When people discuss the prestige TV crime dramas of the 1970s, they tend to mention Columbo, The Rockford Files, Kojak, The Streets of San Francisco, Police Story, McCloud, and McMillan and Wife. Sometimes they also throw in Starsky and Hutch, Baretta, and Angie Dickinson’s groundbreaking Police Woman. One show that doesn’t get enough attention from genre aficionados is Barnaby Jones, a Quinn Martin production that starred Buddy Ebsen and Lee Meriwether and ran on CBS TV from 1973 to 1980, for a total of 178 episodes. A Widipedia page titled “1970s American Crime Drama Television Series,” which lists its entries alphabetically, contains only four programs under the letter B: Baretta, The Blue Knight, The Bold Ones, and Bronk. Baretta was by far the most successful of this foursome, and it racked up only 82 episodes over four seasons, which is 96 fewer than Barnaby Jones’s total. The Rockford Files, one of the most highly regarded TV detective shows of all time, notched a total of 123 episodes (later augmented by 8 TV movies scattered over five years in the 1990s). Likewise, Peter Falk’s iconic Columbo character appeared in only 45 canonical episodes of that program between 1971 and 1978. After a decade-long hiatus the character was resurrected, less successfully, for an additional 24 episodes, which aired on ABC TV between 1989 and 2003. Even among Quinn Martin productions, Barnaby Jones was exceptional. The Streets of San Francisco and Cannon, both Quinn Martin productions of the 1970s, ran for a total of 121 and 122 episodes respectively.
THE WIT AND WISDOM OF BARNABY JONES
THE WIT AND WISDOM OF BARNABY JONES
THE WIT AND WISDOM OF BARNABY JONES
When people discuss the prestige TV crime dramas of the 1970s, they tend to mention Columbo, The Rockford Files, Kojak, The Streets of San Francisco, Police Story, McCloud, and McMillan and Wife. Sometimes they also throw in Starsky and Hutch, Baretta, and Angie Dickinson’s groundbreaking Police Woman. One show that doesn’t get enough attention from genre aficionados is Barnaby Jones, a Quinn Martin production that starred Buddy Ebsen and Lee Meriwether and ran on CBS TV from 1973 to 1980, for a total of 178 episodes. A Widipedia page titled “1970s American Crime Drama Television Series,” which lists its entries alphabetically, contains only four programs under the letter B: Baretta, The Blue Knight, The Bold Ones, and Bronk. Baretta was by far the most successful of this foursome, and it racked up only 82 episodes over four seasons, which is 96 fewer than Barnaby Jones’s total. The Rockford Files, one of the most highly regarded TV detective shows of all time, notched a total of 123 episodes (later augmented by 8 TV movies scattered over five years in the 1990s). Likewise, Peter Falk’s iconic Columbo character appeared in only 45 canonical episodes of that program between 1971 and 1978. After a decade-long hiatus the character was resurrected, less successfully, for an additional 24 episodes, which aired on ABC TV between 1989 and 2003. Even among Quinn Martin productions, Barnaby Jones was exceptional. The Streets of San Francisco and Cannon, both Quinn Martin productions of the 1970s, ran for a total of 121 and 122 episodes respectively.