About Columbo
Columbo follows a rumpled, cigar-chewing homicide lieutenant of the Los Angeles Police Department as he investigates murders committed by wealthy, brilliant, and self-assured killers. The series broke from the conventions of the mystery genre by revealing the murderer and their crime to the audience in the opening act, transforming each installment into an inverted detective story, or 'howcatchem,' in which the suspense lies not in who did it but in how Columbo will prove it.
Dressed in a battered beige raincoat and driving a decrepit Peugeot, Lieutenant Columbo presents himself as an absent-minded, almost bumbling figure who is forever misplacing a pencil or troubled by some small detail he 'just can't figure out.' This unassuming manner lulls his suspects into underestimating him, allowing his razor-sharp intellect and relentless attention to inconsistencies to slowly close the trap. His trademark exit line, 'Oh, just one more thing,' became one of television's most beloved catchphrases.
Originating as a series of made-for-television movies on NBC's Mystery Movie wheel in the 1970s and later revived on ABC, Columbo earned acclaim for its tightly constructed scripts, its parade of distinguished guest stars as the murderers, and Peter Falk's indelible, multiple-Emmy-winning performance. The character became a cultural touchstone, admired for proving that decency, patience, and persistence could outmatch arrogance and privilege.