TLDR: The best Columbo episodes are almost entirely from the original NBC run (1971-1978), with Peter Falk’s personal favorite being “Any Old Port in a Storm.”
The worst cluster heavily in the ABC revival era (1989-2003), when padded runtimes and a drift from the show’s core formula produced some of the weakest hours in the franchise.
Columbo never failed to solve a case and never revealed his first name on screen, though his badge briefly showed the name “Frank.”
Columbo ran for over three decades across two networks and two distinct eras, producing 69 episodes that range from genuine masterpieces of the mystery genre to some of the most formulaic television ever made under a beloved brand.
The gap between the best and worst is genuinely striking.
The Best Episodes
Critical consensus on Columbo’s finest hours is unusually unified. Almost every major ranking, from TV Guide to Den of Geek to the dedicated Columbophile blog that has reviewed every episode in depth, agrees on a core group of classics drawn almost entirely from the early NBC years.
“Murder by the Book” (1971), the episode that launched the regular series, was directed by a 24-year-old Steven Spielberg and written by Steven Bochco. Jack Cassidy plays a publicist who murders his more talented writing partner with meticulous calculation.
The episode ranked 16th on TV Guide’s list of the 100 greatest television episodes of all time in 1997 and remains the most critically acclaimed debut episode in the show’s history.
“Any Old Port in a Storm” (1973) was Peter Falk’s personal favorite. Donald Pleasence plays a fanatical wine connoisseur who murders his playboy half-brother to prevent him from selling the family vineyard to cheap mass-market producers.
The episode is distinguished by the genuine warmth and mutual respect that develops between Columbo and his suspect, culminating in one of the most celebrated scenes in the series: the detective and the arrested killer sharing a quiet glass of dessert wine in the back of a police car.
Falk chose it to lead an A&E retrospective of his favorite episodes and cited it in his autobiography as the first time Columbo developed real admiration for the person he was about to destroy.
“Suitable for Framing” (1971) features Ross Martin as an arrogant art critic who murders his wealthy uncle and frames his own aunt for the crime in order to inherit a collection of priceless paintings.
The episode’s closing reveal, involving a gloved hand and a hidden artwork, is widely considered the greatest ending in the series’ history.
“A Stitch in Crime” (1973) casts Leonard Nimoy as a brilliant and sociopathic heart surgeon who uses deliberately dissolving sutures to slowly kill his senior mentor.
The episode contains one of the few moments in the entire series where Columbo abandons his bumbling facade and displays genuine, undisguised fury.
“Negative Reaction” (1974) pairs Falk with Dick Van Dyke playing entirely against type as a bitter photographer who stages the fake kidnapping of his domineering wife before killing her.
The episode’s photographic trap is among the most elegantly constructed in the show’s run.
The Worst Episodes
The critical consensus on Columbo’s worst hours is equally consistent, and the failures cluster overwhelmingly in the ABC revival era. The original NBC run produced one major critical catastrophe, and the revival years produced several.
“Last Salute to the Commodore” (1976), directed by Patrick McGoohan during a period when Falk’s contract had expired and both men believed it might be the final episode ever, abandoned the show’s core “howcatchem” format for a traditional whodunit and encouraged Falk to deliver an intentionally bizarre performance.
It is a fascinating failure, almost certainly deliberate, and unlike anything else in the franchise.
“No Time to Die” (1992) is the episode most critics and fans cite as the worst in the franchise. It was based on an Ed McBain novel, made no use of the show’s inverted mystery format, and forced Columbo through a grim police procedural involving the kidnapping of his nephew’s bride.
It barely resembles a Columbo episode in any meaningful sense.
“Murder in Malibu” (1990) is a close second in the worst-of rankings, consistently cited for its daytime soap opera aesthetic, wooden performances, and complete absence of the sophisticated atmosphere that defined the original run.
“Undercover” (1994) had Columbo running around in physical disguises on a scavenger hunt, stripping the character of his grounded, cerebral appeal entirely.
The Famous Guest Appearances
Three high-profile guest appearances attract consistent search interest. In “Swan Song” (1974), Johnny Cash plays Tommy Brown, a charismatic gospel singer who orchestrates a plane crash to murder his blackmailing wife.
The character mirrors Cash’s real-world persona closely, incorporating his signature dark wardrobe and his actual background in gospel music.
In “It’s All in the Game” (1993), Faye Dunaway plays a glamorous socialite who uses her considerable charms to divert Columbo’s suspicions. Falk personally wrote the episode, and Dunaway won a Primetime Emmy for her performance.
In “The Bye-Bye Sky High IQ Murder Case” (1977), an 18-year-old Jamie Lee Curtis appears briefly as a particularly irritable coffee shop waitress who enforces dining rules against Columbo with maximum annoyance. It was only her second professional television appearance.
Three Questions Fans Always Ask
Did Columbo ever fail to solve a case?
Not exactly.
He maintained a perfect record across all 69 episodes, with one nuanced exception. In “Forgotten Lady” (1975), Janet Leigh plays a former film star who committed a murder while suffering from terminal brain dementia and has no memory of the crime.
Upon learning this, Columbo deliberately allows her devoted partner to confess instead, ensuring she spends her remaining weeks in peace.
He identified the killer. He chose not to arrest her.
Did Columbo ever reveal his first name?
No. When asked, he consistently deflected, saying his first name was “Lieutenant.”
However, in the Season 1 episode “Dead Weight,” a close-up of his police identification card displays the handwritten signature “Frank Columbo.” Series creators Richard Levinson and William Link maintained this was a props department mistake never intended to be legible on 1970s television screens.
The ambiguity spawned a remarkable side story: trivia author Fred L. Worth deliberately planted a fake entry in The Trivia Encyclopedia claiming Columbo’s first name was “Philip” as a copyright trap.
When the board game Trivial Pursuit used “Philip” as a correct answer in its 1983 edition, Worth filed a $300 million lawsuit. The courts dismissed it, ruling that factual information cannot be protected under copyright law even when it is fabricated.
Was anyone ever genuinely outsmarted Columbo?
Never permanently. The character who came closest was magazine publisher Sean Brantly in “Columbo Cries Wolf” (1990), who anticipated Columbo’s methods, staged a fake disappearance to publicly humiliate the detective, and then committed the actual murder after the police were forced to apologize and stand down.
Columbo ultimately found the real body hidden inside a wall and arrested him anyway.
