9.0/101 votes#1 - The Adventure of Auld Lang Syne
Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 9/11/1975
The time: 10:00 pm, New Year's Eve, 1947. The place: The ballroom of the Hotel Astor. The victim: Mr. Marcus Halliday. And the suspects (all the usual ones): the son (and his gold-digging girlfriend), the untrusted nephew, the long-time secretary (and her brand new fiance), and the new business partner (of course, stealing from the company behind the victim's back). The soon-to-be victim has just announced that he plans to disinherit all of the above before the night is out - only to be found minutes later, slumped over in a nearby phone booth. Can Ellery figure out the clues as they play out? Of course, he can. But can you?
Director: David Greene
Writer: William Link
7.5/1029 votes#2 - Double Shock
Season 2 Episode 8 - Aired 3/25/1973
A wealthy man is murdered; his twin nephews stand to inherit, but which one committed the crime?
Director: Robert Butler
Writer: William Link
7.3/1029 votes#3 - Étude in Black
Season 2 Episode 1 - Aired 9/17/1972
The mistress of a conductor becomes a target for murder after threatening to tell all to her lover's wife.
Director: Nicholas Colasanto
Writer: William Link
7.2/1030 votes#4 - The Most Dangerous Match
Season 2 Episode 7 - Aired 3/4/1973
A chess grandmaster disposes of the champion, who keeps coming back on him.
Director: Edward M. Abroms
Writer: William Link
7.2/104 votes#5 - Captive Audience
Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 10/18/1962
Warren Barrow writes mystery novels under a pseudonymn. He sends his publisher a series of tape recordings that appear to detail either the plot of his next mystery novel or the plan for a murder he is actually going to commit. Using his own name on the tapes, Barrow describes how he renewed a friendship with a very attractive girl named Janet West. Janey, however, is married and wants someone to kill her wealthy husband. Blinded by passion, Barrow agrees to commit murder. At the last minute, however, he gets cold feet and later, out of guilt, decides to kill Janet. The tape ends, however. The publisher and another writer, Tom Keller, become convinced that Barrow is planning murder. The publisher calls the police while Keller heads for Janet's apartment. At the apartment, Keller discovers Janet dead and Barrow holding the murder weapon. Barrow is taken to the police station where he provides an ending to his novel and a complete confession, all on tape.
Director: Alf Kjellin
Writer: William Link
7.0/1042 votes#6 - Death Lends a Hand
Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 10/6/1971
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
Writer: William Link
7.0/1022 votes#7 - Columbo Cries Wolf
Season 9 Episode 2 - Aired 1/20/1990
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
Writer: William Link
7.0/101 votes#8 - Portrait of a Dead Girl (or Who Killed Miss U.S.A.?)
Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 2/17/1970
McCloud escorts a witness from New Mexico to New York City, but loses him to kidnappers and finds himself in a murder case involving Puerto Rican nationalists, a lady novelist, a Wall Street lawyer, and a dead beauty pageant winner.
Director: Richard A. Colla
Writer: William Link
7.0/101 votes#9 - Day of Reckoning
Season 1 Episode 10 - Aired 11/22/1962
Paul Sampson murders his wife Caroline and is relieved when the police rule her death and accident. His conscience gets the best of him, however, and he decides to confess the murder to his family and friends. Unfortunately, no one believes him. They think the stress of his wife's death has gotten to him. Later he tells another friend, who also happens to be a judge. The judge, however, knew all along. He was Caroline's lover. Knowing that Paul's conscience is killing him, the judge chooses to remain silent. When Paul continues in his attempts to confess, he is eventually committed by his family to a mental hospital.
Director: Jerry Hopper
Writer: William Link
7.0/101 votes#10 - Dear Uncle George
Season 1 Episode 30 - Aired 5/10/1963
John Chambers writes an advice to the lovelorn column under the pseudonymn Uncle George. He learns that his wife is cheating on him when a neighbor named Mrs. Weatherby, not knowing that John and Uncle George are the same person, writes a letter to his column asking for advice. Chambers kills his wife and then pins the blame on her lover. When he fakes shock when the police reveal his wife's affair, he is accepted as innocent because he doesn't have a motive. Chambers almost gets away with murder until Mrs. Weatherby tells the police that she mailed the Uncle George column asking for advice about the situation.
Director: Joseph M. Newman
Writer: William Link
7.0/101 votes#11 - Nothing Ever Happens in Linvale
Season 2 Episode 6 - Aired 11/8/1963
Mrs. Logan calls Sheriff Ben Wister when she begins to believe that her neighbor Harry Jarvis killed his wife and buried her in his back yard. She notes that Harry has been acting strangely. He has been digging in the yard all night and has been drinkinf beer all day. She also notes that Mrs. Jarvis's annoying little dog has also gone missing. When the police interview him, Harry claims that his wife left him for another man. He also claims that his wife left her dog with him and that it died after an illness. The sheriff is unconvinced by Harry's explanation and gets a search warrant to dig up his back yard. When the police start digging they find a dead dog and believe Harry's story. Later, Harry visits Mrs. Logan who is in fact his secret lover. Harry did kill his wife and he and Mrs. Logan bury Mrs. Jarvis's body where the dog was once buried. They think that the police would never bother to check the dog's grave again.
Director: Herschel Daugherty
Writer: William Link
7.0/102 votes#12 - Murder Case
Season 2 Episode 19 - Aired 3/6/1964
Lee Griffin is an actor who is reunited with his old girlfriend Diana at a London production of a play being financed by Diana's husband Charles Justin. Lee and Diana rekindle their old romance and hatch a plot to kill her husband who is a wealthy diamond merchant. Lee's first attempt to kill Charles fails, but he succeeds on his second try. On a trip to Paris, Lee assumes Charles's identity. Unfortunately, Charles was aware of Diana's unfaithfulness and murderer her before he was killed. He hid her body in a car which is being shipped to Paris. Customs officials find the body and Lee, who is posing as Charles, is arrested for the crime.
Director: John Brahm
Writer: William Link
6.2/1028 votes#13 - Dagger of the Mind
Season 2 Episode 4 - Aired 11/26/1972
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.
Director: Richard Quine
Writer: William Link
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William Link Ratings Summary
"The Adventure of Auld Lang Syne" is the best rated episode written by William Link. It scored 9/10 based on 1 votes. It was directed by David Greene. It aired on 9/11/1975 and is rated 1.5 points higher than their second-best episode, "Double Shock".