Columbo's creators Richard Levinson and William Link said the character was partly inspired by Porfiry Petrovich from Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment and by G.K. Chesterton's Father Brown, with some sources also citing Inspector Fichet from the French film Les Diaboliques (1955) as an influence.

The character first appeared in a 1960 TV anthology episode titled 'Enough Rope,' adapted from Levinson and Link's short story originally published as 'Dear Corpus Delicti,' in which the detective was called Lieutenant Fisher rather than Columbo.

Before Peter Falk, the role was played by Bert Freed in the 1960 TV episode and by Oscar-winning actor Thomas Mitchell in the 1962 stage play Prescription: Murder, which turned out to be Mitchell's final role before his death from cancer.

Writers Levinson and Link originally wanted Lee J. Cobb or Bing Crosby to play Columbo in the 1968 TV movie, but Cobb was unavailable and Crosby turned it down because he felt the role would take too much time away from golf; Peter Falk reportedly said he 'would kill to play that cop.'

Peter Falk provided Columbo's entire wardrobe himself, including his own shabby raincoat and high-topped shoes, saying of the coat, 'I just felt comfortable in it.'

Falk frequently improvised Columbo's quirky mannerisms—like fumbling through his pockets or getting distracted mid-conversation—specifically to keep his fellow actors off-balance and make their confused reactions feel more genuine.

The famous catchphrase 'just one more thing' was reportedly born out of necessity: while writing the original stage play, Levinson and Link had made a scene too short and, too lazy to rewrite it, simply had Columbo re-enter and say the line, never planning it as a signature phrase.

Columbo's unofficial whistled theme, the children's song 'This Old Man,' was introduced in the 1973 episode 'Any Old Port in a Storm' and became a recurring motif; Falk said it was simply a melody he personally enjoyed.

According to a 1989 Chicago Tribune article, when Columbo production halted and no new episodes could air in Romania, the U.S. State Department reportedly asked Falk to record a special announcement for Romanian television out of fear that fans' disappointment could lead to unrest.

Because Columbo's first name was never spoken on screen, Trivia Encyclopedia author Fred L. Worth planted a false entry naming him 'Philip Columbo' as a copyright trap; when Trivial Pursuit used this fake answer, Worth filed a $300 million lawsuit that was ultimately dismissed by the courts.

In an ironic twist, the spin-off series Mrs. Columbo later had the character Kate Callahan refer to her ex-husband's first name as 'Philip'—the very false name planted by Fred Worth as a copyright trap.