https://www.metv.com/stories/buddy-ebsen-tried-to-leave-barnaby-jones-in-the-beginning

Why he almost left, and why he decided to stay.

Lee Majors has said a similar thing. When he did the Bionic Man it was an hour show. The Fall Guy was also an hour show. He warned anyone to take the lead role in a show with the word "The" in the title because it meant you were the star of the show and need to be in almost every shot. This leads to extremely long hours filming. When he was married to Farrah, both his show and Charlies Angels were 1 hour shows which made them rarely spend time together.
Lee walked away from The Fall Guy with HUGE money on the table because he was so tired of doing hour shows. He was exhausted.