Trivia / Barnaby Jones

• Billing Displacement: It happens a LOT in the later episodes. Roberta Leighton in "Indoctrination Into Evil," Kevin O'Brien in "Murder in the Key of C" and Lori Lethin in "The Final Victim," to name a couple, were all announced in the opening credits with the more prominent guest stars, but all of them are killed off very early in their respective episodes.
• California Doubling: Unsurprisingly averted for "Nightmare in Hawaii."
• Cast the Expert:
  • The episode "Sing a Song of Murder" is about the faked kidnapping of a rock star by his two managers (played by Arlene Golonka and Jackie Coogan) who think he was killed in an accidental fall. The singer was played by Andy Kim, who'd already had a string of Top 40 hits like "How'd We Ever Get This Way?" and "Baby, I Love You," but would have his biggest success a year after this episode with "Rock Me Gently."
  • He gets an "Original Song by" credit on "Sing a Song of Murder". Giving him an edge over in-universe performers on the series.
  • Radio talk show host Bill Ballance plays a radio talk show host whose program figures into the plot in the episode "Fatal Witness."
• Creator Backlash: On seeing the pilot, Jerry Goldsmith tried to get out of scoring it because he thought it was horrible (a view critics shared). However, he was convinced to write the theme tune and score the pilot — ultimately this ran longer than any of his other series (with the exception of The Waltons).
• The Danza: In "Twenty Million Alibis," guest star Gary Owens plays... a TV personality called Gary.
  • Jeff Conaway as Jeff Saunders in "The Killer on Campus".
• Dawson Casting: All the schoolgirls in "Academy of Evil" are played by women in their 20s.
• Directed by Cast Member: John Carter directed the episodes "A Short, Happy Life" and "Run to Death."
• Dueling Shows:
  • Griff, starring Lorne Greene as a veteran private detective (who in the pilot also looks for the killer of his son). Unlike Barnaby Jones, this was much less successful (it was cancelled midseason).
  • In its last season, ABC programmed fellow Quinn Martin Production The Streets of San Francisco opposite Barnaby on CBS, thinking that the show had run its course. As it happened, Barnaby beat Streets in the ratings and went on to more years in production.
• Fake Brit: German-born American Eric Braeden as a British double agent in the episode "Jeopardy For Two." Braeden mentions in his autobiography that there was a scene in this episode where he, real Brit Bernard Fox and Buddy Ebsen are talking and their voices overlap. The three actors cracked up laughing, and several takes had to be done.
• Playing Against Type:
  • Buddy Ebsen went straight from playing a dimwitted mountain man to playing an intelligent private investigator practically overnight- this may have helped prevent him from being typecast the way many of the other Beverly Hillbillies actors suffered.
  • Nice guy Bill Bixby plays a man who kills his mistress when she threatens to expose their affair to his wife in "To Denise, With Love and Murder."
• Real-Life Relative:
  • Buddy Ebsen's daughter Bonnie Ebsen guest-starred six times on the series. Her first three appearances were bit parts. She's the top-billed guest star in her fourth and fifth appearances, and the Special Guest Star in her final appearance.
  • Lee Meriwether's daughter Kyle Aletter appeared twice as a guest-star.
  • Executive Producer Quinn Martin's daughter, Jill Martin, guest-starred three times.
  • In a sense, Sean Penn might fit here as well. According to the book Quinn Martin, Producer, his father Leo Penn, a frequent director on the series, approached another series' director, Kenneth C. Gilbert. He'd read the script for an episode Gilbert was directing ("School of Terror") and mentioned that he had a son who wanted to be an actor and that there was a part in the script that would be perfect for him. Thus, Sean Penn's acting debut.
  • The week before John Carter made his first appearance on the series (not as Lt. Biddle, but as George Enright - the Victim of the Week in "The Murdering Class"), his real-life brother Conlan Carter (best-known for playing Doc on Combat! (1962)) appeared in the episode "Sunday: Doomsday."
  • Michael Tolan and his ex-wife Rosemary Forsyth appear together in "The Alpha-Bravo War".
• Real Life Writes the Plot: The introduction of J.R. and increased focus being placed on Betty was due to Buddy Ebsen struggling to keep up with the pace of filming and wanting to step back a bit in his advancing age.
• Those Two Actors: Lee Meriwether's colleagues from The Time Tunnel Whit Bissell and John Zaremba turn up in "Murder In The Doll's House" and "Image In A Cracked Mirror" respectively.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Plans were made to have a crossover with The Beverly Hillbillies which would've featured Buddy Ebsen playing both Barnaby and Jed Clampett. The proposed plot is unknown, but no doubt would've involved criminals holding Jed for ransom or something similar. This didn't happen for various reasons, though the idea was revived for Ebsen's brief cameo in The Beverly Hillbillies remake film.
