Columbo: Season 3

1973 · 8 episodes · ★ 7.6

What Season 3 of Columbo

The season follows Lieutenant Columbo, a homicide detective with the Los Angeles Police Department played by Peter Falk. Each episode reveals from the start who committed the crime, so the interest lies in how the lieutenant gathers evidence against the culprit. On the other side are self-assured killers, often wealthy and powerful people who underestimate a cop in a rumpled raincoat with a cigar in hand and an absent-minded air. The stories range from an anti-wrinkle cream to a family winery, including a Senate campaign and a publishing house that hires a hitman. Columbo asks seemingly innocent questions while the suspect tries to throw him off and cover their tracks.

8episodes

Sep 23, 1973premiered

May 5, 1974latest episode

11.3 hrtotal runtime

Season 3 Episodes

3x01 Lovely But Lethal
Sep 23, 1973 · 73 min · ★ 7.2
Viveca Scott, the founder of Beauty Mark Cosmetics, is being threatened by her rival David Lang. When he finds out that her revolutionary cream formula actually removes wrinkles, he has the formula pirated.
Directing: Jeannot Szwarc · Writing: Jackson Gillis, Myrna Bercovici · Starring: Martin Sheen, Vincent Price, Sian Barbara Allen, Vera Miles
3x02 Any Old Port in a Storm
Oct 7, 1973 · 96 min · ★ 7.9
A wine connoisseur kills his half- brother to prevent him selling the family winery to a merchant company so he can pay off his gambling debts.
Directing: Leo Penn · Writing: Stanley Ralph Ross · Starring: Robert Walden, Donald Pleasence, Gary Conway, Joyce Jillson
3x03 Candidate for Crime
Nov 4, 1973 · 93 min · ★ 7.6
A Senate Candidate running for office kills his campaign manager by making it look like he was the target for the killer's bullet.
Directing: Boris Sagal · Writing: Dean Hargrove · Starring: Tisha Sterling, Jack Riley, Jackie Cooper, Katey Sagal
3x04 Double Exposure
Dec 16, 1973 · 70 min · ★ 7.7
A motivational researcher blackmails to further his career, kills a man, then frames the victim's wife.
Directing: Richard Quine · Writing: Stephen J. Cannell · Starring: Danny Goldman, Robert Middleton, George Wyner, Chuck McCann
3x05 Publish or Perish
Jan 18, 1974 · 73 min · ★ 7.3
A publisher hires a Vietnam vet to kill his star author and thus give himself an alibi before the writer can defect to another publisher.
Directing: Robert Butler · Writing: Peter S. Fischer · Starring: Gregory Sierra, Jack Cassidy, Mickey Spillane, Mariette Hartley
3x06 Mind Over Mayhem
Feb 18, 1974 · 73 min · ★ 7.2
The director of a government institute that employs various scientific geniuses commits a clever murder. But another kind of genius is on the case: Lt. Columbo.
Directing: Alf Kjellin · Writing: Robert Specht, Steven Bochco, Dean Hargrove · Starring: Robert Walker Jr., Lou Wagner, Lew Ayres, Lee Montgomery
3x07 Swan Song
Mar 3, 1974 · 99 min · ★ 7.7
A Country and Western singer kills his overpowering wife in a plane crash while he parachutes to safety.
Directing: Nicholas Colasanto · Writing: Stanley Ralph Ross, David Rayfiel · Starring: Johnny Cash, John Dehner, Ida Lupino, Janit Baldwin
3x08 A Friend in Deed Season Finale
May 5, 1974 · 98 min · ★ 8.1
A police commissioner provides an alibi to a friend who has just killed his wife. Later the commissioner kills his own wife and gets the friend to repay the favour.
Directing: Ben Gazzara · Writing: Peter S. Fischer · Starring: Rosemary Murphy, Richard Kiley, Eric Christmas, Michael McGuire