It amazes me that a classic such as "Dead Weight" is rated so low by some.

For me, the least favorite episode of "Columbo" is "Undercover."

David, what about the older episodes? Just curious....

And I agree....I like Dead Weight. I think Eddie Albert plays the charater to a T. A staunch proud military man.

I'm a bit late to reply on this one...

No particular order:

"Old-Fashioned Murder" - weak in every aspect; the actors just don't look interested in it and the characters are even less interesting.

"Double Shock" - too clever by half having twin brothers as the murderers; the plot is developed in a rather unengaging fashion, the double exposures stifle the whole episode and Columbo catches them all too easily.

"Lovely But Lethal" - they should have had Vincent Price as the murderer...enough said.

"Fade Into Murder" - too much of a spoof and very slow-paced.

For me, "Undercover" and "No Time to Die" are so far from the Columbo template that I don't even think of them as "real" Columbos.

Among the "real" Columbos, I'd have to pick "Last Salute to the Commodore" -- not interesting to watch even when Columbo is picking holes in Robert Vaughn's "perfect" setup, which should be one of the most intriguing parts of any Columbo episode. And of course the setup to trap the murderer only works if the murderer is an idiot.

Trying to be positive, I'll look at some other weak Columbos that have saving graces:

"Old Fashioned Murder" - the initial murder setup is pretty ingenious. Too bad the rest of the story doesn't measure up.

"Bye-Bye Sky High..." - same thing! Columbo's demolition of Oliver's alibi is actually pretty good, but of course this is another ending that only works if the murderer is an idiot.

"Make Me a Perfect Murder" - I used to really dislike this episode, but I've come to an appreciation of Lainie Kazan's performance as the doomed Judy Garland type entertainer. She's up there with Ray Milland in "Death Lends a Hand" as one of the best "third party" guest characters (i.e. someone who is neither a murderer nor a victim). I suspect she was in the story mainly to pad it out to a two-hour length, but what the hell, she was enjoyable to watch.

"The Conspirators" - the plot is one of the least ingenious, but Clive Revill is terrific.

And just to show I'm not prejudiced against the later NBC episodes...

"Short Fuse" - that groovy music! That obvious trap at the end! But the guest cast were a bunch of pros who did their very best to shore up the weak material.

Actually, so many of the ABC episodes fall into this category of "weak plot, good performances" that I don't think there would be much point in listing them. In fact, I think I'll just list the few that in my opinion measure up to the NBC years... "Murder, Smoke and Shadows," "Columbo Cries Wolf," "Butterfly in Shades of Grey," and I really think that is about it...

Among the classic Columbos, "Any Old Port In A Storm" tops my list. If I include the ABC ones, "Strange Bedfellows" ranks as the worst just by virtue of Columbo palling so easily with an odious character like Steiger's.