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Columbo: Season 07
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Columbo [TV Series]
It all began in 1960 as a stage play called Prescription: Murder written by whodunit enthusiasts Richard Levinson and William Link. Joseph Cotten starred as a prominent society doctor who smugly believed he had committed the perfect murder when he knocked off his wife. The detective assigned to the case was a slovenly, disorganized seemingly aphasic old coot played by Thomas Mitchell. Secure in the assumption that so cloddish and unprepossessing a detective would ever be smart enough to tumble to his guilt, the doctor allowed the elderly cop to engage in a game of cat and mouse as they affably discussed possible motives and methods related to the murder. But the doc had underestimated the detective, who had a mind like a steel trap, and by the end of the play had ever so politely and unassumingly allowed the murderer to hang himself with his own words. "Prescription Murder" never made it to Broadway, but Levinson and Link revived the property as a one-hour TV drama on the NBC anthology The Dow Hour of Great Mysteries, with Bert Freed in the role of the unkempt but cagey detective, now named Lt. Columbo. In 1968, Prescription: Murder was remade as an NBC TV movie starring Gene Barry as the homicidal doctor. Originally, Levinson and Link wanted Bing Crosby to take the role of Lt. Columbo, but when Crosby turned them down, Peter Falk was cast in the part -- and as it turned out, the role fit Falk like a glove. The actor repeated his Columbo characterization in another TV movie, Ransom for a Dead Man (1971), whereupon NBC commissioned Levinson and Link to fashion a regular series built around Columbo. Dressed in a tattered, stained raincoat, tooling around in a beat-up, old heap of a car and generally chewing on a unlit cigar, Lt. Columbo (his first name was never revealed) almost invariably arrived on the scene after the audience had witnessed the "killer of the week" (usually a major guest star) committing a murder and cleverly covering his or her tracks so that no one would ever suspect what had really happened. Deferential to a fault (he always addressed the suspect as "sir" or "ma'am," even when making an arrest), forever chattering inanely about seemingly inconsequential details or relating banal anecdotes about his (never-seen) wife, and in general coming off as the biggest dolt and buffoon ever to walk the halls of the L.A. Police Department, Columbo lulled the suspects into a false sense of security. Then, at the crucial moment, Columbo would burrow deeper and deeper into the case, turning up tiny but important clues that the perpetrator had assumed were nonexistent and forever pausing at the door after finishing what seemed to be a thorough interrogation and muttering "Oh, excuse me...just one more question." Virtually without fail, by the end of the episode Columbo had subtly manipulated the oh-so-clever killer into making the proverbial "fatal slip" that sealed his or her doom. Contrary to popular belief, Columbo was never telecast as a weekly series. Debuting September 15, 1971, the property was but one component of the rotating anthology The NBC Mystery Movie, turning out anywhere from six to eight new episodes per year, each one running between 90 and 120 minutes. In this form, the series remained on NBC until the fall of 1977. Twelve years later, Columbo was revived, again as a component of the crime anthology The NBC Mystery Movie. The property continued to be represented in sporadically telecast two-hour doses until 1993, after which Peter Falk would revive Columbo on an increasingly infrequent basis -- usually whenever he felt like it -- during the next decade. ~ All Movie Guide

Includes Seasons:
Columbo: Season 06
Peter Falk launches his sixth season as the world's sloppiest, most disheveled and most diligent homicide detective in Columbo, originally telecast as a rotating component of The NBC Mystery Movie. Those criminals who think they're about to get away with the "perfect murder" upon meeting the apparently scatterbrained Lt. Columbo for the first time are in for a rude awakening when the little man in the soiled raincoat probes and prods until he finally solves the case and brings the miscreant to justice -- usually by tripping up said miscreant with his or her own words. Only three episodes appeared during season six, but each one is a gem. "Fade in to Murder" stars William Shatner as the leading man of a popular TV detective show (not unlike Columbo) who uses methods gleaned from his show's scripts to bump off a blackmailer and establish an alibi. "Old Fashioned Murder" features Celeste Holm as the scheming head of a museum who cooks up a robbery/murder with a daunting array of phony clues. And in "The Bye-Bye Sky High I.Q. Murder Case," a clever businessman Theodore Bikel murders his embezzling partner and tries to redirect suspicion to the dead man's high-maintenance wife. ~ All Movie Guide

