A number of other shows have made shout-outs to Columbo as well.
Anime & Manga
- Case Closed:
- The arc "The Forgotten Cell Phone" introduces a café named Café Columbo. When it's relevant to the case, Conan covertly brings it to the police's attention by bringing up "that TV detective who always said 'my wife said'". The café then makes scattered appearances in later arcs throughout the series.
- Each collected manga volume has an profile of a fictional detective with an illustration by the mangaka, Columbo being featured in volume 7.
- In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders, when revealing he's seen past Enya Geil's act, Jotaro Kujo mentions that, possibly because he liked Columbo as a kidnote , if something bothers him, he can't even sleep at night. It's also mentioned that his watching of Columbo as a kid was what contributed to his extraordinary deductive reasoning capabilities.
- In episode 72 of Lupin III: Part II, Columbo's son "Bolonco" shows up to help Zenigata on the case.
- In the Italian dub of Sgt. Frog Keroro boasts by comparing himself to Columbo after he's done impersonating a hard boiled detective type.
- In The Castle Of Wax Murder Case from The Kindaichi Case Files features a character named Philip Columbo, an Amateur Sleuth who looks like a younger version of Columbo and has an identical personality, right down to telling long rambling anecdotes about his aunt in the same way Lieutenant Columbo talks about his wife.
- The first episode of Mobile Fighter G Gundam features a detective who sports a carbon-copy of Columbo's Iconic Outfit.
- In the anime version of Gate, Hideyo Komakado strongly resembles Columbo, with his iconic shabby coat and ruffled hair. In the manga, however, he looks entirely different.
- In Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, Ramona mentions being a fan of Columbo growing up. This serves as foreshadowing her investigating his apparent death after the first battle with Matthew Patel.
- Sorrowful and Immaculate Hearts: Matches Malone, the identity Batman assumes to make contacts in the seedier part of Gotham, is basically Bruce doing an impression of Peter Falk as Columbo, in-universe as well. He explains to Robin that he had to invent a cover story on the spot, and that happened to be the first thing that came to mind.
- In West Meadows Detectives, Kid Detective Myron has a dog named Columbo.
- In Remington Steele a running joke has Remington referring to old movies to help him find clues to current cases. In one episode this is flipped, and his partner Laura Holt refers to TV series, specifically the first William Shatner Columbo episode.
- More than a few episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager used the "one more thing..." line during criminal investigation scenes by either Odo or Tuvok as a deliberate nod. The first time it had been used, the episode had been written by one of the Columbo writers.
- In an episode of Bosom Buddies, Henry dresses and acts like Columbo as part of a sting to catch a bad guy wronging Amy.
- In an episode of The Odd Couple, Murray the Cop goes undercover to spy on Felix's ex-wife and dons a raincoat.
- Monk is fond of shouting out to Columbo:
- "Mr. Monk and the Red-Headed Stranger" blends the plots of several Columbo episodes: 1) The fact that the bullet hole in Sonny Cross's jacket does not match the position of the bullet hole in the body determines whether or not the victim was on good terms with the killer comes from "Fade in to Murder"; Johnny Cash played a sympathetic country/gospel singer accused of murder in "Swan Song", while in this episode, it's Willie Nelson playing himself getting framed for murder (Stottlemeyer makes a remark about Cash's performances at Folsom by saying that Willie Nelson will soon be performing "live from Folsom Prison"). And there is a blind witness with a twist (Mrs. Mass), just like in "A Deadly State of Mind".
- In "Mr. Monk Is on the Run, Part Two", Natalie realizes that Monk is alive when she sees a newspaper article about the "Car Wash Columbo", a (supposedly) Hispanic car wash man who recently helped the local police solve the hit-and-run death of a highway safety worker single-handedly. Monk has faked his death and Stottlemeyer has made it seem that he's dead, so this incident ends up blowing his cover. Of course, Natalie is not happy to find that Stottlemeyer has known about this the whole time and was lying to her (when in truth, he was trying to keep Monk away from Sheriff John Rollins, the guy who framed him).
