Thread
Printable Version

About COLUMBO & Episode Guides

About COLUMBO & Episode Guides

Just one more thing...

Columbo Aired From February 20 1968 - January 30 2003



About Columbo
Columbo was a crime drama presented in a unique fashion that could be described as "turning Perry Mason on his head." There were no car chases, no shootouts (Columbo was hardly ever seen brandishing his service revolver and complained and procrastinated about the required firearms training and test), no spy gizmos, no DNA testing, no lawyers, no urgent calls for back-up, and ultimately no recourse for the guest star murderer of the week.

Unlike most other murder mystery shows, the audience typically saw the ghastly deed committed at the beginning of the show. After the body is discovered, enter the apparently bumbling and dimwitted homicide detective, Lt. Columbo (Peter Falk) sartorially attired in his trademark rumpled, soiled raincoat

The charm of the show was watching Lt. Columbo slowly wear down the smug, arrogant killer as he slowly picked apart the case. The killer barely noticed the noose getting tightened around their neck ever so gently by someone they thought was a bumbling idiot.

Lt. Columbo was always showing up to share some new detail about the case or a vaguely related anecdote about his never-seen wife with the killer. The killer would then think he'd given Columbo the brush-off again when Columbo would invoke his secret weapon: He put his fingers on his forehead like he had a headache and utter his trademark line, "Oh, and just one more thing, if you don't mind....." The one more thing would inevitably be something that would throw the killer off balance. After about 4 or 5 of flase-exits in an episode, the killer would topple, by taking some rash action, or uttering something that he should have no business knowing unless he were the killer. Lt. Columbo may have acted like a bungling dimwit, but that was the chief component to his brilliance.

Cast
Real NameCharacter Name
Peter FalkColumbo


Source: IMDB & TVRage

Watch It Here

How to become a VIP Member.

TOP

Season 1 Episode Guide



Episode 1: Prescription Murder (Feb/20/1968)
Psychiatrist Ray Flemming employs his girlfriend to pose as his wife. Barry kills the wife in front of the girlfriend and the two of them take off on a plane for the 'perfect alibi'. They stage a fight on the plane and the 'wife' returns home where she is supposedly killed by an intruder. Things get messy when the dry cleaning comes back from the cleaners

Episode 2: Ransom For A Dead Man (Mar/01/1971)
Lawyer Leslie Williams concocts an elaborate plan to make her husband's murder look like a kidnapping gone wrong. When it looks like all the bases are covered, Columbo must find a way to trip up this calm and collected lady.

Episode 3: Murder By The Book (Sep/15/1971)
Ken Franklin is the untalented writer but skilled PR agent of a mystery book writing team that created detective Mrs. Melville. He kills his partner and the real writer, Jim Ferris, because Ferris is planning on breaking up the team and writing on his own. Franklin uses an elaborate scheme to make it appear as if Ferris were killed by mobsters because his next story, an expose on the Mafia, would incriminate them. Franklin's plan is perfect except that a fan of Mrs. Melville, Lilly La Sanka, saw him.

Episode 4: Death Lends A Hand (Oct/06/1971)
A private investigator kills his client's wife after she threatens to expose his blackmail scheme. The client then hires the detective to assist Columbo in the search for the killer.

Episode 5: Dead Weight (Oct/27/1971)
A famous general kills an associate because he fears he will expose his illegal business practices. A somewhat neurotic divorcee witnesses the murder and reports it. The general then woos her and makes her fall for him, causing her to change her story.

Episode 6: Suitable For Framing (Nov/17/1971)
An art critic, Dale Kingston, kills his uncle for his valuable collection of paintings. All the clues lead to the dead man's first wife but Columbo doesn't believe it.

