Episodes cast for
"Columbo" (1971) More at IMDbPro »

Season: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13
Year: 1971 | 1972 | 1973 | 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1997 | 1998 | 2000 | 2003

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Season 1

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Season 1, Episode 0: Ransom for a Dead Man

1 March 1971
A brilliant tort attorney gets rid of her boring husband by faking his kidnapping and keeping the ransom. The FBI may be fooled, but not Columbo.

Season 1, Episode 1: Murder by the Book

15 September 1971
When one member of a mystery writing team wants to break from his less talented partner, he becomes the victim in a real-life murder mystery.

Season 1, Episode 2: Death Lends a Hand

6 October 1971
When the CEO of a private detective agency threatens the wife of a publisher with blackmail and she threatens to expose him, he accidentally kills her.

Season 1, Episode 3: Dead Weight

27 October 1971
A war hero shoots and kills his business partner; an easily manipulated young divorcée is the only witness.

Season 1, Episode 4: Suitable for Framing

17 November 1971
Noted art critic Dale Kingston kills his uncle for his valuable collection of paintings. Despite Columbo's suspicions, all the clues point to the dead man's ex-wife. Can the lieutenant reveal the true culprit before it is too late?

Season 1, Episode 5: Lady in Waiting

15 December 1971
A mousy heiress murders her brother, pretending she thought he was a burglar. Lt. Columbo unravels her alibi.

Season 1, Episode 6: Short Fuse

19 January 1972
A chemical plant's director gets threats and issues threats, and one of the employees develops and plants a bomb in his car. When the car turns out to be missing, Columbo is called to find out what happened.

Season 1, Episode 7: Blueprint for Murder

9 February 1972
Elliot Markham, a brilliant architect and con-man, murders a Texas millionaire and hides his body in order to keep his visionary construction project financed.

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Season 2

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Season 2, Episode 1: Étude in Black

17 September 1972
An amoral conductor murders the gifted pianist with whom he is having an affair. Lt. Columbo is on the case.

Season 2, Episode 2: The Greenhouse Jungle

15 October 1972
Columbo arrives at a kidnapping case, which at some point turns into a murder. Everything seems to be related to a trust fund, that is being managed by a man with a great love for orchids.

Season 2, Episode 3: The Most Crucial Game

5 November 1972
The manager of a football team murders its callow owner, making it look as if the young man had had an accident in his swimming pool. Lt. Columbo is on the case.

Season 2, Episode 4: Dagger of the Mind

26 November 1972
Lilian Stanhope and Nicholas Frame are two actors in London. They have to act in Macbeth and the producer is Sir Roger Haversham who is Lilian's lover. Sir Roger finds out he has been deceived by the couple and he threatens to interrupt the performance. Lilian kills him accidentally during a fight and afterwards the two actors take the corpse to his mansion, staging an accident. But Lt. Columbo is in London to learn about the new methods to investigate used by Scotland Yard. And Columbo smells something fishy in the accident.

Season 2, Episode 5: Requiem for a Falling Star

21 January 1973
A faded movie actress commits murder. Lt. Columbo, one of her biggest fans, is on the case.

Season 2, Episode 6: A Stitch in Crime

11 February 1973
A surgeon has an ingenious plan for murdering his partner in a research project, but a nurse catches onto the scheme.

Season 2, Episode 7: The Most Dangerous Match

4 March 1973
A chess player murders his opponent before a big match. Lt. Columbo must out-maneuver this crafty, but craven, killer.

Season 2, Episode 8: Double Shock

25 March 1973
A smarmy TV chef and his identical twin brother, a rigidly proper banker, are suspects in the electrocution of their rich uncle.

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Season 3

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Season 3, Episode 1: Lovely But Lethal

23 September 1973
The formula for a miracle wrinkle cream leads the founder of a cosmetics company to murder. Lt. Columbo is on the case.

Season 3, Episode 2: Any Old Port in a Storm

7 October 1973
A connoisseur running a California winery murders his younger half-brother to prevent him from selling the family business. Lt. Columbo is on the case.

Season 3, Episode 3: Candidate for Crime

4 November 1973
Senatorial candidate Nelson Hayward murders his domineering campaign manager, staging it to appear that Hayward himself was the intended victim of a mob hit gone wrong. Columbo hits the campaign trail to catch the killer.

Season 3, Episode 4: Double Exposure

16 December 1973
A self-styled "motivation research specialist" uses subliminal cues to commit a murder. Lt. Columbo is on the case.

Season 3, Episode 5: Publish or Perish

18 January 1974
A publisher hires a bomb enthusiast to murder a bestselling author of sex novels. Lt. Columbo is on the case.

Season 3, Episode 6: Mind Over Mayhem

10 February 1974
The director of a government institute that employs various scientific geniuses commits a clever murder. But another kind of genius is on the case: Lt. Columbo.

Season 3, Episode 7: Swan Song

3 March 1974
A gospel singer wants to be rid of his zealous wife. But a murder made to look like an airplane accident does not fool the wily Lt. Columbo.

