Top notch ABC episodes do include "Agenda For Murder." They also include "Rest in Peace, Mrs. Columbo," "Columbo Goes to College," and "Butterfly in Shades of Grey."

I agree. Agenda For Murder is in my opinion the best of the later episodes. Patrick Mcgoohan is excellent as always, and his interaction with Columbo is up to the quality of many of the seventies episodes. This is one of the things which often let down the newer episodes, along with poor guest stars, and limited screen time for Peter Falk. If you look at the best of the later years (Agenda, Butterfly, Caution Murder Can Be..., It's All in The Game, etc') they are mostly the ones with better actors guesting, and therefore interacting with Falk well. Falk also has more screen time in these episodes than many other newer ones; he has about three scenes in A Bird in the Hand, for example. The best ones also tend to be done more seriously. The original episodes always had funny moments but the later ones take it too far , in my opinion.