the Columbo tactic, referencing the detective's idiosyncrasies en route.^[30][31]
• Columbo has been parodied four times by The Simpsons. In "Simpson Tide", Homer Simpson attempts to do a Columbo impression, which consists simply of saying "one more thing" in a gruff accent repeatedly (and a single wandering eye). On a different episode, Chief Wiggum attempts to defend his position as a police officer by saying that he was "able to solve an episode of Columbo". On being told that they show who committed the crime at the start of the episode, Wiggum replies "Yeah, but you have to remember." In the episode Treehouse of Horror XVIII Kodos says to Bart, "Nice work, Columbo." In Dial "N" for Nerder, the normally dim Nelson Muntz plays Columbo-style detective to investigate a supposed murder.
• Columbo's style of interrogation was also parodied in an episode of the anime Sonic X, where Vector the Crocodile, a detective character, was doing a number of famous detective impressions. One of these impressions was of Lieutenant Columbo, where he immediately dons a trenchcoat and quotes Columbo's "one more thing..." line. In the dub version of the anime, part of the interpretation, namely the cigar Vector was holding in his right hand, was edited out.
• In an episode of the sitcom Bosom Buddies, the character Henry Desmond (Peter Scolari), performs a Columbo impression as part of an elaborate revenge scheme.
• In an episode of Channel 4's Peep Show, Mark walks away from a shop assistant after enquiring about a girl he's interested in and, just as he reaches the door, urges himself to "do a Columbo". He turns and says "Just one more thing". He later reflects on "good old Columbo. Just the one technique of course, still, shits on Quincy."
• Issue #172 of Viz (February 2008) includes a parody cartoon strip titled Loo Attendant Columbo, in which a Columbo-lookalike janitor attempts to solve the mystery of a blocked lavatory at LAPD headquarters, rather than simply clean it up as instructed.
• The French satirical news programme Les Guignols de l'info, which uses latex puppets of famous people to comment on the news, has a puppet of Columbo. This latex Columbo has been used to question puppets representing politicians, including Nicolas Sarkozy and Michèle Alliot-Marie, and expose their alleged hypocrisy and lies.
• The popular British sketch comedy Benny Hill parodied Columbo on occasions, played by Jackie Wright each time. He would constantly forget what he was trying to say, snapping his finger and contradicting himself every time he attempted to remember. He would also show up seconds after leaving the room, making fun of Columbo by having him show up in the most unusual places (once showing up on the hanging hook of a door, and notably popping out of a fireplace, even after the suspects said they did it while he was in hearing range and still pestering them).
• In the manga series Kindaichi Case Files, the main character meets an Edward Columbo in the volume House of Wax. Edward is mentioned to be a nephew of a Los Angeles police detective and shares many habits and mannerisms with Columbo.
• The show was parodied in the 2009 Chick-fil-A calendar "The Bovines in Blue" where the show in June was referred to as Cowlumbo.
• In the Steeve Coogan show Saxondale, Tommy Saxondale has a neighbor who repeatedly bothers him by inventing some pretext to talk to him, and then, after walking away, bringing up, in Columbo fashion, the real reason for his visit, often a complaint from the condo association. This happens almost every episode, and finally at one point, Tommy says to his young assistant who witnesses such a conversation "Thinks he's bloody Columbo, that one."
• In the 1993 Cracker story "To Say I Love You", Eddie Fitzgerald (Robbie Coltrane) uses a Columbo impression to lull a killer into letting her guard down.
• An episode of the red jacket Lupin the Third anime featured Columbo's "son", Baranko, as a detective on equal footing as his father, apparently assisting the police in solving a murder/heist blamed on Lupin and gang.
• The British entertainer Mike Yarwood impersonated Columbo on a regular basis during his BBC impressionist shows in the 1970s.
• Actor Puiu Călinescu impersonated Columbo in the 1979 film Nea Mărin Miliardar (Uncle Marin, the Billionaire).
• In the 2001 episode "Двойной удар" ("Double Strike") of the Russian police series Убойная сила (Lethal Force), Captain Rogov, in order to be accepted into a mental asylum to carry out an investigation there, pretends to believe he is Lt. Columbo, and parodies the lieutenant's typical behavior throughout all the episode.
• In an episode of Red Dwarf, the character Rimmer mistakenly credits him as "The man in the dirty mac who discovered America!"

