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

Season		Network	Episodes	Originally aired
				First aired	Last aired
	Pilots	NBC	2	February 20, 1968	March 1, 1971
	1	NBC	7	September 15, 1971	February 9, 1972
	2	NBC	8	September 17, 1972	March 25, 1973
	3	NBC	8	September 23, 1973	May 5, 1974
	4	NBC	6	September 15, 1974	April 27, 1975
	5	NBC	6	September 14, 1975	May 2, 1976
	6	NBC	3	October 10, 1976	May 22, 1977
	7	NBC	5	November 21, 1977	May 13, 1978
	8	ABC	4	February 6, 1989	May 1, 1989
	9	ABC	6	November 25, 1989	May 14, 1990
	10 and Specials	ABC	14 [DVD 1]	December 9, 1990	January 30, 2003

1. The Season 10 DVDs released in Regions 2 and 4 cover the last 14 episodes.

Episodes

Before Peter Falk

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

The NBC years (1968–1978)

Pilot episodes

No. in series	Title	Directed by	Written by	Length	Original air date
1	"Prescription: Murder"	Richard Irving	Richard Levinson, William Link based on their play	98 minutes	February 20, 1968
Dr. Ray Fleming (Gene Barry), a psychiatrist, murders his wife (Nina Foch) and persuades his mistress Joan Hudson (Katherine Justice), who is an actress and one of his patients, to support his alibi by impersonating her.
2	"Ransom for a Dead Man"	Richard Irving	Teleplay: Dean Hargrove Story: Richard Levinson, William Link	92 minutes	March 1, 1971
Leslie Williams (Lee Grant), a brilliant lawyer and pilot, murders her husband Paul (Harlan Warde) to get his money, arranging the act to look as if he had been kidnapped and killed by his captors. Columbo and Leslie's step-daughter (Patricia Mattick), who hates her, successfully work together to get Leslie to implicate herself by revealing where she is keeping the money.

Season 1

No. in series	No. in season	Title	Directed by	Written by	Runtime	Original air date
3	1	"Murder by the Book"	Steven Spielberg	Steven Bochco	73 minutes	September 15, 1971
4	2	"Death Lends a Hand"	Bernard L. Kowalski	Richard Levinson, William Link	73 minutes	October 6, 1971
5	3	"Dead Weight"	Jack Smight	John T. Dugan	73 minutes	October 27, 1971
6	4	"Suitable for Framing"	Hy Averback	Jackson Gillis	73 minutes	November 17, 1971
7	5	"Lady in Waiting"	Norman Lloyd	Teleplay: Steven Bochco Story: Barney Slater	73 minutes	December 15, 1971
8	6	"Short Fuse"	Edward M. Abrams	Teleplay: Jackson Gillis Story: Lester Pine, Tina Pine, Jackson Gillis	73 minutes	January 19, 1972
9	7	"Blueprint for Murder"	Peter Falk	Teleplay: Steven Bochco Story: William Kelley	73 minutes	February 9, 1972

Season 2

No. in series	No. in season	Title	Directed by	Written by	Runtime	Original air date
10	1	"Étude in Black"	Nicholas Colasanto	Teleplay: Steven Bochco Story: Richard Levinson & William Link	98 minutes	September 17, 1972
11	2	"The Greenhouse Jungle"	Boris Sagal	Jonathan Latimer	73 minutes	October 15, 1972
12	3	"The Most Crucial Game"	Jeremy Kagan	John T. Dugan	73 minutes	November 5, 1972
13	4	"Dagger of the Mind"	Richard Quine	Teleplay: Jackson Gillis Story: Richard Levinson & William Link	93 minutes	November 26, 1972
14	5	"Requiem for a Falling Star"	Richard Quine	Jackson Gillis	73 minutes	January 21, 1973
15	6	"A Stitch in Crime"	Hy Averback	Shirl Hendryx	73 minutes	February 11, 1973
16	7	"The Most Dangerous Match"	Edward M. Abroms	Teleplay: Jackson Gillis Story: Jackson Gillis and Richard Levinson & William Link	73 minutes	March 4, 1973
17	8	"Double Shock"	Robert Butler	Teleplay: Steven Bochco Story: Jackson Gillis and Richard Levinson & William Link	73 minutes	March 25, 1973

