Barnaby Jones

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.

Another one of Quinn Martin's great 70's TV series, as a previous user said this show did come of as unintentionally funny at times due to the advanced age of the always entertaining Buddy Ebsen! I remember there would always be a scene in almost every episode where Mr Ebsen would stiffly run after someone. I kept thinking as a little kid that Buddy Ebsen looked soooo Skinny and frail that a puff of air could knock him down! Yet despite all of this, the show held our viewing interest for six seasons, perhaps we were drawn to the subliminal message that milk is good for your bones because it was obviously helping Barnaby Jones not to snap like a matchstick!

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.

An excellent 1970s detective show with a heart. Lee Meriwether is superb as the supportive Betty Jones. As the series progressed Betty was allowed out of the office and into the fray. Mark Shera as Jedidah Jones was an unnecessary attempt to attract younger viewers. Barnaby could always handle any young punk that he came across without any help.