I'm sure he turned it down because if he were promoted he wouldn't be able to do any more case work or field work and would have to become a polished commander as befitting the rank.

Interestingly, on "Dragnet" in the 50s toward the end of the run in a ratings gimmick, Joe Friday was promoted from Sergeant to Lieutenant. A decade later when the show was revived, Jack Webb purposefully disregarded the promotion and made Friday a Sergeant again on the grounds that most Detective Lieutenants didn't do field/case work any longer. Columbo may have already been getting more leeway as a Lieutenant under the rules, but as a Captain I doubt he would have gotten any to keep solving cases.

Columbo definitely wanted to stay in the field. Not an office kind of guy.

Totally agree.

While I think Columbo would have made a fantastic leader, and a great captain, his greatest contribution to the police department is in the field where he belongs. I'm sure that the idea of promotions came up in his line of work. I wonder if the producers of the show ever thought about this. And I'm sure that he turned them down to excel at the job that he proves to us time and time again that he could do with great expertise.

Oh and thanks for the Joe Friday reference. I never knew that he was promoted to a lieutenant in the old show.

In later episodes of Kojak he too was promoted to captain and the format never really worked in my opinion. Columbo, Kojak, Cannon and Harry O all had "street cred" and knew every trick in the book down on the streets. I always thought Telly Savalas was a particularly gritty and believable character. Incidentally did anyone ever see the episode title "The Condemned"? The very first scene was the twin towers - an omen or what???

Sevalis could have made a great murder suspect. It would be the equivalent to Good Guy versus bad guy. Sort of like William Shatner. The good guy in one TV story and the bad guy in a couple of Columbo episodes

Well he had already played the baddie as Blofeld in James Bond (1960's). But his very best performances were always in Kojak, he was very gritty and I'm sure he went off script on loads of occassions to lend extra credibility to the role. To be honest I'm not sure that he would have made a good murder suspect in Columbo. Or perhaps yes... the only one that ever got away with it! (Not including Forgotten Lady of course!).