365 Days of Columbo: April 1st

A Sad Day for Columbo: Steven Bochco Passes

On April 1, 2018, the Columbo world lost one of its most important creative voices. Steven Bochco died at his Los Angeles home at the age of 74, after a years-long battle with leukemia.

By the time of his death, Bochco was one of the most celebrated figures in American television — the architect of Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, and NYPD Blue, a man who won ten Emmy Awards and fundamentally changed how TV drama told stories. But long before any of that, he was a young Universal Pictures staff writer who happened to write some of the finest hours of Columbo ever produced.

His Columbo debut came in 1971, when he wrote the teleplay for Murder by the Book — the very first episode of the regular series. He was 27 years old. The episode was directed by an equally young Steven Spielberg (just 24 at the time), and the two unknowns produced something that some fans consider among the best Columbo episodes ever made. Bochco received an Emmy nomination for his work, his first of many.

He wasn't done there. His other Columbo teleplays include the Season 1 classics Lady in Waiting and Blueprint for Murder. Moving into Season 2, he wrote the fan-favorite Étude in Black for which he received his second Emmy nomination. He also contributed Double Shock and Season 3's Mind Over Mayhem with José Ferrer. He returned to the show one last time in 1990 with Uneasy Lies the Crown for Season 9.

Happy Birthday, Ena Hartman

Ena Hartman was born on April 1, 1932, in Moscow, Arkansas, the daughter of sharecroppers. Her journey to Hollywood was a long one — she dropped out of high school, worked as a cook and waitress, saved her money, and made her way to New York to become a model. She was discovered by a photographer in the very lobby of a modeling agency that had just turned her down.

She made her NBC debut on Bonanza in 1964 and appeared in shows including Star Trek (in the first-season episode "The Corbomite Maneuver"), Ironside, and Profiles in Courage. Later, she became a regular as police dispatcher Katy Grant on Dan August (1970–71), opposite Burt Reynolds, and appeared alongside Tom Selleck in the cult film Terminal Island (1973).

For Columbo fans, her significance lies right at the very beginning of the franchise. Hartman appeared as a nurse in Prescription: Murder (1968) — Peter Falk's debut as Lieutenant Columbo. 

Ena Hartman passed away on April 16, 2025, at the age of 93.