10 Best Columbo Episodes

Prescription: Murder, the 1968 pilot for Columbo, had been something of a muddled affair: overlong, unremarkable and, worst of all, a dull characterization of the lieutenant himself. Columbo returned for a second pilot in 1971, Ransom for a Dead Man, and it was here that the series struck gold: striking visuals; what we might now call distinctively Columbo-style music from Billy Goldenberg, and a scruffy, seemingly absent-minded Columbo. The irony in all of this is that both pilots had starred Peter Falk and both had been directed by Richard Irving.

High-flying lawyer (and we mean that literally) Leslie Williams, played by Lee Grant, is bored with her practically perfect attorney husband, who has dared to stand up to her and so, wanting money from him one way or another, she kills him. Dumping his body where it may not be found for a while, she stages a phony kidnapping, fooling the FBI into believing her ruse, but failing to mislead Lieutenant Columbo. She also fails to deceive her stepdaughter, Margaret (Patricia Mattick), who proceeds to raise merry hell in the Williams household as she and Columbo start to unravel Leslie's plot.

Ransom for a Dead Man was the first episode (well, technically, it's a mini-movie like the episodes of the late 1980s to 2003) to give us the version of Lieutenant Columbo that we recognize today, and it's an important transformation that has kept Columbo memorable and entertaining as a character. However, when you think about it, we supposedly learn an awful lot about his family during the course of the show without ever meeting them or even learning if Columbo is telling the truth.

The episode also boasted several gripping aerial sequences, using the larger budget of a TV movie to its advantage without allowing that to overshadow the mystery and emotional tension that characterizes this particular entry.

And just one more thing about this episode: it was the first one to feature Columbo's favourite chilli restaurant, Barney's Beanery.