Episode 7: Lady In Waiting (Dec/15/1971)
Beth Chadwick is tired of her brother Bryce running her life. The last straw is when he threatens to break up her romance with Peter Hamilton, a company lawyer. Beth lays a trap for Bryce and shoots him, claiming that she thought he was a prowler. By stealing his house key, she plans for him to try to enter through her bedroom French doors. But when Bryce shows up after using a spare key, she is forced to improvise. The coroner's inquest backs up her story, but for Columbo, too many little things do not add up. If Bryce had to walk around the house to get to the doors, why are there no grass stains on his shoes? If Beth never went out the day of the murder, how did a late edition of the newspaper end up in the front hall? But when a witness remembers hearing gunshots before an alarm, Columbo figures it all out.

Episode 8: Short Fuse (Jan/19/1972)
A chemist rigs a bomb in his uncle's car so he can gain control of his uncle's company. He then plants clues to make Columbo suspicious of the company's Vice-President.

Episode 9: Blueprint For Murder (Feb/09/1972)
An architect kills his business partner and deliberately lets Columbo suspect him, leading Columbo to think that he's hidden the body in the foundation of a building under construction. He plans to let Columbo dig up the site and find nothing, knowing that its the perfect place to hide the body since Columbo would never look in the same place twice.

Source: Tv.com

TOP

Season 2 Episode Guide



Episode 1: Etude In Black (Sep/17/1972)
The mistress of a conductor becomes a target for murder after threatening to tell all to her lover's wife.

Episode 2: The Greenhouse Jungle (Oct/15/1972)
Jarvis Goodland, along with his nephew, plan a kidnap scam to break the nephews trust fund, but after the money has been collected, Jarvis kills his partner.

Episode 3: The Most Crucial Game (Nov/05/1972)
The manager of a football team kills the team's owner, disguising himself as an ice cream vender as a cover. He then uses a recording of a faked phone call as an alibi to prove he was elsewhere at the time of the murder.

Episode 4: Dangger On The Mind (Nov/26/1972)
While on a work trip to London to learn the techniques of the British police, Columbo gets involved with the murder of Roger Haversham, a rich old businessman, that is financing the careers of two has-been theater stars trying to restart their careers. When Sir Roger threatens to finish their careers because he felt betrayed, he's killed. A short while after, his butler figures out the motives for his master's murder, and blackmails the actors, who have no other choice than kill him, and make it look like he committed suicide due to remorse because he murdered his employer. Columbo stills manages to catch both the murderers, with the help of a pearl and a new umbrella.

Episode 5: Requiem for a Falling Star (Jan/21/1973)
Nora Chandler, a fading movie star is threatened by a forthcoming tell-all book and some of the secrets it will reveal. She attempts to murder Jerry Parks, the author but accidentally kills her P.A. Columbo roots out the connection between the current case and the mysterious disappearance of the actress's husband. The solution to the case involves a Shriner's ring, and an inoperative fountain

Episode 6: A Stitch In Crime (Feb/11/1973)
Heart surgeon Barry Manfield turns his talents turn to murder and plans to kill his mentor, who refuses to release their research findings prematurely. When the mentor has a heart attack, Manfield plots the perfect murder, but must kill two people to cover his tracks while he waits for his plan to succeed.

Episode 7: The Most Dangerous Match (Mar/04/1973)
When a chess grandmaster realizes that he is unable to defeat his rival at a tournament, he resorts to murder and makes it look like suicide. But Columbo isn't fooled... and the victim isn't quite dead.

Episode 8: Double Shock (Mar/25/1973)
A wealthy man is murdered; his twin nephews stand to inherit, but which one committed the crime?

Source: Tv.com

TOP

Season 3 Episode Guide



Episode 1: Lovely But Lethal (Sep/23/1973)
Viveca Scott, the founder of Beauty Mark Cosmetics, is threatened by her rival, David Lang. When he finds out that her revolutionary cream formula actually remove wrinkles, he has the formula pirated and Viveca decides to murder him.

Episode 2: Any Old Port In A Storm (Oct/07/1973)
Winemaker Adrian Carsini decides to kill his younger brother before he can sell the family winery. Columbo will have to use Adrian's excellent wine knowledge against him to bring the killer to justice.

