User reviews

Although the physical constraints of age limited the action somewhat in Barnaby Jones, this senior citizen had none of his mental faculties impaired when on a case.

In a pilot that was an episode of the Cannon TV series, Frank Cannon is hired to investigate the death of Hal Jones a colleague. Hal had taken over the detective agency from father Barnaby who decided to retire as senior citizens are wont to do. But his fires are banked with the homicide of his son and Buddy Ebsen and daughter-in-law Lee Meriwether take over the agency with her as Ebsen's secretary. Thus a successful television series was born.

Ebsen was a cagey old bird who a lot of bad guys thought was past his prime. They'd always trip themselves up because they thought he was not really paying attention to what they said. The Medicare set loved Barnaby Jones.

But TV is always after that youth market and after a few seasons Mark Shera was added to the cast as J.R. Jones, a nephew gone into the business with the uncle. Now the rough stuff could be dealt with in house if needed.

Buddy Ebsen as a performer reinvented himself more than Madonna. Over his 95 year life we saw him as musical dancing performer, Georgie Russell companion to Davy Crockett, Jed Clampett of the Beverly Hillbillies, Barnaby Jones, and finally Roy Houston uncle of Matt Houston. And there are a lot more single roles than that, films like Attack and Breakfast At Tiffany's which was a different Ebsen all together from the rest. Was this man ever versatile.

An inspiration to senior citizens everywhere.

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.

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 watched these during the original broadcasts and just got the DVD set. I'm up to season 5 now and I'm highly disappointed! Seasons 1-4 were great. Then in season 5 they brought in a rude and angry young guy to liven up the show. He was supposed to be Barnaby's nephew. So he was allowed to run amok insulting people and flirting with all the women. It really ruined the theme of the series. Even Barnaby's dialogue changed. There was an episode where elderly Barnaby guessed at a young ladies vital statistics in front of her father. That wasn't cool even back in those days. Series 1-4 are a solid 8-9! Past that, it's maybe a 3-4. I'm averaging it out to a 6 star rating.

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.

As a kid, I never watched "Barnaby Jones", though it was airing. Why? Because I thought the notion of an old man chasing criminals was dumb....ditto with "Cannon" and a morbidly obese guys chasing the baddies. Imagine my surprise many years later when I actually TRIED these shows...only to realize they are amazingly entertaining and well written. Of the two, I prefer "Cannon", but considering they had the same production company, they are very comparable. And, it turns out the pair made two 2-part episodes...and they are among the best of their shows.

All this being said, "Barnaby Jones" jumped the proverbial shark starting in season five. I have no idea why, but Barnaby's cousin Jedediah 'J. R.' Jones was brought on as a series regular. Perhaps the producers thought Buddy Ebsen was getting older and needed to have less burden placed on him, perhaps Ebsen himself demanded the change, or perhaps Mark Shera (J. R.) was holding the producer's family hostage. All I know is that the introduction of him really hurt the show. While there were some very good J. R. episodes, too often he came off as a sex-crazed sexist and an incompetent. Him talking about his love life or hitting on the latest client just seemed sad and unprofessional...and really annoying. It got so bad, I was hoping a criminal would shoot J. R. or Barnaby would punch him to shut him up! I cannot blame Shera entirely...he was delivering the awful dialog they wrote for him.

But it wasn't just J. R. that disappointed. In late season 6 and forward, the number of poorly written episodes increased dramatically....as if they were running out of ideas. Again and again, episodes were made with glaring logical errors or depending too much on Jedediah's and Betty's old friends who are in trouble. There were also quite a few where Betty did the investigating....going from secretary to private eye!! And, you also can't help but wonder if all this is because Ebsen was getting on in years, as he began to be seen less and less in these later shows and the show, unfortunately, was no longer really about him. In fact, in many of these later shows, he only appears in the beginning and end of the show and really wasn't necessary for most plots.

So my verdict is for seasons 1-4, I'd score it an 8. For seasons 5-8, I'd score it a 4. There were a few really good episodes in these later seasons...but too many I couldn't help but score 1 or 2 or 3! Overall, that would give the entire series a 6.

