Columbo (season 9)

Columbo (season 9)
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	6
Release
Original network	ABC
Original release	November 25, 1989 – May 14, 1990

This is a list of episodes from the ninth season of Columbo.

Broadcast history

The season originally aired Saturdays at 9:00-11:00 pm (ET) as part of The ABC Saturday Mystery, except for the last episode, which aired on a Monday.

DVD release

The season was released on DVD by Universal Home Video.

Episodes

No. in series	No. in season	Title	Directed by	Written by	Runtime	Original air date
50	1	"Murder: A Self Portrait"	James Frawley	Robert Sherman	88 minutes	November 25, 1989
Temperamental artist Max Barsini (Patrick Bauchau) effectively lives with three women: his ex-wife, Louise (Fionnula Flanagan), his young live-in model Julie (Isabel García Lorca), and his current wife Vanessa (Shera Danese). Barsini takes delight in the way they fight for his attention. But when Louise begins seeing a therapist, Dr. Hammer (George Coe), who is also her new fiancé, Barsini fears she will reveal that he killed his first agent, who was robbing him. He kills Louise, then makes it look like she drowned at the beach while he was in his studio, painting. Columbo poses for Barsini while investigating him.
51	2	"Columbo Cries Wolf"	Daryl Duke	William Read Woodfield, Richard Levinson & William Link (uncredited)	90 minutes	January 20, 1990
When Diane Hunter (Deidre Hall), the partner of men's magazine publisher Sean Brantley (Ian Buchanan), goes missing after expressing a desire to sell her 51% interest to a rival, suspicion falls on Brantley and his girlfriend Tina (Rebecca Staab). Columbo sets out to find the body, eventually digging up much of Brantley's estate. But once the event turns into a full-blown media event, Diane resurfaces, explaining she needed some time to herself. Sales and the magazine's value are increased by the controversy, but to Brantley's shock, she still intends to sell. He proceeds to then kill Hunter for real and hides the body, believing that Columbo won't fall for the same trick twice.
52	3	"Agenda for Murder"	Patrick McGoohan	Jeffrey Bloom	88 minutes	February 10, 1990
Oscar Finch (Patrick McGoohan) is a lawyer who uses underhanded methods to get his clients off, like coercing Paul Mackey (Denis Arndt), who worked for the D.A.'s office, into destroying evidence against racketeer Frank Staplin (Louis Zorich) in 1969. Twenty-one years later, Mackey is chosen by a presidential candidate, Governor Montgomery (Arthur Hill), to be his Vice Presidential running mate. Finch himself hopes that he might be appointed as the next Attorney General. Staplin, facing another indictment, threatens to expose the long-ago favor and ruin Finch's and Mackey's political futures if he doesn't arrange the destruction of another document. Finch decides to murder him. He scatters cigar ashes to make it seem he was in a late-night meeting with a contributor when the murder occurred. Finch walks to Staplin's house, shoots him and makes his death look like a suicide. McGoohan won a second Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series, following his part in "By Dawn's Early Light". Columbo puts the bite on him, so to speak.
53	4	"Rest in Peace, Mrs. Columbo"	Vincent McEveety	Peter S. Fischer	88 minutes	March 31, 1990
Vivian Dimitri (Helen Shaver) is a real-estate executive whose recently deceased husband had been sent to prison by Columbo. She seeks revenge by plotting to kill Columbo and his wife. But first she murders her boss, Charlie Chambers (Edward Winter), her husband's partner who avoided prison by informing on him. Vivian shoots Chambers in his office, using her affair with married Leland St. John (Ian McShane) to establish an alibi. Then she plants evidence to make it look like Chambers was killed by disgruntled residents of a new housing development. Her plan is then to kill the Columbos with a jar of poison marmalade. Roscoe Lee Browne plays her psychiatrist, Dr. Steadman. Aired under the ABC Saturday Mystery.[1]
54	5	"Uneasy Lies the Crown"	Alan J. Levi	Steven Bochco	90 minutes	April 28, 1990
Dentist to the stars Dr. Wesley Corman (James Read) decides to get rid of his unfaithful wife Lydia (Jo Anderson) and use her money to support his gambling habit. So when Adam Evans (Marshall R. Teague), a Hollywood heartthrob having an affair with Corman's wife, comes under the dentist's care, Corman puts a time-release poison made from digitalis under a dental crown, one that takes effect just as Evans is making love to Corman's wife that evening, thereby framing her for the murder. Paul Burke co-stars as Horace Sherwin, Lydia's father, also a dentist.
55	6	"Murder in Malibu"	Walter Grauman	Jackson Gillis	92 minutes	May 14, 1990
Jess McCurdy (Brenda Vaccaro) fails to convince her sister, best-selling romance novelist Theresa Goren (Janet Margolin), to cancel her wedding to Wayne Jennings (Andrew Stevens), a playboy/tennis bum half her age and a golddigger. McCurdy impersonates her sister on the phone with Jennings and dumps him. Jennings reacts by killing Goren. Further complications ensue, leaving Columbo to untangle a plot that involves his surprisingly detailed familiarity with women's panties.

References

1. "COLUMBO: REST IN PEACE MRS. COLUMBO {ABC SATURDAY MYSTERY} (TV)". The Paley Center For Media. Retrieved 10 September 2013.