Columbo

Columbo is a popular crime fiction TV series created by Richard Levinson and William Link who also created The Fugitive, McCloud and Banacek. The Columbo series stars Peter Falk as Lieutenant Columbo as homicide detective for the Los Angeles Police Department. First broadcast on NBC on February 20, 1968, the show broke the typical mould of the detective stories by telling from the start who is committing the crime and how.

The lead character Lieutenant Columbo typically drives an old battered Peugeot and carries his pet sausage dog. He is very shabbily dressed and appears to be an absent-minded person, which he uses to his advantage in giving suspects a false sense of security as he investigates the crime. Detective Columbo demystifies a crime by holding on to the small gaps in a suspect’s false stories and taking leads from these gaps to arrive at the truth. The character is said to be inspired from the character Petrovitch from Crime and Punishment. The series is much acclaimed by television critics for its innovative style of presenting the detective story, also referred as an inverted detective story. The show creates suspense on how Columbo discovers the killer and unfolds the mystery. Columbo DVDs and Columbo videos are available at several online sites.