Season 3

No. in series	No. in Season	Title	Directed by	Written by	Runtime	Original air date
18	1	"Lovely But Lethal"	Jeannot Szwarc	Teleplay: Jackson Gillis Story: Myrna Bercovici	73 minutes	September 23, 1973
19	2	"Any Old Port in a Storm"	Leo Penn	Teleplay: Stanley Ralph Ross Story: Larry Cohen	98 minutes	October 7, 1973
20	3	"Candidate for Crime"	Boris Sagal	Teleplay: Irving Pearlberg & Alvin R. Friedman and Roland Kibbee & Dean Hargrove Story: Larry Cohen	98 minutes	November 4, 1973
21	4	"Double Exposure"	Richard Quine	Stephen J. Cannell	73 minutes	December 16, 1973
22	5	"Publish or Perish"	Robert Butler	Peter S. Fischer	73 minutes	January 18, 1974
23	6	"Mind Over Mayhem"	Alf Kjellin	Teleplay: Steven Bochco and Dean Hargrove & Roland Kibbee Story: Robert Specht	73 minutes	February 10, 1974
24	7	"Swan Song"	Nicholas Colasanto	Teleplay: David Rayfiel Story: Stanley Ralph Ross	94 minutes	March 3, 1974
25	8	"A Friend in Deed"	Ben Gazzara	Peter S. Fischer	94 minutes	May 5, 1974

Season 4

No. in series	No. in season	Title	Directed by	Written by	Runtime	Original air date
26	1	"An Exercise in Fatality"	Bernard L. Kowalski	Teleplay: Peter S. Fischer Story: Larry Cohen	94 minutes	September 15, 1974
27	2	"Negative Reaction"	Alf Kjellin	Peter S. Fischer	92 minutes	October 6, 1974
28	3	"By Dawn's Early Light"	Harvey Hart	Howard Berk	94 minutes	October 27, 1974
29	4	"Troubled Waters"	Ben Gazzara	Teleplay: William Driskill Story: Jackson Gillis and William Driskill	94 minutes	February 9, 1975
30	5	"Playback"	Bernard L. Kowalski	David P. Lewis & Booker T. Bradshaw	73 minutes	March 2, 1975
31	6	"A Deadly State of Mind"	Harvey Hart	Peter S. Fischer	73 minutes	April 27, 1975

Season 5

No. in series	No. in season	Title	Directed by	Written by	Runtime	Original air date
32	1	"Forgotten Lady"	Harvey Hart	Bill Driskill	92 minutes	September 14, 1975
33	2	"A Case of Immunity"	Ted Post	Teleplay: Lou Shaw Story: James Menzies	73 minutes	October 12, 1975
34	3	"Identity Crisis"	Patrick McGoohan	Bill Driskill	94 minutes	November 2, 1975
35	4	"A Matter of Honor"	Ted Post	Brad Radnitz	73 minutes	February 1, 1976
36	5	"Now You See Him..."	Harvey Hart	Michael Sloan	85 minutes	February 29, 1976
37	6	"Last Salute to the Commodore"	Patrick McGoohan	Jackson Gillis	98 minutes	May 2, 1976

Season 6

No. in series	No. in season	Title	Directed by	Written by	Runtime	Original air date
38	1	"Fade in to Murder"	Bernard L. Kowalski	Teleplay: Lou Shaw and Peter S. Feibleman Story: Henry Garson	73 minutes	October 10, 1976
39	2	"Old Fashioned Murder"	Robert Douglas	Teleplay: Peter S. Feibleman Story: Lawrence Vail	73 minutes	November 28, 1976
40	3	"The Bye-Bye Sky High IQ Murder Case"	Sam Wanamaker	Robert Malcolm Young	73 minutes	May 22, 1977

