On March 1, 1971, the official "Columbo" pilot "Ransom for a Dead Man" first aired.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

As mucifer noted in 2023, there was a pilot before this pilot.

Lee Grant Retweeted

The official #Columbo pilot ‘Ransom for a Dead Man’ first aired [54] years ago, on March 1, 1971. Co-starring Lee Grant, Harold Gould and Patricia Mattick, it’s a big-budget spectacular that wowed audiences 👏🏼👏🏽👏🏾 Plus the chemistry between Peter Falk and
@TheLeeGrant
was🔥🔥🔥

Link to tweet

Fri Mar 1, 2024: On this day, March 1, 1971, the official "Columbo" pilot "Ransom for a Dead Man" first aired.

Thu Mar 2, 2023: On March 1, 1971, the official "Columbo" pilot "Ransom for a Dead Man" first aired.

[CrispyQ]

1. A cigarette vending machine!

I loved that show. Such a quirky character! There were a couple of other detective shows of that era that were good.

[brush]

2. That was a great show. Most of the episodes. still hole up when you watch them.

[Comrade Citizen]

3. Saturdays on COZI TV

You can watch 6 episodes of Columbo each Saturday on the broadcast channel COZI TV.

[IcyPeas]

4. Here is a link to watch both pilots from Internet Archive

https://archive.org/details/columbo-pilot-episodes/2+-+Ransom+For+A+Dead+Man.mp4