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The Best Episodes of Columbo Season 3

Every episode of Columbo Season 3 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of Columbo Season 3!

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...
Genres:CrimeDramaMystery
Networks:ABCNBC

Season 3 Ratings Summary

"Lovely But Lethal" is the best rated episode of "Columbo" season 3. It scored 7.1/10 based on 2919 votes. Directed by Jeannot Szwarc and written by Jackson Gillis, Myrna Bercovici, it aired on 9/23/1973. This episode is rated 1.2 points higher than the second-best, "Any Old Port in a Storm".

  • Lovely But Lethal
    7.1/102,919 votes

    #1 - Lovely But Lethal

    Season 3 Episode 1 - Aired 9/23/1973

    Viveca Scott, the founder of Beauty Mark Cosmetics, is being threatened by her rival David Lang. When he finds out that her revolutionary cream formula actually removes wrinkles, he has the formula pirated.

    Director: Jeannot Szwarc

    Writer: Jackson Gillis, Myrna Bercovici

  • Any Old Port in a Storm
    8.3/103,942 votes

    #2 - Any Old Port in a Storm

    Season 3 Episode 2 - Aired 10/7/1973

    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

  • Candidate for Crime
    7.7/102,918 votes

    #3 - Candidate for Crime

    Season 3 Episode 3 - Aired 11/4/1973

    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

  • Double Exposure
    7.8/102,831 votes

    #4 - Double Exposure

    Season 3 Episode 4 - Aired 12/16/1973

    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

  • Publish or Perish
    7.6/102,665 votes

    #5 - Publish or Perish

    Season 3 Episode 5 - Aired 1/18/1974

    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

  • Mind Over Mayhem
    7.0/102,505 votes

    #6 - Mind Over Mayhem

    Season 3 Episode 6 - Aired 2/18/1974

    The director of a government institute that employs various scientific geniuses commits a clever murder. But another kind of genius is on the case: Lt. Columbo.

    Director: Alf Kjellin

    Writer: Dean Hargrove, Steven Bochco, Robert Specht

  • Swan Song
    8.0/103,461 votes

    #7 - Swan Song

    Season 3 Episode 7 - Aired 3/3/1974

    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

  • A Friend in Deed
    8.2/103,040 votes

    #8 - A Friend in Deed

    Season 3 Episode 8 - Aired 5/5/1974

    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