Episode 3: Candidate For Crime (Nov/04/1973)
A Senate Candidate running for office, kills his campaign manager, by making it look like he was the target for the killers bullet.

Episode 4: Double Exposure (Dec/16/1973)
A film maker kills one of his clients in a break during the screening of a new ad campaign.

Episode 5: Publish Or Perish (Jan/18/1974)
A publisher hires a Vietnam vet to kill his star author, and thus give himself an alibi before the writer can defect to another publisher.

Episode 6: Mind Over Mayhem (Feb/18/1974)
Dr. Marshal Cahill, the head of a think tank, is forced to protect his plagarizing son by killing the professor, Nichols, who discovered the plagarized information. Cahill programs a robot to take his place during a war game exercise that he runs from an isolated room, then fakes a hit-and-run accident on Nichols and plants evidence to make it look like a drug theft gone awry. The first thing Columbo notices upon arrival is a match burned down to the base - something Columbo knows well because it's how you light a cigar. And Dr. Cahill is the only other cigar smoker around. There are a lot of other little things that Columbo notices as well, and with the help of a child prodigy he discovers how Cahill used the robot to provide himself with an alibi. But without one major clue, Columbo arrests the son to force Cahill, who was willing to kil to confess his crime to protect the boy.

Episode 7: Swan Song (Mar/03/1974)
After years of being controlled and blackmailed by his wife a Country and Western singer kills her and tries to make it look like ieant to be him killed and not her.

Episode 8: A Friend In Deed (May/05/1974)
A police commissioner provides an alibi to a friend who has just killed his wife. Later the commissioner kills his own wife, and gets the friend to repay the favor.

Source: Tv.com

TOP

Season 4 Episode Guide



Episode 1: An Exercise In Fatality (Sep/15/1974)
A health club owner kills his partner who is about to uncover a fraud and makes it look like an accident

Episode 2: Negative Reaction (Oct/15/1974)
Famous photographer Paul Galesko wants to kill his wealthy but annoying wife. He sets up a trusting ex-con to take the wrap. Can Columbo see beyond the false images and prove Galesko is guilty?

Episode 3: By Dawn's Early Light (Oct/27/1974)
The head of a military school, kills one of the governors, by sabotaging the gun, that is used on founders day.

Episode 4: Troubled Waters (Feb/09/1975)
While holidaying on board a cruise liner, Columbo helps capture the killer, of the singer with the ships band.

Episode 5: Playback (Mar/02/1975)
An inventor video tapes his mother-in-law's death, and then replays it back to the security guard, to give himself an alibi.

Episode 6: A Deadly State Of Mind (Apr/27/1975)
A doctor kills the husband of the woman ,he is having an affair with. but he is 'seen' leaving the house by a witness,who is happens to be blind.

Source: Tv.com

TOP

Season 5 Episode Guide



Episode 1: Forgotten Lady (Sep/14/1975)
An aging song-and-dance star is Lt. Columbo's quarry in the fifth season opener. The disheveled detective suspects the actress of killing her wealthy husband to finance her dream, a comeback on Broadway.

Episode 2: A Case Of Immunity (Oct/12/1975)
An ambassador from Suari and his code clerk kill the chief of security in an attempt to make it look like the chief was a traitor, who blew up the legation safe and stole 600.000 on behalf of a dissident group. But Columbo gets suspicious. He just have problem crushing the ambassadors alibi. And then, when the code clerk turns up dead, the ambassador has an alibi again. But even if Colombo could rock the two alibis, there is always the immunity-problem..

Episode 3: Identity Crises (Nov/02/1975)
A spy is killed on a lonely beach by his contact but the killer has been photographed beforehand walking with the victim.

