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''Barnaby Jones'' is a television detective series starring Buddy Ebsen and Lee Meriwether as a father and daughter-in-law who run a private detective firm in Los Angeles, California. The show ran on CBS from January 28, 1973, to April 3, 1980, beginning as a midseason replacement. William Conrad guest-starred as Frank Cannon of ''Cannon'' on the first episode of ''Barnaby Jones'', "Requiem for a Son", and the two series had a two-part crossover episode in 1975, "The Deadly Conspiracy". The series was produced by QM Productions (with Woodruff Productions in the final two seasons), and lasted longer (seven and a half seasons) than any other QM series except ''The FBI''. ==Plot== After Barnaby Jones (Buddy Ebsen) had worked as a private eye for many years, he decided to retire and left the business to his son Hal. When Hal was murdered while working on a case, Barnaby came out of retirement to find the killer. His widowed daughter-in-law, Betty Jones (Lee Meriwether), joined forces with him to solve the case. The two decided that they worked so well together, they would continue to keep the detective agency open. Jones was unusual, ordering milk in restaurants and bars, counter to the stereotypical hard-drinking detective.〔(''Barnaby Jones'' ) at Nostalgia Central〕 Until the cancellation of ''Cannon'', the characters of both series moved back and forth between the two shows. In 1976, the character of J. R. (Mark Shera), the son of Barnaby's cousin, joined the cast. He had come to try to solve the murder of his father, but stayed around to help Barnaby and Betty, while also attending law school. During the first year of the series, a common theme would be where Jones would make an astute observation or collect a sample, such as mud on a car's tire. The criminal, in some cases, called his accomplice and had a conversation along the lines of "there's a Mr. Jones and he's asking a lot of questions," after which the criminal was assured that Jones would be "taken care of". In view of his advancing age (Ebsen was in his 60s for most of the series) Jones rarely engaged in fistfights in the climactic scene of a given episode; instead, anticipating a violent act from an adversary, Jones would draw his revolver and get the drop on the villain, or he would use self-defense tactics such as slamming the door on a shotgun-toting villain, or using a judo hold to subdue the bad guy, or rely on others (such as J.R. or the police) to overpower and detain the criminals. Toward the latter part of the series, as Ebsen aged and expressed an interest in slowing down a bit, Meriwether's and Shera's characters became more prominent, allowing Ebsen to reduce his role; during the last two seasons, the episodes were divided evenly among the three actors, with Ebsen, Meriwether, and Shera each being the focus of a third of the season's episodes. The show was cancelled in 1980 due to declining ratings; Ebsen had also finally had enough of playing the role.〔Etter, Jonathan. ''Quinn Martin, Producer''. Jefferson: McFarland, 2003.〕 After the series' cancellation, reruns could be seen in syndication. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Barnaby Jones」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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