Colombo

For most of the 1970s I was married, living in the New Orleans area, and raising five young children. "Columbo" is one of the TV shows that we enjoyed. Now I am able to re-watch the series in 2024, streaming on Peacock, starting with Season 1, Episode 1, running 1 hour 15 minutes. I don't recall the schedule clearly but that must have taken up a 90-minute time slot with only about 15 minutes of commercials.

Peter Falk makes the show, with his low-keyed quirkiness. He is Los Angeles police department Detective Columbo. His signature looks are an old, beat-up car and a wrinkled tan all-weather coat, the kinds most of us professionals wore back then, with a zip-out lining. I wore one to work for years and it looked about as beat-up as his. In fact, I still have one hanging in my coat closet!

His signature characteristic is to complete a discussion with a suspect, then start to walk away, only to stop and ask, "One more thing...".

The shows were done in the style where we, the viewers, witnessed the murder within the first few minutes, then Columbo would show up and the rest of the show was to see how he would gather clues and solve the crime.

Interestingly the very first episode was directed by a 24-yr-old Steven Spielberg.

Columbo is definitely the greatest and most legendary TV detective of all time. My Mum passed on her love of this series to me when I was a child and we have been watching it together ever since. As well as the brilliant stories written for this show, I have to say that it's Peter Falk who makes this series so phenomenal. With his dashing good looks and kind, gentle manly voice, he just gets you transfixed as soon as he appears on the screen. I think he was a very underrated actor indeed. It was so sad to hear of Peter's tragic death but he'll live on in my heart forever as he was a wonderful part of my childhood. Anyone who loves a good crime solving series, you can't beat Columbo.

Sure, I love modern crime dramas like CSI, but in my opinion, Columbo is on a whole other level. Most crime dramas airing currently are all about complicated chemical tests, DNA, and high-octane car chases and shootouts. Columbo is subtler than that. His common sense, shrewd observation, and disarming demeanor solve the cases. And, more than that, you really get into the psychology of the killers, who are often at least somewhat sympathetic characters driven to the edge by circumstance. In every episode, the scene where Columbo finally confronts them with the solution and hard evidence is always fantastic. This is a gem of a TV show, and I think anybody who likes CSI, Law & Order or any other crime dramas, will seriously enjoy this series.

Throughout the entire run of the series which went over 30 years with revivals and such the LAPD never assigned Peter Falk some gang-banger slaying or a domestic dispute where a drunk and jealous husband might have carved up an unfaithful wife. No, Lt. Columbo always got the high profile stuff with prominent people as victims and perpetrators. Before there was Brenda Lee Johnson there was another disarming detective who got the job done every time.

Peter Falk created one of the most indelible characters ever on the small screen with Columbo. The rumpled raincoat in an area where rain is a rarity, the bumbling manner, the general obsequiousness all played into an image he deliberately wanted to create for the perpetrator he was trying to trap. We all knew who did it every week and we all knew that there was an elaborate plan involved that the perpetrator put into operation. Often it called for an attempt to frame someone else.

It would all unravel bit by bit. Even if the murderer didn't confess outright you knew it was all over. The best criminal lawyers didn't let anyone wriggle out of a Columbo trap.

Columbo was a great working class hero, an Archie Bunker, or a Ralph Kramden who took the police civil service exam and worked his way up to the top of his profession. It was why he was so popular.

And it's why he will ever remain so.

I am a huge fan of detective series- Inspector Morse(my favourite), Agatha Christie:Poirot, Murder She Wrote, New Tricks, Monk, Ellery Queen, A Touch of Frost and Taggart are all wonderful, but I can't not mention Columbo.

Columbo is sophisticated, funny and clever, and is quite simply one of the best detective series ever. It does show who does it a vast majority of the time, so the viewer knows who's the murderer before Columbo does, like on Monk and sometimes on Diagnosis Murder as well. But the real fun is Columbo investigating why the crime was committed, how it was committed and of course the exchanges between him and the suspects.

Columbo is well filmed, with nice photography and interesting locations. The stories are involving and well paced, the murders and motives are calculating, the scripts are intelligent with some humour in them(the quintessential "just one more thing" and anything to do with Mrs. Columbo), the music is cleverly composed and the direction is strong. I can't fault the acting either- Peter Falk is simply brilliant as the dishevelled, cigar-smoking, dog-eared Columbo, a detective who has a brilliant mind and is endearing in his own way. Morse, Miss Marple, Jessica Fletcher and Poirot are very like that as well. And there have been many memorable guest stars, Dick Van Dyke, Nicol Williamson, Gene Barry, Jack Cassidy, Robert Culp, Leonard Nimoy, Patrick McGoohan, Ray Milland, Rip Torn and George Hamilton are just a few of these memorable guests.

Overall, one brilliant detective series, clever with a great central performance. 10/10 Bethany Cox