Sitcoms Online Message Boards - Forums - Barnaby Jones https://sitcomsonline.com/boards/ en Sun, 19 Jul 2026 10:48:20 GMT vBulletin 60 https://sitcomsonline.com/boards/images/misc/rss.jpg Sitcoms Online Message Boards - Forums - Barnaby Jones https://sitcomsonline.com/boards/ Why I love Barnaby Jones https://sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?t=515385&goto=newpost Sun, 12 Jul 2026 18:18:35 GMT I was too young to watch Barnaby Jones during the 1970s. The show would have been over my head. I re-discovered the show when MeTv started to air the show early mornings. Here are the reasons I... I was too young to watch Barnaby Jones during the 1970s. The show would have been over my head. I re-discovered the show when MeTv started to air the show early mornings. Here are the reasons I fell in love with the show.

1. The scripts were so good and with complex with plot turns. These were the days of professional writers that could write up a great juicy plot for Barnaby to unravel in the hour episode. Like Cannon, if you leave the room and miss an important part the episode may not make sense.

2. The acting was so good. The weekly actors on the show were from a stable of fine actors that worked for the networks. Everyone and everybody on TV or in the movies later on seems to have been on the show. Nick Nolte and Sean Pean. Erik Estrada, Cindy Williams, and countless others that would go on to have huge TV or movie careers. There was a crop of "bad guys" that had that bad guy look and would appear in multiple episodes.

3. Those land yachts bring back so many memories as a child. I was a kid in the 1970s and when the show started Americans drove the biggest cars ever. Barnaby's big Ford LTD was incredible. It reminds me of riding in the back seat looking at the extra wide speedometer. The cars alone makes watching enjoyable.

4. It was all shot on location like a movie. Many of the scenes like the office were from a studio. But it was like a movie where it was shot in various areas around Los Angeles.

5. All the classic 1970s TV themes: car chases, cars going off cliffs, jewelry robberies, heroin smuggling. It also had public awareness episodes like the wife beater episode drawing attention to domestic violence.

6. Buddy Epsen successfully transforms from a goofy Beverely Hillbilly character to a serious TV detective. Broke his stereotype and it worked brilliantly.

7. Has one of the best theme songs ever. The original conductor refused to write the music because he hated the pilot so bad. It was given to a popular TV theme creator who was reluctant but it became the longest show he ever wrote for.

8. Show covers all eras of the 1970s. It starts with the Nixon administration and would last for 2 more presidents. It starts off in the Brady Bunch era and then moves to the disco era.

9. Barnaby's team was wonderful. Betty and JR get panned for some of the episodes that they were the focus in. But I loved the diversity of the later years. Betty was beautiful and she could drive that Ford Pinto in some of the best car chases of the 1970s.

10. Barnaby was old so he could not kick ass like Cannon. However it was his smarts that made him a feared detective by the bad guys. He never yelled or got confrontational like other detectives. He played mind games with them and would just talk to them about things that would make them sweat. His smarts were what made him a great detective.

11. Barnaby was a great shot. He always shot his bad guy before they could shoot him and with only one shot. All TV detectives get shot from time to time but never Barnaby.

12. Barnaby was the FIRST TV detective to have his own crime lab. Talk about a show that was ahead of its time

13. While the fashion trends of the 1970s changed, Barnaby did not. JR gets longer hair, Betty dresses more relaxed but Barnaby always wore a suit unless he was fishing.

14. Barnaby, Betty, and JR always take care of family. Any friends or relatives of theirs always knew Barnaby had their back and many episodes their friends or family drew them into drama.

15. Barnaby never yields from truth or pressure. Many times Lt Biddle would threaten Barnaby to have his detective license revoked over Barnaby's over-involvement in a case yet it would never deter Barnaby from finding the truth.

16. All the bad guys wore suits and surrendered or confessed in the end.



Now what are your reasons? ]]> Barnaby Jones BestTVever https://sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?t=515385 Top TV Moments: Lee Meriwether https://sitcomsonline.com/boards/showthread.php?t=513363&goto=newpost Tue, 09 Jun 2026 04:42:03 GMT https://comforttv.blogspot.com/2026/06/top-tv-moments-lee-meriwether.html ---Quote--- *Barnaby Jones (1973)* Meriwether earned both Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for her portrayal of... https://comforttv.blogspot.com/2026/...eriwether.html

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Barnaby Jones (1973)

Meriwether earned both Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for her portrayal of Barnaby’s daughter-in-law, Betty Jones.



When Buddy Ebsen began cutting back on his workload in the show’s latter seasons, Betty and J.R. (Mark Shera) took on bigger roles in his cases, and the audience didn’t seem to find. The Quinn Martin detective shows of the ’70s are certainly prime Comfort TV, and viewers liked this one enough to keep it around for 178 episodes.
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