Episode 4: A Matter Of Honor (Feb/01/1976)
The owner of a bull ranch in Mexico gives his workers the day off, and then talks his number one man into fighting the bull who nearly killed his son. But instead he shoots him with a tranquilizer gun, and lets the bull kill him. Colombo, who is on vacation in Mexico, gets dragged into this case by an admiring colleague, but he has trouble convincing the Mexicans that the accident is really homicide. And how do you prove that the bull is a murder weapon?

Episode 5: Now You See Him (Feb/29/1976)
The Great Santini is a master magician, but his employer discovers that he was a German camp guard during World War II and blackmails him. Santini is forced to engineer a perfect murder--he kills the owner while apparently performing his famous "water tank" illusion on stage in front of dozens of witnesses. Santini in fact supposedly hides out beneath the stage, and uses a radio transmitter to convince a waiter that he is there when he's busy killing the owner. Now Columbo must unravel a magical mystery and break a perfect alibi.

Episode 6: Last Salute To The Commodore (Mar/02/1976)
Commodore Swanson is tired of his greedy son-in-law turning his ship building business into an embarrassment and decides to sell the company.

Source: Tv.com

TOP

Season 6 Episode Guide



Episode 1: Fade Into Murder (Oct/10/1976)
An actor who plays a TV detective commits the perfect murder, but finds himself matching wits with real-life detective Columbo.

Episode 2: Old Fashioned Murder (Nov/28/1976)
The female head of a museum hires one of the guards to rob the museum to collect the insurance money. But during the robbery she kills him and her own brother, and makes it look like they killed each other. The guard/robbers brother reports a strange message on his answering machine, that makes it seem that he has been killed. And Columbo gets the case. When Columbo first comes to the crime scene, he notices that the lights are off, a gold medallion in the robbers pants, and signs that pointed to the fact that he was going abroad after the heist. And he concluded that these clues mean that someone else was involved..

Episode 3: The Bye-bye Sky High I.Q Murder Case (May/22/1977)
Two former college friends now partners in an accounting firm become enemies when one realizes the other has embezzled funds. The reason for his embezzling ways is his wife, she demands nothing but the best.

Source: Tv.com

TOP

Season 7 Episode Guide



Episode 1: Try & Catch Me (Nov/21/1977)
A writer of murder mysteries wreaks revenge on her nephew-in-law by blaming him for her nieceĀ“s murder.

Episode 2: Murder Under Glass (Jan/30/1978)
A famous food critic is threatened by a restaurant owner, and so the critic leaves. Soon after, the cook dies. Columbos involvement is welcomed by all the other chefs in the area, but Columbo wonders why the dead restaurant owner slammed the drawers before he died. And how could the poison that killed him enter an unopened bottle without the killer even being in the room? Could it have been suicide? But then theres the cheques to a mysterious society, and the victims calender. Can Columbos cooking skills really match the food critics taste?

Episode 3: Make Me A Perfect Murder (Feb/28/1978)
Mark McAndrews a top network programmer is promoted to a New York position, his assistant, who is very ambitious and his lover, expects to get his old job. But of course he feels she is out of her league and needs more experience. Kay feeling betrayed decides to seek revenge.

Episode 4: How To Dial A Murder (Apr/15/1978)
A famous psychiatrist uses an appointment with his doctor be his alibi while he calls his house, where his dead wifes lover is. The call serves as the first step in a conditioning reflex on the psychiatrists dogs. The other part is the word "Rosebud" as uttered by the victim. When Columbo comes to the scene, the psychiatrist is very understanding when the police says that they may have to put his dogs to death. But Columbo notices how friendly the dogs seem, and then theres the telephone thats hanging from its hook...

Episode 5: The Conspirators (May/13/1978)
An Irish poet, who fronts a peace organization while secretly running guns, kills an arms dealer who tries to swindle him.

Source: Tv.com

TOP

Season 8 Episode Guide



Episode 1: Columbo Goes to the Guillotine (Feb/06/1989)
A fake psychic conspires with an old friend (who debunks psychics) to convince a secret government agency that he really is a psychic. Afterwards he meets with the old friend, a magician, at the magician's workshop and kills him to settle a long-standing grudge. The psychic makes the death look as if the magician was killed accidentally by a guillotine he used as a trick.

