Richard Levinson and William Link made detective stories worth watching even when we already knew the culprit. We recommend his work for the patient questioning and the characters, with a caveat about how long Columbo sometimes takes.
Fi1m perspective
In Columbo (1971), a suspect mistakes a persistent detective for a nuisance, and the questioning continues. Richard Levinson and William Link show us the crime before the investigation, leaving Peter Falk to make the business of proving it worth our attention. We laughed at the suspects’ misplaced confidence, because Falk makes us recognise the intelligence they keep overlooking. Levinson’s great strength, shared with Link, is understanding how much pleasure there is in knowing something the person being questioned does not.
Levinson’s earlier writing credits include The Fugitive (1963), which gives us a different reason to keep watching. David Janssen’s tired, believable hero keeps us interested through the mixture of crime, action and melodrama. The repeated predicament and sometimes over-insistent narration are reservations about a programme we still recommend. We cannot give one contributing writer all the credit for that, but it is worth setting beside the more playful questioning of Columbo.
The route to that series ran through Prescription: Murder (1968), for which Levinson and Link adapted their play for television. By showing the culprit first, the pair made the detective’s behaviour as important as the solution. The unassuming questioner and the arrogant suspect give each exchange something more to do than deliver a clue. Falk is essential to making this work: we can watch him being underestimated and still wonder how much of that response he has deliberately encouraged.
There is a cost to such a dependable routine. Columbo can leave an episode feeling stretched, and patient questioning does not become more interesting simply by continuing. The suspects’ misplaced superiority remains funny, even when we begin to wish the investigation would move along. Levinson and Link give Falk plenty to work with; the programme does not always know when we have had enough.
His later co-creation of Murder, She Wrote (1984), with Link and Peter S. Fischer, continued that interest in building a programme around a detective. The recurring character gives the audience a reason to return beyond the next puzzle. For an introduction to Levinson, we would choose Columbo and watch how much Falk gets from being taken for a fool.
Biography
Richard Levinson was an American screenwriter and producer. He collaborated for over four decades with William Link, whom he met on the first day of junior high school in 1946. The pair wrote scripts for numerous television series, including episodes of The Fugitive (1963).
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Levinson attended the University of Pennsylvania. With Link, he co-created the series Columbo (1971), Mannix (1967) and Ellery Queen (1975), and contributed to Murder, She Wrote (1984). Their work also included the feature films The Hindenburg (1975) and Rollercoaster (1977), as well as many made-for-television movies.
Levinson and Link received several Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America for their television writing.
