YMMV / Barnaby Jones

• Actor Allusion: "Venus as in Flytrap" has Jessica Walter as a woman who's happy to kill her romantic rival for the affection of a media personality much like Play Misty for Me. Although this time her character succeeds, it still doesn't work out for her.
• Awesome Music: Jerry Goldsmith's theme music: as Jon Burlingame wrote in TV's Greatest Hits, "(It) conveyed more energy (in one minute) than the elderly detective displayed in eight seasons."
  • Here it is from the pilot plus the end title).
• Fandom VIP: Richard Nixon considered this his favorite TV show!
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Bradford Dillman and Heather Menzies together in season 5's "Fraternity of Thieves" a few years before Piranha. This time she's an Unwitting Pawn in his scheme as well as a Disposable Woman.
• Narm:
  • Barnaby drawing a gun on his son's killer in "Requiem for a Son" (the pilot) and saying, "Drop it, or I'll kill you where you stand." Unfortunately he's about as fearsome as Peter Perfect. To be fair he does get better as the series goes along.
  • The same can't really be said for his daughter Bonnie Ebsen when she makes fairly substantial appearances, she's fine in a comic relief bit part in "A Taste For Murder" but her attempts at dramatic acting in a key supporting role in "The Coronado Triangle" came off something else entirely.
  • Sandra Kerns' facial expressions as she tries to convey fear as Penny in "Dance with Death" are a bit silly...
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Margot Kidder turns up in "A Trial Run For Death," years before her turn to fame as Lois Lane in Superman: The Movie.
  • Ed Harris, Sean Penn, Madeleine Stowe and John Witherspoon all appear in "School of Terror." It is in fact one of Penn's very first acting roles.
  • Nick Nolte is the first murder victim in "Dark Legacy" and the killer in "Trap Play."
  • Marc Singer is the second murder victim in "Trap Play" and the killer in "The Price of Terror."
  • Loni Anderson appears in "Deadly Reunion," years before becoming famous as Jennifer Marlowe in WKRP in Cincinnati. Herb Tarlek will be happy to know most of her limited screen time is spent in a bikini.
  • Jonathan Banks turns up in "Dead Heat" and "Duet For Dying" billed as Jonathan R. Banks.
  • Dabney Coleman in "Blind Terror", "A Taste For Murder", "Final Judgement" and "Indoctrination Into Evil".
  • Gerald McRaney in "Mystery Cycle", "Dangerous Gambit" and "Sins of the Father".
  • Jeff Conaway in "Wipeout" and "The Killer On Campus".
  • Terry Kiser in "The Eyes of Terror".
  • James Woods in "Sins of the Father".
  • Annette O'Toole in "Band of Evil".
  • Don Johnson in "Renegade's Child".
  • Jonathan Frakes in "Stages of Fear".
  • Robert Davi in "False Witness".
  • Tommy Lee Jones in "Fatal Witness".
  • Daniel J. Travanti in "Echo of a Murder", "Theater of Fear" and "Sins of the Father".
  • Jonathan Goldsmith in "Sing a Song of Murder", "Death Leap", "Poisoned Pigeon", "Sister of Death" and "Temptation" (billed as Jonathan Lippe in the first four).
  • Meg Foster in "A Little Glory, A Little Death", "A Gold Record For Murder" and "Blueprint For a Caper".
  • John de Lancie in "Terror On a Quiet Afternoon".
  • Chris Mulkey in "Terror On a Quiet Afternoon".
• Seasonal Rot: Despite the show running a solid eight seasons, this seemed to begin around season 5 when J.R. was introduced - he wasn't even remotely like Barnaby, was a skirt chaser, and many episodes focused on either J.R. or Betty investigating crimes (indeed, Betty is the focus of the Series Finale) while Barnaby himself would only appear for maybe 2 minutes per episode, with the excuse that he was on another case, due in court or some other reason.
• Values Dissonance: If a character has feminist tendencies, she's at best unsympathetic, at worst they're the episode's villain ("Sing A Song Of Murder", "Fatal Flight", "Venus As In Flytrap" etc.).