During the seasons this Quinn Martin production was popular, my late father used to say that it was hard to believe that the same man who played Barnaby Jones had once played Jed Clampett. To be sure, for many years Buddy Ebsen had been an outstanding, versatile actor. Just the opening music allowed the viewing public to notice this: "Beverly Hillbillies" started off with light, banjo-playing music, followed by the singing of Lester Flatts and Earl Scruggs, whereas Barnaby Jones started off with "cold", "rough", and serious music by Jerry Goldsmith. While Barnaby Jones was, again, "a good ole' boy", even if he was in his middle 60's in 1973, he was a sophisticated man, having studied chemistry and clinical psychology,(again, unlike Jed Clampett.) Simultaneously, he was good at his job, so much so that even the most sophisticated of criminals were, in one sense of the phrase, in awe of him. He also occasionally portrayed the fact that the widower was quite a lady's man: in one episode the first season, it was agreeably surprising to see him and Kathy Crosby (ca.forty years his junior) ride away together in his new Ford. Along with him, Mark Shera (Barnaby's cousin Jedediah Romana, or J.R.) was a welcome addition, but my favorite icon was Lee Meriwether, who played his daughter-in-law Betty; that beautiful lady was still that way ca. twenty years after being chosen Miss America in 1955. Also, as a minister, (though I wasn't that in the 70's) I liked it that the show was wholesome in a decade when wholesomeness was gradually deteriorating. Though he wasn't a suave Mannix, a mean-but-kind bouncer Cannon, (though the late 60's man could handle himself well when necessary) he was one who was capable of putting pieces together and, thus, of solving the crime. Because of the show's wholesomeness, the complicated nature of the plots, as well as the other reasons, it was a show I virtually never missed, all the way from 1973 to 1980. A great T.V. series

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.

The series had some good plot lines especially in the mid-series seasons...In the early series, before the addition of the JR character, Betty was always portrayed as a resourceful and physically capable of taking care of herself. Unfortunately, a season after JR showed up Betty seemed to suffer an inexplicable drop in her IQ level especially with the ability to assess the seriousness of the situation. She also seemed to cry more in desperation...Wonder why QM productions decided to take the damsel in distress route for Betty.

I remember enjoying Barnaby Jones during it's original TV run, so when I had a chance to buy the first two seasons on DVD ,I did so. It was a horrible decision as the video quality on the DVDs is terrible, almost unwatchable-therefore I won't be purchasing any more--too bad.

Episode after episode Barnaby manages to zero in on the culprits without the slightest clue to guide him. It is sloppy uninspired writing by writers who can't be bothered or don't have the skill to develop proper mystery stories. There are no surprises, every program is predictable, Barnaby shows up, immediately knows where to look for some innocuous clue, manages to connect that clue to the most unlikely person then spends the rest of the program proving his suspect is guilty.

There are no surprises. There is always one murder, either planned or accidental. There is a second murder as someone discovers the first murder or clues that would point to the murderer and must be silenced. Then there is the last attempted murder which Barnaby stops by arriving just in the nick of time resulting in a gun fight in which Barnaby manages an impossible shot (he never misses), wounding, but not killing the perpetrator. It is exactly the same scenario show after show, after show. Ho hum, how tedious!

This series is almost as bad as Columbo when it comes to unrealistic police work, except that Barnaby as good as he is does not have the interesting quirky personality of Columbo. As charismatic as Buddy Ebsen may have been, even he could not carry a program as badly written as this one.

Then there's the constant milk drinking, which is over emphasized, that leads me to believe that the American Dairy Association must have paid large sums of money to have milk promoted on so many episodes.

The only reason for watching this program is because it starred Buddy Ebsen, and the beautiful and sophisticated Lee Meriwether. As detective shows go, it is near the bottom even among the spate of marginal detective shows dominating seventies television.

I rated it as high as four stars because of Buddy Ebsen and Lee Meriwether, otherwise it would be one star.

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.

I always have enjoyed Barnaby Jones. I was so happy to see the entire series on DVD. Sadly wih the exception of the First Season and a few other episodes, the syndication cuts were released. Still, it was well worth buying. Buddy Ebsen is even better on this show than The Beverly Hillbillies. He is always calm and in control and loves a glass of milk. Lee Meriwether playing his daughter in law is also a delight. She plays her part so well, she acts just like a regular person would working for a master detective. She asks questions like you or me when she does not understand something about the case. I always enjoyed that part of it. Starting with Season 5, they added Mark Shera as his distant cousin JR Jones. He fit in perfectly. From the first episode he appeared, it was like he was always part of the show. Quinn Martin had a talent of making a lot of great shows in the 60's and 70's, but I think this show and The F.B.I. were my favorites. They were also his longest running shows. I also enjoy seeing all the great actors from the past and future that show up on this show. They don't make good, decent show like this anymore. That is one reason I only watch old tv shows and old movies. They are entertaining without being vulgar or offensive or political like all the tv shows are today.

I enjoyed Buddy Epsen in this series. He's far removed from J.D. Clampett, and does a superb job of acting with good stories. Sadly, Epsen basically checked out after Season 6. Neither Mark Shera nor Lee Meriwether can carry a show on their own (or even together). Seasons 1-6 are highly recommended !

Premiering on January 28, 1973, the crime drama-detective mystery series "Barnaby Jones" made its debut in a episode of "Cannon" titled "Requiem For A Son" that introduce the character where he teams up with Detective-Private Investgator Frank Cannon(William Conrad) to solve a vicious murder. On the strength of tha episode along with impressive ratings, CBS greenlighted "Barnaby Jones" as a weekly series about a retired private investigator who owns and operates a private detective agency with the help of his widowed daughter(Lee Meriwether) as his secretary who runs the firm along with his cousin and former Chicago police officer(Mark Shera) who joins the firm midway through the series run.

