Columbo facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Columbo
DVD cover art for the first season
Genre	Crime drama Detective fiction Neo-noir
Created by	Richard Levinson William Link
Starring	Peter Falk
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	10
No. of episodes	69 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Philip Saltzman
Camera setup	Single-camera
Running time	73–98 minutes
Production company(s)	Universal Television (1968–78, 1989–98) Studios USA (1998–2002) Universal Network Television (2002–03)
Distributor	NBCUniversal Television Distribution
Release
Original network	NBC (1968–1978) ABC (1989–2003)
Picture format	Film
Audio format	Mono (1968–1978) Stereo (1989–2003)
Original release	February 20, 1968 (1968-02-20) – January 30, 2003 (2003-01-30)
Chronology
Related shows	Mrs. Columbo (1979–1980)

Columbo is an American crime drama television series starring Peter Falk as Lieutenant Columbo, a homicide detective with the Los Angeles Police Department. After two pilot episodes in 1968 and 1971, the show originally aired on NBC from 1971 to 1978 as one of the rotating programs of The NBC Mystery Movie. Columbo then aired less frequently on ABC from 1989 to 2003.

Columbo is a shrewd and intelligent blue-collar homicide detective whose trademarks include his rumpled beige raincoat, unassuming demeanor, cigar, old Peugeot 403 car, love of chili con carne, and unseen wife (whom he mentions frequently). He often leaves a room only to return with the catchphrase "Just one more thing" to ask a critical question.

The character and show, created by Richard Levinson and William Link, popularized the inverted detective story format (sometimes referred to as a "howcatchem"). This genre begins by showing the commission of the crime and its perpetrator; the plot therefore usually has no "whodunit" element of determining which of several suspects committed the crime. It instead revolves around how a perpetrator known to the audience will finally be caught and exposed.

The series' homicide suspects are often affluent members of high society; it has led some critics to see class conflict as an element of each story. Suspects carefully cover their tracks and are initially dismissive of Columbo's circumstantial speech and apparent ineptitude. They become increasingly unsettled as his superficially pestering behavior teases out incriminating evidence. His relentless approach often leads to self-incrimination or outright confession.

Development and character profile

Peter Falk as Lt. Columbo, 1973

The first Columbo pilot, "Prescription: Murder", guest starring Gene Barry, Nina Foch, and William Windom, was filmed at the Stahl House.

The character first appeared in a 1960 episode of the television-anthology series The Chevy Mystery Show, titled "Enough Rope". The first actor to portray Columbo, character actor Bert Freed, was a stocky character actor with a thatch of gray hair.

Freed's Columbo wore a rumpled suit and smoked a cigar. The character used some of the same methods of misdirecting and distracting his suspects.

Levinson and Link then adapted the TV drama into the stage play Prescription: Murder. This was first performed at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco on January 2, 1962, with Oscar-winning character actor Thomas Mitchell in the role of Columbo. Mitchell was 70 years old at the time.

The NBC Mystery Movie program worked on a rotating basis – one per month from each of its shows. Top left: Dennis Weaver in McCloud. Top right: Richard Boone in Hec Ramsey. Bottom left: Peter Falk in Columbo. Bottom right: Rock Hudson in McMillan & Wife

In 1968, the same play was made into a two-hour television movie that aired on NBC. Director Richard Irving convinced Levinson and Link that Peter Falk, who excitedly said he "would kill to play that cop", could pull it off even though he was much younger than the writers had in mind.

Columbo was an immediate hit in the Nielsen ratings and Falk won an Emmy Award for his role in the show's first season. The show became the anchor of NBC's Sunday night lineup. Columbo aired regularly from 1971 to 1978. After NBC canceled it in 1978, Columbo was revived on ABC between 1989 and 2003 in several new seasons and a few made-for-TV movie "specials".

A few years before his death, Falk expressed interest in returning to the role. In 2007, he claimed he had chosen a script for one last Columbo episode, "Columbo: Hear No Evil". The script was renamed "Columbo's Last Case". ABC declined the project.

Falk was diagnosed with dementia in late 2007. During a 2009 trial over his care, physician Stephen Read stated that Falk's condition had deteriorated so badly that he could no longer remember playing a character named Columbo, nor could he identify Columbo. Falk died on June 23, 2011, aged 83.

