Columbo season 6

Last updated

Contents

Columbo
Season 6
No. of episodes3
Release
Original network NBC
Original releaseOctober 10, 1976 (1976-10-10) 
May 22, 1977 (1977-05-22)
Season chronology
 Previous
Season 5
Next 
Season 7
List of episodes

This is a list of episodes from the sixth season of Columbo .

Broadcast history

The season originally aired Sundays at 8:00–9:30 pm (EST) as part of The NBC Sunday Mystery Movie .

DVD release

The season was released on DVD by Universal Studios Home Entertainment along with season seven, under its Universal Classic Television classic TV entertainment programming series.

Episodes

No. in
series
No. in
season
TitleDirected byWritten byMurderer played byVictim(s) played byOriginal air dateRuntime
381"Fade in to Murder" Bernard L. Kowalski Story by: Henry Garson
Teleplay by: Peter Feibleman and Lou Shaw
William Shatner as Ward Fowler Lola Albright as Claire DaleyOctober 10, 1976 (1976-10-10)70 min

Egocentric actor Ward Fowler (William Shatner), who portrays Detective Lucerne on a weekly TV show, is being blackmailed by his producer and ex-paramour, Claire Daley (Lola Albright), over the fact that he was a deserter in the Korean War. Fowler drugs a friend staying at his house watching a baseball game, puts it on tape delay, then dons a ski mask and pretends to rob a delicatessen where Claire is shopping. After Fowler knocks the proprietor unconscious and takes Claire's money, he shoots her dead, then ditches the gun and mask. He begins stepping in and out of character to "assist" Columbo with the investigation.

Final clue/twist: After Columbo has shaken Fowler's alibi, he confronts him with his biggest mistake. There are no fingerprints on the murder weapon, but Fowler left his fingerprints on the remaining live bullets inside the revolver's chamber.

Molly, Mr Daley's secretary, is played by Shera Danese, who would eventually marry star Peter Falk. [1] Walter Koenig guest stars as a police sergeant. The mechanical shark "Bruce" from Jaws makes a cameo as himself.
392"Old Fashioned Murder" Robert Douglas Story by: Lawrence Vail
Teleplay by: Peter Feibleman
Joyce Van Patten as Ruth Lytton Peter Feibleman as Milton Schaeffer and Tim O'Connor as Edward LyttonNovember 28, 1976 (1976-11-28)72 min

The Lytton family owns and operates an antiquities museum. Ruth Lytton (Joyce Van Patten) has dedicated her life to the museum, never marrying and having no children, although her niece Janie (Jeannie Berlin) is as close to her as a daughter. Her brother Edward (Tim O'Connor) is not nearly as dedicated to the family business as Ruth is; in fact, he plans to close the museum and sell the building, as it's been losing money for years. Ruth and Edward's sister (and Janie's mother) Phyllis Brandt (Celeste Holm) is a checked-out alcoholic who is likely to go along with Edward's decision. Ruth enlists Milton Schaeffer (Peter Feibleman), an ex-con who works as a guard at the museum, and whose brother Tim is having an affair with Janie, in a complex plot where Milton will steal some artifacts from the museum, fake his own death, and then flee the country while Ruth collects the insurance money. But her real goal is revealed when she double-crosses Milton during the robbery, and shoots him dead, then kills Edward when he comes to investigate the gunshot. She then plants guns on both men to make it look like they killed each other. When Ruth realizes Columbo has not fallen for the staged robbery, she tries to frame Janie for involvement in the crimes.

Final clue/twist: Ruth plants an ancient belt buckle in Janie's room to frame her, and Janie is arrested for the murders. Columbo takes the buckle to Janie's prison cell. When Janie uses it as an ashtray, Columbo knows she has no idea what it is, so she could not possibly have had a hand in its theft. Columbo comes to believe that, many years before, Ruth killed Janie's father, Peter Brandt, whom she was going to marry until Phyllis snatched him away. To protect Janie, who does not know much about her father’s death and his relationships with the women in his life, Ruth persuades Columbo not to pursue those questions and in return she will confess to the two current murders.
403"The Bye-Bye Sky High I.Q. Murder Case" Sam Wanamaker Robert Malcolm Young Theodore Bikel as Oliver Brandt Sorrell Booke as Bertie HastingsMay 22, 1977 (1977-05-22)70 min

Bertie Hastings (Sorrell Booke) discovers that his friend, Oliver Brandt (Theodore Bikel), a senior partner in an accounting firm, has been embezzling money to support the expensive lifestyle of his beautiful wife, Vivian (Samantha Eggar). Hastings refuses to remain silent, even though he is friends with the volatile and egotistical Brandt. Brandt then plots Hastings's murder at the Sigma Society, the headquarters of a Mensa-type club for geniuses, intending to make it look like a burglary gone bad.

Final clue/twist: Columbo uses Brandt's own Mensa-level intelligence and vanity, along with his dislike of the other people in the society, to trap him. After Columbo presents a ridiculous solution to how the murder took place, specifically on how the murderer timed things so the sounds of gunshots were heard coming from upstairs, immediately followed by the sound of a falling body, an outraged and insulted Brandt shows him exactly how it was done.

