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The seventh season of Columbo was the final one for NBC. It was, in a way, the last season of the show, or the last of Columbo as we knew it. The show returned eventually, but on ABC, and that wasn’t until 1989. For reference, season seven ended in 1978. That means the show returned a decade later on a different network, and there are maybe three or four good episodes from the ABC era. Even that seventh season of Columbo isn’t perfect, though. Here is our ranking of the five episodes from that season.
5. “How to Dial a Murder”
This is one of the sillier Columbo episodes from any era. It has an absurd grasp of psychology. A doctor trains his dogs to kill his fellow doctor through mind control. All that psychology stuff just feels absurd, and the killer isn’t even all that interesting as a character.
4. “The Conspirators”
The bottom of this list features the two episodes that aired fourth and fifth. That’s a tough way to go out! “The Conspirators” is one of the longer episode, 93 minutes in fact. It didn’t need that long of a runtime. An Irish poet is the killer, and he has ties to the IRA. Peter Falk is better in this one than “How to Dial a Murder,” though.
3. “Make Me a Perfect Murder”
Hey, at least these other three episodes are good. Very good, in fact. There was some life left in Columbo, evidently. Trish Van Devere plays a woman who works as a TV programmer and when she is overlooked for promotion by her paramour, she decides to kill him and then takes his job. She’s quite good, and the look into the TV business doesn’t feel silly or over the top. Her murder plot is executed in exciting fashion, and Columbo and Van Devere’s character have good chemistry.
2. “Murder Under Glass”
Louis Jourdan plays the killer in “Murder Under Glass,” a real uptick in fame over the killers in the previous three episodes. There’s a little too much Falk speaking in Italian in this episode, and some dicey stuff vis-à-vis Japanese culture (but not atrocious, certainly for the era), but Jourdan is a talented actor, and well-suited to playing a smarmy food critic. Now, Falk did manage to get his new wife Shera Danese a role, and, um, her acting leaves a bit to be desired. Hey, they stayed married until his death, so there’s that. Jonathan Demme, a future Oscar winner, directed the episode, which more than balances out Danese’s lackluster (and small) role.
1. “Try and Catch Me”
The seventh-season premiere is one of the best Columbo episodes, so it’s an easy place to end. Ruth Gordon plays an Agatha Christie type, who kills her only living relative, her nephew-in-law, by locking him in her airtight safe, playing it off as an accident. Gordon is great in the role, and is made to be one of the more sympathetic killers in a Columbo. There’s also a great scene where Columbo gives a speech to a conference that sums the character up perfectly. A must see.
