List of Columbo episodes

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The following is an episode list for the crime fiction television series Columbo. After two pilot episodes, the show originally aired on NBC from 1971 to 1978 as one of the rotating programs of the NBC Mystery Movie. Columbo then aired more infrequently on ABC beginning in 1989. The last film was broadcast in 2003.

Because the Columbo episodes from 1989 to 2003 were aired very infrequently, different DVD sets have been released around the world. In the UK (Region 2), all episodes have now been released as ten seasons, with the tenth season covering the last 14 shows from "Columbo Goes to College" (1990) to the most recent "Columbo Likes the Nightlife" (2003). However in France, and The Netherlands (also Region 2) the DVDs were released as twelve seasons. In Region 1, all episodes from seasons 8 are grouped differently; all the episodes that are originally aired on ABC were released on COLUMBO: The Mystery Movie Collection DVDs Many other sites such as IMDb, had even grouped the Columbo episodes into 13 seasons. Therefore, all episodes here will be arranged as it is in the UK release.

Series overview

Season		Episodes	Originally aired	DVD Release
				Region 1	Region 2	Region 4
	Pilots	2	1968–1971	September 7, 2004	September 13, 2004	December 3, 2004
	1	7	1971–1972
	2	8	1972–1973	March 8, 2005	July 18, 2005	July 13, 2005
	3	8	1973–1974	August 9, 2005	November 14, 2005	July 20, 2006
	4	6	1974–1975	March 14, 2006	September 18, 2006	September 19, 2006
	5	6	1975–1976	June 27, 2006	February 12, 2007	Unknown 2007
	6	3	1976–1977	November 21, 2006	April 30, 2007	May 2, 2007
	7	5	1977–1978
	8	4	1989	April 24, 2007	March 31, 2008	June 4, 2008
	9	6	1989–1990	February 3, 2009	March 30, 2009	May 6, 2009
	10 and Specials	14	1990–1993 1994–2003	February 8, 2011	June 15, 2009 July 27, 2009	2009

Episodes

Before Peter Falk

Before Falk was cast as the character of Columbo, Bert Freed played the role in "Enough Rope," a 1960 episode of The Chevy Mystery Show, a TV anthology series. In 1962, that episode was adapted as a stage play titled "Prescription: Murder" (starring Thomas Mitchell as Columbo), which then became a made-for-TV movie in 1968, with Peter Falk debuting in the role.

NBC (1968–1978)

Pilots

Series #	Season #	Title	Directed by	Written by	Airdate
1	1	"Prescription: Murder"	Richard Irving	Richard Levinson & William Link Based on their Play	February 20, 1968 (1968-02-20)
Dr. Ray Flemming (Gene Barry), a psychiatrist, murders his wife (Nina Foch) and uses his patient-turned girlfriend (Katherine Justice), who is an actress, to impersonate her to create an alibi.
2	2	"Ransom for a Dead Man"	Richard Irving	Teleplay: Dean Hargrove Story: Richard Levinson & William Link	March 1, 1971 (1971-03-01)
Leslie Williams (Lee Grant), a brilliant lawyer and pilot, murders her husband Paul to get his money, arranging the act to look as if he had been kidnapped and killed by his captors. Columbo and Leslie's step-daughter, who hates her, successfully work together to get Leslie to implicate herself by revealing where the money is.

Season 1

Series #	Season #	Title	Directed by	Written by	Airdate
3	1	"Murder by the Book"	Steven Spielberg	Steven Bochco	September 15, 1971 (1971-09-15)
Ken Franklin (Jack Cassidy), one half of a mystery writing team, kills his partner, Jim Ferris (Martin Milner), who wished to break it off and go solo, threatening to expose the fact that Ferris did all the actual writing, and makes it seem like Ferris was killed by gangsters in his office and Ken was two hours away from the office at the time. When Lilly La Sanka, (Barbara Colby) a local store owner who happened to see Ferris in Ken's car, tries to blackmail Ken into a relationship, he kills her too. Note- In 1997 TV Guide ranked this episode number 16 on its '100 Greatest Episodes of All Time' list.
4	2	"Death Lends a Hand"	Bernard Kowalski	Richard Levinson & William Link	October 6, 1971 (1971-10-06)
Brimmer (Robert Culp), the head of a private detective agency, is hired by Arthur Kennicut (Ray Milland), a powerful publishing magnate who suspects his wife, Lenore (Pat Crowley) of infidelity. Although Brimmer indeed finds evidence of infidelity, instead of reporting this to his client, he attempts to blackmail Lenore into revealing secrets about her husband. She refuses and threatens to expose his plot to her husband, at which point Brimmer accidentally kills her in a fit of anger. Series creators Richard Levinson and William Link won an Emmy for writing this episode.
5	3	"Dead Weight"	Jack Smight	John T. Dugan	October 27, 1971 (1971-10-27)
Major General Martin Hollister (Eddie Albert), a retired Marine Corps General, after learning that he is being investigated for embezzling military funds, kills his partner, after his partner decides to flee the country. The act is witnessed by Helen Stewart (Suzanne Pleshette), who is wooed by the General into doubting her own story.
6	4	"Suitable for Framing"	Hy Averback	Jackson Gillis	November 17, 1971 (1971-11-17)
Art critic Dale Kingston (Ross Martin) murders his uncle and frames his aunt, Edna Mathews (Kim Hunter) to obtain what is considered to be one of the most valuable art collections in the world. Don Ameche portrays family lawyer Frank Simpson.
7	5	"Lady in Waiting"	Norman Lloyd	Teleplay: Steven Bochco Story: Barney Slater	December 15, 1971 (1971-12-15)
Beth Chadwick (Susan Clark) murders her domineering older brother (Richard Anderson) in order to gain control of her own life and the family business. She arranges for it to look like an accident but is tripped up by the sharp memory of her fiancé, Peter (Leslie Nielsen). Her mother is played by veteran actress Jessie Royce Landis, in her last performance.
8	6	"Short Fuse"	Edward M. Abroms	Teleplay: Jackson Gillis Story: Lester & Tina Pine and Jackson Gillis	January 19, 1972 (1972-01-19)
Roger Stanford (Roddy McDowall) is a chemist and photography buff whose uncle, David (James Gregory), has taken over the business his parents built and his aunt (Ida Lupino) controls. When David proposes selling the business to a conglomerate in return for a seat on the board of directors, David tries to blackmail Roger into resigning. Roger decides to remove his uncle from office with a box of exploding cigars. William Windom guests as the next-in-line Vice President whom Roger must remove before he can move to take over the company.
9	7	"Blueprint for Murder"	Peter Falk	Teleplay: Steven Bochco Story: William Kelley	February 9, 1972 (1972-02-09)
Elliot Markham (Patrick O'Neal) is an architect (with a vision for a city of the future and a penchant for classical music) who loses funding for his project when Beau Williamson (Forrest Tucker), a rich cowboy, pulls out of the deal. Markham schemes to get access to Williamson's money through the younger Mrs. Williamson, yet he also needs Beau alive to prevent Beau's money from going into a trust. Markham must therefore come up with a clever way to dispose of the body and make it look as if Beau is simply on an extended overseas business trip. With Pamela Austin and Janis Paige. Falk made his directorial debut with this episode.

