Barnaby Jones

I just finished watching all 178 episodes of Barnaby Jones. I watched a few of them off and on back when they were first run. My parents loved this show.

I agree with others, the show went down hill starting with season 5. In the last couple of seasons, Buddy pretty much and sometimes literally "phoned it in". I admit to frequent use of "fast forward" towards the end of the series. There were a few good episodes near the end, but only a few. The last episode is definitely not how they wanted to go out. Obviously, another attempt to start a spin-off, which fortunately did not happen.

As fun as some of it was to watch, things like "chain of evidence" and other legal issues didn't seem to be important to the writers.

Dead-eye Barnaby. He was a great shot, often shooting from the hip. Somehow he killed lots of bad guys in the first part of the series, but later, he alway wounded the bad guy in the shoulder, arm, or hand. The Lone Ranger school of shooting. Also notice, never any blood, other than a stain here or there.

His six attempts to further the career of his daughter Bonnie were not pretty. She was a pretty good looking woman with below average talent. They were probably both very nice people.

A tall, mop-haired, drawling hoofer in musicals of the thirties, a respected stage star/playwright in the forties, Fess Parker's grizzled sidekick in "Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier", in the fifties, and the rustic patriarch of "The Beverly Hillbillies" in the sixties...Each decade introduced a new, successful direction in the career of multi-talented 'Renaissance Man', Buddy Ebsen (1908-2003). The seventies would be no exception, as then 65-year old Ebsen would bring his wisdom, sense of justice, and undeniable charm to one of the decade's most popular, if formulaic detective shows, Quinn Martin Productions' "Barnaby Jones" (1973-1980).

As a retired cop, the murder of his son, a successful private investigator, would bring the elder Jones back, not only to solve the crime, but to continue his son's business, aided by his daughter-in-law, Betty (the beautiful Lee Meriwether, 38). Barnaby was a prickly old codger, more care-worn and serious than Ebsen's 'Jed Clampett', and each episode would focus more on the perpetrators of the crimes he would ultimately solve, than on his personal life, which would give the program an almost "Columbo"-like slant. There was nearly always an 'innocent' to save, and many episodes would climax in shootouts and foot chases, where the ancient Jones would always 'run down' the younger criminals (making the series a favorite target of contemporary humorists).

The addition of young cousin Jedediah Romano ("Call me J.R.") Jones, in the person of 27-year old Mark Shera, in 1976, while geared to attract younger viewers, actually improved the series, as it lightened the overall 'tone', and gave Ebsen a 'student' to give 'Yoda-like' advice to. Together, Barnaby, Betty, and J.R. made quite a team!

While the series would air it's final episode in 1980, and Ebsen would move on to great success as a painter and author over the next two decades, he would revive the detective in his final film appearance, in the big screen version of THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES, in 1993. Barnaby Jones, as prickly as ever, would still be taking cases at 85!

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.