Season 7

No. in series	No. in season	Title	Directed by	Written by	Runtime	Original air date
41	1	"Try and Catch Me"	James Frawley	Teleplay: Gene Thompson & Paul Tuckahoe Story: Gene Thompson	70 minutes	November 21, 1977
42	2	"Murder Under Glass"	Jonathan Demme	Robert van Scoyk	73 minutes	January 30, 1978
43	3	"Make Me a Perfect Murder"	James Frawley	Robert Blees	94 minutes	February 25, 1978
44	4	"How to Dial a Murder"	James Frawley	Teleplay: Tom Lazarus Story: Anthony Lawrence	70 minutes	April 15, 1978
45	5	"The Conspirators"	Leo Penn	Howard Berk Based on an Idea by: Pat Robison	98 minutes	May 13, 1978

The ABC years (1989–2003)

Season 8

No. in series	No. in season	Title	Directed by	Written by	Runtime	Original air date
46	1	"Columbo Goes to the Guillotine"	Leo Penn	William Read Woodfield	89 minutes	February 6, 1989
47	2	"Murder, Smoke and Shadows"	James Frawley	Richard Alan Simmons	91 minutes	February 27, 1989
48	3	"Sex and the Married Detective"	James Frawley	Jerry Ludwig	90 minutes	April 3, 1989
49	4	"Grand Deceptions"	Sam Wanamaker	Sy Salkowitz	89 minutes	May 1, 1989

Season 9

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
51	2	"Columbo Cries Wolf"	Daryl Duke	William Read Woodfield, Richard Levinson & William Link (uncredited)	90 minutes	January 20, 1990
52	3	"Agenda for Murder"	Patrick McGoohan	Jeffrey Bloom	88 minutes	February 10, 1990
53	4	"Rest in Peace, Mrs. Columbo"	Vincent McEveety	Peter S. Fischer	88 minutes	March 31, 1990
54	5	"Uneasy Lies the Crown"	Alan J. Levi	Steven Bochco	90 minutes	April 28, 1990
55	6	"Murder in Malibu"	Walter Grauman	Jackson Gillis	92 minutes	May 14, 1990

Season 10 and specials

No. in series	No. in season	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date
56	1	"Columbo Goes to College"	E.W. Swackhamer	Teleplay: Jeffrey Bloom Story: Jeffrey Bloom and Frederick King Keller	December 9, 1990
57	2	"Caution: Murder Can Be Hazardous to Your Health"	Daryl Duke	Sonia Wolf, Patricia Ford and April Raynell	February 20, 1991
58	3	"Columbo and the Murder of a Rock Star"	Alan J. Levi	William Read Woodfield	April 29, 1991
59	4	"Death Hits the Jackpot"	Vincent McEveety	Jeffrey Bloom	December 15, 1991
60	5	"No Time to Die"	Alan J. Levi	Teleplay: Robert van Scoyk Story: Ed McBain	March 15, 1992
61	6	"A Bird in the Hand..."	Vincent McEveety	Jackson Gillis	November 22, 1992
62	7	"It's All in the Game"	Vincent McEveety	Peter Falk	October 31, 1993
63	8	"Butterfly in Shades of Grey"	Dennis Dugan	Peter S. Fischer	January 10, 1994
64	9	"Undercover"	Vincent McEveety	Teleplay: Gerry Day Story: Ed McBain	May 2, 1994
65	10	"Strange Bedfellows"	Vincent McEveety	Lawrence Vail	May 8, 1995
66	11	"A Trace of Murder"	Vincent McEveety	Charles Kipps	May 15, 1997
67	12	"Ashes to Ashes"	Patrick McGoohan	Jeffrey Hatcher	October 8, 1998
68	13	"Murder With Too Many Notes"	Patrick McGoohan	Teleplay: Jeffrey Cava and Patrick McGoohan Story: Jeffrey Cava	March 12, 2001
69	14	"Columbo Likes the Nightlife"	Jeffrey Reiner	Michael Alaimo	January 30, 2003

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 Tribute 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

1. "Columbo - Complete Series DVD UK". Retrieved 2 April 2012.
2. UK DVD Cover shows the complete collection
3. "Columbo, saison 12 Fr". Retrieved 2 April 2012.
4. "COLUMBO US DVD release at Universal Studio". Retrieved 2 April 2012.

References

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