12 Best Columbo Episodes Ranked

In 1968, a cigar-chomping homicide detective named Columbo entered a crime scene and enthralled television audiences; by the time his final case aired in 2003, he was a genuine cultural icon and one of the greatest TV detectives of all time. Immortalized onscreen by Peter Falk — who won four Emmys and a Golden Globe for the role — Columbo is an LAPD lieutenant whose disheveled demeanor conceals a keen intellect and a killer instinct for rooting out criminals.

Writers Richard Levinson and William Link experimented with the Columbo character before the television movie "Prescription: Murder" cemented Falk's portrayal and spawned a television series that is still watched by mystery fans over 50 years later. "Columbo" aired on NBC for seven seasons from 1971-1978, and was revived on ABC for two more seasons and a series of made-for-TV movies. Besides its iconic lead, "Columbo" is famous for inverting the traditional "whodunit" murder mystery format. Every episode begins by showing who committed the murder and why; thus, the real mystery is seeing how Columbo will unravel the case and bring the killer to justice.

With so many classic "Columbo" episodes to choose from, each ranging from 70 to 95 minutes, it can be difficult to decide which adventure to watch. Here, aggregated from user rankings on IMDb, are the 12 best episodes of "Columbo."

"The Prisoner" star Patrick McGoohan gives an Emmy Award-winning performance as the fanatical Colonel Lyle C. Rumford in the Season 4 episode "By Dawn's Early Light." The head of a prestigious but declining military academy, Rumford turns to murder when he is told that he will soon be dismissed so that the academy can be revamped as a co-ed school. Sneaking out in the early morning, Rumford rigs a cannon so that it explodes and kills the president of the Board of Trustees during a ceremonial firing.

Of course, Columbo is on the case — and his rumpled, disruptive presence quickly gets under Rumford's skin. "By Dawn's Early Light" is an excellent fish-out-of-water episode, with Columbo spending the night at the military academy and comedically bristling against its formal rules and regulations. Rumford incriminates himself through his pursuit of cadets who are secretly fermenting cider; he accidentally reveals that he could have only seen the offending drink during the early hours when he was tampering with the cannon. Ultimately, Rumford is doomed by his own obsession with military duty.

Viewers won't want to miss a single frame of "Double Exposure," because in this eye-opening episode from Season 3, what you don't see can kill you. Dr. Bart Keppel (Robert Culp) is an expert at the technique of subliminal advertising, splicing photos of marketable products into film reels, so that the subconscious minds of the audience are compelled to buy them without realizing what they are seeing.

Keppel also runs a blackmailing business on the side. When a victim threatens to expose him, Keppel plies him with salty caviar at an auditorium, lures him out of the movie screening through inserted frames of a cool drink, and shoots him dead. The arrogant Keppel is so confident in his technique that Columbo has to work especially hard to throw him off balance, hounding him at the supermarket and even chasing him down on a golf cart. This intense cat-and-mouse game ends with Columbo using Keppel's own shady subliminal shots against him — but Keppel is too overjoyed at their success to even care that he's been caught.

"Columbo" could be rightly characterized as a one-man show, as the series featured very few recurring characters over the decades. The closest thing the detective has to a true partner is his basset hound, affectionately known as "Dog." First appearing in the second season premiere "Etude in Black," Dog was a familiar face to "Columbo" fans by the time "How to Dial a Murder" aired in Season 7. Columbo's fondness for man's best friend proves crucial in this episode, because the murder weapons aren't guns or knives, but two pet Doberman Pinschers.

Pop psychologist and film buff Dr. Eric Mason (Nicol Williamson) trains his dogs, Laurel and Hardy, to fatally maul his former best friend when they hear the codeword "Rosebud" over the phone. Despite the testimony of Mason's innocent girlfriend (Kim Cattrall, years before "Sex and The City"), Columbo struggles to figure out why two ordinary pets would suddenly kill a man.

A trip with Dog to a canine behavioral specialist supplies some answers. After deducing the correct codeword (Mason has the Rosebud sled from "Citizen Kane" on his wall), Columbo trains the dogs to "kiss" when Mason orders them to attack, instead of kill. By bringing Mason to justice, Columbo also saves Laurel and Hardy from being put down by animal control. Columbo: the original pet detective?

Embryonic versions of the Columbo character had appeared on the page and screen before the 1968 made-for-television movie "Prescription: Murder." But the film, now regarded as the "Columbo" pilot episode, marks Peter Falk's first performance as the famous detective, in what would become his career-defining role.

"Prescription: Murder" immediately establishes what would become the show's winning formula. The first act follows the unscrupulous Dr. Ray Flemming (Gene Barry) as he strangles his wife. Flemming summons his actress girlfriend, Joan Hudson (Katherine Justice), to his penthouse apartment, where she dons a wig and sunglasses. Joan accompanies Flemming to the airport, where they stage a loud fight so that witnesses will notice "Mrs. Flemming" leaving while her husband flies to Acapulco. Flemming believes that his wife's death will be blamed on a break-in, but when he returns to his apartment, he is greeted by a stranger carrying a brown raincoat and smoking a cigar. His name? Lieutenant Columbo.

