Columbo

About Columbo

Many criminals make the mistake of underestimating Lieutenant Columbo, a homicide investigator with a crumpled trench-coat and a beat-up car, who certainly acts as an incompetent bumbler.

But he is so polite to every suspect, and he talks so much about his wife (who we never got to see on any episode, but who many believe later had her own show, starring Kate Mulgrew, later of Star Trek: Voyager fame) that he lulls even the shrewdest murderer into a false sense of security.

And although the audience witnesses the murder in the beginning of each episode, it is still a surprise to see what mistakes the killers made during the seemingly perfect murder.

Peter Falk carried the old trench-coat for 7 seasons of 90 and 120 minute movies, before the series ended. But over a decade later, Falk agreed to revive the character for an additional 2 seasons with a subsequent string of TV-movies with the loveable detective once again using his calling-card false good-byes: "Oh, there's just one more thing..."