Interesting facts about Columbo

Peter Falk statue as Columbo with his dog in Budapest, Hungary

• Columbo's wardrobe was provided by Falk; they were his clothes, including the high-topped shoes and the shabby raincoat, which made its first appearance in Prescription: Murder.
• Falk often improvised on the set. For example, he fumbling through his pockets for a piece of evidence only to discover a grocery list, or became distracted by something irrelevant in the room at a dramatic point in a conversation with a suspect. He inserted these into his performance as a way to keep his fellow actors off-balance. He felt it helped to make their confused and impatient reactions to Columbo's antics more genuine.
• Columbo's catchphrase "Just one more thing" became the basis for a well-known sales technique known as the "Columbo Close". In this, after the sales person has completed their sales pitch without success and the customer is about to walk away, the sales person uses Columbo's line to present the customer with the most enticing part of their offer.
• The creators of Columbo Richard Levinson and William Link said that he was partially inspired by Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment character Porfiry Petrovich, as well as G. K. Chesterton's humble cleric-detective Father Brown. Other sources claim Columbo's character is also influenced by Inspector Fichet from the French suspense-thriller film Les Diaboliques (1955).
• Peter Falk himself directed the last episode of the first season, "Blueprint for Murder," and wrote the episode entitled "It's All in the Game" in season 10.
• Episodes of Columbo are between 70 and 98 minutes long, and have been broadcast in 44 countries.
• Falk appeared in character as Columbo in 1977 at The Dean Martin Celebrity Roast of Frank Sinatra.
• The show has been described by the BBC as "timeless" and remains popular today.
• Columbo had an unofficial signature tune, the British children's song "This Old Man". It was introduced in the episode "Any Old Port in a Storm" in 1973 and the detective can be heard humming or whistling it often in subsequent films. Falk said it was a melody he personally enjoyed and one day it became a part of his character.
• The 1971 episode "Murder by the Book", directed by Steven Spielberg, was ranked No. 16 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All-Time and in 1999, the magazine ranked Lt. Columbo No. 7 on its 50 Greatest TV Characters of All Time list.
• Falk appeared as Columbo in an Alias sketch produced for a 2003 TV special celebrating the 50th anniversary of ABC.
• In 2012, the program was ranked the third-best cop or legal show on Best in TV: The Greatest TV Shows of Our Time.
• In 2013, TV Guide included it in its list of The 60 Greatest Dramas of All Time and ranked it 33rd on its list of the 60 Best Series.
• Also in 2013, the Writers Guild of America ranked it 57th on its list of 101 Best Written TV Series.
• A statue of Lieutenant Columbo and his dog was unveiled in 2014 on Miksa Falk Street in Budapest, Hungary. According to Antal Rogán, then-district mayor of the city, Peter Falk may have been related to Hungarian writer and politician Miksa Falk, although there is no evidence yet to prove it.
• The Japanese are big fans of Columbo. The Japanese television series, often referred to as the Japanese version of Columbo, is called Furuhata Ninzaburō.

Awards and nominations

Columbo received numerous awards and nominations from 1971 to 2005, including 13 Emmys, two Golden Globe Awards, two Edgar Awards and a TV Land Award nomination in 2005 for Peter Falk.

Home media

DVD

As of January 10, 2012, Universal Studios had released all 69 episodes of Columbo on DVD. The episodes are released in the same chronological order as they were originally broadcast. On October 16, 2012, Universal released Columbo—The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1.

Because the Columbo episodes from 1989 to 2003 were aired very infrequently, different DVD sets have been released around the world. In many Region 2 and Region 4 countries, all episodes have now been released as 10 seasons, with the 10th comprising the last 14 episodes, from "Columbo Goes to College" (1990) to "Columbo Likes the Nightlife" (2003). In France and The Netherlands (also Region 2), the DVDs were grouped differently and released as 12 seasons.

In Region 1, all episodes from seasons 8 on are grouped differently; the episodes that originally aired on ABC were released under the title COLUMBO: The Mystery Movie Collection.

Blu-ray

The complete series was released on Blu-ray in Japan in 2011 as a ten-season set.

Books

Columbo, as he appeared in volume 7 of Detective Conan

A Columbo series of books was published by MCA Publishing, written by authors Alfred Lawrence, Henry Clements and Lee Hays. This series of books, with the first title published in 1972, was mostly adapted from the TV series.

Columbo was also used as the protagonist for a series of novels published between 1994 and 1999 by Forge Books, an imprint of Tor Books. All of these books were written by William Harrington.

William Link, the co-creator of the series, wrote a collection of Columbo short stories, titled The Columbo Collection, which was published in May 2010 by Crippen & Landru, the specialty mystery publisher.

Mrs. Columbo spin-off

Mrs. Columbo, a spin-off TV series starring Kate Mulgrew, aired in 1979 and was canceled after only thirteen episodes. Lt. Columbo was never seen on Mrs. Columbo; each episode featured the resourceful Mrs. Columbo solving a murder mystery she encountered in her work as a newspaper reporter. Connections with the original Columbo series were made obvious: the glaring presence of Columbo's car in the driveway, the dog and Mrs. Columbo emptying ashtrays containing the famous green cigar butts—all featured in the show's opening sequence. References were also made to Kate's husband being a police lieutenant.

The Trivia Encyclopedia lawsuit

Columbo's first name is notably never mentioned in the series, but "Frank Columbo" or "Lt. Frank Columbo" can occasionally be seen on his police ID. This ambiguity surrounding Columbo's first name led to the creator of The Trivia Encyclopedia, Fred L. Worth, to include a false entry that listed "Phillip Columbo" as Columbo's full name as a copyright trap. When the board game Trivial Pursuit included "Phillip" as the answer to the question, "What was Columbo's first name?", Worth launched a 300 million dollar lawsuit against the creators of the game. The creators of the game argued that while they did use The Trivia Encyclopedia as one of their sources, facts are not copyrightable and there was nothing improper about using an encyclopedia in the production of a fact-based game. The district court judge agreed and the decision was upheld by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in September 1987. Worth petitioned the Supreme Court of the United States to review the case, but the Court declined, denying certiorari in March 1988.

See also

In Spanish: Columbo para niños