Season 2

Series #	Season #	Title	Directed by	Written by	Airdate
10	1	"Étude in Black"	Nicholas Colasanto	Teleplay: Steven Bochco Story: Richard Levinson & William Link	September 17, 1972 (1972-09-17)
Alex Benedict (John Cassavetes), the married conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, murders his mistress Jennifer Welles (Anjanette Comer) after she insists on going public with their affair, and tries to make it look like a suicide. Columbo searches for clues to place Benedict at the murder scene. Blythe Danner and Myrna Loy guest as Benedict's wealthy wife and mother-in-law. Written by Steven Bochco. Pat Morita cameos in one scene as Benedict's butler. (During filming Danner was pregnant with her daughter Gwyneth Paltrow — she was born ten days after this episode first aired.)
11	2	"The Greenhouse Jungle"	Boris Sagal	Jonathan Latimer	October 15, 1972 (1972-10-15)
Jarvis Goodland (Ray Milland) and his nephew, Tony (Bradford Dillman) stage Tony's kidnapping in order to break his trust fund, but Jarvis shoots and kills Tony once the ransom is paid, and a careful swapping of guns with Tony's philandering wife casts suspicion in her direction. This episode marks the debut of Sergeant Frederick Wilson (Bob Dishy) as the normally solo Columbo's departmentally assigned "partner" (later he is re-introduced in season 5 episode 5 "Now You See Him" as John J. Wilson).
12	3	"The Most Crucial Game"	Jeremy Kagan	John T. Dugan	November 5, 1972 (1972-11-05)
Paul Hanlon (Robert Culp), general manager of the Los Angeles Rockets football team, wants to create a sports empire, but Eric Wagner (Dean Stockwell), who inherited the team, lacks ambition. Hanlon kills Eric in his home swimming pool during a football game that Hanlon was attending, thus creating a seemingly airtight alibi. Valerie Harper played Eve Babcock, an operative placed in Eric's home as a secretary by a private detective (Val Avery). Dean Jagger played Eric's attorney, Walter Cunnell, who hired the private detective.
13	4	"Dagger of the Mind"	Richard Quine	Teleplay: Jackson Gillis Story: Richard Levinson & William Link	November 26, 1972 (1972-11-26)
When Sir Roger Haversham (John Williams) realizes that actors Nicholas Frame (Richard Basehart) and his wife, Lillian Stanhope (Honor Blackman), are attempting to manipulate him into backing their theater production, he confronts the couple, and is accidentally killed during an ensuing scuffle. The pair covers up their accident by stuffing the body in a trunk, taking him home to his estate, and staging an apparent accident. Columbo is visiting London as the guest of Scotland Yard Detective Chief Superintendent William Durk (Bernard Fox), who stops by the estate to investigate the incident.Wilfrid Hyde-White played the butler. This episode was filmed in both London and Hollywood.
14	5	"Requiem for a Falling Star"	Richard Quine	Jackson Gillis	January 21, 1973 (1973-01-21)
Jean Davis (Pippa Scott), personal assistant to aging movie star Nora Chandler (Anne Baxter), is marrying gossip reporter Jerry Parks (Mel Ferrer), who has secret information about Chandler. When Davis and Parks switch vehicles one night, Chandler starts a gasoline fire just as his car pulls into his garage being driven by Davis. Columbo only solves the case after connecting it to the mysterious disappearance of Chandler's husband a decade earlier. Oscar-winning costume designer Edith Head has a cameo as herself.
15	6	"A Stitch in Crime"	Hy Averback	Shirl Hendryx	February 11, 1973 (1973-02-11)
Cardiac surgeon Dr. Barry Mayfield (Leonard Nimoy) and Dr. Edmund Hidemann (Will Geer) have pioneered a major medical breakthrough that Mayfield wants to publish immediately, but Hidemann wants to continue testing. When Dr. Hidemann has a heart attack and needs an emergency bypass, Mayfield performs the surgery and plans to kill his partner by placing dissolving sutures in his heart. After their nurse, Sharon Martin (Anne Francis), discovers the plot, Mayfield kills her, and stages a mugging to pin the crime on her drug addict ex-boyfriend. This episode contains a rare scene of Columbo actually losing his temper (due to Mayfield - amusingly, Nimoy is best known for playing the always-in-control Mr. Spock).
16	7	"The Most Dangerous Match"	Edward M. Abroms	Teleplay: Jackson Gillis Story: Jackson Gillis and Richard Levinson & William Link	March 4, 1973 (1973-03-04)
When chess Grandmaster Emmett Clayton (Laurence Harvey) loses an informal game to Eastern European champion Tomlin Dudek (Jack Kruschen) the night before their official match, Clayton decides to kill Dudek to prevent losing to him. The hearing impaired Clayton shoves him into a garbage grinder in the basement, but because of his malfunctioning hearing aid, he doesn't realize that the grinder automatically shuts itself off when anything big falls into it. Dudek survives and now Clayton schemes to poison his rival in the hospital before he can regain consciousness.
17	8	"Double Shock"	Robert Butler	Teleplay: Steven Bochco Story: Jackson Gillis and Richard Levinson & William Link	March 25, 1973 (1973-03-25)
When Clifford Paris (Paul Stewart) becomes engaged to Lisa Chambers (Julie Newmar), his twin nephews, Dexter and Norman Paris (both portrayed by Martin Landau), kill him via electrocution before he can change his will, and pass off the murder as an accidental heart attack. Clifford's lawyer, Michael Hathaway (Tim O'Connor) reveals that indeed a new will already exists and that he will be willing to "lose" all copies of it for a price. However, Chambers has a copy of it too, requiring her to be eliminated. Unlike most Columbo episodes, this has a whodunit element in that it is never made clear which brother was the murderer until the end of the episode. Dabney Coleman has a small role as Detective Murray.

