Columbo

Sixty nine feature length mysteries across thirty five years and two networks. Three databases all reach sixty nine and not one of them arranges it the same way.

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Where to start with Columbo

Every instalment is a self contained feature length mystery and none of them builds on another, so there is no order to follow and no reason to start at the beginning. What there is instead is a very long run of wildly variable quality, so the useful thing is knowing which ones are worth your evening. The two pilots come before everything if you want chronology, and neither is required.

  1. 1
    Season 2 Columbo

    Eight films from the stretch almost everybody names as the peak, roughly the first season to the fifth. Any of them stands alone.

  2. 2
    Season 3 Columbo

    Eight more from the same run, including several of the most often recommended.

  3. 3
    Prescription: Murder Prescription: Murder

    Only if you want to see where it started. It is not a first episode so much as a different, colder version of the character.

  4. 4
    Season 8 Columbo

    The ABC revival from 1989, if you are curious how it came back. A different show in tone, and where the numbering starts disagreeing with itself.

A suggested way in, not an official one. The full list is below: tick anything off in either place.

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The Series

  • Columbo 1971, 10 seasons, 67 episodes

The Two Pilots

  • Prescription: Murder 1968
  • Ransom for a Dead Man 1971

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