In the Fantasy Island episode "Hit Man," a man hires an assassin to kill him so his kids can get the insurance money. When his family finds out, his son jokes that it wouldn't have worked because Barnaby Jones always catches people who cheat on insurance.
On the Mitchell episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000, Joel and The Bots note that it's a problem when a movie (like Mitchell) has less action than a standard episode of Barnaby Jones.
One sketch on In Living Color! named "Undigable Hosts" has Arsenio Hall and Whoopi Goldberg dissing Jay Leno, with Whoopi saying now that Johnny Carson left The Tonight Show, she watches The Twilight Zone and Barnaby Jones over Leno's version.
George Utley on Newhart considered Barnaby Jones to be his favorite TV show and "Honeymoon With Death" to be one of his favorite episodes.
Rugrats: In "Under Chuckie's Bed", Angelica tells a story about a hapless boy named Barnaby Jones who gets eaten by the supposed monster underneath his bed.
South Park: At the beginning of "Roger Ebert Should Lay Off The Fatty Foods", Mr. Garrison teaches the students through his old taped reruns of Barnaby Jones.
