Columbo is a shrewd and exceptionally observant homicide detective whose trademarks include his rumpled beige raincoat, unassuming demeanor, cigar, old Peugeot 403 car,[4][5][6] love of chili, and unseen wife (whom he mentions frequently).

The character and show, created by Richard Levinson and William Link, popularized the inverted detective story format (sometimes referred to as a "howcatchem").

The series' homicide suspects are often affluent members of high society; it has led some critics to see class conflict as an element of each story.

[10] In almost every episode, the audience sees the crime unfold at the beginning and knows the identity of the culprit, typically an affluent member of society.

Once Columbo enters the story (he rarely appears in the first act), viewers watch him solve the case by sifting through the contradictions between the truth and the version presented to him by the killer(s).

Episodes tend to be driven by their characters, the audience observing the criminal's reactions to Columbo's increasingly intrusive presence.

While the details, and eventually the motivations, of the murderers' actions are always shown to the viewer, Columbo's true thoughts and intentions are sometimes concealed until the end of the episode.

Columbo generally maintains a friendly relationship with the murderer until the end, and sometimes even after their confession or incrimination, despite both characters being aware of their adversarial positions.

The murderer in turn almost always immediately sees through Columbo's scruffy and absent-minded manner to his underlying investigative intellect, and accordingly takes steps to divert his efforts by disguising evidence, manipulating witnesses, manufacturing evidence to lead Columbo towards a different suspect, and/or feigning irritation as an excuse for declining requests for searches and interrogations.

In some instances, such as the avenging elderly mystery writer in "Try and Catch Me" and the terminally ill and deluded actress in "Forgotten Lady", many viewers find the killer more sympathetic than the victim.

One exception is "Last Salute to the Commodore", where Robert Vaughn is seen elaborately disposing of a body, but is proved later to have been covering for his alcoholic wife, whom he mistakenly thought to be the murderer.

An example occurs in "Dagger of the Mind", in which Columbo flips an evidentiary pearl into the victim's umbrella, bringing about incriminating activity from Nicholas Frame and Lillian Stanhope.

This was adapted by Levinson and Link from their short story "May I Come In", which had been published as "Dear Corpus Delicti" in the March 1960 issue of Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine.

During the course of the show, the increasingly frightened murderer brings pressure from the district attorney's office to have Columbo taken off the case, but the detective fights back with his own contacts.

This teleplay is available for viewing in the archives of the Paley Center for Media in New York City and the Beverly Hills Public Library in Los Angeles.

This was first performed at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco on January 2, 1962, with Oscar-winning character actor Thomas Mitchell in the role of Columbo.

Director Richard Irving convinced Levinson and Link that Falk, who excitedly said he "would kill to play that cop", could pull it off even though he was much younger than the writers had in mind.

[17] Originally a one-off movie of the week, Prescription: Murder has Falk's Columbo pitted against a psychiatrist (Gene Barry).

Due to the success of this film, NBC requested that a pilot for a potential series be made to see if the character could be sustained on a regular basis, leading to the 1971 ninety-minute television production, Ransom for a Dead Man, with Lee Grant playing the killer.

The high quality of Columbo, McMillan & Wife, and McCloud was due in large part to the extra time spent on each episode.

Columbo's wardrobe was provided by Falk; they were his clothes, including the high-topped shoes and the shabby raincoat, which made its first appearance in Prescription: Murder.

"[19] Falk often ad libbed his character's idiosyncrasies (fumbling through his pockets for a piece of evidence and discovering a grocery list, asking to borrow a pencil, becoming distracted by something irrelevant in the room at a dramatic point in a conversation with a suspect, etc.

Among those actors are Jack Cassidy, Robert Culp, Tyne Daly, Shera Danese, George Hamilton, Patrick McGoohan, Ray Milland, Leslie Nielsen, Tim O'Connor, Dean Stockwell and William Shatner.

Actor Nicholas Colasanto, best known for playing Coach on Cheers, directed two episodes, "Swan Song" with Johnny Cash, and "Étude in Black".

Vincent McEveety was a frequent director, and homage was paid to him by a humorous mention of a character with his surname in the episode "Undercover" (which he directed).

Two episodes, "No Time to Die" and "Undercover", were based on the 87th Precinct novels by Ed McBain,[25] and thus do not strictly follow the standard Columbo/inverted detective story format.

Unlike the other elements of the Mystery Movie wheel, Columbo never had an official theme as such, although some composers, such as Dick DeBenedictis and Gil Mellé, did write their own signature pieces.

[42] Slate quoted a Columbo fan page on Tumblr as saying that the titular character "represents a kind of masculinity that is very attractive to a lot of queer people".

The complete series was released on Blu-ray in Japan in 2011 as a ten-season set, taken from new HD masters and original 1.33:1 (4:3) aspect ratio, apart from the 1989–2003 episodes presented in 1.78:1 (16:9)[citation needed]).

In late 2023, specialist film distributor Kino Lorber released the first 7 seasons of Columbo on Blu-ray in North America, using an NBCUniversal remaster.