Season 3

Series #	Season #	Title	Directed by	Written by	Airdate
18	1	"Lovely But Lethal"	Jeannot Szwarc	Teleplay: Jackson Gillis Story: Myrna Bercovici	September 23, 1973 (1973-09-23)
Cosmetics queen Viveca Scott (Vera Miles) has developed a seemingly magic wrinkle remover, but the formula has been stolen by her former lover, Karl Lessing (Martin Sheen), a chemist for her company, who refuses to sell it back to her at any price. Taunted by Lessing, Scott bludgeons him in a fit of rage but also before he can sell it to her ruthless competitor, David Lang (Vincent Price). When Lang's secretary (Sian Barbara Allen) becomes a potential blackmailer Scott kills her as well.
19	2	"Any Old Port in a Storm"	Leo Penn	Teleplay: Stanley Ralph Ross Story: Larry Cohen	October 7, 1973 (1973-10-07)
When Adrian Carsini (Donald Pleasence) inherited a small winery specializing in unprofitable but prized wines, his spendthrift playboy half-brother Rick got the land. When Rick (Gary Conway), tired of Adrian's indulgences, tells him that he has agreed to sell the land to mass producers of cheap, profitable wines, Adrian beats him and leaves him to die in an airtight wine cellar, before traveling to New York City to accept an award and attend wine auctions, and establish his alibi. Upon his return, Adrian then concocts a scuba diving accident to cover the crime. Columbo suspects Carsini almost immediately, and he befriends Carsini while slyly searching for clues to link him to the murder. Julie Harris plays Adrian Carsini's formidable secretary.
20	3	"Candidate for Crime"	Boris Sagal	Teleplay: Irving Pearlberg & Alvin R. Friedman and Roland Kibbee & Dean Hargrove Story: Larry Cohen	November 4, 1973 (1973-11-04)
Harry Stone (Ken Swofford), a campaign manager, is threatening womanizing senatorial candidate Nelson Hayward (Jackie Cooper), intent on exposing Hayward's shady past. But Stone approves of Hayward's publicity-minded claim that anonymous killers are threatening Hayward's life. Hayward uses this to his advantage: he lures Stone to the garage of Hayward's beach house (while wearing Hayward's coat), where Hayward shoots him, then makes it look like a case of mistaken identity by the imaginary assassins. Joanne Linville plays Hayward's wife. A young Katey Sagal (Married with Children) plays Hayward's secretary. Sagal's father, Boris Sagal, directed the episode.
21	4	"Double Exposure"	Richard Quine	Stephen J. Cannell	December 16, 1973 (1973-12-16)
Dr. Bart Keppel (Robert Culp) is a "motivation research specialist" who has written several successful books on marketing and made a name for himself on the subject of subliminal advertising (which involves inserting frames of an advertised product into the reels of a film; the frames at regular speed go by too fast for the conscious mind to note them; but subconsciously the viewer's mind picks them up and he will crave what is pictured). But Dr. Keppel's more lucrative sideline is blackmail: he takes pictures of his married clients with a girl hired to tempt them. When his latest victim, Vic Norris, balks and threatens to expose him, Dr. Keppel must kill him. Dr. Keppel uses a subliminal cut of a refreshing drink to lure Norris out of a screening room where he and a number of other executives are watching a promotional film that Dr. Keppel is supposedly narrating (in fact they are listening to a prerecorded narration), during which time Dr. Keppel sneaks out and shoots Norris in the building lobby, then arranges things to make it seem like the crime was committed by Norris's wife. When Keppel's projectionist Roger White (Chuck McCann) discovers the cuts and pieces together the plot, Keppel shoots him as well. This episode received the Emmy Award in the category for Outstanding Limited Series.
22	5	"Publish or Perish"	Robert Butler	Peter S. Fischer	January 18, 1974 (1974-01-18)
Publisher Riley Greenleaf (Jack Cassidy) decides to kill his prolific author Alan Mallory (Mickey Spillane) to keep him from defecting to another publisher. He hires ex-con and avid homemade bomb enthusiast Eddie Kane (John Chandler) to do the job. While Greenleaf is getting drunk at a nearby bar, Kane walks into Mallory's office and shoots him. To cover his tracks, Greenleaf kills Kane with one of his own bombs, making it look like an accident. Columbo must discover the link between the two crimes. This episode has a split screen of Greenleaf's alibi and Mallory's murder. Spillane was the real-life author of Mike Hammer detective mysteries.
23	6	"Mind Over Mayhem"	Alf Kjellin	Teleplay: Steven Bochco and Dean Hargrove & Roland Kibbee Story: Robert Specht	February 10, 1974 (1974-02-10)
When Dr. Howard Nicholson (Lew Ayres) threatens to expose Neil Cahill (Robert Walker, Jr.) for plagiarizing a paper from a recently deceased scientist, Cahill's father, Dr. Marshall Cahill (José Ferrer), head of a high tech Pentagon think tank, kills Nicholson to protect his son. Robby the Robot appears as the intelligent robot in the cybernetics institution. Co-starring Jessica Walter, with Lee Montgomery as child genius "Steven Spelberg."
24	7	"Swan Song"	Nicholas Colasanto	Teleplay: David Rayfiel Story: Stanley Ralph Ross	March 3, 1974 (1974-03-03)
Ever since Edna Brown (Ida Lupino) caught her husband, Gospel-singing superstar Tommy Brown (Johnny Cash), cheating on her with an underage girl, she has been blackmailing him into donating all the proceeds from his concerts and records to a fund to build a new tabernacle. When Tommy decides he's had enough, he drugs both women to sleep on their small, private plane flight to Los Angeles, and then parachutes from the plane, making it seem like he was thrown clear in a tragic crash. Edna's brother Luke (Bill McKinney) insists the police handle the case as a homicide, while the FAA is ready to write it off to an accident.
25	8	"A Friend in Deed"	Ben Gazzara	Peter S. Fischer	May 5, 1974 (1974-05-05)
When Hugh Caldwell kills his wife in the heat of a fight, he seeks help from his friend and neighbor, Mark Halperin (Richard Kiley) (who also happens to be the deputy police commissioner). Halperin sees an opportunity to kill his own wife (played by Rosemary Murphy), a wealthy heiress who refuses to share her wealth, so he helps Caldwell cover up the first crime and forces him to assist the following night, arranging it so that a cat burglar (Val Avery), who has recently been active in their neighborhood, is seen as the culprit in both murders. When Columbo realizes what happened, he utilizes the burglar to help him catch the real perpetrators.