Episode 2: Murder, Smoke and Shadows (Feb/27/1989)
Boy genius Hollywood director Alex Bradey (Fisher Stevens), prior to becoming a success, made a 16mm movie in which a young woman, Jenny Fisher, was killed in a motorcycle accident. Bradey and his cameraman conspired to pretend that the woman never made it as far as the scene of the filming, leading the official investigation to conclude that it was an accidental death. As the episode begins, Jenny's brother Leonard shows up in Bradey's office with a copy of a film that was left to him by Bradey's very recently deceased cameraman. When Leonard informs Bradey that he is going to use the film to destroy him, Bradey has no choice but to kill him. He uses one of his movie sets as a murder weapon

Episode 3: Sex & The Married Detective (Apr/03/1989)
A sex therapist catches her boyfriend with another woman when he thinks she is out of town. She then disguises herself and manages to kill him while in disguise -- not realizing that a potential suitor saw her enter the bathroom as a dark-haired woman and exit as a blonde.

Episode 4: Grand Deceptions (May/01/1989)
Colonel Frank Brailie runs a private military foundation for soldiers. General Paget, the owner of the facility, has become suspicious when a large amount of money seems to be going to a "Special project fund."

Source: Tv.com

TOP

Season 9 Episode Guide



Episode 1: Murder, Self Portrait (Nov/25/1989)
Artist Max Barsini has his hands full: his wife Vanessa is always suspicious of his other "models", his live-in model Julie wants to be more than just his subject, and his ex-wife Louise stills pulls at his heart strings. Together Max asks them what they think of each other with explosive results.

Episode 2: Columbo Cries Wolf (Jan/20/1990)
Columbo is asked to investigate the disappearance of Dian Hunter, director of a men's magazine. Naturally, the prime suspect is her lover and co-editor Sean Brantley, who spends a lot of time with the young girls he works with.

Episode 3: Agenda For Murder (Feb/10/1990)
Paul Staplin, a man who over the years has been in trouble with the law on more than one occasion, has committed suicide. Columbo is called in to investigate but he immediately sees it for a murder. The last person to see Staplin alive was Oscar Finch, a man with very strong political connections and who does not want Columbo nosing around asking "just one more thing.

Episode 4: Rest In Piece Mrs. Columbo (Mar/31/1990)
Vivian Dimitri blames two people for her husband's death in prison: his former partner-in-crime Charlie Chambers and Columbo, the detective who put him in jail. Now she is ready for some payback. First it's Charlie, then she will strike too close to home for Columbo. Or will she?

Episode 5: Uneasy Lies The Crown (Apr/28/1990)
Wesley Corman, a dentist who prefers gambling to his wealthy wife, decides to kill her movie-star lover and frame her for his murder.

Episode 6: Murder In Malibu (May/14/1990)
When con-artist Wayne Jennings is rejected by the wealthy romance novelist he planned to marry, he sets out to make the story she is writing look like a robbery gone awry.

Source: Tv.com

TOP

Season 10 Episode Guide



Episode 1: Columbo Goes To Collage
When law professor D.E. Rusk threatens to expel (or flunk) spoiled fraternity brothers Justin Rowe and Cooper Redman for cheating (by stealing the final exam), they lure Rusk away from class and shoot him in the parking garage via a remote control gun installed in their truck, while they sit in class listening to Columbo deliver a guest lecture. The boys then plant evidence to make it look like the professor was killed because of a mafia expose he was working on. Robert Culp returns to the series as Justin's powerful lawyer father.

