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The Best Episodes of Columbo

Every episode of Columbo ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of Columbo!

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Columbo is a friendly, verbose, disheveled-looking police detective who is consistently underestimated by his suspects. Despite his unprepossessing appearance and apparent absentmindedness, he shrewdly solves all of his cases and secures all evidence needed for

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Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Fan Favorite
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    Columbo Season 3 Episode 2 - Any Old Port in a Storm
    8.3/10(4331 votes)

    #1 - Any Old Port in a Storm

    S3:E2

    A wine connoisseur kills his half- brother to prevent him selling the family winery to a merchant company so he can pay off his gambling debts.

    Director:Leo Penn
    Writer:Stanley Ralph Ross

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  2. Columbo Season 7 Episode 1 - Try and Catch Me
    8.3/10(3472 votes)

    #2 - Try and Catch Me

    S7:E1

    A writer of murder mysteries wreaks revenge on her nephew-in-law by blaming him for her niece's murder.

    Director:James Frawley
    Writers:Gene Thompson, Paul Tuckahoe

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  3. Columbo Season 3 Episode 8 - A Friend in Deed
    8.2/10(3362 votes)

    #3 - A Friend in Deed

    S3:E8

    A police commissioner provides an alibi to a friend who has just killed his wife. Later the commissioner kills his own wife and gets the friend to repay the favour.

    Director:Ben Gazzara
    Writer:Peter S. Fischer

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  4. Columbo Season 5 Episode 5 - Now You See Him
    8.1/10(3379 votes)

    #4 - Now You See Him

    S5:E5

    Master magician the great Santini is amazing audiences at the Cabaret of Magic. What they don’t know is that Santini hopes to pull of the grandest illusion of his career - making club owner Jesse T. Jerome disappear. The crude Jerome is the only person who knows that Santini was a Nazi death camp guard named Stefan Mueller, He has been blackmailing the magician since learning his dark secret.

    Director:Harvey Hart
    Writer:Michael Sloan

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  5. Columbo Season 2 Episode 6 - A Stitch in Crime
    8.0/10(3835 votes)

    #5 - A Stitch in Crime

    S2:E6

    Leonard Nimoy plays a heart surgeon whose talents turn to murder. Stung by jealousy, he's planning a surgical death for his brilliant but ailing associate. Will Geer plays the intended victim.

    Director:Hy Averback
    Writer:Unknown

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  6. Columbo Season 3 Episode 7 - Swan Song
    8.0/10(3809 votes)

    #6 - Swan Song

    S3:E7

    A Country and Western singer kills his overpowering wife in a plane crash while he parachutes to safety.

    Director:Nicholas Colasanto
    Writer:Stanley Ralph Ross

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    The 20 WORST Episodes of Columbo

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  7. Columbo Season 4 Episode 2 - Negative Reaction
    8.0/10(3477 votes)

    #7 - Negative Reaction

    S4:E2

    Brilliant photographer Paul Galesko plans to murder his domineering wife, Frances, and pin the crime on an ex-convict named Alvin Deschler. His plan is to make it look as if Alvin kidnapped his wife and killed her before picking up the ransom money.

    Director:Alf Kjellin
    Writer:Peter S. Fischer

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  8. Columbo Season 5 Episode 1 - Forgotten Lady
    8.0/10(3614 votes)

    #8 - Forgotten Lady

    S5:E1

    A fading actress kills her husband when he refuses to back her comeback show.

    Director:Harvey Hart
    Writer:William Driskill

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  9. Columbo Season 7 Episode 4 - How to Dial a Murder
    7.9/10(2970 votes)

    #9 - How to Dial a Murder

    S7:E4

    A famous psychiatrist uses an appointment with his doctor as his alibi while he calls his house, where his dead wife's lover is. The call serves as the first step in a conditioning reflex on the psychiatrist's dogs. The other part is the word Rosebud as uttered by the victim. When Columbo arrives on the scene, the psychiatrist is very understanding when police say they may have to put his dogs to death. But Columbo notices how friendly the dogs seem, and then there's the telephone that's hanging from it's hook.

    Director:James Frawley
    Writer:Anthony Lawrence

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  10. Columbo Season 9 Episode 2 - Columbo Cries Wolf
    7.9/10(175 votes)

    #10 - Columbo Cries Wolf

    S9:E2

    Columbo is asked to investigate the disappearance of Dian Hunter, director of a men's magazine. Naturally, the prime suspect is her lover and co-editor Sean Brantley, who spends lots of time with the young girls he works with.

    Director:Daryl Duke
    Writers:Richard Levinson, William Link

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  11. Columbo Season 1 Episode 2 - Death Lends a Hand
    7.8/10(4390 votes)

    #11 - Death Lends a Hand

    S1:E2

    A private investigator kills his client's wife after she threatens to expose his blackmail scheme. The client then hires the detective to assist Columbo in the search for the killer.

    Director:Bernard L. Kowalski
    Writers:Richard Levinson, William Link

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  12. Columbo Season 3 Episode 4 - Double Exposure
    7.8/10(3100 votes)

    #12 - Double Exposure

    S3:E4

    A filmmaker kills one of his clients. in a break, during the screening of a new ad campaign

    Director:Richard Quine
    Writer:Stephen J. Cannell

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  13. Columbo Season 4 Episode 3 - By Dawn's Early Light
    7.8/10(3354 votes)

    #13 - By Dawn's Early Light

    S4:E3

    The head of a military school kills one of the governors by sabotaging the gun which is used on founders day.

