Columbo

Columbo is an American detective mystery television film series (1968–78, 1989–2003), starring Peter Falk as Columbo, a homicide detective with the Los Angeles Police Department.[2][3] The character and television show were created by William Link and Richard Levinson. The show popularized the inverted detective story format. Almost every episode begins by showing the commission of the crime and its perpetrator; the series therefore has no "whodunit" element. The plot revolves mainly around how the perpetrator, whose identity is already known to the audience, will finally be caught and exposed.

The title character is a friendly, verbose, disheveled police detective (of Italian descent) who is consistently underestimated by his suspects, who are initially reassured and distracted by his circumstantial speech, then increasingly irritated by his pestering behavior. Despite his unprepossessing appearance and apparent absentmindedness, he shrewdly solves all of his cases and secures all evidence needed for a conviction. His formidable eye for detail and relentlessly dedicated approach, though apparent to the viewer, often become clear to the killer only late in the story line.