Jamie Lee Curtis has a small role as a surly coffee-shop waitress in just her 3rd TV appearance. This was the last episode to air under the NBC Mystery Movie brand before it was cancelled.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Falk</span> American actor (1927–2011)

Peter Michael Falk was an American film and television actor, singer and television director and producer. He is best known for his role as Lieutenant Columbo on the NBC/ABC series Columbo, for which he won four Primetime Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe Award (1973). In 1996, TV Guide ranked Falk No. 21 on its 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time list. He received a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2013.

<i>Columbo</i> American crime drama television film series

Columbo is an American crime drama television series starring Peter Falk as Lieutenant Columbo, a homicide detective with the Los Angeles Police Department. After two pilot episodes in 1968 and 1971, the show originally aired on NBC from 1971 to 1978 as one of the rotating programs of The NBC Mystery Movie. Columbo then aired on ABC as a rotating program on The ABC Mystery Movie from 1989 to 1990, and on a less frequent basis from 1990 to 2003.

<i>McCloud</i> (TV series) American television series (1970–1977)

McCloud is an American police drama television series created by Herman Miller, that aired on NBC from September 16, 1970, to April 17, 1977. The series starred Dennis Weaver, and for six of its seven years as part of the NBC Mystery Movie rotating wheel series that was produced for the network by Universal Television. The show was centered on Deputy Marshal Sam McCloud of the small western town of Taos, New Mexico, who was on loan to the metropolitan New York City Police Department (NYPD) as a special investigator.

The NBC Mystery Movie is an American television anthology series produced by Universal Pictures, that NBC broadcast from 1971 to 1977. Devoted to a rotating series of mystery episodes, it was sometimes split into two subsets broadcast on different nights of the week: The NBC Sunday Mystery Movie and The NBC Wednesday Mystery Movie.

<i>McMillan & Wife</i> American police procedural television series

McMillan & Wife is an American police procedural television series that aired on NBC from September 17, 1971, to April 24, 1977. Starring Rock Hudson and Susan Saint James in the title roles, the series premiered in episodes as part of Universal Television's wheel series NBC Mystery Movie, in rotation with Columbo and McCloud. Initially airing on Wednesday night, the original lineup was shifted to Sundays in the second season, where it aired for the rest of its run. For the final season, known as McMillan, numerous changes were made that included killing off St. James' character of Sally McMillan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NBCUniversal</span> American media and entertainment conglomerate

NBCUniversal Media, LLC is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate that is a subsidiary of Comcast and is headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan in New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Entertainment Rights</span> Defunct British multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate

Entertainment Rights PLC was a British multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate that specialised in television shows and cartoons, children's media, films, and distribution. In May 2009, the company was acquired by Boomerang Media and merged into its own subsidiary Classic Media.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">5USA</span> British free-to-air television channel

5USA is a British free-to-air television channel owned by Channel 5 Broadcasting Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Paramount Global, which is grouped under Paramount Networks UK & Australia division. It was launched on 16 October 2006 as Five US and was the second digital terrestrial television channel in the UK to be launched by RTL Group as part of their multi-channel strategy, the first being Five Life. 5USA concentrates on showing imported movies and programmes from the United States.

MeTV, an acronym for Memorable Entertainment Television, is an American broadcast television network owned by Weigel Broadcasting. Marketed as "The Definitive Destination for Classic TV", the network airs a variety of classic television programs from the 1930s through the 1990s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Retro (TV channel)</span> Defunct television channel

Retro was a Latin American cable television network with classic programming that included movies and popular classic TV Series. It was owned by Turner Broadcasting System Latin America, a unit of WarnerMedia. Its headquarters were located in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Animation Domination</span> Programming block of animated TV series

Animation Domination is an American animated programming block that has aired in two iterations on the Fox broadcast network, featuring a lineup solely made up of prime-time animation and adult animation carried as a majority of, or the whole of, the network's Sunday evening schedule. It originally ran from May 1, 2005, until September 21, 2014, before returning on September 29, 2019.

Universal Channel was a Turkish pay television network, owned by Universal Networks International, a division of NBCUniversal. The network was launched in Turkey in December 2009 on D-Smart and in February 2010 on Teledünya. From March 1, 2011, the Channel is also available in its HD version exclusively on D-Smart Platform.

Columbo is an American crime drama television series starring Peter Falk as Lieutenant Columbo, a homicide detective with the Los Angeles Police Department. Season 2 aired on NBC from September 1972 to March 1973.

This is a list of episodes from the third season of Columbo.

This is a list of episodes from the fourth season of Columbo.

This is a list of episodes from the fifth season of Columbo.

The final 14 episodes of Columbo were produced sporadically as a series of specials, spanning 13 years from 1990 to 2003. These episodes have since been released on DVD in several regions as "season 10". Two of the episodes, "No Time to Die" and "Undercover", were based on 87th Precinct novels by Ed McBain and thus do not follow the usual Columbo format.

<i>Mrs. Columbo</i> 1979 American television series

Mrs. Columbo is an American crime drama television series, initially based on the wife of Lieutenant Columbo, the title character from the television series Columbo. It was created and produced by Richard Alan Simmons and Universal Television for NBC, and stars Kate Mulgrew as a news reporter helping to solve crimes while raising her daughter.

References

  1. Kim, Victoria (May 28, 2009). "Relatives Fight For Control of 'Columbo' Star Peter Falk". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved May 28, 2009.