Season 4

Series #	Season #	Title	Directed by	Written by	Airdate
26	1	"An Exercise in Fatality"	Bernard Kowalski	Teleplay: Peter S. Fischer Story: Larry Cohen	September 15, 1974 (1974-09-15)
Renowned exercise guru Milo Janus (Robert Conrad) is the owner of a chain of renowned gyms that operate under his name. Janus seems safe, but when his business partner Gene Stafford (Philip Bruns) threatens to expose Janus's scheme to overcharge his own corporation for equipment and supplies and deposit the profits in offshore bank accounts, opening his operation to fraud and extortion investigations, Janus strangles and kills Stafford, and makes it look like he was trying to lift a weight too heavy for him. Pat Harrington, Jr., Gretchen Corbett and Collin Wilcox guest star.
27	2	"Negative Reaction"	Alf Kjellin	Peter S. Fischer	October 6, 1974 (1974-10-06)
Wanting to kill his domineering wife Frances (Antoinette Bower), professional photographer Paul Galesko (Dick Van Dyke) hires ex-con Alvin Deschler (Don Gordon) to rent a country property for him, where Galesko takes his own wife, ties her to a chair, takes photographs of her, and then shoots her. Galesko then meets Deschler at a junkyard for a staged ransom drop, where he shoots Deschler, then shoots himself in the leg, and plants the murder gun on Deschler, so that it will look as if he killed the "kidnapper" in self-defense. Larry Storch, Joyce Van Patten, Vito Scotti and John Ashton guest star.
28	3	"By Dawn's Early Light"	Harvey Hart	Howard Berk	October 27, 1974 (1974-10-27)
After Colonel Lyle C. Rumford (Patrick McGoohan), head of Haynes Military Academy, an all-boys military school, is told by Board of Trustees president William Haynes that the school will convert to a coed school as a solution to declining enrollment, Rumford rigs the school cannon to explode when Haynes fires it on Founder's Day, by putting a cleaning rag in the barrel. He then pins the "accident" on a cadet (Mark Wheeler) who had gun-cleaning duty, but is tripped up by his own fanatic sense of duty. McGoohan won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Performance by a Supporting Actor in a Comedy or Drama Series. Bruno Kirby, son of series regular Bruce Kirby, guest stars as a cadet.
29	4	"Troubled Waters"	Ben Gazzara	Teleplay: William Driskill Story: Jackson Gillis and William Driskill	February 9, 1975 (1975-02-09)
While aboard a Mexican cruise he takes frequently, used auto executive Hayden Danziger (Robert Vaughn) has been having an affair with the cruise ship's lounge singer Rosanna Wells (Poupée Bocar). When Wells threatens to expose their affair to his wife, Sylvia (Jane Greer), Danziger decides to kill her. He takes a special drug to feign a heart attack in the swimming pool, so that he will be checked into the ship's infirmary. By wearing a ship's crew uniform, Danziger sneaks out of his infirmary bed, and makes his way to Wells's cabin, where he waits for her to come back during her break. Once she comes in, Danziger shoots her, and plants evidence to make it look like a fellow band musician (Dean Stockwell) was responsible, before ditching the gun and returning to the infirmary. Columbo, who happens to be enjoying the same cruise with his wife, is pressed into service by the ship's captain (Patrick Macnee). Bernard Fox and Robert Douglas also guest star.
30	5	"Playback"	Bernard L. Kowalski	David P. Lewis & Booker T. Bradshaw	March 2, 1975 (1975-03-02)
Harold Van Wick (Oskar Werner), the gadget-obsessed president of Midas Electronics, kills his mother-in-law Margaret Midas (Martha Scott) after she decides to remove him from his position due to massive revenue losses. Van Wick rigs up his high-tech home security system. Careful to avoid being seen, Van Wick shoots Margaret when she is in the viewing field of one camera. He then plays back the tape of the shooting to the gatehouse guard's monitor on a time delay, and makes it look like Margaret was shot by an intruder after Van Wick had left the house for a party. Gena Rowlands portrays Van Wick's wheelchair-bound wife Elizabeth, who proves instrumental in convicting her husband. Robert Brown and Trisha Noble also guest star.
31	6	"A Deadly State of Mind"	Harvey Hart	Peter S. Fischer	April 27, 1975 (1975-04-27)
Psychiatrist Mark Collier (George Hamilton) kills Carl Donner (Stephen Elliott) with a fireplace poker after a confrontation with Donner over Collier's affair with Donner's wife, Nadia (Lesley Ann Warren), who is one of Collier's patients. Collier concocts a cover story involving a home robbery gone astray. When Columbo catches on, Collier hypnotizes Nadia into diving into an imaginary swimming pool from her fifth story balcony. Although Columbo (unusually) admits he cannot prove Collier killed Nadia, the only witness to the original crime, a blind man walking past the house as Collier was leaving, proves to be his undoing. It can be assumed that after Collier is taken into custody for the murder of Mr. Donner, he confesses to causing the death of Mrs. Donner.

