Barnaby Jones

Buddy Epson & Lee Merriwether- very good acting & put together with Quinn Martin another winning combo. Actually, this show was CBS payback to Buddy who was extremely upset with CBS for canceling the Beverly Hillbillies while they were still a hit show. He kind of felt like he lost his family there & felt the execs at the network were a little nuts.

Buddy was right about that. This show is well done & CBS had raided ABC to get Quinn Martin to do this & Cannon. CBS wanted to change it's country image & these shows became a moderately successful way to do that. Trouble is CBS execs wasted more of the number 1 networks success & by the 1908's after they forced Walter Cronkrite to retire & dumbed down & tarted up their news with Dan Rather, they had pretty much become a second rated network.

This show's success along with MASH & a few others kept them on top through the 1970's. Buddy Ebsen was so talented that he could play almost anybody & make them believable. He comes off here as a fine detective & Lee Merriwether came into her own during this show.

Ebsen is one of the few TV actors to be part of successful shows in the 1950's, 60's, & 70's. It is a fitting tribute to such a unique talent who made his first splash in movies in the 1930's. He has an enduring legacy and this show is the last piece of it.

I know it's not profound TV, but I enjoyed the early murder plots of the show and Barnaby's way of making remarks that rattled the perpetrators (like a watered-down Columbo sometimes). I just bought Season One in DVD, and I enjoy seeing many big-name actors appearing and looking them up to see whether they're still alive and/or working. I will probably not purchase seasons beyond four or five, because, unlike some reviewers, I was disgruntled with the arrival of Barnaby's nephew, whose presence made the stories more contrived. I was annoyed when the later programs presented cases in which Secretary Betty was involved -- both contrived and unrealistic. The one-man show did it for me.

I remember watching this show as a kid and finding it immensely enjoyable. I watched it in reruns during summer afternoons (cue nostalgic music), though I can't recall the exact years that I caught it. Probably the early 80s. I was young enough where the formulaic nature of the show that has been mentioned in other reviews here didn't taint the show in any way for me. I didn't watch the show religiously and it has been a long time since I saw any episodes, but the thing that sticks with me about it is the casual, laid-back atmosphere, the cast's charm-particularly Buddy Ebsen's-and, yes, Barnaby regularly running down much younger men on foot. Of course, my memory could be playing tricks on me. I just watched a movie, "Coach", with Cathy Lee Crosby, that I had watched in the late 70s and found enormously erotic, and I couldn't believe how tame and unerotic (with the exception of one kiss) it was, proving that you can't go home again. If this series is ever released on DVD, I'll probably buy it, hoping that maybe this time I will be able to go home again. My fear is that, having seen so many TV shows and movies since then, the formulaic nature of the show will be more apparent to me, which could make the show get tiresome in a hurry.

This is one of my all time favorite private eye shows. Barnaby Jones was probably the last person you would think of as a private investigator, but he mixed good old fashioned detective work with all the then modern techniques (just check out the lab in his office). Lee Meriwether was perfectly cast as his daughter-in-law/secretary Betty and after a few years they brought in the muscle in the form of Barnaby's cousin J.R.(don't call me Jedidiah) Jones. Too bad they don't show reruns of this show anymore. It was an all time classic.

Standard Quinn Martin series.

Buddy has class, dignity, manners, and is polite, and that really is enjoyable to watch.

Merriweather, is humble and a good supporting character.

Shera is alright.

I have watched the first five seasons, and besides the terrible DVD quality, every single episode, except a few, is about the same, and 95% are about murder:

Crime happens.

Jones visits with the person who hired him.

Immediately, he knows who commited the crime and visits with her or him.

They lie through their teeth.

He investigates, and proves them wrong.

Most times, he plugs the crook, but ALWAYS just wings them.

This is like the Lone Ranger, always tried only to injure.

Epilogue. Some little happy saying, then the credits.

Betty, almost always acts like she can't figure out how Barnaby, deduced something, which makes him look better.

Each season has about two excellent episodes.

But the main reason to watch is for Ebsen.