The WORST episodes of Columbo
Every episode of Columbo ever, ranked from worst to best by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The worst episodes of Columbo!
A Los Angeles homicide detective, Lieutenant Columbo, uses his humble ways and shrewd demeanor to ferret out even the most careful criminals.
#1 - Last Salute to the Commodore
Season 5 - Episode 6 - Aired 3/2/1976
The family and friends of brilliant naval architect Commodore Otis Swanson have gathered for the company’s annual party. The commodore, however, has become increasingly discontented with the way his son-in-law, Charles Clay, has developed the shipbuilding firm into a vast, impersonal corporation. He is tired of being surrounded by freeloaders like his alcoholic daughter, Joanna, his irresponsible nephew, Swanny, and of course, Charles. The only man he respects is Wayne Taylor, the head of the boatyard. In fact, the Commodore intends to sell the company. That night, Charles is wiping clean the belaying pin used to bash the Commodore’s skull.
#2 - Murder, a Self Portrait
Season 9 - Episode 1 - Aired 11/25/1989
A famous artist, Max Barsini, lives with his wife Vanessa and a beautiful live-in model named Julie at his beach house/studio. Max's ex-wife Louise lives in the beach house next door. Together, these women comprise Max's own little harem. He loves them all in different ways, but, more importantly, likes to control them. In fact, Max derives a great deal of satisfaction from the fact that they all fight for his attention and are reliant upon him financially and emotionally. The competitive jealousy between the women reaches a head at the dinner table one night when Max asks each of them what they think of the other. Their answers prove the intense rivalry between the women.
#3 - A Matter of Honor
Season 5 - Episode 4 - Aired 2/1/1976
The owner of a bull ranch in Mexico gives his workers the day off, and then talks his number one man into fighting the bull who nearly killed his son. But instead he shoots him with a tranquilizer gun, and lets the bull kill him. Colombo, who is on vacation in Mexico, gets dragged into this case by an admiring colleague, but he has trouble convincing the Mexicans that the accident is really homicide. And how do you prove that the bull is a murder weapon?
#4 - Old Fashioned Murder
Season 6 - Episode 2 - Aired 11/28/1976
The female head of a museum hires one of the guards to rob the museum to collect the insurance money. But during the robbery she kills him and her own brother, and makes it look like they killed each other. The guard/robber's brother reports a strange message on his answering machine, that makes it seem that he has been killed. And Columbo gets the case. When Columbo first comes to the crime scene, he notices that the lights are off, a gold medallion in the robber's pants, and signs that pointed to the fact that he was going abroad after the heist. And he concluded that these clues mean that someone else was involved.
#5 - Agenda for Murder
Season 9 - Episode 3 - Aired 2/10/1990
Columbo matches wits with a brilliant attorney responsible for the murder of the one man who could stifle his meteoric political career.
#6 - Murder in Malibu
Season 9 - Episode 6 - Aired 5/14/1990
An ambitious womanizer, rejected by the romance novelist he planned to marry, ends the story she was writing with a gun and makes the murder look like robbery gone awry.
#7 - Butterfly in Shades of Grey
Season 10 - Episode 5 - Aired 1/10/1994
Ego-maniac Fielding Chase, is a radio talk show host who in order to prevent his daughter from moving to New York, murders a member of his staff.
#8 - Lovely but Lethal
Season 3 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/23/1973
Viveca Scott, the founder of Beauty Mark Cosmetics, is being threatened by her rival David Lang. When he finds out that her revolutionary cream formula actually removes wrinkles, he has the formula pirated.
#9 - Mind Over Mayhem
Season 3 - Episode 6 - Aired 2/18/1974
Dr. Marshal Cahill, head of a think tank, is forced to protect his plagarizing son by killing the professor, Nichols, who discovered the plagarized information. Cahill programs a robot to take his place during a war game exercise that he runs from an isolated room, then fakes a hit-and-run accident on Nichols and plants evidence to make it look like a drug theft gone awry. The first thing Columbo notices upon arrival is a match burned down to the base - something Columbo knows well because it's how you light a cigar. And Dr. Cahill is the only other cigar smoker around. There are a lot of other little things that Columbo notices as well, and with the help of a child prodigy he discovers how Cahill used the robot to provide himself with an alibi. But without one major clue, Columbo arrests the son to force Cahill, who was willing to kill for his son, to confess his crime to protect the boy.
