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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!

The Best Episodes of Columbo

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...
  1. Background image for Any Old Port in a Storm
    8.3/10(4.3k 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.

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  2. Background image for A Friend in Deed
    8.2/10(3.3k votes)

    #2 - 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.

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  3. Background image for Try and Catch Me
    8.2/10(3.4k votes)

    #3 - 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.

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  4. Background image for Now You See Him
    8.1/10(3.3k 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
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  5. Background image for A Stitch in Crime
    8.0/10(3.8k 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. Background image for Swan Song
    8.0/10(3.7k votes)

    #6 - Swan Song

    S3:E7

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

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    The 20 WORST Episodes of Columbo

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  8. Background image for Negative Reaction
    8.0/10(3.4k 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.

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  9. Background image for Forgotten Lady
    8.0/10(3.5k votes)

    #8 - Forgotten Lady

    S5:E1

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

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  10. Background image for How to Dial a Murder
    7.9/10(2.9k 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.

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  11. Background image for Agenda for Murder
    7.9/10(97 votes)

    #10 - 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.

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  12. Background image for Death Lends a Hand
    7.8/10(4.3k 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.

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  13. Background image for Double Exposure
    7.8/10(3.0k votes)

    #12 - Double Exposure

    S3:E4

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

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  14. Background image for By Dawn's Early Light
    7.8/10(3.3k 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
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  15. Background image for Troubled Waters
    7.8/10(3.2k 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.

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  16. Background image for Columbo Cries Wolf
    7.8/10(111 votes)

    #15 - 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.

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  17. Background image for Murder by the Book
    7.7/10(5.9k 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.

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  18. Background image for Suitable for Framing
    7.7/10(4.1k 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?

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  19. Background image for Étude in Black
    7.7/10(4.1k 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.

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  20. Background image for Double Shock
    7.7/10(3.2k votes)

    #19 - Double Shock

    S2:E8

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

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  21. Background image for Candidate for Crime
    7.7/10(3.2k 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
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  22. Background image for Murder Under Glass
    7.7/10(2.8k 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?

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  23. Background image for Rest in Peace, Mrs. Columbo
    7.7/10(98 votes)

    #22 - Rest in Peace, Mrs. Columbo

    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.

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  24. Background image for It's All in the Game
    7.7/10(21 votes)

    #23 - It's All in the Game

    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.

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  25. Background image for Blueprint for Murder
    7.6/10(3.5k votes)

    #24 - 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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  26. Background image for Publish or Perish
    7.6/10(2.9k votes)

    #25 - 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.

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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 4253 votes. Directed by Leo Penn and written by Stanley Ralph Ross, it aired on 10/7/1973. This episode scored 0.1 points higher than the second highest rated, "A Friend in Deed".