The Columbo mysteries remain a favorite, with a loyal fanbase. And it takes a true fan to pass this colossal Columbo quiz. Over 600 questions cover topics including: the producers, directors and writers of the series; awards won by the show; details about the star, Peter Falk, and his character, Lieutenant Columbo; background on the many famous guest stars; the motives behind the murders, and the methods used; the occupations of the killers, and the relationships between them and their victims; bogus alibis, frame-ups, and other deceptions employed by the murderers; the clues that enable Columbo to solve the crimes; general trivia questions, and a crossword puzzle.

The Columbo mysteries remain a favorite, with a loyal fanbase. And it takes a true fan to pass this colossal Columbo quiz. Over 600 questions cover topics including: the producers, directors and writers of the series; awards won by the show; details about the star, Peter Falk, and his character, Lieutenant Columbo; background on the many famous guest stars; the motives behind the murders, and the methods used; the occupations of the killers, and the relationships between them and their victims; bogus alibis, frame-ups, and other deceptions employed by the murderers; the clues that enable Columbo to solve the crimes; general trivia questions, and a crossword puzzle.

Multiple-choice and matching quizzes relating to the television show. Over 600 questions cover topics including: the producers, directors and writers of the series; awards won by the show; details about the star, Peter Falk, and his character, Lieutenant Columbo; background on the many famous guest stars; the motives behind the murders, and the methods used; the occupations of the killers, and the relationships between them and their victims; bogus alibis, frame-ups, and other deceptions employed by the murderers; the clues that enable Columbo to solve the crimes; general trivia questions, and a crossword puzzle. There is also an extensive commentary on what made COLUMBO a unique detective series and an extraordinary television program.

For decades, generations of television fans have been enraptured by Lt. Columbo, played by Peter Falk, as he unravels clues to catch killers who believe they are above the law. In her investigation of the 1970s series cocreated by Richard Levinson and William Link, Amelie Hastie explores television history through an emphasis on issues of stardom, authorship, and its interconnections with classical and New Hollywood cinema. Through close textual analysis, attentive to issues of class relations and connections to other work by Falk as well as Levinson and Link, Columbo: Make Me a Perfect Murder sees American television as an intertextual system, from its origins as a commercial broadcast medium to its iterations within contemporary streaming platforms. Ultimately, Hastie argues, in the titular detective’s constant state of learning about cultural trends and media forms, Columbo offers viewers the opportunity to learn with him and, through his tutelage, to become detectives of television itself.

When Columbo hit the airwaves in 1971, in quickly became the hottest TV detective series of the decade. Series creators Richard Levinson and William Link received an Emmy Award for their work; Peter Falk received three. The Columbo Phile offers fascinating behind-the-scenes information about the creation of the character, the writing of the devious mystery plots, and the altercations between perfectionist Peter Falk and the bottom-line concerns of Universal Studios. Originally published in 1989 and long out-of-print, this 30th Anniversary Edition of the essential Columbo book features a new preface by author Mark Dawidziak, an overview of post-1989 Columbo developments, including the twenty-four new ABC mysteries, and a personal remembrance of Peter Falk. It remains today the definitive guide to the rumpled Lieutenant Columbo and his career.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A witty, charming, and engaging dive into trivia’s colorful history, from America’s highest-earning game show contestant of all time “Insightful, informative, and written with a strong dose of humor and humility. . . . I loved this book.”—Will Shortz, crossword editor, The New York Times Ken Jennings is trivia’s undisputed king—and as he traces his rise from anonymous computer programmer to nerd folk icon, he explores his newly conquered kingdom: the world of trivia itself. Trivia, he has found, is centuries older than his childhood obsession with it. Whisking us from the coffeehouses of seventeenth-century London to the Internet age, Jennings chronicles the ups and downs of the trivia fad: the quiz book explosion of the Jazz Age; the rise, fall, and rise again of TV quiz shows; the nostalgic campus trivia of the 1960s; and the 1980s, when Trivial Pursuit® again made it fashionable to be a know-it-all. Jennings also investigates the shadowy demimonde of today’s trivia subculture, guiding us on a tour of trivia across America. He goes head-to-head with the blowhards and diehards of the college quiz-bowl circuit, the slightly soused faithful of the Boston pub trivia scene, and the raucous participants in the annual Q&A marathon in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, “The World’s Largest Trivia Contest.” And, of course, he takes us behind the scenes of his improbable 75-game run on Jeopardy! But above all, Brainiac is a love letter to the useless fact. (Who knew that there’s a crater on Venus named after Laura Ingalls Wilder? Ken Jennings, that’s who.) Engaging and erudite, Brainiac is an irresistible celebration of nostalgia, curiosity, and geeky obsession—in a word, trivia.