A 1970's television
series shown on
CBS. The series
starred
Buddy Ebsen,
Lee Meriwether, and
Mark Shera and produced by
Quinn Martin.
Barnaby Jones was one of the nearly cookie cutter
detective shows that reigned the airwaves in the 1970's.
Starring Buddy Ebsen in the title role, the show began
in 1971 and lasted eight seasons. Originally intended
to be spawned by the immensely popular Cannon starring
William Conrad, the show instead had Conrad appear
as Frank Cannon in its first episode.
The premise of the show involved a former police
investigator and forensic expert who retired from his
successful private investigation firm to raise horses on
his ranch. Leaving the business to his son Hal, Barnaby
enjoyed four years of retirement until his son was killed
during the course of an investigation. Coming out of retirement
to aid his daughter-in-law Betty (former Miss America
Lee Meriwether) in catching his son's killer, Barnaby
continues to take cases after the case is solved. Mark
Shera joined the cast as J.R. Jones (short for Jedediah
Romano, if you can believe it) during its fifth season.
The younger Jones was brought in to handle the action in
the series and to give a shot of life into an otherwise
older cast.