Created and developed by Edward Hume along with producers Philip Saltzman and Adrian Samish along with executive producer Quinn Martin(under his production company Quinn Martin Productions) in association with the CBS Television Network and was filmed at the Samuel Goldwyn Studios. "Barnaby Jones" starred veteran of stage, screen and television Buddy Ebsen(of "The Beverly Hillbillies") in the title role as the elderly private investigator who takes on various cases with the help of the police department along with his assistants at the firm. The series was a major hit running eight seasons on CBS and producing 178 episodes until the last telecast of the series on April 3, 1980.

It was Quinn Martin's second most successful show of the 1970's and became Buddy Ensen's greatest role after his nine year stint as Jed Clampett on "The Beverly Hillbillies" and this was a good detective-mystery series that had a plethora of guest stars each week...William Windom, Claude Akins, Ida Lupino, Stephanie Powers, Janice Rule, Roddy McDowell, Bill Bixby, Mark Richman, Jackie Cooper, Gary. Lockwood, Dabney Coleman, Mark Goddard, William Shatner, Donna Douglas, Jacqueline Scott, Bradford Dillman, and Pat Hingle just to name a few.

The best episodes includes the two part episode "Requiem For A Son", followed by "The Price Of Terror", "Friends Till Death", "Blind Terror", "Death Leap", "To Catch A Dead Man","Sons Of Thy Father", and the two part episode "A Nightmare In Hawaii" just to name a few. During it's run it was nominated for four Prime Time Emmys and nominated for two Golden Globes for Outstanding Dramatic Series. Even after 50 years it is one of the best detective shows from the 1970's.

I like the star of the show,actor Buddy Ebson. I like Quinn Martin,who was a very busy man in the 1960's and 70's. He had his name on many shows. Most of them were at least halfway decent shows.

Barnaby Jones is an exception. This show is just not that great of a show. Some of the stories are downright silly. The situations are not believable,the acting is often uninspired,and many of the cases seem to solve themselves. Most of the show episodes are boring. How this lasted 8 seasons I will never know, particularly when a much-better QM detective show "Dan August" with Burt Reynolds did not even last a full season.

Sure,there are a few decent Barnaby Jones episodes,but it is not worth wading through all the mediocre episodes to find them. You can find much better detective shows I promise.

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.

Barnaby Jones airs at 4 am Sundays through Friday on MeTV. It's one of my favorite private ete shows. I love Barnaby's demeanor. He's so old fashioned polite but don't mistake his kindness for weakness. Like Columbo he's intuitive but unlike Columbo his attire is always neat and professional. He doesn't smoke. He dives around in various 70s boat cars and orders milk in bars Produced before the age of personal computers, Barnaby relies on old fashioned scientific methods and always has a few plastic bag for evidence gathering. He has a habit of always showing up five minutes before the hour ends to get the bad guy and tie it up in a semi-believable package for us. He leaves with the belief that maybe the world isn't as bad as we thought.

I don't remember "Barnaby Jones" being no more than a very bland, standard detective show in which, as per any Quinn Martin show, Act I was the murder, Act II was the lead character figuring out the murder, Act III was the plot twist (another character murdered), Act IV was the resolution and the Epilogue was Betty (Lee Meriwether) asking her father-in-law Barnaby Jones (Buddy Ebsen) how he figured out the crime and then someone saying something witty at the end of the show.

One thing I do remember was the late, great composer Jerry Goldsmith's excellent theme song. Strangely, the opening credit sequence made me want to see the show off and on for the seven seasons the show was on the air. I will also admit that it was nice to see Ebsen in a role other than Jed Clampett despite Ebsen being badly miscast. I just wished the show was more entertaining than when I first remembered it.

Update (1/11/2009): I watched an interview with composer Jerry Goldsmith on YouTube through their Archive of American Television channel. Let's just say that I was more kind than Goldsmith about the show "Barnaby Jones."

I purchased the complete series of Barnaby Jones years ago when it was released. I had never really seen much of the show. I was a kid when it originally aired. The show was prodeced by one of my favorites, Quinn Martin. I have pretty much loved most any show he produced. It ran for 8 years. Buddy Ebsen starred as Barnaby Jones and Lee Meriwether as his daughter in law Betty. The shows pilot set up the series rather well. Barnaby's son is killed and Frank Cannon helps him solve the case. Barnaby had been retired and comes out of retirement to catch the killer. There are so many wonderful guest stars that came on the show. I don't think there was ever a better crop of actors that guest starred on TV shows than in the 70's. You had stars from the 60' that were still acting and new upcoming actors who were not yet known. I like the fact that he used his lab in his office to solve some cases. Half way thru the series, Mark Shera joined the cast as J. R. Jones. He fit in perfectly. And at this point he and Betty got to be the focus of certain episodes. This show worked because it had excellent writing, acting and the chemistry between the leads is perfect. I would highly recommend this show to anyone who likes detective shows and likes good entertainment.