Hi - I've always watched Columbo but have only just started to learn more about it, so thanks for putting this website together which has answered a lot of my questions. I've just seen an episode called 'Undercover' which breaks away from the traditional Columbo format. It didn't work for me, but I'm curious why it is not in the traditional format and whether there are other episodes which have done the same?

Welcome to the site, and to the Forum.

Several episodes break from the formula to varying degrees -- "Last Salute To The Commodore," for example, was a true "whodunnit" -- but the 2 episodes that stand out as the biggest departures from the familiar "Columbo" formula are "Undercover" and "No Time To Die".

Both of these were adapted from police novels by popular writer Ed McBain (actually a pseudonym -- you might have read that he recently died), so the stories were not originally written for "Columbo". Most "Columbo" fans would, at their most charitable, say that these 2 episodes were, um, an experiment that failed. If anything, they prove that the forula was well worth keeping.

Here is a direct link to the article "Ed McBain's Columbo", which can be found in the Scrapbook area of the site:

http://www.columbo-site.freeuk.com/mcbain.htm

Or Ted, you could just say that those episodes absolutely stunk!!!!

thanks for the reply and the link, very helpful