Episode 2: Caution: Murder Can Be Hazardous to Your Health
Wade Anders, host of the popular crime show CrimeAlert, gets an unexpected visit from his rival, chain-smoking Budd Clarke, who threatens to release a porn video starring a young Anders and ruin Anders' reputation. Anders palms a pack of Clarke's cigarettes, which he doctors by administering a few drops of poison into the tips. He then goes to his office that night and the next morning to doctor the office's surveillance tape so that it will look like Anders arrived early to do some weekend work and was in the office at the time of the murder. Anders then goes to Clarke's house, where he administers the poisoned cigarettes. Once the poison kills Clarke, Anders makes it look like Clarke had a heart attack while looking over a potential news story.

Episode 3: Columbo & The Murder Of A Rock Star
After unfaithful rock star Marcy Edwards threatens her lover, high-priced murder lawyer Hugh Creighton, with a palimony suit and threatens to bring his unconventional methods to light, he drugs the champagne in her beach house and waits until she shows up there with her current lover. As Edwards does not drink, Creighton shows up while her lover is passed out, and snaps her neck. Her lover awakens and flees the scene. Creighton enlists his associate Trish Fairbanks to help him concoct an airtight alibi, but she instead blackmails Creighton into a full partnership in the firm. Columbo cracks the case, with the help of a speeding ticket. Little Richard cameos as himself.

Source: Tv.com

TOP

Season 11 Episode Guide



Episode 1: Death Hits The Jackpot (Dec/15/1991)
A struggling photographer is murdered in an elaborate scheme to get hold of his lottery winnings.

Episode 2: No Time To Die (Mar/15/1992)
Columbo attends his nephew's wedding and as the couple get ready to leave on their honeymoon, the bride disappears. Columbo investigates, he thinks his nephew may have made a few enemies on the police force.

Episode 3: A Bird In The Hand (Nov/22/1992)
A rich man disliked by his family has a bomb planted in his car, but before it explodes, he is run over and killed, but by who?

Source: Tv.com

TOP

Season 12 Episode Guide



Episode 1: It's All In The Game (Oct/31/1993)
Nick Franco is a violent, two-timing gigolo and his current paramour, Laura Stanton, has had enough. With the help of a young woman named Lisa, she murders her lover and sets herself up with an airtight alibi. When Columbo starts sniffing on her trail, Laura quickly works to seduce the married detective, hoping that her sex appeal will throw the usually stubborn Lieutenant off the scent.

Episode 2: Butterfly In Shades Of Grey (Jan/10/1994)
Ego-maniac Fielding Chase, is a radio talk show host who in order to prevent his daughter from moving to New York, murders a member of his staff.

Episode 3: Undercover (May/02/1994)
A photograph is the only clue for Columbo when two dead men and a seven year old mystery with $4 million dollars involved as well as an obnoxious insurance investigator come into play.

Episode 4: Strange Bedfellows (May/08/1995)
A corrupt horse breeder and the gambling syndicate are fixing the horse races puts Columbo into a double investigation while investigating a very clever killer.

Episode 5: A Trace Of Murder (May/15/1997)
Millionaire Clifford Calvert is framed for murdering a man he did business with and who in turn filed a lawsuit against him. Columbo investigates and finds out that Mrs. Calvert has been having an affair and has lots of motive to set up her husband.

Episode 6: Ashes To Ashes (Oct/08/1998)
Columbo is called in to solve the murder of Hollywood gossip journalist Verity Chandler whose last target was Eric Prince, mortician to the stars.

Episode 7: Murder With Too Many Notes (Mar/12/2001)
Hollywood film composer and conductor Findlay Crawford has been mentor to a talented young composer who has been ghostwriting most of Crawford's work for the last few years, and penned Crawford's entire last movie score, which won an Oscar. When the protege wants to venture out on his own, Crawford, whose own talent seems to have run dry, rather than be exposed as a "has-been", concocts the perfect murder, made to look like a tragic accident. (This was the final Columbo to involve Patrick McGoohan.)

Episode 8: Columbo Likes The Nightlife (Jan/30/2003)
A reporter with a lot of enemies ends up dead from an apparent suicide, Columbo becomes suspicious since the reporter was blackmailing several people.

Source: Tv.com

TOP

Thread