Falk may look strikingly young and clean-cut in the pilot, but Columbo's most defining characteristics, from his rambling anecdotes to his iconic "one more thing" catchphrase, are all present in his first appearance. "Prescription: Murder" is a powerful beginning to a television franchise that spanned 35 years.

Columbo takes a drive down "Sunset Boulevard" in the Season 5 premiere, "Forgotten Lady." Janet Leigh of "Psycho" fame plays Grace Wheeler, a faded Hollywood star eager to reignite her career alongside her former song and dance partner, Ned Diamond (John Payne). When her husband (Sam Jaffe) discourages her comeback attempt, the still-agile Grace shoots him in their locked bedroom and then shimmies down the tree outside their window to make his death look like a suicide.

As Columbo pursues the case, Grace drifts further and further from reality, living in her dreams of past fame. Just as Columbo pieces together the murder, he makes another shocking discovery: Grace has a terminal, degenerative brain disease, the knowledge of which was kept from her by her husband and the real reason for his dismissal of her ambitions. Diamond, reasoning that Grace no longer even remembers the murder, takes the fall, as Grace will have passed by the time he goes to trial. Columbo reluctantly accepts the situation, making "Forgotten Lady" the rare episode where a murderer evades arrest.

Also threaded throughout the episode is an amusing — but enlightening — subplot about various police officers hounding Columbo for his decade-long absence at the firing range. Columbo's quiet refusal to carry or use firearms in the line of duty remains one of his most intriguing characteristics, one that still sets him apart from most police officers on television.

Some "Columbo" episodes are defined by their guest stars, and few give a more memorable performance than legendary country musician Johnny Cash. In Season 3's "Swan Song," Cash provides a twisted take on his famous "Man in Black" persona by playing Tommy Brown, a popular folk singer stuck in a loveless marriage to Edna (Ida Lupino), the rigidly evangelical woman who discovered him.

When Edna plans to sink their fortune into constructing a new mega-church, Brown enacts one of the most elaborate murders in "Columbo" history. Piloting a small plane at night, Brown serves Edna coffee laced with sleeping pills and then parachutes out of the cockpit, letting the plane crash into a mountain. After hiding his parachute in the woods, Brown rolls down a hill to the crash site, breaking his leg and pretending he was thrown clear from the plane.

Brown is confident he's committed the perfect crime, but no detail escapes Columbo's shrewd eye. Examining the wreckage, Columbo notices that Brown's seatbelt is unfastened, setting in motion Brown's final performance. Johnny Cash's warm presence and unforgettable singing voice makes Brown an especially compelling villain, one capable of casting a folksy spell on the viewer, if not Columbo himself.

Years before Dick Van Dyke solved homicides on the CBS medical drama "Diagnosis: Murder," he committed them on "Columbo." Van Dyke plays famous photographer Paul Galesko — the next in the long line of villainous "Columbo" husbands eager to dispose of their wealthy wives, and one of the most sadistic.

Taking his wife Frances (Antoinette Bower) out to an isolated ranch house, he ties her to a chair, photographs her as she panics, and then shoots her with a pistol. After staging the scene to look like a kidnapping gone wrong, Galesko murders Alvin Deschler (Don Gordon), the ex-con renting the ranch house, and shoots himself in the leg with the first pistol to make it look like self-defense.

"Negative Reaction" gives viewers a fascinating glimpse of Columbo navigating his way through both the well-off world of the Los Angeles elite as well as the city's grimy underbelly. In one amusing scene, he follows a lead to a homeless shelter, where a chipper nun mistakes him for someone down on his luck and tries to dispose of his signature coat. Van Dyke plays the role of the cold-hearted cad so well that it is particularly satisfying when Columbo successfully traps him with one of his own twisted photos.

Though Columbo's adventures stay firmly on planet Earth, fans of "Star Trek: The Original Series" are sure to get a special kick out of "A Stitch in Crime." This episode guest stars beloved Spock actor Leonard Nimoy, playing against type as Dr. Barry Mayfield, a heart surgeon with murder on his mind. Mayfield has helped pioneer a career-making new heart drug, but his elderly partner Dr. Edmund Hiedeman (Will Geer) wants to carry out more research. When Hiedeman requires a heart valve replacement, Mayfield performs the surgery using dissolving sutures that will eventually kill Hiedeman if left undiscovered.

Nurse Sharon Martin (Anne Francis) discovers a piece of the suture, but before she can tell anyone of her suspicions, Mayfield bludgeons her in the hospital garage. When the police suspect a mugging, Mayfield tries to pin the murder on Sharon's ex-boyfriend and injects him with a fatal dose of morphine. Meanwhile, the clock is still ticking for Dr. Hiedeman, and Columbo has to solve the case before the murderous Dr. Mayfield claims another victim.

