The following is an episode list for the crime fiction

Crime fiction

Crime fiction is the literary genre that fictionalizes crimes, their detection, criminals and their motives. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as science fiction or historical fiction, but boundaries can be, and indeed are, blurred...

  television series Columbo. After two pilot episodes

Television pilot

A "television pilot" is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell the show to a television network. At the time of its inception, the pilot is meant to be the "testing ground" to see if a series will be possibly desired and successful and therefore a test episode of an...

, the show originally aired on NBC

NBC

The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 from 1971 to 1978 as one of the rotating programs of the NBC Mystery Movie

NBC Mystery Movie

The NBC Mystery Movie is the general name of an American television series, produced by Universal Studios, that was broadcast by NBC from 1971-77...

. Columbo then aired more infrequently on ABC

American Broadcasting Company

The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...

 beginning in 1989. The most recent episode was broadcast in 2003.

Because the Columbo episodes from 1989 to 2003 were aired very infrequently, different DVD sets have been released around the world. In the UK

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 (Region 2

DVD region code

DVD region codes are a digital-rights management technique designed to allow film distributors to control aspects of a release, including content, release date, and price, according to the region...

), all episodes have now been released as ten seasons, with the tenth season covering the last 14 shows from "Columbo Goes to College" (1990) to the most recent "Columbo Likes the Nightlife" (2003). In Region 1

DVD region code

DVD region codes are a digital-rights management technique designed to allow film distributors to control aspects of a release, including content, release date, and price, according to the region...

, seasons 8 and 9 are grouped differently: all the 5 episodes that originally aired in 1989 were released on The Mystery Movie Collection 1989 DVD; the Columbo: The Mystery Movie Collection 1990 and Columbo: The Mystery Movie Collection 1991–1993 DVDs contain episodes up to and including 1993.

Season		Episodes	Originally aired	DVD Release
				Region 1	Region 2	Region 4
	Pilots	2	1968–1971	September 7, 2004 Both pilots are included in the Season 1 DVD.	September 13, 2004	December 3, 2004
	1	7	1971–1972
	2	8	1972–1973	March 8, 2005	July 18, 2005	July 13, 2005
	3	8	1973–1974	August 9, 2005	November 14, 2005	July 20, 2006
	4	6	1974–1975	March 14, 2006	September 18, 2006	September 19, 2006
	5	6	1975–1976	June 27, 2006	February 12, 2007	Unknown 2007
	6	3	1976–1977	November 21, 2006 Both Season 6 and Season 7 were released on the same DVD.	April 30, 2007	May 2, 2007
	7	5	1977–1978
	8	4	1989	April 24, 2007 The Mystery Movie Collection 1989 DVD released in Region 1 covers all the episodes that originally aired in 1989: All 4 episodes from Season 8 and the first one from Season 9.	March 31, 2008	June 4, 2008
	9	6	1989–1990	February 3, 2009 The Mystery Movie Collection 1990 DVD released in Region 1 covers all the episodes that originally aired in 1990: The last 5 episodes from Season 9 and the first one from Season 10.	March 30, 2009	May 6, 2009
	Season 10 and special episodes	14 The Season 10 DVDs released in Regions 2 and 4 cover the last 14 episodes.	1990–1993 1994–2003	February 8, 2011, episodes airing from 1991 to 1993 can be found for Region 1 on DVD in "Columbo: The Mystery Movie Collection 1991–1993", while the 1994–2003 episodes have yet to be released.	June 15, 2009 In Region 2, Season 10 was released in two volumes: Of those final 14 episodes, Volume I covers the first 8 while Volume 2 contains the last 6. July 27, 2009	2009

Before Peter Falk

Before Falk was cast as the character of Columbo, Bert Freed played the role in "Enough Rope," a 1960 episode of The Chevy Mystery Show, a TV anthology series. In 1962, that episode was adapted as a stage play titled "Prescription: Murder" (starring Thomas Mitchell as Columbo), which then became a made-for-TV movie in 1968, with Peter Falk debuting in the role.

Pilots

Series #	Season #	Title	Directed by	Written by	Airdate

Season 1

Series #	Season #	Title	Directed by	Written by	Airdate

Season 2

Series #	Season #	Title	Directed by	Written by	Airdate

Season 3

Series #	Season #	Title	Directed by	Written by	Airdate

Season 4

Series #	Season #	Title	Directed by	Written by	Airdate

Season 5

Series #	Season #	Title	Directed by	Written by	Airdate

Season 6

Series #	Season #	Title	Directed by	Written by	Airdate

Season 7

Series #	Season #	Title	Directed by	Written by	Airdate

Season 8

Series #	Season #	Title	Directed by	Written by	Airdate

Season 9

Series #	Season #	Title	Directed by	Written by	Airdate

Season 10 and special episodes

Series #	Season #	Title	Directed by	Written by	Airdate