Barnaby Jones
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| Barnaby Jones | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Detective series |
| Starring | Buddy Ebsen Lee Meriwether Mark Shera |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| No. of episodes | 178 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Quinn Martin Philip Saltzman |
| Running time | 60 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | CBS |
| Original run | January 24, 1973 – September 4, 1980 |
| Links | |
| 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 is mentioned in three of season 2 episodes of the cartoon South Park, namely, "Chickenlover", "Roger Ebert Should Lay Off the Fatty Foods" and "City on the Edge of Forever".
In the 1996 comedy film Jingle All The Way, at the scene where Howard Langston (Arnold Schwarzenegger) & Myron Larabee (Sinbad) are about to be arrested by the police for attacking a DJ (Martin Mull) at the KQRS radio station, Myron orders the policemen to drop their guns, explaining that he has a letter bomb. This includes Officer Alexander Hummell, whom Myron calls "Barnaby Jones" because of his similar looks to the detective.
Xander Crews, the main character of the Adult Swim series Frisky Dingo, used the name "Barnaby Jones" as an alias during most of the second half of the first season.
Barnaby Jones is also referenced during S01E02 of The Winner on Fox.
[edit] External links
Categories: 1973 television program debuts | 1970s American television series | 1980s American television series | 1980 television program series endings | CBS network shows | Television spin-offs | Crime television series | Television series by CBS Paramount Television | Television series named after fictional characters | Television shows set in Los Angeles
