Schoolfriends William Link and Richard Levinson, inspired by Porfiry Petrovich in Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment and the books of GK Chesterton, had already used Lt Columbo on stage with Prescription Murder, a play influenced by the "inverted mystery" format used by Alfred Hitchcock in Dial M for Murder. The history of the character of Lieutenant Columbo actually predates the TV show. It was a drawing-room mystery done backwards with a cop as the lead. "It flipped everything on its head," agrees David Koenig, author of a new book, Shooting Columbo: The Lives and Deaths of TV's Rumpled Detective. "I truly believe that Columbo was a landmark in the entertainment industry," says Jack Horger, producer on the show between 19. The show was syndicated across 44 countries, resulting in some unusual tributes: there is a statue of Columbo in Budapest in Romania, Columbo was so popular that when the show ended, the government asked Falk to video an address to the nation to confirm that it wasn't the regime's strict import restrictions that were responsible for the lack of new episodes. It made a global star of Falk, who won four Emmys and a Golden Globe. The initial 70s run set a gold standard in event television, attracting grand guest stars to play the murderer (Gene Barry, Jack Cassidy, William Shatner, Anne Baxter) and emerging talent to shape its look and feel (Steven Spielberg and Jonathan Demme both directed episodes writer Steven Bochco went on to create the hugely influential Hill Street Blues). But Columbo made a virtue of formula, and with intelligent, detailed scripts and a stellar performance from Falk, it became an unlikely worldwide phenomenon across eight series from 1971-1978, and then again sporadically from 1989-2003. On paper, it was a niche concept that even network executives doubted could work. Columbo's methods often involved elaborate set pieces where traps were set for the murderer ( planting a false address of a suspect knowing the killer would try to frame him asking a man to pretend to be his blind brother to break an alibi) that were dramatic, cathartic finales (even if the charges wouldn't always necessarily stand up in a court of law). It left the rest of the show not as a "whodunnit" in the vein of Agatha Christie, but a "howcatchem", with the unassuming, amiable yet sharp-witted Columbo working to unpick the killer's "perfect" alibi one seemingly insignificant clue at a time – shoelaces, caviar, air conditioning – before bringing down their arrogant conceit with a final piece of incriminating evidence in a thrilling "gotcha!" moment that Falk himself referred to as the "pop". Here was a murder mystery where the murder was no mystery: audiences saw the deadly deed at the start of each episode, invariably carried out by one of LA's rich and famous in an attempt to preserve their esteemed reputation. The US series with Peter Falk in the title role – as the ramshackle, eccentric, cigar-chomping, raincoated LAPD homicide detective Lieutenant Columbo – revolutionised what a cop show could be. For the sake of clarity, all episodes in this article are arranged as they appear in the UK release.Even 50 years since its first season began on 15th September 1971, Columbo remains a TV show like no other. In Region 1, all episodes from season 8 are grouped differently all the episodes that were originally aired on ABC were released as the COLUMBO: The Mystery Movie Collection. In France and the Netherlands (also Region 2), however, the DVDs were released as 12 seasons. In Region 2 and 4, all episodes have now been released as 10 seasons, with the 10th season covering the last 14 episodes from "Columbo Goes to College" (1990) to the series finale, "Columbo Likes the Nightlife" (2003). The last installment was broadcast in 2003.īecause the Columbo episodes from 1989 to 2003 aired infrequently, different DVD sets have been released around the world. Columbo then aired less frequently on ABC beginning in 1989. 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. The following is an episode list for the crime fiction television series Columbo.
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