The Great Raincoat Cover-Up: Columbo’s Forgotten First Coat

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The Great Raincoat Cover-Up: Columbo’s Forgotten First Coat
We all know the silhouette: the rumpled suit, the cigar, and that famously battered, beige trench coat. It’s an iconic uniform that Lieutenant Columbo wore for decades. But if you go back to the very beginning—before the regular series, before even the second pilot—you’ll find a version of the detective that looks surprisingly sharp.



In the 1968 television movie Prescription: Murder, which served as the first-ever on-screen appearance of Peter Falk as Columbo, his signature disheveled look hadn't quite arrived yet.
While he is wearing a coat of the same classic beige color and a similar style to the one we know and love, it isn't the famously battered, crumpled mess. Instead, it’s a much newer, crisper, and cleaner version. He also keeps his suit jacket buttoned, his tie straight, and his hair reasonably combed.
While the Lieutenant still uses his brilliant, deceptive mind to trap his prey, the lived-in, worn-out visual style hadn't yet fallen into place. The iconic, cheap cotton raincoat that looked like it had survived a war didn't make its official debut until the second pilot movie, Ransom for a Dead Man, in 1971.
For any fan rewatching the series, Prescription: Murder offers a fascinating glimpse at a prototype Columbo—brilliant as ever, but wearing a coat that was still fresh off the rack.

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