Columbo
Season 1971
6 listed hours · 1971–2003 · NBC
From the desk
How this season is filed
Peter Falk's rumpled trap: an inverted mystery that showed you the killer first, then treated guest-star ego as the actual puzzle — television as a closed argument, not a clue hunt.
TV Flash files Season 1971 of Columbo (1971–2003) on NBC as a mid listed season (1971; 2 of 20) — 6 listed hours, 1971-03-01–1971-12-15 from “Ransom for a Dead Man” (S1971E01) to “Lady in Waiting” (S1971E06). Titles, dates, and synopses on file — no invented recaps.
Desk essentials in this season
- S1971E02 Murder by the Book
The weekly machine starts. Writerly vanity as the crime; a young Spielberg already understanding the show is about ego, not clues.
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S1971E01 Ransom for a Dead Man
A brilliant tort attorney gets rid of her boring husband by faking his kidnapping and keeping the ransom. The FBI may be fooled, but not Columbo.
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S1971E02 Murder by the Book
When one member of a mystery writing team wants to break from his less talented partner, she becomes the victim in a real-life murder mystery.
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S1971E03 Death Lends a Hand
When the CEO of a private detective agency threatens the wife of a publisher with blackmail and she threatens to expose him, he accidentally kills her.
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S1971E04 Dead Weight
A war hero shoots and kills his business partner; an easily manipulated young divorcée is the only witness.
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S1971E05 Suitable for Framing
A wealthy art collector is murdered, and all signs point to a robbery gone wrong. But the nephew's alibi is a little too convenient, and Columbo pulls a fast one to ferret out the killer.
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S1971E06 Lady in Waiting
A mousy heiress murders her brother, pretending she thought he was a burglar. Lt. Columbo unravels her alibi.
More from the 1970s.