Season 5

Series #	Season #	Title	Directed by	Written by	Airdate
32	1	"Forgotten Lady"	Harvey Hart	Bill Driskill	September 14, 1975 (1975-09-14)
When Henry Willis (Sam Jaffe) refuses to finance a return to the spotlight for his wife, aging former movie star Grace Wheeler (Janet Leigh), she kills him in his sleep, and passes it off as a suicide. Her butler, played by Maurice Evans, believes she was in the screening room the entire time, watching one of her classic films. This is the only episode where the murderer is not arrested, as Ned Diamond (John Payne), her longtime song and dance partner, falsely confesses to save Grace, knowing that she is dying of a brain disease she herself is unaware of. Columbo has no choice but to arrest Diamond, both of them realizing that by the time he is cleared, Grace will have died after spending her last days living happily in the past, which should be punishment enough for murdering her husband. The episode features excerpts from the 1953 musical comedy Walking My Baby Back Home, which starred Leigh.
33	2	"A Case of Immunity"	Ted Post	Teleplay: Lou Shaw Story: James Menzies	October 12, 1975 (1975-10-12)
Hassan Salah (Hector Elizondo), chief diplomat of the Legation of Swahari, an Arab nation with a new young king, enlists Rachman Habib (Sal Mineo) to help him stage a robbery at the Legation, in order to murder the head of security. Salah pins the murder on the now-absent Habib, who as part of the plan, has gone into hiding. Columbo quickly unravels the truth, but finds himself stymied by the fact that Salah has diplomatic immunity and cannot be arrested. Columbo gets Salah to confess the murder with his monarch in the next room listening. To stay in the U.S. rather than face Middle Eastern justice, he waives his immunity from prosecution.
34	3	"Identity Crisis"	Patrick McGoohan	William Driskill	November 2, 1975 (1975-11-02)
When a CIA operative codenamed "Geronimo" (Leslie Nielsen) recognizes the man he was sent to cut a deal with as advertising executive Nelson Brenner (Patrick McGoohan, who also directed), a CIA double agent from the past, Brenner must kill Geronimo before he can reveal his secret. In the course of his investigation, Columbo finds himself blocked at every turn by a man accustomed to keeping secrets, and even by a visit from the Director of the Agency (played by David White). The episode features another French car, the Citroën SM. (An in joke is that the "Director's name" is Philip Corrigan aka Secret Agent X-9)
35	4	"A Matter of Honor"	Ted Post	Brad Radnitz	February 1, 1976 (1976-02-01)
Retired matador Luis Montoya (Ricardo Montalban), who now raises bulls, kills his long-time assistant and friend Hector Rangel, in order to protect his own reputation after one of his bulls gores Hector's son Curro. Montoya tranquilizes Hector in the ring, then unleashes the bull on him, since Hector is now vulnerable. Columbo, who happens to be in Tijuana for the weekend, is recognized by the local chief of police (Pedro Armendáriz, Jr.), who enlists Columbo's help.
36	5	"Now You See Him..."	Harvey Hart	Michael Sloan	February 29, 1976 (1976-02-29)
Jesse Jerome (Nehemiah Persoff), owner of the Cabaret of Magic, tries to blackmail the Great Santini (Jack Cassidy), a magician extraordinaire, with the discovery that Santini is really Stefan Mueller, a former Nazi SS prison guard. To avoid the chance that the secret will be exposed, Santini kills Jerome in the middle of his famed water tank escape act, thereby giving himself what he believes to be an airtight alibi. To do so, he sneaks out of the room where he hides during the act, makes his way through the cabaret's kitchen dressed as a waiter up to Jerome's office, shoots him, then returns to his act without anyone missing him. Robert Loggia portrays Harry Blandford, the club's maître d’ and Jerome's partner. (Bob Dishy is re-introduced in this episode as John J. Wilson, he had originally been introduced in season 2 episode 2, "The Greenhouse Jungle", as Frederick Wilson.)
37	6	"Last Salute to the Commodore"	Patrick McGoohan	Jackson Gillis	May 2, 1976 (1976-05-02)
Commodore Otis Swanson (John Dehner) owns a ship building company, and is not happy with the shady dealings of his son-in-law Charles Clay (Robert Vaughn), who runs it. Nor is he pleased with any of the people closest to him - his alcoholic daughter Joanna Clay (Diane Baker), his elderly nephew Swanny Swanson (Fred Draper), his lawyer Kittering (Wilfrid Hyde-White), and employee Wayne Taylor (Joshua Bryant). He announces at his birthday party his intention to sell the company. That night, the Commodore is murdered; and Clay is seen covering it up by impersonating the Commodore, taking the body out on his yawl at night and throwing the body overboard. Columbo investigates this case with the help of a veteran sergeant and a 29-year-old novice. The rumpled, redoubtable detective knows Clay covered up the crime. But his assumption that Clay committed the crime may prove premature, for when Clay turns up dead, the mystery deepens with surprises that even Columbo would not expect. NOTE: This episode departs from the normal Columbo format in a number of ways: the man we think is the killer is not, and thus the episode becomes a true whodunit, with the actual murderer revealed at the end of the episode. Also unique is that both murders in the episode are committed off-camera. Furthermore, Columbo's personality is atypically agitated, impatient and less amiable than in previous episodes. Regular cliches such as "just one more thing" and "something's bothering me" are also not present in this episode, as if a conscious effort was made to redefine the character, script approach and cinematography.

Season 6

Series #	Season #	Title	Directed by	Written by	Airdate
38	1	"Fade in to Murder"	Bernard L. Kowalski	Teleplay: Lou Shaw and Peter Feibleman Story: Henry Garson	October 10, 1976 (1976-10-10)
Egocentric actor Ward Fowler (William Shatner), who portrays Detective Lucerne on a weekly TV show, is being blackmailed by his producer and ex-paramour, Claire Daley (Lola Albright) about a secret from his past. To stop Claire, Fowler drugs a friend staying over at his house watching a baseball game, then dons a ski mask and robs a deli store where Claire is shopping. After Fowler takes Claire's money, he shoots her, then ditches the gun and mask. He then steps in and out of character to assist Columbo with the investigation. Mr. Daley's secretary is played by Shera Danese, who would eventually marry star Peter Falk. Walter Koenig guest stars as a police sergeant.
39	2	"Old Fashioned Murder"	Robert Douglas	Teleplay: Peter S. Feibleman Story: Lawrence Vail	November 28, 1976 (1976-11-28)
Ruth Lytton (Joyce Van Patten) kills her older brother Edward (Tim O'Connor) after he decides to sell the family business, the Lytton Museum, to which Ruth has devoted her entire life. She is assisted by an ex-con whom Ruth kills shortly before killing her brother when he comes to investigate the sound of a gunshot. Her plan is to make it look like the two men killed each other in the middle of an attempted robbery. Celeste Holm plays Ruth's older sister, and Jeannie Berlin her beloved niece, whom Columbo uses to coerce Ruth into admission.
40	3	"The Bye-Bye Sky High IQ Murder Case"	Sam Wanamaker	Robert Malcolm Young	May 22, 1977 (1977-05-22)
After Bertie Hastings (Sorrell Booke) discovers that his friend, Oliver Brandt (Theodore Bikel), a senior partner in an accounting firm, has been embezzling money to support the lifestyle of his wife, Vivian (Samantha Eggar), Brandt kills Hastings at the Sigma Society, a club for geniuses, making it look like a burglary gone bad. In her TV debut, Jamie Lee Curtis has a small role as a surly coffee shop waitress. This is the last episode shown under the NBC Mystery Movie banner.

