Without a doubt, the most super-bad TV sleuth of the 70's. With a rumpled raincoat, a squinty gaze (due to Peter Falk's loss of an eye as a young child) and a rambling speech pattern, Columbo could catch Russian spies, murdering leisure suit-wearing film directors, rampaging Mensa killers and anyone else who dared to transgress on his shag-carpeted beat. First aired in 1971, the same year as yours truly, it ran for God knows how many years before being immortalized in endless A&E syndication, a fate I myself aspire to. Makes Jim Rockford look like a nancy boy.