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The Worst Episodes of Columbo

Every episode of Columbo ranked from worst to best. Explore the Worst Episodes of Columbo!

The Worst 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 Grand Deceptions
    5.9/10(19 votes)

    #1 - Grand Deceptions

    S8:E4

    Frank Brailie runs a private military foundation for wanabe soldiers owned by the wheelchair bound General Padget. The General has become suspicious of Frank as a great deal of money seems to be going to a Special Projects Fund. The General tells a close colleague to investigate Frank and the Special Projects Fund. Instead of reporting his fraudulent findings back to the General, he decides to blackmail Frank for some of the money, Frank agrees and starts to plan his murder.

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    Director:Sam Wanamaker
    Writer:Unknown
  2. Background image for No Time to Die
    6.1/10(19 votes)

    #2 - No Time to Die

    S10:E5

    Columbo attends the wedding of his police officer nephew. While her husband takes a shower, the bride disappears from the bridal suite. The groom enlists Uncle Columbo's help in unraveling the case. Seems she has been kidnapped by a psychopath who intends to kill her once he consummates "their" marriage.

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    Director:Alan J. Levi
  3. Background image for Last Salute to the Commodore
    6.2/10(3.0k votes)

    #3 - Last Salute to the Commodore

    S5:E6

    The family and friends of brilliant naval architect Commodore Otis Swanson have gathered for the company’s annual party. The commodore, however, has become increasingly discontented with the way his son-in-law, Charles Clay, has developed the shipbuilding firm into a vast, impersonal corporation. He is tired of being surrounded by freeloaders like his alcoholic daughter, Joanna, his irresponsible nephew, Swanny, and of course, Charles. The only man he respects is Wayne Taylor, the head of the boatyard. In fact, the Commodore intends to sell the company. That night, Charles is wiping clean the belaying pin used to bash the Commodore’s skull.

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  4. Background image for Undercover
    6.2/10(16 votes)

    #4 - Undercover

    S10:E9

    A photograph is the only clue for Columbo when two dead men and a seven year old mystery with $4 million dollars involved as well as an obnoxious insurance investigator come into play.

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  5. Background image for Uneasy Lies the Crown
    6.5/10(34 votes)

    #5 - Uneasy Lies the Crown

    S9:E5

    While investigating the death of a popular actor, Columbo must outwit a cunning dentist, who has set up his wife for a murder in order to keep up his image and expensive lifestyle.

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  6. Background image for Murder in Malibu
    6.5/10(32 votes)

    #6 - Murder in Malibu

    S9:E6

    An ambitious womanizer, rejected by the romance novelist he planned to marry, ends the story she was writing with a gun and makes the murder look like robbery gone awry.

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  8. Background image for Strange Bedfellows
    6.6/10(16 votes)

    #7 - Strange Bedfellows

    S10:E10

    Graham McVeigh, a thoroughbred ranch owner, kills his brother, and frames a local mob bookie. Then, under the guise of making good on his brother's debt, he kills the bookie as well, claiming self-defense. Mob boss Vincenzo Fortelli starts to exert pressure on McVeigh. To solve the crime Columbo must work with the gangster.

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  9. Background image for A Matter of Honor
    6.7/10(2.4k votes)

    #8 - A Matter of Honor

    S5:E4

    The owner of a bull ranch in Mexico gives his workers the day off, and then talks his number one man into fighting the bull who nearly killed his son. But instead he shoots him with a tranquilizer gun, and lets the bull kill him. Colombo, who is on vacation in Mexico, gets dragged into this case by an admiring colleague, but he has trouble convincing the Mexicans that the accident is really homicide. And how do you prove that the bull is a murder weapon?

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    Director:Ted Post
  10. Background image for Columbo Goes to the Guillotine
    6.7/10(19 votes)

    #9 - Columbo Goes to the Guillotine

    S8:E1

    Lt. Columbo delves into the world of magic, ESP and slight of hand as he investigates the death of a magician, and there appears to be a tie to a prodigal psychic supported by a government founded institute on parapsychology.

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  11. Background image for Sex and the Married Detective
    6.7/10(25 votes)

    #10 - Sex and the Married Detective

    S8:E3

    A sex therapist catches her boyfriend with another woman when he thinks she is out of town. She then disguises herself and manages to kill him while in disguise, not realizing that a potential suitor saw her enter the bathroom as a dark-haired woman and exit as a blonde.

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  12. Background image for Murder, a Self Portrait
    6.7/10(41 votes)

    #11 - Murder, a Self Portrait

    S9:E1

    A famous artist, Max Barsini, lives with his wife Vanessa and a beautiful live-in model named Julie at his beach house/studio. Max's ex-wife Louise lives in the beach house next door. Together, these women comprise Max's own little harem. He loves them all in different ways, but, more importantly, likes to control them. In fact, Max derives a great deal of satisfaction from the fact that they all fight for his attention and are reliant upon him financially and emotionally. The competitive jealousy between the women reaches a head at the dinner table one night when Max asks each of them what they think of the other. Their answers prove the intense rivalry between the women.