  • The series' pilot was originally conceived as an episode of Cannon, but when a time slot became open, the series was green-lighted, and instead of Buddy Ebsen guest-starring in a Cannon episode, William Conrad became the Special Guest Star in the debut episode of Barnaby Jones.
• You Look Familiar: Many, many instances... just in the first season alone, there are these people:
  • Bradford Dillman, who played the killer of Barnaby's son in the premiere episode, "Requiem For a Son," would go on to make four more appearances as different villains in "Image in a Cracked Mirror," "The Deadlier Species," "Fraternity of Thieves," and "Final Judgement."
  • Robert Hogan, who also appeared in "Requiem For a Son," and later appeared in "Secret of the Dunes," "Odd Man Loses," "Honeymoon With Death," "The Marathon Murders," and "The Silent Accuser."
  • Darleen Carr in "To Catch a Dead Man," "The Last Contract," and "Victim of Love."
  • Gary Lockwood in "Sunday: Doomsday," "The Platinum Connection," "Blueprint For a Caper," "Dangerous Gambit," "Final Ransom" and "Man On Fire." Asked about Lockwood in an interview, Buddy Ebsen said, "He was a low-down, murdering skunk in every one of them. Every time I saw him, I'd say 'Didn't I put you in jail once?'.
  • Andrew Parks in "The Murdering Class," "Dead Heat," and "The Scapegoat."
  • Jerry Houser in "The Murdering Class" and "The Killer On Campus."
  • John Carter as murder victim George Enright in "The Murdering Class." He would return midway through the second season as Lt. John Biddle and remain in that role for the remainder of the series.
  • Eric Braeden in "Perchance to Kill" and "Jeopardy For Two."
  • Sharon Acker in "Perchance to Kill," "Bond of Fear" and "The Deadly Conspiracy."
  • Mark Roberts in "Perchance to Kill," "Trial Run For Death," and "The Orchid Killer."
  • Lloyd Bochner in "The Loose Connection" and "Double Vengeance."
  • Christine Belford in "The Loose Connection", "Blood Vengeance" and "Fatal Overture."
  • Anne Francis in "Murder In the Doll's House" and "Theater of Fear."
  • Philip Pine in "Murder In the Doll's House," "Secret of the Dunes," "Doomed Alibi," "Shadow of Guilt," and "The Final Victim."
  • Richard Derr in "Murder In the Doll's House," "Odd Man Loses," and "Child of Love, Child of Vengeance."
  • Arlene Golonka in "Sing a Song of Murder" and "Bond of Fear."
  • Jonathan Goldsmith, aka The Most Interesting Man in the World, in "Sing a Song of Murder," "Death Leap," "Poisoned Pigeon," "Sister of Death" and "Temptation" (although he was billed as "Jonathan Lippe" in all but the last one).
  • Marlyn Mason in "See Some Evil, Do Some Evil," "Daughter of Evil" and "Child of Love, Child of Vengeance."
  • Reni Santoni in "See Some Evil, Do Some Evil" and "Foul Play."
  • Neva Patterson in "Murder-Go-Round," "Portrait of Evil," and "Prisoner of Deceit."
  • Lou Frizzell in "Murder-Go-Round," "Programmed For Killing," "Dead Heat," and "The Captives."
  • James Luisi in "Murder-Go-Round," "The Deadly Prize," "Mystery Cycle," "Hostage," and "A Short, Happy Life."
  • Geoffrey Lewis in "Murder-Go-Round," "The Captives," and "The Killing Point."
  • Richard Yniguez in "Murder-Go-Round" and "Programmed For Killing."
  • Barry Sullivan in "A Little Glory, A Little Death" and "The Deadly Conspiracy."
  • Meg Foster in "A Little Glory, A Little Death," "A Gold Record For Murder," and "Blueprint For a Caper."
  • Peter Haskell in "Twenty Million Alibis," "The Lonely Victims," and "Killer Without a Name."
  • Bert Freed in "Twenty Million Alibis" and "The Picture Pirates."
  • Jo Ann Harris in "Death of a Friendship," "Final Burial," and "Odd Man Loses"; indeed like several of the above she was a QM regular^note she turns up twice on The F.B.I. and The Streets of San Francisco, and just once on the latter's spinoff D'Angelo/Superstar - to the extent that she co-starred on one of the company's later series, Most Wanted.