49 Fun Facts About Columbo

Lieutenant Columbo is a detective of what specific kind?

Columbo is a homicide lieutenant, always arriving at a murder scene after the viewer has watched the killing; Peter Falk played him for 35 years across two networks.

For which police department does Columbo work?

Columbo carries an LAPD badge; the series was shot in and around Los Angeles, with the suspects' mansions in the hills above the city a fixture of almost every episode.

What is Columbo's most famous item of clothing?

The rumpled beige raincoat was Peter Falk's own coat, which he brought to the role; with the cigar and the battered old car it completed the character.

Columbo drives a battered old car of which make?

It is a Peugeot 403 convertible.

Which food does the show repeatedly mention Columbo loving?

Chili is his standing order at the diner counters he frequents, often with crackers crumbled in; he praises it to suspects and colleagues across many episodes.

Columbo often leaves a room and returns with which catchphrase before a key question?

'Just one more thing' is his habit of pausing at the door and turning back with the question that matters; Peter Falk titled his 2006 memoir Just One More Thing.

The show popularised which storytelling format, in which the viewer sees the crime committed first?

The inverted detective story shows the murder and the murderer up front, so the interest lies in how Columbo catches them; the form is sometimes called a 'howcatchem'.

Who created the character of Columbo?

Richard Levinson and William Link, writing partners since their schooldays in Philadelphia, created Columbo for a 1960 anthology episode and later the stage play and TV movies; they also co-created Murder, She Wrote.

On which network did Columbo first air as part of a rotating 'Mystery Movie' block in 1971?

It later moved to ABC for its 1989-2003 revival.

How many Primetime Emmy Awards did Peter Falk win for playing the detective?

He won in 1972, 1975, 1976 and 1990, plus a Golden Globe in 1973.

Besides Lee J. Cobb, who was suggested for Columbo but turned it down to protect his golf time?

Bing Crosby reportedly declined because a weekly series would eat into his golf; with Lee J. Cobb also unavailable, the 40-year-old Peter Falk was cast for the 1968 film.

The 1968 TV movie that launched the character was adapted from which stage play by the creators?

Prescription: Murder opened on stage in 1962, six years before the TV film; the creators had first written the story as 'May I Come In?', then reworked it as a live TV drama and a play.

What does Columbo call the basset hound that accompanies him in later episodes?

He simply calls the basset hound 'Dog', never settling on a proper name; it first appeared in the 1972 episode 'Étude in Black'.

Which future blockbuster director directed the first-season episode 'Murder by the Book'?

Steven Spielberg, then 24, directed 'Murder by the Book', the first regular-season episode in 1971; it was written by a young Steven Bochco.

Columbo's first name is almost never spoken, but identification props show it as what?

Frank appears on his police ID in 'Dead Weight' (1971) and on later props; a 1970s trivia encyclopedia planted a false first name as a copyright trap, which Trivial Pursuit then copied.

Unlike most TV detectives, Columbo does what?

Columbo never carries a gun, keeping his service revolver in a drawer at home; he relies on observation and persistence instead.

The 1979 spinoff Mrs. Columbo starred which actress as the detective's wife?

Kate Mulgrew, later Star Trek: Voyager's Captain Janeway, played Kate Columbo; the show was retitled Kate Loves a Mystery and cancelled after thirteen episodes.

When the pieces start to fall into place, Columbo often begins whistling which tune?

'This Old Man', the children's counting song, became his habitual whistle from the third season in 1973, a touch Peter Falk added himself.

What caused Peter Falk's distinctive squint?

His right eye was removed in early childhood because of a retinoblastoma tumour, and he wore a glass eye for the rest of his life.

The show's murderers are usually drawn from which social group?

The killers are almost always wealthy high-society figures, such as surgeons, conductors and tycoons, whose contempt for the shabby lieutenant is their undoing; critics read class conflict as the show's theme.

The very last new Columbo episode aired in which year?

'Columbo Likes the Nightlife' aired on ABC on 30 January 2003, the last of the occasional TV movies the show had become; Peter Falk was 75.

In the 1971 pilot 'Ransom for a Dead Man', who played the killer?

Lee Grant played the lawyer Leslie Williams, who murders her husband and stages a kidnapping; the film's ratings led to the regular series that autumn.

The creators said Columbo was partly inspired by a character in which Dostoevsky novel?

Crime and Punishment's investigator Porfiry Petrovich, who wears down Raskolnikov with polite persistence, was one model; the creators also cited G. K. Chesterton's Father Brown.

A statue of Columbo and his dog was unveiled in 2014 in which European capital?

The bronze stands on Falk Miksa Street in Budapest, named for a 19th-century Hungarian journalist and politician who shares the actor's surname; the sculpture shows him with his basset hound.

Richard Irving argued for Falk despite him being what, compared with the writers' idea of the character?

Falk, at 40, was much younger than the elderly detective the writers had pictured, but director Richard Irving pushed for him; Falk had said he 'would kill to play that cop'.

For what did Peter Falk first win an Emmy in 1962?

He won for 'The Price of Tomatoes', a Dick Powell Theatre episode in which he played a truck driver; he had already been Oscar-nominated for Murder, Inc. and Pocketful of Miracles.

Falk frequently collaborated with which filmmaker friend on movies like A Woman Under the Influence?

