All Columbo episodes ranked

When one member of a mystery writing team decides to break from his less talented partner and go solo, he becomes the victim in a real-life murder mystery.

A winemaker and connoisseur kills his half-brother in a fit of rage to prevent him from selling the family winery to a merchant company, and Lt. Columbo has to be very creative to solve this one.

A psychiatrist uses a patient he is having an affair with to help him kill his wife, but his perfect alibi may come apart at the hands of a seemingly befuddled LAPD lieutenant.

Columbo matches his skills against Brimmer, a former cop turned private investigator with a quick temper who tries to blackmail a client's wife. When she refuses, he accidentally kills her and it's up to Columbo to nail him.

A popular country western singer wants to get rid of his religiously zealous wife who's been using blackmail to control every aspect of his life. But a murder made to look like an airplane accident does not fool the wily Lt. Columbo.

The commandant of a military academy for boys kills the chairman of the board for planning on turning the academy into a coed junior college. Lt. Columbo takes up residence in the barracks to investigate what looks like an accident.

A ruthless conductor murders the gifted pianist with whom he is having an affair. Lt. Columbo is on the case.

An advertisement expert uses subliminal cues to help him commit a murder. Lt. Columbo is on the case.

An old lady who writes popular mystery novels strongly suspects that her niece's husband murdered her, so she exacts revenge by asphyxiating him in her house safe while devising a solid alibi. It's up to Columbo to unravel the subterfuge.

A respected lawyer murders a man to protect both himself and a Congressman, who's just been picked for VP by a presidential candidate, from being exposed for judicial corruption in the past. Lt. Columbo is on the case.

A wealthy art collector is murdered, and all signs point to a robbery gone wrong. But the nephew's alibi is a little too convenient, and Columbo pulls a fast one to ferret out the killer.

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.

Lt. Columbo and his wife win a pleasure cruise to Acapulco, but the lieutenant finds himself investigating a murder aboard the cruise ship when a married car dealer kills an ex-lover who's been blackmailing him over their past fling.

A police commissioner provides a false alibi for a neighbor who killed his wife in a fit of rage. He then kills his own wife in cold blood and blackmails the neighbor into faking an alibi for himself. Lt. Columbo has to untangle this mess.

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.

A famous food critic, who has been extorting money from a restaurant owner in exchange for good reviews, murders him when he threatened to expose him. Lt. Columbo is on the case.

Two arrogant college students devise a cunning method to murder their criminology professor during a guest lecturer class. The guest lecturer happens to be none other than Lt. Columbo himself.

A popular stage magician murders his employer, who's been blackmailing him about his past, and makes it look like a contract killing; it's up to Lt. Columbo to trick the master trickster.

An architect kills a Texas millionaire and hides his body, and makes it look like he left the country, in order to keep his visionary construction project financed. But the victim's ex-wife believes her ex-husband has been murdered.

A health and fitness franchiser who sells supplies to his franchisees at exorbitant prices murders one of them after they discovered his criminal business practices. Lt. Columbo has to outsmart the crafty killer to solve this one.

A surgeon has an ingenious plan for murdering his partner in a research project, but a paranoid nurse quickly catches onto his scheme, so he kills her. Lt. Columbo has a tough time figuring this one out.

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.

An aging movie actress commits murder. Lt. Columbo, one of her biggest fans, is on the case.

An aging musical film and stage star plans to come back from retirement, but her rich husband refuses to fund her comeback production, so she kills him and makes it look like a suicide. Lt. Columbo doubts her seemingly solid alibi.

The formula for a miraculous wrinkle cream leads the founder of a cosmetics company to murder; Columbo is soon on the case.