- In "Mr. Monk Buys a House", 'Honest' Jake Phillips refers to Monk as Columbo. Hector Elizondo, who debuts as Dr. Bell in that episode, played Hassan Salah, a murderous diplomat in "A Case of Immunity". The plot is also like the episode "Undercover", in that a string of new murders occurs that is tied to an old unsolved bank robbery.
- Some bits of "Mr. Monk Goes Back to School" are based on "Etude in Black," such as the fact that the murder victim, Beth Landow, is much like Jennifer Welles: she is pregnant, she is having an affair with the killer (Derek Philby, vs. Alex Benedict), and her death is made to look like a suicide.
- Two episodes, "Mr. Monk and the Miracle" and "Mr. Monk and the End," bear some elements of "Requiem for a Falling Star," especially the latter, which features a string of murders that are tied to a body buried under a sundial, and features a killer who won't move out of his current house because of said body.
- In "Mr. Monk Gets Lotto Fever", a crucial clue that an apparent suicide was murder is that a contact lens case is found with only one lens in it, and the other contact lens is found on the victim's body. This is the same clue that was used by Columbo in "Murder, a Self Portrait" to determine that a drowning death was actually murder.
- In "Mr. Monk Is Underwater," Commander Whitaker uses a cigarette as a fuse for a firecracker to give himself an alibi, by fooling people into thinking that an apparent suicide victim shot himself while the commander and the senior officers were banging on his cabin door, with the firecracker simulating the sound of a gunshot, just like Nelson Hayward in "Candidate for Crime".
- In the episode "Mr. Monk Takes the Stand", artist Evan Gidea murders his ex-wife, and uses a complex sculpture made of marble as his alibi, claiming the time it took to make the statue would make it impossible to have killed his wife. This was how Max Barsini created an alibi for killing his own ex-wife in "Murder: A Self Portrait", albeit with a painting instead of a sculpture.
- In one of the flashbacks to Monk's childhood in 1972 in "Mr. Monk and Little Monk", one of his classmates mockingly calls Monk "Columbo".
- One of the major plot lines on the early '90s NBC Soap Opera Generations 1989 featured the murder of one of the main characters. The police Lieutenant brought in to investigate the case was a big fan of Columbo, and would often ask "What would you do?" to a photo of Peter Falk on his office wall.
- On Reno 911!, Garcia brags he once figured out who the murderer was on an episode of Columbo. When Dangle points out that they show who commits the murder at the beginning of the show, Garcia evasively declares "Well, yeah, but you gotta remember that!"
- On Just the Ten of Us, students pass a note bragging about a make-out session with "the hottest Lubbock babe" and get caught by Graham. The note doesn't list which daughter by name, so Graham aims to trick the guilty party into admitting the truth via You Just Told Me. Elizabeth begrudgingly goes along with this, outright expressing skepticism the note is even true during Graham's big confrontation.Graham: Elizabeth, this is why Columbo works alone.
- In The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries episode "The Mystery of the Silent Scream," a stand-up comedian does an impression of Columbo.
Magazines
- MAD:
- In The '70s they parodied the NBC version with Clodumbo. In The '90s, they made him part of The ABC Misery Movie along with B.L. Strikeout and Giddyup Olive.
- In their parody of Star Trek: Voyager (starring Mrs. Columbo herself Kate Mulgrew) Columbo can be seen in the background on one of the ship's monitors saying, "Take my wife, please!"
- Pokémon: The French name of Tranquill is "Colombeau", a portmanteau of "colombe"note and "beau"note , while being a homophone for Columbo as pronounced in French.
- The character of Bulletproof in the '80s cartoon C.O.P.S. wears a long tan raincoat constantly, and his shirt and brown pants even mimic what Columbo wore underneath.
- The Simpsons episode "Dial N for Nerder" has Nelson Muntz take the role of Columbo, as he investigates Lisa and Bart for the supposed murder of Martin Prince.
- Tiny Toon Adventures: In "Who Bopped Bugs Bunny?", Buster and Babs imitate Columbo while investigating Bugs' disappearance.