Season 3, Episode 8: A Friend in Deed

5 May 1974
A police commissioner provides a false alibi for a wife killer, but then expects an alibi in return.

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Season 4

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Season 4, Episode 1: An Exercise in Fatality

15 September 1974
A health club owner murders one of his franchisees; Lt. Columbo is on the case.

Season 4, Episode 2: Negative Reaction

15 October 1974
A photographer murders his wife and blames her death on a bungled kidnapping. But Lt. Columbo has an even sharper eye than the Pulitzer Prize winner.

Season 4, Episode 3: By Dawn's Early Light

27 October 1974
The commandant of a military academy murders the chairman of the board, who wants to oust him. Lt. Columbo takes up residence in the barracks to expose the killer.

Season 4, Episode 4: Troubled Waters

9 February 1975
Lt. Columbo takes a trip to Acapulco, but finds himself on a new case when a used car dealer commits murder on the cruise ship.

Season 4, Episode 5: Playback

2 March 1975
A gadget-happy inventor murders his mother-in-law; Lt. Columbo is on the case.

Season 4, Episode 6: A Deadly State of Mind

27 April 1975
A psychiatrist, who specializes in hypnosis, murders the husband of his mistress and convinces her to lie to the police; it's up to Lt. Columbo to discover the truth.

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Season 5

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Season 5, Episode 1: Forgotten Lady

14 September 1975
A faded dance star of film and stage murders her husband and makes it look like a suicide; Lt. Columbo doubts her seemingly perfect alibi.

Season 5, Episode 2: A Case of Immunity

12 October 1975
The first secretary to the Suarian king may have immunity from the consequences of committing murder, but Lt. Columbo is wilier than any foreign diplomat.

Season 5, Episode 3: Identity Crisis

2 November 1975
A top CIA operative commits murder the way only a brilliant spy can, never guessing he'll have to contend with a man like Lt. Columbo.

Season 5, Episode 4: A Matter of Honor

1 February 1976
When a famous bullfighter's trusted bookkeeper turns up dead in a bullring, Lt. Columbo suspects murder--with a bull as the murder weapon.

Season 5, Episode 5: Now You See Him

29 February 1976
A stage illusionist kills his employer and makes it look like a contract killing; it's up to Lt. Columbo to trick the master trickster.

Season 5, Episode 6: Last Salute to the Commodore

2 March 1976
Charlie Clay runs the ship building business of his father-in-law, Commodore Swanson, who turns up murdered; Lt. Columbo is on the case.

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Season 6

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Season 6, Episode 1: Fade in to Murder

10 October 1976
An egotistical but successful star off a TV detective show murders his blackmailing producer and makes it look like a robbery.

Season 6, Episode 2: Old Fashioned Murder

28 November 1976
The spinster head of a family run museum murders her brother when he threatens to dissolve the financially strapped institution.

Season 6, Episode 3: The Bye-Bye Sky High I.Q. Murder Case

22 May 1977
Sigma Society member Oliver Brandt murders his business partner when he threatens to expose him as an embezzler and constructs a seemingly foolproof alibi.

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Season 7

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Season 7, Episode 1: Try and Catch Me

21 November 1977
A successful mystery writer suspects her niece's husband murdered her, and she exacts revenge by asphyxiating him in her house safe.

Season 7, Episode 2: Murder Under Glass

30 January 1978
Food critic Paul Gerard, who has been extorting money from restaurant owners in exchange for good reviews, murders one when threatened with exposure.

Season 7, Episode 3: Make Me a Perfect Murder

25 February 1978
An Emmy-winning TV executive kills her lover (who is also her boss); Lt. Columbo is on the case.

Season 7, Episode 4: How to Dial a Murder

5 April 1978
A behavioral psychologist whose wife died under suspicious circumstances trains his dogs to kill on command using a telephone.

Season 7, Episode 5: The Conspirators

13 May 1978
An IRA terrorist executes an arms dealer he considers traitorous; Lt. Columbo is on the case.

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Season 8

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Season 8, Episode 1: Columbo Goes to the Guillotine

6 February 1989
An egocentric psychic murders his old mentor, a magician charged to expose him as fraud, by beheading him while he's rehearsing his guillotine trick.

Season 8, Episode 2: Murder, Smoke and Shadows

27 February 1989
An egocentric wunderkind director murders a childhood friend who threatens to expose his negligent complicity in the death of his sister years earlier.

Season 8, Episode 3: Sex and the Married Detective

3 April 1989
When a successful sex therapist with a best selling book and a hit TV show is crushed to learn her business partner/lover is cheating on her, she plots appropriate revenge.

Season 8, Episode 4: Grand Deceptions

1 May 1989
After the head of a private paramilitary think tank who is embezzling funds murders a blackmailer, he has to match wits with the persistent Lieutenant Columbo.

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Season 9

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Season 9, Episode 1: Murder, a Self Portrait

25 November 1989
Columbo investigates the apparent drowning of a famous painters first wife.

Season 9, Episode 2: Columbo Cries Wolf

20 January 1990
When the business-savvy publisher of a "Playboy"-type men's magazine wants to sell her stock to a Rupert Murdoch-like media tycoon, she apparently disappears on a London-bound flight.

