Been watching Columbo episodes on YouTube lately. One of the commenters said that, as a fictional detective character, Lieutenant Columbo was right up there with Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot. I think I'd be inclined to agree with that. Would you?

I have all the original episodes on DVDs, and it is among my all time favorite shows. It was so well conceived.

It was one of my favorites. During law school, whenever I was home midday and supposed to be studying or working, I would turn on Columbo.

I never watched this show when it was on. Not the sort of thing I cared about. And then one day a repeat came on and I didn't bother to switch the channel.

And I was hooked. It's just a beautiful construct.

So yeah, right up there with the best detectives in fiction. I don't know how many of those began their stories with the reader/viewer knowing who the murderer was and how he did it. But it wasn't a whodunit; it was a howproveit. Along with a generous helping of mental torture for the murderer.

As well as a blessed lack of personal background scenes. Imagine this show if we had to sit through scenes of Colombo's family or personal problems. No, thanks.

There are Columbo episodes on Youtube? SWEET!

Heck, I'd watch Columbo over a Holmes or Poirot mystery any day of the week.

I agree. Columbo was brillant. Peter Falk was just perfect.in that rumpled raincoat.

There was an episode where the murderer was a high IQ type of the kind that made sure everyone knew it. Somewhere toward the end of the episode, he realizes and lets Columbo know he realizes that Columbo has a very high IQ and does the rumpled "one more thing" bit as a way to keep people from realizing it.

If that's the one in the high IQ club (and the gold puzzle) it wasn't like that; Columbo and the killer were alone and he tried to give him an IQ test, saying he must have a very high one and should work as something else.

It probably is the same one. I haven't seen it since it originally aired. And I never said they weren't alone. And he did want to give him an IQ test. And I don't see how anything you said contradicts anything I said. The fact that the killer wants to give him an IQ test shows that he knows (or suspects) Columbo's true IQ.

Columbo was a fine show.

Or his arrogance refuses to believe someone other than a genius could best him. That was my interpretation. FWIW.

Yes. But whether he believed it or not, Columbo is pretty damn good at solving puzzles, so he probably has a high IQ.

Love Columbo. It was one of the few shows that my entire family would sit down and watch together.

The only reason I question that is that I wonder just how well Columbo is well known to younger people who did not grow up in the 70's as I did. But he's certainly one of the most memorable fictional detectives created since World War II.

This leads to another question.

Holmes and Poirot have been played by different actors in several eras, with continued success. How much of what we think of as the Columbo character was down to Peter Falk himself? Could Columbo be successful in the future with other actors?

My belief is that reboots are almost always disappointing, at least to those of us who remember the originals.

Roger Ebert said he believed that the character of Columbo was inspired by the detective in the French movie Diabolique. (That movie was remade in English with Sharon Stone and Kathy Bates about ten years ago.) Anybody agree or disagree?

He did look a lot like Sharon Stone!

According to Peter Falk's obituary at The Washington Post, Bert Freed first played the character of Columbo in a 1960 TV teleplay. Eight years
later, NBC wanted the character revived for a TV movie Prescription: Murder. They wanted Bing Crosby to play the character, but he
was playing golf and was too busy to talk to the producers. Falk wasn't and got the job. The rest was history.

This.