| Lt. Columbo | |
|---|---|
 | |
|
Real Name |
Columbo |
|
First Appearance |
"The Chevy Mystery Show" (1960) |
|
Original Publisher |
NBC |
|
Created by |
Richard Levinson and William Link |
Origin[]
Psychiatrist Dr. Roy Fleming has fallen in love with pretty patient Susan Hudson. There's just one problem: Fleming is married, and divorcing his wealthy wife Claire isn't an option, so Fleming decides to eliminate her with the help of Susan. Their foolproof plan for the perfect murder could be foiled by Columbo, a tenacious and suspicious police lieutenant, a stocky character with a thatch of grey hair. He has a rumpled suit and smoked a cigar, but he otherwise had few of the other now-familiar Columbo mannerisms. However, the character is still recognizably Columbo, and uses some of the same methods of misdirecting and distracting his suspects.
Public Domain Appearances[]
Television[]
- Enough Rope (1960 episode)
Notes[]
- Although the episode "Enough Rope" has a copyright notice at the end, no copyright renewal can be found.
- The episode is based on the short story "Dear Corpus Delicti" (initially known as "May I Come In?"), which also was not renewed. However, Columbo does not appear in the story and instead was a character named Fischer.
- Peter Falk would portray the character in later appearances.