Season 7

Series #	Season #	Title	Directed by	Written by	Airdate
41	1	"Try and Catch Me"	James Frawley	Teleplay: Gene Thompson and Paul Tuckahoe Story: Gene Thompson	November 21, 1977 (1977-11-21)
Mystery author Abigail Mitchell (Ruth Gordon) is convinced that her nephew-in-law, Edmund Galvin (Charles Frank), murdered his wife (Mitchell's niece) in a boating "accident" and got away with it. Mitchell asks him to retrieve something for her from her airtight walk-in safe, then locks him in it before flying off to New York. Mariette Hartley plays Mitchell's trusted assistant, Veronica, who becomes embroiled in the crime.
42	2	"Murder Under Glass"	Jonathan Demme	Robert Van Scoyk	January 30, 1978 (1978-01-30)
Restaurant critic Paul Gerard (Louis Jourdan) fears being exposed by the restaurant owners from whom he is extorting money. When one of them, Vittorio Rossi (Michael V. Gazzo), refuses to pay money to Gerard, Gerard kills him with a bottle of poisoned wine. Richard Dysart and France Nuyen also star. Falk's wife Shera Danese returns as Gerard's secretary/treasurer. Writer Robert Van Scoyk received an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for his teleplay.
43	3	"Make Me a Perfect Murder"	James Frawley	Robert Blees	February 28, 1978 (1978-02-28)
When west coast television production boss Mark McAndrews (Laurence Luckinbill) is promoted to a high level position in New York, and fails to name his lover and employee, high-powered TV programmer Kay Freestone (Trish Van Devere), as his replacement, she kills him at his office before he can name someone else. Kay seemed to be in the midst of a reel change for an important preview for the "New York bunch" of a new made-for-TV movie called "The Professional" that she had helped produce, when the murder occurred. Actually she had fooled the projectionist (James McEachin) by fiddling with the projector's timer and then sent him on an errand. This gave her time to commit the murder, return and make the reel change before the projectionist got back, just barely.
44	4	"How to Dial a Murder"	James Frawley	Teleplay: Tom Lazarus Story: Anthony Lawrence	April 15, 1978 (1978-04-15)
Mind control (or, as the Doctor corrected Columbo, "life control") seminar guru Dr. Eric Mason (Nicol Williamson) uses two trained Doberman Pinschers, Laurel and Hardy, to kill his "best friend" Dr. George Hunter, who had been having an affair with Dr. Mason's now deceased wife. Kim Cattrall plays the resident of Mason's guest house who discovers the body. Ed Begley, Jr. has a minor role as an animal control officer.
45	5	"The Conspirators"	Leo Penn	Howard Berk Based on an Idea by: Pat Robison	May 13, 1978 (1978-05-13)
Famous Irish poet and author Joe Devlin (Clive Revill), who is secretly a fund-raiser and gun-runner for the IRA, shoots and kills his gun supplier Vincent Pauley (Albert Paulsen) in his hotel room, after discovering that Pauley intends to cheat him. Now with Columbo hot on his trail, Devlin must find his guns and arrange their shipment out of the country. This is the last episode of the original Columbo series in its original seven-year run.

ABC (1989–2003)

Season 8

Series #	Season #	Title	Directed by	Written by	Airdate
46	1	"Columbo Goes to the Guillotine"	Leo Penn	William Read Woodfield	February 6, 1989 (1989-02-06)
Elliott Blake (Anthony Andrews), a fake psychic who is trying to swindle the government into giving him a lucrative contract based on his ESP abilities, conspires with an old colleague, Max Dyson (Anthony Zerbe), a magician known for exposing frauds. After their trickery is successful, Blake settles an old score with Dyson by tricking him into being decapitated by his own guillotine. Columbo has to solve the crime before the government whisks Blake beyond his reach, changing his identity.
47	2	"Murder, Smoke, and Shadows"	James Frawley	Richard Alan Simmons	February 27, 1989 (1989-02-27)
Boy genius Hollywood director Alex Bradey (Fisher Stevens), prior to becoming a success, made a 16mm movie in which a young woman, Jenny Fisher, was killed in a motorcycle accident. Bradey and his cameraman conspired to pretend that the woman never made it as far as the scene of the filming, leading the official investigation to conclude that it was an accidental death. As the episode begins, Jenny's brother Leonard shows up in Bradey's office with a copy of a film that was left to him by Bradey's very recently deceased cameraman. When Leonard informs Bradey that he is going to use the film to destroy him, Bradey has no choice but to kill him. He uses one of his movie sets as a murder weapon. Molly Hagan co-stars.
48	3	"Sex and the Married Detective"	James Frawley	Jerry Ludwig	April 3, 1989 (1989-04-03)
After renowned sex therapist Dr. Joan Allenby (Lindsay Crouse) finds her lover David Kincaid (Stephen Macht) in bed with her assistant Cindy (Julia Montgomery), she invents a game to get rid of David, in which she disguises herself as a professional prostitute named "Lisa", wearing a long black wig. Under this disguise, Dr. Allenby sneaks out of a fundraiser concert she is attending, and meets with David at a nearby bar. She then tricks him into taking them both back to her clinic. Once there, she shoots him, leading suspicion to fall on the mystery woman.
49	4	"Grand Deceptions"	Sam Wanamaker	Sy Salkowitz	May 1, 1989 (1989-05-01)
Colonel Frank Brailie (Robert Foxworth) runs a paramilitary mercenary school owned by General Padget (Stephen Elliott). Brailie is also having an affair with Padget's wife Jenny (Janet Eilber). Brailie is siphoning money into what he calls "The Special Projects Fund." The suspicious General asks an employee, Sgt. Major Lester Keegan (Andy Romano), to look into the matter, but when Keegan decides to blackmail Brailie into sharing the profit instead of reporting his findings, Brailie stabs and kills him on the night of a training exercise, then puts the body on a landmine that is later detonated, making Keegan's death look like an accident.