#10 - Dagger of the Mind
Season 2 - Episode 4 - Aired 11/26/1972
While on a work trip to London, to learn the techniques of the British police, Columbo gets involved with the murder of Roger Haversham, a rich old businessman who is financing the careers of two rundown theater stars. When Sir Roger threatens to end their careers, because he felt betrayed, he's killed. A short while after, his butler figures out the motives for his master's murder, and blackmails the actors, who have no other choice than to kill him and make it look like he commited suicide due to remorse, because he murdered his employer. Columbo stills manages to catch both the murderers, with the help of a pearl and a new umbrella.
#11 - The Conspirators
Season 7 - Episode 5 - Aired 5/13/1978
An Irish poet, who fronts a peace organization while secretly running guns, kills an arms dealer who tries to swindle him.
#12 - Sex and the Married Detective
Season 8 - Episode 3 - Aired 4/3/1989
A sex therapist catches her boyfriend with another woman when he thinks she is out of town. She then disguises herself and manages to kill him while in disguise, not realizing that a potential suitor saw her enter the bathroom as a dark-haired woman and exit as a blonde.
#13 - Undercover
Season 10 - Episode 6 - Aired 5/2/1994
A photograph is the only clue for Columbo when two dead men and a seven year old mystery with $4 million dollars involved as well as an obnoxious insurance investigator come into play.
#14 - Short Fuse
Season 1 - Episode 8 - Aired 1/19/1972
A chemist rigs a bomb in his uncle's car to gain control of his uncle's company, then plants clues to make Columbo suspicious of the company's Vice-President.
#15 - Forgotten Lady
Season 5 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/14/1975
A fading actress kills her husband when he refuses to back her comeback show.
#16 - Étude in Black
Season 2 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/17/1972
The mistress of a conductor becomes a target for murder after threatening to tell all to her lover's wife.
#17 - Caution: Murder Can Be Hazardous to Your Health
Season 10 - Episode 2 - Aired 2/20/1991
Wade Anders, a former security expert, hosts the show Crime Alert. A rival host, news reader Bud, discovers Wade was in a porno movie and plans to tell the world then take over his show.
#18 - The Most Dangerous Match
Season 2 - Episode 7 - Aired 3/4/1973
A chess grandmaster disposes of the champion, who keeps coming back on him.
#19 - Grand Deceptions
Season 8 - Episode 4 - Aired 5/1/1989
Frank Brailie runs a private military foundation for wanabe soldiers owned by the wheelchair bound General Padget. The General has become suspicious of Frank as a great deal of money seems to be going to a Special Projects Fund. The General tells a close colleague to investigate Frank and the Special Projects Fund. Instead of reporting his fraudulent findings back to the General, he decides to blackmail Frank for some of the money, Frank agrees and starts to plan his murder.
#20 - An Exercise in Fatality
Season 4 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/15/1974
A health club owner kills his partner who is about to uncover a fraud and makes it look like an accident
#21 - Requiem for a Falling Star
Season 2 - Episode 5 - Aired 1/21/1973
A fading movie star tries to murder a writer who is attempting to blackmail her, but accidentally kills her P.A.
#22 - Murder by the Book
Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 9/15/1971
One member of a mystery-writing-team decides to kill his more talented partner when the better writer decides to go solo.
#23 - The Most Crucial Game
Season 2 - Episode 3 - Aired 11/5/1972
The manager of a football team kills the team's owner, disguising himself as an ice cream vendor as a cover. He then uses a recording of a faked phone call as an alibi to prove he was elsewhere at the time of the murder.
#24 - Uneasy Lies the Crown
Season 9 - Episode 5 - Aired 4/28/1990
While investigating the death of a popular actor, Columbo must outwit a cunning dentist, who has set up his wife for a murder in order to keep up his image and expensive lifestyle.
#25 - Make Me a Perfect Murder
Season 7 - Episode 3 - Aired 2/28/1978
Mark McAndrews a top network programmer is promoted to a New York position. His assistant, who is very ambitious and his lover, expects to get his old job. But of course he feels she is out of her league and needs more experience. Kay, feeling betrayed, decides to seek revenge.