When you first saw him, Lieutenant Columbo looked like a bum that just came off the street. He had a bumbling demeanor, was overly polite and seemed to chomp on the same short cigar on a daily basis. However, beneath all that comical exterior was probably the most dogged investigator in the Los Angeles Police Department. Columbo was often called on to investigate high profile murders that involved the rich and famous. The culprits were often amused by him, and just as they thought they were going to get away with murder, Columbo would find a way to trap them or find enough evidence to make them confess.

American detective television film series (1968-1978, 1989-2003)

The third television adaptation of the adventures of super sleuth Ellery Queen, this time set during the 1940s. Queen (Jim Hutton) was a mystery writer who assisted his father, Inspector Richard Queen (David Wayne), who was with the New York Police Department, in solving murders. Sergeant Thomas Velie (Tom Reese) was Inspector Queen's assistant and Simon Brimmer (John Hillerman), a rival detective. Queen's methods were arcane and intellectual rather than action oriented, and he always astounded his father by arriving at a correct solution by purely deductive reasoning. In this version, just before he revealed his solution to the crime, Queen always turned to the camera and asked the television audience if they had figured out the identity of the killer yet, they had all the clues, because he was about to reveal the correct killer as we met the entire slew of suspects in one room for the ending.

Gumshoes

tv show

TheUser

Quirky Dectives

American television series (1990-2010, 2022-)

Detectives and Mysteries

The Amusing Cops

Comedy TV

American detective comedy-drama television series

American crime drama television series (2005–2010)

The Gimmick

You Solve It

British TV series, from 2001, based on books by Elizabeth George, from 1988

The Inspectors

Dead Old

American police procedural television drama series (2001-2011)

British crime drama television series, first broadcast in 2010