Season 9, Episode 3: Agenda for Murder

10 February 1990
This time Columbo is put on a murder that was made to look like a suicide. However, he notices some loose ends, and asks a lawyer and a governor to clear these problems up.

Season 9, Episode 4: Rest in Peace, Mrs. Columbo

31 March 1990
A woman who blames Lt. Columbo for the loss of her husband sets out to get back at him. But before she goes after him, she first goes after the man who informed on her husband and by showing the Lt. how it feels to lose a love one; by going after his wife.

Season 9, Episode 5: Uneasy Lies the Crown

28 April 1990
The unsuccessful junior partner in a dental group, a bad husband and degenerate gambler, faces divorce and ostracism from his father-in-law's firm.

Season 9, Episode 6: Murder in Malibu

14 May 1990
A successful writer of romance novels who is involved with a young, ambitious womanizer, is found shot to death in her Malibu home.

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Season 10

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Season 10, Episode 1: Columbo Goes to College

9 December 1990
The popular tv detective investigates a murder at a college where two students kill their professor who was trying to expel them. Contains mild violence, but nothing that would be considered offensive.

Season 10, Episode 2: Caution: Murder Can Be Hazardous to Your Health

20 February 1991
Columbo investigates a self-proclaimed security expert turned crime show host for the murder of a rival with incriminating evidence of pornography.

Season 10, Episode 3: Columbo and the Murder of a Rock Star

29 April 1991
Lt. Columbo matches wits with a defense lawyer who has never lost a case in his career.

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Season 11

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Season 11, Episode 1: Death Hits the Jackpot

15 December 1991
Freddy, a down-on-his-luck photographer in the final stages of a divorce, wins $30 million in the lottery. In order to not share it with his wife before the divorce is finalized, he arranges for his uncle Leon to cash in the ticket and give Freddy the money after the divorce. But Uncle Leon has ideas of his own...

Season 11, Episode 2: No Time to Die

15 March 1992
Columbo attends the wedding of his nephew, who is also with the LAPD. Suddenly it turns out that the bride is missing, possibly kidnapped. Columbo sets up the investigation to figure out what happened.

Season 11, Episode 3: A Bird in the Hand...

22 November 1992
Harold likes to gamble, but as a rule he loses and he is heavily in debt. His uncle is the famous Big Fred who is the owner of a football team and he is a millionaire. But Harold can't get a dime from him. So Harold decides to kill his uncle by a pipe bomb under his car. He is not surprised when he is told Big Fred is dead. He is surprised however that the death is due to a road accident. He rushes to his uncle's house and he finds Lt. Columbo getting excited about the car with the bomb...

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Season 12

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Season 12, Episode 1: It's All in the Game

31 October 1993
Lauren Staton and Lisa Martin kill their two-timing lover Nick Franco. Lauren's the one who pulled the trigger and they've made it look like Franco was killed by a burglar in his apartment. They've prepared well with both having solid alibis. Lt. Colombo is in charge of the case and is very much attracted to the beautiful Lauren. She uses that to her advantage and is soon buying him gifts and giving him the odd kiss. Colombo is flattered but begins to see anomalies in some of the physical evidence. He becomes certain that Laura is involved in Franco's death but realizes he will only be able to make an arrest if he gets a confession. He manages to get that but even he is surprised when learns of her true relationship to Lisa.

Season 12, Episode 2: Butterfly in Shades of Grey

6 November 1993
L.A. radio moderator Chase kills Jerry Winters, a member of his staff who tried to help Chase's daughter Victoria (also a staff member) to leave her father and become a novelist in New York. Chase presents a fine alibi: Winters was shot dead while speaking to him on the phone, even the shooting was recorded on his answering machine. Everything seems perfect, but will Lt. Columbo really believe this story?

Season 12, Episode 3: Undercover

2 May 1994
Lt Columbo investigates men and women who are being killed over pieces of a photo they have, that shows where 4 million dollars in stolen money is hidden.

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Season 13

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Season 13, Episode 1: Strange Bedfellows

8 May 1995
When Graham McVeigh kills his brother and frames a mob bookie for the crime, then kills the bookie and claims self-defense, he finds himself facing trouble from both Columbo and the bookie's superior in the mob.

Season 13, Episode 2: A Trace of Murder

15 May 1997
A beautiful wife and her forensic expert boyfriend try to frame her very rich husband for murder.

Season 13, Episode 3: Ashes to Ashes

8 October 1998
After a much maligned Hollywood gossip columnist is murdered by her former lover, Columbo tries to find a way to prove he was responsible for the crime.

Season 13, Episode 4: Murder with Too Many Notes

12 May 2000
Findlay Crawford, a Hollywood film composer and conductor, murders a talented composer/musician who has been ghostwriting most of Crawford's work in recent years, including the entire score for the last film, which won an Oscar. Crawford is jealous of the young musician whose talent outshines his own. Will Columbo find out who did it? It's just one more thing.

Season 13, Episode 5: Columbo Likes the Nightlife

30 January 2003
Columbo gets a taste of the Los Angeles rave scene as he investigates the apparent suicide of a tabloid reporter.