Leonard Nimoy weaponizing the same characteristics that made Spock a pop culture icon – namely, his unflappable aura of eyebrow-arching logic — makes Mayfield one of the most memorable villains in "Columbo" history. Mayfield is so despicable that he even manages to crack Columbo's cool, triggering a rare burst of anger from the detective before the final showdown.

Two words: Nazi magician. "Columbo" Season 5's "Now You See Him" is a showstopper of an episode, full of tricks and treats and a truly diabolical villain. The Great Santini (Jack Cassidy) appears onstage at a cabaret as a tuxedo-clad magician and escape artist, but in reality, he is Stefan Mueller, a former Nazi prison guard. When the club owner threatens to rat him out to the Department of Immigration, Santini uses his water tank escape act as a cover to sneak off stage, disguise himself as a waiter, and shoot his blackmailing boss before returning to the stage.

Columbo arrives at the cabaret (sporting a hideous new coat from his wife, in a great recurring gag) and quickly sees through Santini's charming disguise. In one outstanding scene, Columbo joins Santini's magic act as his helpful "assistant" and tricks him into escaping a pair of handcuffs with the same locks as the murder victim's office — proving he could pick them. Frequent "Columbo" guest star Cassidy doesn't overplay Santini's theatricality, and "Now You See Him" takes his war criminal past seriously. In the end, Columbo proves that the glitz and glamor of the stage — and Santini's scheme for committing the perfect murder — are only illusions.

Murderers on "Columbo" are typically motivated by forces like jealousy, greed, or desperation. But the killer in Season 7's "Try and Catch Me" wants something very different: justice. Academy Award winner Ruth Gordon guest stars as Abigail Mitchell, a bestselling author of murder mysteries who becomes a murderer herself.

Abigail's beloved niece Phyllis has previously died in what the police dismissed as an accident, though she believes Phyllis's husband Edmund (Charles Frank) killed her so he could become the sole inheritor of Abigail's fortune. Abigail gives Edmund a demise worthy of one of her novels, trapping him in a soundproof, airtight, walk-in safe, so that he dies surrounded by the valuables he coveted.

Columbo meets his match in Abigail, who plays the role of the sweet, doddering aunt during the investigation but has enough intelligence and wit to rival the detective's own. (She even uses his "One more question..." catchphrase against him.) But whether Edmund was really a killer or the victim of an old woman's grief is never resolved, and Abigail confesses to Columbo that she never would have murdered him if the police had seriously investigated Phyllis's death. "Try and Catch Me" is remarkable both for its sympathetic antagonist, as well as the air of tragic ambiguity that pervades the episode right to its very last scene.

"A Friend in Deed" features a dramatic twist on the classic "Columbo" formula. When the episode begins, Hugh Caldwell (Michael McGuire) has already killed his adulterous wife, Janice — but he isn't even the true villain of the episode. That dubious honor goes to LAPD Deputy Commissioner Mark Halperin (Richard Kiley), Caldwell's friend and neighbor, who helps him cover up the crime and pins the murder on a cat burglar who has been casing their Bel Air neighborhood.

Halperin soon reveals his ulterior motive in helping Caldwell: he drowns his wife Margaret (Rosemary Murphy) in the bathtub to collect her inheritance, and pressures Caldwell into posing as the cat burglar "killer" to give Halperin an airtight alibi. Though Columbo has doubts about a thief suddenly becoming a murderer, Halperin orders him to stay on that lead.

Pursuing his hunch that his superior at the LAPD is connected to the murders, Columbo engages in a surprising tactic and recruits the actual cat burger (Val Avery) in a fake blackmailing scheme to trap both Halperin and Caldwell. Ultimately, "A Friend in Deed" is a significant episode in showcasing how Lieutenant Columbo is an unorthodox member of the police force.

"Any Old Port in a Storm" is arguably the definitive "Columbo" episode. A perennial fan favorite, it features all of the show's trademarks and plays them to perfection: an extravagant murder, a scenery-chewing villain, and a thrilling detective story driven by rich characterization rather than random gunfire. Then there is Lieutenant Columbo, the charming, cigar-smoking outsider with a strong moral code and respect for nearly everyone he meets — even murderers.

That last quality is displayed in "Any Old Port in a Storm," leading to a surprisingly poignant finish. The killer is Adrian Carsini (Donald Pleasance), the owner of a respected but unprofitable winery. Adrian is a true wine connoisseur, unlike his playboy half-brother Rick (Gerry Conway), who plans to sell the winery to pay for his fourth wedding. Adrian knocks Rick unconscious and leaves him to suffocate in an unventilated wine cellar; he returns to dump the corpse in the ocean in a staged scuba diving accident.

Columbo, an admitted beer man, is a stranger to world of wine, but he grows to admire Carsini's passion and perfectionism even as he investigates the man for murder. Notably, "Any Old Port in a Storm" was Peter Falk's personal favorite "Columbo" episode, according to a specially-recorded introduction that aired on the A&E network in the early 90s. By the time Columbo and Carsini share their final drink together, you'll understand why.