Special. Prescription: Murder  

First aired: 2/20/1968

Psychiatrist Ray Fleming employs his girlfriend to pose as his wife. Barry kills the wife in front of the girlfriend and the two of them take off on a plane for the 'perfect alibi'. They stage a fight on the plane and the 'wife' returns home where she is supposedly killed by an intruder. Things get messy when the dry cleaning comes back from the cleaners.

2. Ransom for a Dead Man  

First aired: 3/1/1971

Lawyer Leslie Williams concocts an elaborate plan to make her husband's murder look like a kidnapping gone wrong. When it looks like all the bases are covered, Columbo must find a way to trip up this calm and collected lady.

3. Murder by the Book  

First aired: 9/15/1971

Ken Franklin is the untalented writer but skilled PR agent of a mystery book writing team that created detective Mrs. Melville. He kills his partner and the real writer, Jim Ferris, because Ferris is planning on breaking up the team and writing on his own. Franklin uses an elaborate scheme to make it appear as if Ferris were killed by mobsters because his next story, an expose on the mafia, would incriminate them. Franklin's plan is perfect except that a fan of Mrs. Melville, Lilly La Sanka, saw him.

4. Death Lends a Hand  

First aired: 10/6/1971

A private investigator kills his client's wife after she threatens to expose his blackmail scheme. The client then hires the detective to assist Columbo in the search for the killer.

5. Dead Weight  

First aired: 10/27/1971

A famous general kills an associate because he fears he will expose his illegal business practices. A somewhat neurotic divorcee witnesses the murder and reports it. The general then woos her and makes her fall for him, causing her to change her story.

6. Suitable for Framing  

First aired: 11/17/1971

An art critic, Dale Kingston, kills his uncle for his valuable collection of paintings. All the clues lead to the dead man's first wife but Columbo doesn't believe it.

7. Lady in Waiting  

First aired: 12/15/1971

Beth Chadwick is tired of her brother Bryce running her life. The last straw is when he threatens to break up her romance with Peter Hamilton, a company lawyer. Beth lays a trap for Bryce and shoots him, claiming that she thought he was a prowler. By stealing his house key, she plans for him to try to enter through her bedroom French doors. But when Bryce shows up after using a spare key, she is forced to improvise. The coroner's inquest backs up her story, but for Columbo, too many little things do not add up. If Bryce had to walk around the house to get to the doors, why are there no grass stains on his shoes? If Beth never went out the day of the murder, how did a late edition of the newspaper end up in the front hall? But when a witness remembers hearing gunshots before an alarm, Columbo figures it all out.

8. Short Fuse  

First aired: 1/19/1972

A chemist rigs a bomb in his uncle's car so he can gain control of his uncle's company. He then plants clues to make Columbo suspicious of the company's Vice-President.

9. Blueprint for Murder  

First aired: 2/9/1972

An architect kills his business partner and deliberately lets Columbo suspect him, leading Columbo to think that he's hidden the body in the foundation of a building under construction. He plans to let Columbo dig up the site and find nothing, knowing that its the perfect place to hide the body since Columbo would never look in the same place twice.