Season 9

Series #	Season #	Title	Directed by	Written by	Airdate
50	1	"Murder: A Self Portrait"	James Frawley	Robert Sherman	November 25, 1989 (1989-11-25)
Temperamental artist Max Barsini (Patrick Bauchau) kills his first wife, Louise (Fionnula Flanagan), out of fear that she will reveal that Max killed his first agent, who was robbing him, especially since she has been seeing a therapist.
51	2	"Columbo Cries Wolf"	Daryl Duke	William Read Woodfield	January 20, 1990 (1990-01-20)
When Diane Hunter (Deidre Hall), the partner of men's magazine publisher Sean Brantley (Ian Buchanan), goes missing after expressing a desire to sell her 51% interest, suspicion falls on Brantley and his girlfriend Tina (Rebecca Staab). Columbo sets out to find the body, eventually digging up much of Brantley's estate. But once it turns into a full-blown media event, Diane resurfaces, explaining she needed some time to herself. Sales and the magazine's value are increased by the controversy, but she still intends to sell. Sean actually does kill her and hides the body, believing that Columbo won't fall for the same trick twice.
52	3	"Agenda for Murder"	Patrick McGoohan	Jeffrey Bloom	February 10, 1990 (1990-02-10)
Frank Staplin (Louis Zorich), a racketeer facing an indictment, asks high-priced lawyer Oscar Finch (Patrick McGoohan) for his help, reminding him of a favor Finch and his friend, Vice Presidential candidate Congressman Paul Mackey, performed earlier in their careers, and threatening to bring it to light and ruin both of their political careers. To avoid this, Finch plants evidence to make it look like he was having a meeting in his office at the time of the murder, then walks to Staplin's house, shoots him, and makes his death look like a suicide. Denis Arndt co-stars. McGoohan won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for his role.
53	4	"Rest in Peace, Mrs. Columbo"	Vincent McEveety	Peter S. Fischer	March 31, 1990 (1990-03-31)
Vivian Dimitri (Helen Shaver) is a real-estate executive whose recently deceased husband Columbo sent to prison, and seeks revenge by first killing Columbo's wife, then poisoning the detective. Before she does so, she must get rid of her boss Charlie Chambers, her husband's partner who skipped jail by ratting on him. Vivian shoots and kills Chambers in his office, then uses an affair she is having with married man Leland St. John to establish an alibi. Vivian then plants evidence to make it look like Chambers was killed by disgruntled residents in a new housing tract development.
54	5	"Uneasy Lies the Crown"	Alan J. Levi	Steven Bochco	April 28, 1990 (1990-04-28)
Dentist to the stars Dr. Wesley Corman (James Read) wants to be rid of his unloving wife and use her money to support his gambling habit. When Adam Evans, a Hollywood heartthrob having an affair with Corman's wife comes under the dentist's care, Corman puts a time-release poison made from digitalis under his dental crown, one that takes effect just as he is making love to Corman's wife that evening, thereby framing her for the murder. Paul Burke also stars.
55	6	"Murder in Malibu"	Walter Grauman	Jackson Gillis	May 14, 1990 (1990-05-14)
Jess McCurdy (Brenda Vaccaro) fails to convince her sister, best-selling author Theresa Goren (Janet Margolin), to cancel her wedding to Wayne Jennings (Andrew Stevens), a playboy/tennis bum half her age and a golddigger. McCurdy impersonates her sister on the phone with Jennings to dump him. Jennings reacts by killing Goren. Further complications ensue, leaving Columbo to untangle a plot that involves his surprisingly detailed familiarity with women's panties.

