TV Time Machine

Deidre Hall had quite a Columbo journey. First, a bit part in 1974's "Mind Over Mayhem," then a starring role in one of the better 1990's Columbo movies: "Columbo Cries Wolf."

In the second Columbo pilot, "Ransom for a Dead Man," Patricia Mattick gives an unforgettable performance as the stepdaughter who's convinced her stepmom (Lee Grant), killed her father in cold blood. Only twenty years-old at the time, Mattick deeply impressed the Emmy and Oscar-winning Grant, as well as television viewers--for Mattick is still remembered by Columbo fans for this performance well over fifty years later.

Ted Post was the only director to helm two Columbo's that featured murderers from foreign lands where Lieutenant Columbo had limited or no jurisdiction: "A Matter of Honor" was based in Mexico, and "A Case of Immunity" (pictured), which took place in the lower-level embassy of the fictional foreign country, Suria. Here, first secretary of the Surian legation Hassan Salah (Hector Elizondo) attempts to make a desperate deal with Lieutenant Columbo in "A Case of Immunity."

Kim Cattrall had just begun her career as a contract player for Universal Studios when she was cast as a witness to a brutal murder carried out by her Svengali-like lover, Eric Hunter (Nicol Williamson), in the Columbo episode, "How to Dial a Murder." Using a pair of pet Dobermans, Hunter trains his dogs to unleash fury on his friend who betrayed Eric by having an affair with his wife. Ironically, three years before starring in "How to Dial a Murder," Kim Cattrall made her movie debut in "Rosebud"--the attack word Eric Hunter used to trigger his killer Dobermans.

Peter Falk, Ray Milland, and Sandra Smith star in the Columbo episode, "The Greenhouse Jungle," which aired October 15, 1972 on the NBC Sunday Night Mystery Movie. Three years before Columbo, Sandra Smith starred in perhaps her most famous role--playing a woman whose body is inhabited by the personality of Captain Kirk, in the "Turnabout Intruder" episode of the classic NBC TV sci-fi series, Star Trek.

Best known for her role as a wholesome mom with a brood of kids in the ABC TV sitcom, "Please Don't Eat the Daisies," Patricia Crowley played against type in Columbo. Crowley portrayed Lenore Kennicut, an unfaithful wife who is murdered by Robert Culp when she refuses to be blackmailed in the classic episode, "Death Lends a Hand."

Columbo creators Richard Levinson and William Link were steadfast in the conviction that their characters neither smoke nor drink. Yet, in the first televised Columbo movie, 1968's Prescription: Murder, our intrepid detective (Peter Falk), enjoyed both a snort and a smoke with murderer Gene Barry!

"The Most Crucial Game" is perhaps the most L.A.-Centric Columbo ever filmed. This 1972 second-season episode featured the world-champion Los Angeles Lakers (with Pat Riley wearing the red shorts), LAX, and the Los Angeles Coliseum, among other recognizable locations.

Partly inspired by the movie Network, the Columbo episode "Make Me a Perfect Murder" starred Trish Van Devere as a ruthless TV executive who cancels her boyfriend when he refuses to promote her at the network. "Make Me a Perfect Murder" aired on NBC TV on February 28, 1978. In the story, the network executive's undoing, in part, was her TV movie that bombed in the ratings. Ironically, "Make Me a Perfect Murder" was the lowest-rated Columbo among the first three shows aired by the network during the 1977-78 TV season.

Peter Falk and Walter Koenig in the Columbo episode "Fade In To Murder," which aired on the NBC television network October 10, 1976. Since William Shatner, best known as Captain Kirk on the classic "Star Trek" TV series, stars as an actor/murderer who plays a TV detective in this story, the casting of Koenig (who played 'Chekov' on "Star Trek") as a 'real' detective (albeit a small role) was a bit of an inside joke. Koenig and Shatner never had a scene together in this episode of Columbo, which is probably a good thing, as the two men weren't quite getting along at that time (nor practically at any other time!)