    Director:Harvey Hart
    Writer:Howard Berk

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  14. Columbo Season 4 Episode 4 - Troubled Waters
    7.8/10(3255 votes)

    #14 - Troubled Waters

    S4:E4

    While holidaying on board a cruise liner, Columbo helps capture the killer of the singer with the ship's band.

    Director:Ben Gazzara
    Writers:Jackson Gillis, William Driskill

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  15. Columbo Season 9 Episode 3 - Agenda for Murder
    7.8/10(150 votes)

    #15 - Agenda for Murder

    S9:E3

    Columbo matches wits with a brilliant attorney responsible for the murder of the one man who could stifle his meteoric political career.

    Director:Patrick McGoohan
    Writer:Jeffrey Bloom

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  16. Columbo Season 1 Episode 1 - Murder by the Book
    7.7/10(6000 votes)

    #16 - Murder by the Book

    S1:E1

    One member of a mystery-writing-team decides to kill his more talented partner when the better writer decides to go solo.

    Director:Steven Spielberg
    Writer:Steven Bochco

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  17. Columbo Season 1 Episode 4 - Suitable for Framing
    7.7/10(4163 votes)

    #17 - Suitable for Framing

    S1:E4

    An art critic, Dale Kingston, kills his uncle for his valuable collection of paintings. All the clues lead to the dead man's first wife. Can Columbo correct the Lieutenant's error before it is too late?

    Director:Hy Averback
    Writer:Jackson Gillis

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  18. Columbo Season 2 Episode 1 - Étude in Black
    7.7/10(4218 votes)

    #18 - Étude in Black

    S2:E1

    The mistress of a conductor becomes a target for murder after threatening to tell all to her lover's wife.

    Director:Nicholas Colasanto
    Writers:Steven Bochco, Richard Levinson, William Link

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  19. Columbo Season 2 Episode 8 - Double Shock
    7.7/10(3225 votes)

    #19 - Double Shock

    S2:E8

    A wealthy man is murdered; his twin nephews stand to inherit, but which one committed the crime?

    Director:Robert Butler
    Writers:Steven Bochco, Peter Allan Fields, Richard Levinson, William Link

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  20. Columbo Season 3 Episode 3 - Candidate for Crime
    7.7/10(3220 votes)

    #20 - Candidate for Crime

    S3:E3

    A Senate Candidate running for office kills his campaign manager by making it look like he was the target for the killer's bullet.

    Director:Boris Sagal
    Writer:Dean Hargrove

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  21. Columbo Season 7 Episode 2 - Murder Under Glass
    7.7/10(2853 votes)

    #21 - Murder Under Glass

    S7:E2

    A famous food critic is threatened by a restaurant owner, and so the critic leaves. Soon after, the cook dies. Columbo's involvement is welcomed by all the other chefs in the area, but Columbo wonders why the dead restaurant owner slammed the drawers before he died. And how could the poison that killed him enter an unopened bottle without the killer even being in the room? Could it have been suicide? But then there's the cheques to a mysterious society, and the victim's calender. Can Columbo's cooking skills really match the food critic's taste?

    Director:Jonathan Demme
    Writer:Robert Van Scoyk

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  22. Columbo Season 1 Episode 7 - Blueprint for Murder
    7.6/10(3594 votes)

    #22 - Blueprint for Murder

    S1:E7

    An architect kills his business partner and deliberately lets Columbo suspect him, leading Columbo to think that he's hidden the body in the foundation of a building under construction. He plans to let Columbo dig up the site and find nothing, knowing that its the perfect place to hide the body since Columbo would never look in the same place twice.

    Director:Peter Falk
    Writer:Unknown

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  23. Columbo Season 3 Episode 5 - Publish or Perish
    7.6/10(2941 votes)

    #23 - Publish or Perish

    S3:E5

    A publisher hires a Vietnam vet to kill his star author and thus give himself an alibi before the writer can defect to another publisher.

    Director:Robert Butler
    Writer:Peter S. Fischer

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  24. Columbo Season 4 Episode 1 - An Exercise in Fatality
    7.6/10(3201 votes)

    #24 - An Exercise in Fatality

    S4:E1

    A health club owner kills his partner who is about to uncover a fraud and makes it look like an accident

    Director:Bernard L. Kowalski
    Writer:Peter S. Fischer

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  25. Columbo Season 4 Episode 5 - Playback
    7.6/10(2966 votes)

    #25 - Playback

    S4:E5

    An inventor video tapes his mother-in-law's death, and then replays it back to the security guard, to give himself an alibi.

    Director:Bernard L. Kowalski
    Writer:Booker Bradshaw

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Best Episodes Summary

"Any Old Port in a Storm" is the best rated episode of "Columbo". It scored 8.3/10 based on 4331 votes. Directed by Leo Penn and written by Stanley Ralph Ross, it aired on 10/7/1973. This episode scored 0.0 points higher than the second highest rated, "Try and Catch Me".