Stars: Peter Falk

Summary: Raincoat-clad detective Columbo (Peter Falk) is one of television's most popular private investigators. Outwardly Columbo appears to be a pushover, a quiet man who appears to only grasp rudimentary facts concerning detective work. His mind is brilliant, however, and he always appears able to ask the one question that no one else thought to ask, leading to a string of successful cases. Each episode of the series features a careful deconstruction of events by the placid cigar smoking sleuth, aiming to keep viewers second-guessing everything until the final moments of the show. This release offers 7 episodes from the first season, as well as two COLUMBO TV movies.

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TV detective fans rejoice: Peter Falk's rumpled and infallible Lt. Columbo joins the DVD precinct with a five-disc set that features the detective's first nine appearances for NBC. Though Falk as Columbo (no first name) made his TV debut in 1967, the detective had actually first appeared on an episode of the 1960-61 Chevy Mystery Show(Bert Freed played the role) written by veteran TV scribes Richard Levinson and William Link (The Fugitive, Alfred Hitchcock Presents). The pair turned the episode into a stage play titled Prescription: Murder, which was adapted into a TV movie in 1967 with Falk in the lead. NBC greenlit a two-hour Columbo pilot (Ransom for a Dead Man) in 1971, and the series was launched that fall as part of the NBC Sunday Mystery Movie, a rotating 90-minute program that alternated Columbowith episodes of MacMillan and Wifeand McCloud(another Levinson/Link creation). Viewers were quickly won over by Falk's shrewd performance as he matched wits with a host of exceptional guest stars (including Gene Barry, Patrick McGoohan, and others), all of whom assumed that the disheveled detective would never figure out their "perfect crimes"; the popularity and quality of the original series allows Falk to continue to don the trenchcoat some 30 years later for occasional ColumboTV movies.

All seven 90-minute episodes of the 1971-72 debut season are included here, along with Prescription: Murderand Ransom for a Dead Man; unfortunately, as the lieutenant himself would say, "Oh, just one more thing"--no extras are included in the set, but having these fine TV mysteries in one set should be reward enough for armchair sleuths. --Paul Gaita

Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Release Date:	September 13, 2004
Runtime:	660 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	822 905 8
Keywords:	Box, General, Mystery, Series, Columbo, Set, Tv, Drama, Whodunnit
Genre:	Mystery/Whodunnit