Columbo: Season 07
Five new Columbo episodes, each running between 90 and 120 minutes, were produced for the series' seventh season as a component of The NBC Mystery Movie. Peter Falk returns as raincoat-wearing, cigar-chomping, deceptively scatterbrained homicide detective Lt. Columbo, who always manages to piece together the clues and come to the right conclusion no matter how clever the murderer thinks he or she has been in planning the "perfect crime." In the first episode, "Try and Catch Me," Ruth Gordon guest stars as an Agatha Christie-style author of murder mysteries who meticulously plot a real-life murder in order to get her nasty nephew-in-law arrested. "Murder Under Glass" finds Columbo cutting a tasty swath through the the culinary world to get the goods on a homicidal food critic (Louis Jourdan). In "Make Me a Perfect Murder", Trish VanDevere plays the assistant to a powerful television executive who kills her boss for failing to give her a promotion (shades of Network!) "How to Dial a Murder" begins with a neat spoof of Citizen Kane and segues into a "remote-control murder" involving specially conditioned attack dogs. And in "The Conspirators," Columbo crosses swords with an Irish poet who doubles as a guerilla fighter -- and triples as a murderer. And with this final episode, Columbo wraps up its seven-year run on NBC. At the time (1978), it appeared as though Peter Falk would never play the character again -- but eleven years later, Columbo was coaxed out of "retirement" for a new series of feature-length episodes, telecast on rival network ABC. ~ All Movie Guide

Includes Episodes:
Columbo: Fade in to Murder

Columbo: Old Fashioned Murder

Columbo: The Bye-Bye Sky High IQ Murder Case
The setting for this 2-hour Columbo TV drama is a club for geniuses. One of the members is Theodore Bikel, whose business partner Sorrell Booke has been embezzling funds to keep Bikel's wife (Samantha Eggar) in luxury. Murdering Booke, Bikel calls upon his reserves of brilliance to cover up all traces of his crime. But he hasn't reckoned with Lt. Columbo (Peter Falk), who may not exactly be in the genius category, but is certainly no slouch when it comes to using his little grey cells. The key prop in this outing is a phonograph. Bye-Bye Sky High IQ Murder Case first aired May 22, 1977. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Columbo: Try & Catch Me
Rumpled gumshoe Columbo matches wits with a best-selling mystery writer in this episode from the popular mystery series. Police detective Frank Columbo (Peter Falk) is brought in to investigate when Edmund Galvin (Charles Frank) is murdered. Galvin's wife, Phyllis, died in a mysterious boating accident several months earlier, and Phyllis' aunt, Abigail Mitchell (Ruth Gordon), the author of a series of popular murder mysteries, has her own ideas about who committed the crime and why. However, the longer Columbo looks into the case, the more he's convinced Abigail knows more than she's telling. Columbo: Try and Catch Me also features Mariette Hartley and G.D. Spradlin. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Columbo: How to Dial a Murder
At first glance, How to Dial a Murder would seem to be a TV remake of Orson Welles' Citizen Kane. But no, it's a 90-minute installment in the Columbo series, as we soon discover. Nicol Williamson guest stars as a wealthy psychologist and movie buff. He has already murdered his wife, and now he intends to do in her lover. To deflect suspicion from himself, he sets up the killing by phone. The victim-to-be answers, is prodded into repeating the word "Rosebud"-and is then torn asunder by Williamson's dobermans, who've been conditioned to attack upon hearing this verbal clue. Williamson manages to be miles away when the murder is pulled off. Still, the diligent Lt. Columbo (Peter Falk) manages to beard the culprit in his memorabilia-laden den. How to Dial a Murder originally aired April 15, 1978. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Columbo: Murder Under Glass

Columbo: The Conspirators
The Conspirators was one of four Columbo feature-length TV specials irregularly scheduled during the 1977-1978 TV season. The titular conspirators are Irish political terrorists, funded by Americans. Clive Revill is an Irish poet who murders an arms dealer (Bernard Behrens) while the poet is gunrunning to his compatriots in Ireland. The murderer is certain that he's thoroughly covered her tracks--until Lt. Columbo (Peter Falk) shambles onto the scene. Columbo: The Conspirators was filmed at a time when Peter Falk was insisting that he would hang up the lieutenant's raincoat for good; no way. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Columbo: Make Me a Perfect Murder
Trish Van Devere plays a television executive (evidently inspired by Faye Dunaway in Network) in the made-for-TV Make Me a Perfect Murder. Denied a promotion, Ms. Van Devere retaliates by "cancelling" her boss--permanently. Utilizing her knowledge of TV mysteries, she manages to misdirect the trail of evidence. But Lt. Columbo (Peter Falk) isn't quite as gullible as your average TV fan. Make Me a Perfect Murder was the February 25, 1978 installment of the ongoing Columbo series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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Columbo: The Complete Sixth and Seventh Seasons [3 Discs] DVD

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