From its pilot in 1968 to its curtain call in 2003, Columbo ran for 35 years and comprised 69 episodes.
The full list of Columbo episodes in chronological order can be viewed below. Click on the links to read my reviews of the episodes. I may not get round to reviewing them all until about 2023.
Columbo pilot episodes
- Prescription: Murder (1968)
- Ransom for a Dead Man (1971)
Columbo season 1 episodes (1971-72)
- Murder by the Book (view full episode)
- Death Lends a Hand (view full episode)
- Dead Weight
- Suitable for Framing (view full episode)
- Lady in Waiting
- Short Fuse
- Blueprint for Murder
Columbo season 2 episodes (1972-73)
- Etude in Black (view full episode)
- The Greenhouse Jungle
- The Most Crucial Game
- Dagger of the Mind
- Requiem for a Falling Star
- A Stitch in Crime (view full episode)
- The Most Dangerous Match
- Double Shock
Columbo season 3 episodes (1973-74)
- Lovely But Lethal
- Any Old Port in a Storm (view full episode)
- Candidate for Crime
- Double Exposure
- Publish or Perish (view full episode)
- Mind Over Mayhem
- Swan Song (view full episode)
- A Friend in Deed (view full episode)
Columbo season 4 episodes (1974-75)
- An Exercise in Fatality
- Negative Reaction (view full episode)
- By Dawn’s Early Light
- Troubled Waters
- Playback
- Deadly State of Mind
Columbo season 5 episodes (1975-76)
- Forgotten Lady
- Case of Immunity
- Identity Crisis
- Matter of Honor
- Now You See Him
- Last Salute to the Commodore
Columbo season 6 episodes (1976-77)
Columbo season 7 episodes (1977-78)
- Try and Catch Me (view full episode)
- Murder Under Glass
- Make Me a Perfect Murder
- How to Dial a Murder
- The Conspirators
Columbo season 8 episodes (1989)
- Columbo Goes to the Guillotine
- Murder, Smoke and Shadows
- Sex and the Married Detective
- Grand Deceptions
Columbo season 9 episodes (1989-90)
- Murder: A Self Portrait
- Columbo Cries Wolf
- Agenda for Murder
- Rest in Peace, Mrs Columbo
- Uneasy Lies the Crown
- Murder in Malibu
Columbo season 10 episodes, plus TV specials (1990-2003)
- Columbo Goes to College (1990)
- Caution: Murder Can Be Hazardous to Your Health (1991)
- Columbo and the Murder of a Rock Star (1991)
- Death Hits the Jackpot (1991)
- No Time to Die (1992)
- A Bird in the Hand… (1992)
- It’s All in the Game (1993)
- Butterfly in Shades of Grey (1994)
- Undercover (1994)
- Strange Bedfellows (1995)
- A Trace of Murder (1997)
- Ashes to Ashes (1998)
- Murder With Too Many Notes (2001)
- Columbo Likes the Nightlife (2003)
You can read about my all-time Columbo top 10 episodes here.
Wonder how old the actors were at the time? I love the houses and furnishings and the way people dressed!!
Thank you so much for this website. We first watched the videos you recommended and we’ve now bought them all and are starting from number one (we’re not on streaming platforms). We’ll see them all, that’s for sure. And perhaps not only once… Thanks to your pages we have been able to try the Columbo’s, and now we can easily see which one’s we’ve already seen and which ones not yet. Good blog.
Does anyone know what type of folding bicycle that Donald Pleasence took out of the trunk of the Ferrari in S03:E02-Any Old Port in a Storm?
Also, I loved to watch Robert Culp get mad in S02:E03-The Most Crucial Game
My favourite moment: Columbo says, “Fascinating!” to Mayfield.
Where can I watch all the later episodes (1989-2003)? I have the original episodes (1968-1978) but can’t find the later episodes anywhere. Any advice?
https://archive.org/details/columbo
Thank you, Good Sir!
I can’t watch all the episodes becouse its loading every times. Greetings from Holland.
appreciate this site as I usually fall asleep( esp season 5-7) actions trump words andif I can’t stay awake there prob a reason for it. this site synopses obviate the desire to try to wade through the dullards repeatedly
does anyone remember an episode that had a lady and a guy talking about something, an inheritance or how much something was worth, it was $15,000 and the lady had big teeth
That’s Murder by the Book. The lady is the episode’s second victim, Lily La Sanka.
Seems like Murder by the Book (s. 1, ep. 1), but the lady wasn’t talking about any inheritance, she was blackmailing the man and $15,000 was the amount she demanded.
No reviews for the last six or so episodes? My wife and I just got done watching the entire series and though the earlier (first five or six years) were the best for us, too, some of the very last ones were surprisingly good.
I’m still working through the episodes. The final few will likely all be reviewed by early 2023.
Hi, can someone please tell me which episode or TV movie had Columbo investigating a judge?
I think you’re thinking of the Matlock episode “The Judge “ with Dick Van Dyke as the murderous judge.
Can someone remind me: which is the episode that has a gotcha that involves a man being unable to make a supposed car phone call due having been driving out of range in the mountains at the time? The gotcha scene involves being alone on a mountain road…until a group of cyclists turn up, who turn out to be undercover police officers …. thanks
Butterfly in Shades of Grey from 1994.
Butterfly in shades of gray (William Shatner
Thank you both. I watched it yesterday and enjoyed it. Although not a classic it seemed better than I remembered it to be. The mansion in Malibu was an incredible filming location. I read somewhere (imdb I think) that it was demolished?
Is Dabney Coleman the only person to play a fellow cob in one episode and a villan in another?
No, Ed Begley Jr was cop and killer in How to Dial a Murder and Undercover: and Fred Draper was killer in Last Salute to the Commodore and a forensics guy in Negative Reaction.
Who else’s favorite villan on the show is Jack cassidy? Close second is Leonard Nimoy
Mine is definitely Jack Cassidy! Agreed!
My close second though is Richard Kiley. Boy was he scary.
Leonard Nimoy is definitely up there though!
IMO Jack Cassidy as ex-nazi Mueller was superb (Now You See Him.) Cassidy was able to play the arrogance and aloofness perfectly. It was uncanny. Maybe the best casting of all the episodes. To me his other roles were good but not quite as convincing.
What is your take on Strange Bedfellows? Have not seen it but will watch later on tv being aired shortly.
Strange watching George Wendt walk into a bar and not be greeted as Norm! by one and all
I’m old enough to have watched “McMillan and Wife” and “McCloud” back in the day, but for some reason I have zero recollection of ever watching Columbo either in first run, or at any time in the past. I stumbled upon the show and then started watching them all in order on Tubi.
My only comment is that I love Columbo so much that there is no such thing as a bad episode. There are only 69 made between 1968 and 2003 and I treasure every one of them. I only have 14 left and I wish there were many more.
Thank you for this site. I sometimes read along as the episode progresses and other times I wait until it’s over and use the commentary to fill in the blanks. But this is an awesome site.
I was also a fan of McCloud and to a lesser extent, McMillan and Wife, but Columbo was always my favorite of the 70s TV detectives. I have caught an episode here and there over the years in reruns, but I started working my way through the episodes in order on Tubi about a month ago and just finished Murder in Malibu. I also love the additional insight that this site provides, but I can’t fathom how you missed Columbo during it’s initial run and syndicated reruns. It is far more widespread in availability than either of the other series you mention. Regardless, I’m glad you found it. Everybody needs Columbo in their life!
Oh man, you are gonna be so disappointed in the last 14 or so episodes. Good that you started seeing it tho, and it’s true, this is an awe inspiring site