Season 10 and Specials

Series #	Season #	Title	Directed by	Written by	Airdate
56	1	"Columbo Goes to College"	E.W. Swackhamer	Jeffrey Bloom (teleplay), Jeffrey Bloom and Frederick King Keller (story)	December 9, 1990 (1990-12-09)
When criminology professor D.E. Rusk threatens to expel (or flunk) spoiled fraternity brothers Justin Rowe (Stephen Caffrey) and Cooper Redman (Gary Hershberger) for cheating (by stealing the final exam), they lure Rusk away from class and shoot him in the parking garage via a remote control gun installed in their truck, while they sit in class listening to Columbo deliver a guest lecture. The boys then plant evidence to make it look like the professor was killed because of a mafia expose he was working on. Robert Culp returns to the series as Justin's powerful lawyer father.
57	2	"Caution: Murder Can Be Hazardous to Your Health"	Daryl Duke	Sonia Wolf, Patricia Ford and April Raynell	February 20, 1991 (1991-02-20)
Wade Anders (George Hamilton), host of the popular crime show CrimeAlert, gets an unexpected visit from his rival, chain-smoking Budd Clarke (Peter Haskell), who threatens to release a porn video starring a young Anders and ruin Anders' reputation. Anders palms a pack of Clarke's cigarettes, which he doctors by administering a few drops of poison into the tips. He then goes to his office that night and the next morning to doctor the office's surveillance tape so that it will look like Anders arrived early to do some weekend work and was in the office at the time of the murder. Anders then goes to Clarke's house, where he administers the poisoned cigarettes. Once the poison kills Clarke, Anders makes it look like Clarke had a heart attack while looking over a potential news story.
58	3	"Columbo and the Murder of a Rock Star"	Alan J. Levi	William Read Woodfield	April 29, 1991 (1991-04-29)
After unfaithful rock star Marcy Edwards (Cheryl Paris) threatens her lover, high-priced murder lawyer Hugh Creighton (Dabney Coleman), with a palimony suit and threatens to bring his unconventional methods to light, he drugs the champagne in her beach house and waits until she shows up there with her current lover. As Edwards does not drink, Creighton shows up while her lover is passed out, and snaps her neck. Her lover awakens and flees the scene. Creighton enlists his associate Trish Fairbanks (Shera Danese) to help him concoct an airtight alibi, but she instead blackmails Creighton into a full partnership in the firm. Columbo cracks the case, with the help of a speeding ticket. Little Richard cameos as himself.
59	4	"Death Hits the Jackpot"	Vincent McEveety	Jeffrey Bloom	December 15, 1991 (1991-12-15)
After winning a $30 million lottery, photographer Fredy Brower, who wishes to keep the money a secret from the wife who is divorcing him, arranges with his uncle, wealthy jeweler Leon Lamarr (Rip Torn), to pretend the lottery ticket is Lamarr's, until the divorce is final. Little does Brower know his uncle is broke and having an affair with Brower's wife. Lamarr kills Brower in order to keep the lottery winnings for himself. To do so, he schedules a costume party at his house, during which he sneaks over to Brower's apartment, knocks Brower out, undresses him, puts him in his bathtub, and drowns him. Gary Kroeger and Betsy Palmer co-star.
60	5	"No Time to Die"	Alan J. Levi	Robert Van Scoyk (teleplay), Ed McBain (story)	March 15, 1992 (1992-03-15)
Columbo attends the wedding of Andrew Parma (Thomas Calabro), his police officer nephew. While Andy is showering, his wife Melissa (Joanna Going), a top model, disappears from the bridal suite. The groom enlists Columbo's help in unraveling the case. She has been kidnapped by Rudy Strassa (Daniel McDonald), a psychopath who intends to kill her once he consummates "their" marriage. Based on a story by Ed McBain (actually the 87th Precinct novel So Long As You Both Shall Live, though not credited as such). This is the only episode where no murder takes place, and Columbo doesn't meet or talk to the criminal.
61	6	"A Bird in the Hand..."	Vincent McEveety	Jackson Gillis	November 22, 1992 (1992-11-22)
Given a deadline to pay his debts or else, chronic gambler Harold McCain (Greg Evigan) plants a bomb under the Rolls Royce of his uncle, sports magnate and football team owner Big Fred (Steve Forrest). However, Big Fred is killed while jogging that morning by a hit-and-run motorist driving Fred's gardener's stolen pickup truck, and the Rolls Royce explodes when the gardener tries to move it out of the way of the TV camera crews. Fred's wife Delores (Tyne Daly) is having a good time as Fred's team's owner, but after Harold tries to squeeze her for money, he turns up shot dead in his cabin, and it is obvious who is responsible. Much like "Last Salute to the Commodore," the real killer is not revealed until near the end, and both murders occur off screen; both episodes were scripted by Columbo veteran Jackson Gillis (this was his final contribution to the series).
62	7	"It's All in the Game"	Vincent McEveety	Peter Falk	October 31, 1993 (1993-10-31)
Wealthy socialite Lauren Staton (Faye Dunaway) and Lisa Martin (Claudia Christian) kill their abusive two-timing lover Nick Franco (Armando Pucci), and make it seem like Nick was killed by an intruder while Lauren and the building manager (Bill Macy) were outside the apartment door when the murder happened. Lauren decides to take all the heat from Columbo in order to protect her daughter, even going so far as to romance him. This was the only episode to be written by Peter Falk.
63	8	"Butterfly in Shades of Grey"	Dennis Dugan	Peter S. Fischer	January 10, 1994 (1994-01-10)
When Jerry Winters, an employee of domineering radio host Fielding Chase (William Shatner), tries to help his coworker, Chase's adopted daughter Victoria, escape from under Chase's thumb, Chase shoots and kills Winters, making it look like the crime was committed by Winters' gay lover while Winters was talking to Chase on the phone. A cell phone is a key to Columbo's solution of the crime. Molly Hagan co-stars as Fielding's daughter.
64	9	"Undercover"	Vincent McEveety	Gerry Day (teleplay), Ed McBain (story)	May 2, 1994 (1994-05-02)
Irving Krutch (Ed Begley, Jr.), a crooked insurance investigator, enlists the help of Columbo to solve a series of murders that starts with two men, each of whom possesses a piece of a photograph, who killed each other in a burglary gone wrong. Some years back a group of men robbed a bank, but were killed by police after they were caught in a car accident, and hid their loot somewhere which can only be found through the assembled photograph. Columbo must go undercover to recover some of the pieces, solve some murders to get some others. This instalment departs from the usual format by not revealing the culprit until the end of the show. Based on a story by Ed McBain (actually the 87th Precinct novel Jigsaw, though not credited thus). Unlike the previous episode based on McBain source material, No Time To Die, this features a regular character from the 87th Precinct series, Arthur Brown (played here by Harrison Page).
65	10	"Strange Bedfellows"	Vincent McEveety	Lawrence Vail	May 8, 1995 (1995-05-08)
Graham McVeigh (George Wendt), a thoroughbred ranch owner, kills his brother Teddy and frames Bruno Romano, a local mob bookie. Then, under the guise of making good on Teddy's debt, he shoots and kills Romano as well, claiming self-defense. Mob boss Vincenzo Fortelli (Rod Steiger) starts to exert pressure on McVeigh. To solve the crime Columbo must work with the gangster.
66	11	"A Trace of Murder - 25th Anniversary Movie"	Vincent McEveety	Charles Kipps	May 15, 1997 (1997-05-15)
Cathleen Calvert (Shera Danese in her sixth and final appearance) and her lover, crime scene investigator Patrick Kinsley (David Rasche), plot to get rid of Calvert's husband, Clifford (Barry Corbin), a powerful businessman, by killing Howard Seltzer, an investment broker with whom he is currently feuding, and pinning the murder on Clifford. As long as he is alive and in prison, Cathleen has access to all his money. Columbo must uncover a criminal who is part of the team handling the investigation.
67	12	"Ashes to Ashes"	Patrick McGoohan	Jeffrey Hatcher	October 8, 1998 (1998-10-08)
Mortician to the stars Eric Prince (Patrick McGoohan, in his record fourth and final guest appearance as murderer), kills gossip reporter Verity Chandler (Rue McClanahan), who had knowledge of skeletons in Prince's closet. Columbo must figure out what happened to her and why. Sally Kellerman also stars, as does Catherine McGoohan, real-life daughter of Patrick McGoohan.
68	13	"Murder With Too Many Notes"	Patrick McGoohan	Jeffrey Cava and Patrick McGoohan (teleplay), Jeffrey Cava (story)	May 12, 2000 (2000-05-12)
Hollywood film composer and conductor Findlay Crawford (Billy Connolly) has been mentor to a talented young composer, Gabriel McEnery (Chad Willett), who has been ghostwriting most of Crawford's work for the last few years, and penned Crawford's entire last movie score, which won an Oscar. When the protege wants to venture out on his own, Crawford, whose own talent seems to have run dry, rather than be exposed as a "has-been", concocts the perfect murder, made to look like a tragic accident. (This was the final Columbo to involve Patrick McGoohan.)
69	14	"Columbo Likes the Nightlife"	Jeffrey Reiner	Michael Alaimo	January 30, 2003 (2003-01-30)
Los Angeles rave promoter Justin Price (Matthew Rhys) helps his girlfriend Vanessa (Jennifer Sky) get rid of the corpse of her ex-husband, who was backing Price's new club, after he drops dead in Vanessa's apartment. When an investigative reporter pieces the crime together and threatens to blackmail Justin, Justin kills him. This is the final episode in the Columbo franchise.