10 Best Columbo Episodes

Technically the first episode of Columbo (if you discount the television movie pilot episodes), 1971's Murder By The Book also has the distinction of being one of Steven Spielberg's earliest widely-available works and, indeed, the only episode of the series that he directed.

It is a very engrossing, character-driven episode, dealing with Ken Franklin (played by David Cassidy's father, Jack Cassidy) killing his writing partner, Jim Ferris (Martin Milner) for the insurance money. Together, they are believed to collaborate on a series of Miss Marple-style mystery novels but, in truth, Ferris does all the writing work and Franklin purely sells the novels.

Having become tired of doing all the hard work and wanting to go it alone, Ferris unwittingly sets himself up as a victim, since Franklin lives a hedonistic lifestyle and desperately needs the cash. As with many a Columbo episode, it is the method of the murder that is ingenious, as Franklin drives Ferris to his isolated cabin retreat before murdering him, and then transports the corpse back to Los Angeles, dumping it on his own front lawn to make it look like a gangland warning. From there, however, Franklin's plot has to go downhill so that he may be captured and, indeed, as Columbo observes, Franklin goes on to commit a second very "sloppy" murder.

Composer, Billy Goldenberg scored a handful of the original episodes of the series and imbues this particular entry with a soundtrack that makes use of the clacking keys of a typewriter for its central theme, which is both memorable and unsettling. Spielberg and Goldenberg later collaborated on Spielberg's pre-Jaws television movie, Duel, in the same year as this episode was aired.

Also memorable is the presence of Barbara Colby as the effusive (and toothy) convenience store owner, Lilly La Sanka, who is seemingly smitten with Franklin. Sadly, several years after appearing in this episode, Colby was gunned down with a colleague in a parking garage in Venice, California whilst they were on their way home from teaching an acting class, which makes her memorable turn here seem all the more tragic.

Anchoring the entire affair, however, is Rosemary Forsyth, who portrays Ferris's down-to-earth widow, Joanna, whom Columbo takes great pity on.