Always thought Columbo was a pile of badly made shite..
I liked it, but it was always spoiled for me by the fact that they showed you who the murderer was - bad show for a detective show in my book.
THAT SAID, it said in the news that he started it in 1970/71, but there were one or two Pilots before that in about 1968, and one of my favourites was either the first or the second where Columbo was investigating a Doctor who had killed his wife, but was supposedly on holiday at the time.
The conversations the two of them had were quite good to watch as, of course, Columbo knew he was the murderer, but they just continued having an intellectual conversation with the Doctor seemingly waiting for Columbo to trip him up but, not giving him any help at all. Verbal Tennis as it were.