Cassavetes even appeared as a murderer in the Columbo episode 'Etude in Black'.

Falk played the grandfather who reads the story in which 1987 fantasy film?

In The Princess Bride Falk plays the grandfather reading the tale to a sick Fred Savage; he also starred in the 1979 comedy The In-Laws.

Which 1976 episode breaks the format by hiding the killer's identity until the end?

Last Salute to the Commodore (1976) is a true whodunit: the man shown disposing of the body is later murdered himself, and Columbo names the real culprit only in the final scene.

Between its two networks, Columbo's original NBC run lasted from 1971 to which year?

The NBC run ended with 'The Conspirators' in May 1978, after seven seasons inside the Mystery Movie wheel; the show lay dormant for more than a decade before its revival.

Who played the psychiatrist who murders his wife in the 1968 Columbo TV movie?

Gene Barry played Dr. Ray Flemming, who kills his wife and has his mistress impersonate her on a flight to fake an alibi; the film aired on 20 February 1968.

Actor Ben Gazzara, close to Falk, directed which two mid-1970s Columbo episodes?

Gazzara, Falk's close friend and co-star in Husbands, directed 'A Friend in Deed' (1974) and 'Troubled Waters' (1975), the latter set aboard a cruise ship.

In how many Columbo episodes did Jack Cassidy play the murderer?

Jack Cassidy played the murderer three times: in 'Murder by the Book' (1971), 'Publish or Perish' (1974) and 'Now You See Him' (1976).

Which Oscar-winning director helmed the seventh-season episode 'Murder Under Glass'?

Demme later won an Oscar for The Silence of the Lambs.

The ABC revival of Columbo ran under 'The ABC Mystery Movie' banner starting in which year?

The revival began on 6 February 1989 with 'Columbo Goes to the Guillotine', rotating with Gideon Oliver, B.L. Stryker and Kojak inside The ABC Mystery Movie; after that block ended, new films came only occasionally.

In the Mrs. Columbo spinoff, what job does Kate Columbo have?

Kate works as a reporter for a small weekly newspaper, stumbling onto crimes on her beat; the Lieutenant himself never appears on screen.

In which Neil Simon spoof does Falk play the detective Sam Diamond?

In Murder by Death (1976), Neil Simon's send-up of detective fiction, Falk's Sam Diamond parodies Humphrey Bogart's Sam Spade; two years later he played Lou Peckinpaugh in Simon's The Cheap Detective.

In which year did Peter Falk die?

Peter Falk died on 23 June 2011 at his Beverly Hills home, aged 83, after several years with Alzheimer's disease.

Faye Dunaway won an Emmy for playing the killer in which 1993 Columbo episode?

Faye Dunaway's Lauren Staton in 'It's All in the Game' (1993) earned her the Emmy for guest actress in a drama; Peter Falk wrote the episode himself.

Which actor was the first to play Columbo, in a 1960 Chevy Mystery Show episode?

Freed's Columbo already wore a rumpled suit and smoked a cigar in 'Enough Rope', but had few of the other mannerisms Falk later made famous.

Which Oscar-winning actor played Columbo on stage in the 1962 play Prescription: Murder?

Mitchell was 70 and died of cancer while the play toured; Columbo was his last role, and plans for a Broadway run were abandoned.

Which false first name did The Trivia Encyclopedia plant as a copyright trap for Columbo?

Fred L. Worth planted 'Philip' in The Trivia Encyclopedia; when Trivial Pursuit repeated it, he sued for $300 million and lost, the courts ruling that facts are not copyrightable.

Which actor played the murderer four times and also directed five episodes of the series?

McGoohan, of The Prisoner fame, wrote and produced two episodes as well, making him the show's most prolific guest collaborator.

Who composed 'The Mystery Movie Theme' heard over 38 episodes of the show from 1971 to 1977?

Henry Mancini wrote the theme for the network's Mystery Movie umbrella, so Columbo never had an official theme of its own; composers such as Dick DeBenedictis and Gil Mellé wrote their own signature pieces instead.

In which 1973 episode did the detective's signature whistled tune first appear?

Columbo first whistles it in 'Any Old Port in a Storm', a third-season episode from October 1973 in which Donald Pleasence plays a murderous winemaker; Falk said the nursery tune was simply a melody he liked.

Which country's government reportedly feared riots when new Columbo episodes stopped airing?

Romania's state broadcaster had run the show in the 1970s; when episodes ran out, the US State Department reportedly asked Falk to record a message for Romanian viewers saying more were on the way.

Which country music star appeared in 'Swan Song', directed by Cheers actor Nicholas Colasanto?

Johnny Cash plays gospel singer Tommy Brown, who sabotages his own plane to kill his wife and a young girl; Colasanto, Cheers' Coach, also directed 'Étude in Black'.

Two later episodes were adapted from which crime writer's 87th Precinct novels?

Ed McBain, the pen name of Evan Hunter, wrote the 87th Precinct novels behind 'No Time to Die' (1992) and 'Undercover' (1994), which therefore open without showing the crime.

In which 1987 Wim Wenders film is Falk greeted as 'Columbo' by passing young men?

In Wings of Desire Falk plays himself, a former angel shooting a film in Berlin, and young men at a snack stand call out 'Columbo' as he passes; he reprised the role in the 1993 sequel Faraway, So Close!