The sixty seventh episode of Columbo was titled Columbo Likes the Nightlife and was the final episode of the show’s final season. Columbo pursues a nightclub owner and sitcom actress when one man dies and another disappears. In this podcast Gerry and Iain consider the last ever episode of Columbo.

 



 

Welsh actor Matthew Rhys had the honour of portraying Columbo‘s final killer, as nightclub entrepreneur Justin Price. When his investor, Tony Galper (Carmine Giovinazzo), dies in an altercation with his ex-wife (and now Price’s partner)  Vanessa Farrow (Jennifer Sky), Justin and Vanessa conceal the death. Their dual motives are to avoid repercussions from Galper’s mob family and to ensure Justin’s new nightclub receives the funding Tony had arranged.

 

Unknown to them, however, tabloid hack Linwood Coben (Douglas Roberts) has been spying on Vanessa from a neighbour’s garden and has photos of them moving the body. Knowing they’ll never be free from his blackmail, Justin persuades Vanessa that the only option is for Coben to die. Justin then meets Coben and arranges to reconvene at the journalist’s office, where he brutally kills his one-time associate.

 

Julius Carry appears as Columbo’s primary LAPD support, while there is an entertaining cameo from The Sopranos actor Steve Schirripa as mob messenger Freddie. John Finnegan has a welcome cameo as Vanessa’s neighbour Sean Jarvis, while Lost star Jorge Garcia plays Justin’s doorman, Julius.

 

Director Jeffrey Reiner and writer Michael Alaimo make their only contributions to the Columbo universe with this episode.

 

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Columbo Likes the Nightlife was released in 2003. It is 85 minutes long and originally aired on the ABC network. This episode is not available on Netflix, but can be found on the Season 10 or complete collection DVD box sets from Universal (all remaining episodes are considered ‘Season 10’ in the DVD collection).