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  13. Background image for Ashes to Ashes
    6.7/10(20 votes)

    #12 - Ashes to Ashes

    S10:E12

    Mortician to the stars Eric Prince, kills gossip reporter Verity Chandler, who had knowledge of skeletons in Prince's closet. Columbo must figure out what happened to her and why.

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  14. Background image for Murder With Too Many Notes
    6.7/10(17 votes)

    #13 - Murder With Too Many Notes

    S10:E13

    Hollywood film composer and conductor Findlay Crawford has been mentor to a talented young composer 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, concocts the perfect murder, made to look like a suicide.

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  15. Background image for Columbo Likes the Nightlife
    6.8/10(14 votes)

    #14 - Columbo Likes the Nightlife

    S10:E14

    The final Columbo story starring Peter Falk, Los Angeles rave promoter Justin Price helps his girlfriend Vanessa 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.

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  16. Background image for Dead Weight
    6.9/10(3.7k votes)

    #15 - Dead Weight

    S1:E3

    A famous general kills a business associate, then woos a neurotic female witness to thwart Columbo's investigation.

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    Director:Jack Smight
  17. Background image for A Bird in the Hand
    6.9/10(15 votes)

    #16 - A Bird in the Hand

    S10:E6

    Given a deadline to pay his debts or else, chronic gambler Harold plants a bomb under the Rolls Royce of his uncle, sports magnate Big Fred. However, Big Fred is killed by a hit-and-run driver while jogging that very morning, and the Rolls Royce explodes when Fred's gardener tries to move it out of the way of the TV camera crews. Just when Columbo thinks he has the goods on Harold, it is Harold who turns up dead.

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  18. Background image for A Trace of Murder
    6.9/10(18 votes)

    #17 - A Trace of Murder

    S10:E11

    Cathleen Calvert and her lover, crime scene investigator Patrick Kinsley, plot to get rid of Calvert's husband, Clifford, a powerful businessman, by killing 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.

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  19. Background image for Dagger of the Mind
    7.0/10(3.3k votes)

    #18 - Dagger of the Mind

    S2:E4

    While on a work trip to London, to learn the techniques of the British police, Columbo gets involved with the murder of Roger Haversham, a rich old businessman who is financing the careers of two rundown theater stars. When Sir Roger threatens to end their careers, because he felt betrayed, he's killed. A short while after, his butler figures out the motives for his master's murder, and blackmails the actors, who have no other choice than to kill him and make it look like he commited suicide due to remorse, because he murdered his employer. Columbo stills manages to catch both the murderers, with the help of a pearl and a new umbrella.

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  20. Background image for Mind Over Mayhem
    7.0/10(24 votes)

    #19 - Mind Over Mayhem

    S3:E6

    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.

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  21. Background image for Columbo Goes to College
    7.0/10(20 votes)

    #20 - Columbo Goes to College

    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.

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  22. Background image for Murder can be Hazardous to Your Health
    7.0/10(20 votes)

    #21 - Murder can be Hazardous to Your Health

    S10:E2

    Wade Anders, a former security expert, hosts the show Crime Alert. A rival host, news reader Bud, discovers Wade was in a porno movie and plans to tell the world then take over his show.

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  23. Background image for Short Fuse
    7.1/10(3.5k votes)

    #22 - Short Fuse

    S1:E6

    A chemist rigs a bomb in his uncle's car to gain control of his uncle's company, then plants clues to make Columbo suspicious of the company's Vice-President.

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    Writer:Unknown
  24. Background image for Old Fashioned Murder
    7.1/10(2.3k votes)

    #23 - Old Fashioned Murder

    S6:E2

    The female head of a museum hires one of the guards to rob the museum to collect the insurance money. But during the robbery she kills him and her own brother, and makes it look like they killed each other. The guard/robber's brother reports a strange message on his answering machine, that makes it seem that he has been killed. And Columbo gets the case. When Columbo first comes to the crime scene, he notices that the lights are off, a gold medallion in the robber's pants, and signs that pointed to the fact that he was going abroad after the heist. And he concluded that these clues mean that someone else was involved.

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  25. Background image for Columbo and the Murder of a Rock Star
    7.1/10(21 votes)

    #24 - Columbo and the Murder of a Rock Star

    S10:E3

    Lt. Columbo is pitted against an equally brilliant, nationally recognized criminal defence lawyer who murders his rock star girlfriend when he discovers she is seeing another man.

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  26. Background image for Lady in Waiting
    7.2/10(3.6k votes)

    #25 - Lady in Waiting

    S1:E5

    A woman shoots her overbearing brother, claiming she thought he was a burglar. Columbo doesn't buy the self-defense claim - he know's it's murder.

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    Director:Norman Lloyd
    Writer:Unknown

Worst Episodes Summary

"Grand Deceptions" is the worst rated episode of "Columbo". It scored 5.9/10 based on 19 votes. Directed by Sam Wanamaker and written by Unknown, it aired on 5/1/1989. This episode scored 0.2 points lower than the second lowest rated, "No Time to Die".