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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(4582 votes)

    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(3662 votes)

    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(3555 votes)

    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
    8.2/10(3561 votes)

    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 3 Episode 7 - Swan Song
    8.1/10(3995 votes)

    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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  6. Columbo Season 4 Episode 2 - Negative Reaction
    8.1/10(3655 votes)

    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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    The 20 WORST Episodes of Columbo

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  7. Columbo Season 9 Episode 2 - Columbo Cries Wolf
    8.1/10(360 votes)

    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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  8. Columbo Season 2 Episode 6 - A Stitch in Crime
    8.0/10(4040 votes)

    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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  9. Columbo Season 5 Episode 1 - Forgotten Lady
    8.0/10(3829 votes)

    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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  10. Columbo Season 10 Episode 1 - Columbo Goes to College
    8.0/10(268 votes)

    S10:E1

    Lt. Columbo is invited as guest speaker in a Criminology course and squares off against two cunning students, who are confident they have duped the lieutenant with various leads, when their professor is found murdered.

    Director:E.W. Swackhamer
    Writers:Jeffrey Bloom, Frederick King Keller

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  11. Columbo Season 3 Episode 4 - Double Exposure
    7.9/10(3254 votes)

    S3:E4

    A motivational researcher blackmails to further his career, kills a man, then frames the victim's wife.

    Director:Richard Quine
    Writer:Stephen J. Cannell

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  12. Columbo Season 7 Episode 4 - How to Dial a Murder
    7.9/10(3140 votes)

    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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  13. Columbo Season 9 Episode 3 - Agenda for Murder
    7.9/10(305 votes)

    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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  14. Columbo Season 1 Episode 2 - Death Lends a Hand
    7.8/10(4609 votes)

    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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  15. Columbo Season 4 Episode 3 - By Dawn's Early Light
    7.8/10(3516 votes)

    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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  16. Columbo Season 4 Episode 4 - Troubled Waters
    7.8/10(3438 votes)

    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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  17. Columbo Season 10 Episode 7 - It's All in the Game
    7.8/10(219 votes)

    S10:E7

    Nick Franco is a violent, two-timing gigolo and his current paramour, Laura Stanton, has had enough. With the help of a young woman named Lisa, she murders her lover and sets herself up with an airtight alibi. When Columbo starts sniffing on her trail, Laura quickly works to seduce the married detective, hoping that her sex appeal will throw the usually stubborn Lieutenant off the scent.

    Director:Vincent McEveety
    Writer:Peter Falk

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  18. Columbo Season 1 Episode 1 - Murder by the Book
    7.7/10(6332 votes)

    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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  19. Columbo Season 1 Episode 4 - Suitable for Framing
    7.7/10(4395 votes)

    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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  20. Columbo Season 2 Episode 1 - Étude in Black
    7.7/10(4471 votes)

    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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  21. Columbo Season 2 Episode 8 - Double Shock
    7.7/10(3393 votes)

    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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  22. Columbo Season 3 Episode 3 - Candidate for Crime
    7.7/10(3390 votes)

    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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  23. Columbo Season 6 Episode 3 - The Bye-Bye Sky High I.Q. Murder Case
    7.7/10(3069 votes)

    S6:E3

    Two former college friends, now partners in an accounting firm, become enemies when one realizes the other has embezzled funds. The reason for his embezzling ways is his wife, she demands nothing but the best.

    Director:Sam Wanamaker
    Writer:Robert M. Young

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  24. Columbo Season 7 Episode 2 - Murder Under Glass
    7.7/10(3028 votes)

    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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  25. Columbo Season 9 Episode 4 - Rest in Peace, Mrs. Columbo
    7.7/10(322 votes)

    S9:E4

    Columbo unwittingly becomes part of a deranged woman's diabolical plot to destroy the two men she believes responsible for her husband's death in prison. After murdering one, she moves in on the other, Columbo, to kill the person closest to him, his wife.

    Director:Vincent McEveety
    Writer:Peter S. Fischer

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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 4582 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".