Columbo is an American crime fiction TV series, starring Peter Falk as Lieutenant Columbo, a homicie detective with the Los Angeles Police Department. The show popularized the inverted detective story format; almost every episode began by showing the commission of the crime and the perpetrator. The character first appeared in a 1960 episode of the television anthology series The Chevy Mystery Show. This was adapted into a stage play, and a TV-movie based on the play was broadcast in 1968 as the pilot for a series. The series itself aired regularly from 1971 to 1978, and sporadically from 1989 to 2003.