International

Country	Foreign title	Translation	Network(s)	Notes
Arab World	Columbo	Subtitled	MBC 2	Not currently airing[32]
Argentina	Columbo	Dubbed	Retro
Australia	Columbo	None	TV1
Austria	Columbo	Dubbed	ORF1
Belgium  Flemish Region	Columbo	Subtitled	vtm, VijfTV
Belgium French Community	Columbo	Dubbed	RTBF, RTL-TVi, AB4
Bulgaria	Коломбо (Columbo)	Dubbed	Fox Crime Diema	Dubbed in Bulgarian
Canada	Columbo	None	Sun TV (Canada)	Shown in rotation with the other "NBC Mystery Movies"
Canada	Columbo	Dubbed	Prise 2	Dubbed in French
Catalonia (Spain)	Colombo	Dubbed	TVC and 8tv (currently)
Croatia	Columbo	Subtitled	HRT, RTL Televizija
Czech Republic	Columbo	Dubbed	TV Nova TV Prima others
Denmark	Columbo	Subtitled	DR2
Finland	Columbo	Subtitled	MTV
France	Columbo	Dubbed	TF1 TV Breizh
Galicia	Colombo	Dubbed	TVG
Germany	Columbo	Dubbed	Super RTL	the show was originally broadcast on Das Erste (access prime time), later on RTL (prime time)
Hungary	Columbo	Dubbed	Magyar Televízió TV2 Viasat3
Iran	ستوان کلمبو (Lieutenant Columbo)	Dubbed	Channel 1 شبكه’ يك	The 1971-1978 series was broadcast by Channel 1
Ireland	Columbo	None	RTÉ One
Israel	קולומבו	Subtitled	Channel 1 Israel 10
Italy	Colombo (Columbo)	Dubbed	Rai Due Rete 4 Fox Crime	Rai Due (first tv: 1968 film tv and 1971-1978 series; except pilot and the episodes 2.1, 2.4, 3.8 transmitted in first tv in the 1987 from Rete 4), Rete 4 (first tv: 1989-2003 series, now replicate all the episodes of both series), Fox Crime (pay tv, replicate all the episodes)
Japan	刑事コロンボ (Detective Columbo)	Subtitled/Dubbed	NHK NTV Super Channel The Mystery Channel
Netherlands	Columbo	Subtitled	RTL 4 RTL 8 SBS 6
Norway	Columbo	Subtitled	NRK1
Pakistan	Columbo	Dubbed	Shalimar Television Network
Poland	Columbo	Dubbed	TVP TVN7 Universal
Slovakia	Columbo	Dubbed	TV Markíza STV 1 others	Czech-dubbed version used as there is no Slovak dubbing
Slovenia	Columbo	Subtitled	Kanal A, POP TV
Portugal	Columbo	Subtitled	RTP1
Romania	Columbo	Subtitled/Dubbed	Antena 1
Russia	Коломбо (Columbo)	Dubbed	Channel One	Currently airing in Domashniy
Spain	Colombo	Dubbed	TVE TV3 Telecinco	Currently airing in laOtra
Sweden	Columbo	Subtitled	SVT, TV3, TV4 Guld
Switzerland	Columbo	Dubbed	Télévision Suisse Romande	the show is still shown on Télévision Suisse Romande, a French language Swiss TV channel in Zweikanalton (French/English)
Turkey	Komiser Kolombo (Lieutenant Columbo)	Dubbed	TRT 1
Ukraine	Коломбо	Dubbed	Inter, STB, Ukraina
United Kingdom	Columbo	None	ITV ITV3 BBC Two Five Hallmark Channel Movies 24 Sky Movies	The show was originally broadcast on ITV. Nowadays the main series is shown on ITV3, BBC Two, Five, UKTV Gold and the Hallmark Channel while the TV movies are shown on ITV, Movies 24 and Sky Movies. It was also broadcast on UKTV Gold.

See also

• Furuhata Ninzaburo

Bibliography

Dawidziak, Mark. The Columbo Phile: A Casebook. The Mysterious Press, 1989.

References

External links

• Peter Falk's website
• Encyclopedia of Television
• Columbo on DVD
• Columbo Prescription:Murder - U.K. stage play tour
• 'Columbo: Just One More Thing' - BBC Radio 4
• 'I'm just another cop, my name is Columbo'
• 'COLUMBO: Perchance to Dream' - A script for an episode that was never made
• Columbo at TV.com

Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Miniseries Tom Brown's Schooldays (1973) · Columbo: Double Exposure  · Benjamin Franklin (1975) · Upstairs, Downstairs (1976) · Roots (1977) · Holocaust (1978) · Roots: The Next Generations (1979) · Edward & Mrs. Simpson (1980) · Shōgun (1981) · Marco Polo (1982) · Nicholas Nickleby (1983) · Concealed Enemies (1984) · The Jewel in the Crown (1985) · Peter the Great (1986) · A Year in the Life (1987) · The Murder of Mary Phagan (1988) · War and Remembrance (1989) · Drug Wars: The Camarena Story (1990) · Separate But Equal (1991) · A Woman Named Jackie (1992) · Prime Suspect 2 (1993) · Prime Suspect 3 (1994) · Joseph (1995) · Gulliver's Travels (1996) · Prime Suspect 5: Errors Of Judgement (1997) · From the Earth to the Moon (1998) · Hornblower: The Even Chance (1999) · The Corner (2000) (1973–2000) · (2001–present)

Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Drama Marcus Welby, M.D. (1969) · Medical Center (1970) · Mannix (1971) · Columbo (1972) · The Waltons (1973) · Upstairs, Downstairs (1974) · Kojak (1975) · Rich Man, Poor Man (1976) · Roots (1977) · 60 Minutes (1978) · Lou Grant (1979) · Shōgun (1980) · Hill Street Blues (1981) · Hill Street Blues (1982) · Dynasty (1983) · Murder, She Wrote (1984) · Murder, She Wrote (1985) · L.A. Law (1986) · L.A. Law (1987) · thirtysomething (1988) · China Beach (1989)  · (1969-1989) · (1990-present)