Barnaby Jones
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| Barnaby Jones | |
|---|---|
| TV Guide cover featuring Buddy Ebsen and Lee Meriwether of Barnaby Jones </small> | |
| Genre | Detective series |
| Running time | 60 minutes |
| Executive producer(s) | Quinn Martin Philip Saltzman |
| Starring | Buddy Ebsen Lee Meriwether Mark Shera |
| Country of origin | Image:Flag of the United States.svg United States |
| Original channel | CBS |
| Original run | January 24, 1973–September 4, 1980 |
| No. of episodes | 178 |
| IMDb profile | |
Barnaby Jones was a detective series which ran on CBS from 1973 to 1980. It starred Buddy Ebsen as a retired private investigator who worked with his widowed daughter-in-law Betty (Lee Meriwether), at first to solve the murder of his son and her husband. The two decided that they worked together so well, that they continued to keep the detective agency open.
Until the cancellation of the series Cannon, the characters of both series moved back and forth between the two shows.
In 1976, the character of J. R., the son of Barnaby's cousin (Mark Shera), joined the cast. He had come to try to solve the murder of his father, but stayed around to help Barnaby and Betty while also attending law school.
Toward the latter part of the series, as Ebsen aged and expressed an interest in slowing down a bit, Meriwether and Shera's characters became more prominent, and were featured more, allowing Ebsen to step back a bit; during the last two seasons, the episodes were divided evenly among the three actors, with Ebsen, Meriwether and Shera each being the focus of a third of the season's episodes.
During the mid 1990s, Meriwether and Shera expressed interest in a Barnaby Jones reunion TV movie, but could not talk Ebsen into joining the project. However, in 1993, Ebsen reprised the role of Barnaby Jones in the big-screen remake of his most famous TV series, The Beverly Hillbillies. It would be his final theatrical appearance.
[edit] References in popular culture
Barnaby Jones in mentioned is a season 2 episode of an American animated show South Park called Roger Ebert Should Lay off the Fatty Foods.
He is also mentioned in the 8th episode of the animated series "Frisky Dingo," as an alias in order to prevent the blind Killface from finding out that he is Xander Crews.
