1. The show was meant to be a spin-off from 'Cannon.'

 

"The original plan was to do the Barnaby Jones pilot as an episode of Cannon. Barnaby was to be a spin-off from Cannon," Lee Meriwether explains in the book Quinn Martin, Producer: A Behind-the-Scenes History of QM Productions and Its Founder. The series maintained a long-running relationship with its Martin-made sibling. William Conrad's Cannon character appeared in the first episode of Barnaby, and the two shows crossed over in "The Deadly Conspiracy" in 1975.

Image: The Everett Collection

2. Quinn Martin had at least one television series running in prime time every year for 21 straight years.

 

Let's take a moment to remember the unparalleled output of Martin. At various points in the 1960s and 1970s, Martin would simultaneously have as many as four series running on various networks. Few creators have been so prolific and successful.

3. Buddy Ebsen often fell asleep on the set.

 

Ebsen was 64 when the series kicked off, and the veteran actor had a long commute from his Valley home to the set each day. In the aforementioned Quinn Martin, Producer book, crewmembers remember the star's frequent catnaps. Ebsen would fall asleep in his car, and fall asleep standing up. Director of Photography William W Spenser recalled, "[The set] was quieter and there wasn't that much going on. Buddy always seemed to know when we were ready to shoot though. He'd just sort of wake up automatically." 

Top image: AP Photo/Harold Filan

4. Richard Nixon was a big fan of the show.

 

As reported in a 1984 article in the Milwaukee Journal, the former POTUS wanted "to join a fan club honoring the television sleuth," the Barnaby Jones Lunchean Club. Ebsen bumped into Nixon in Palm Springs, where the president geeked out and professed that he had seen every episode and could quote lines from the series. Ebsen in turn wrote to fan club president Jordayne Thomas. No word if Nixon ever became an official member of the BJLC.

Image: AP Photo

5. Several children of the cast and crew appeared on the show.

 

It was a relaxed, inviting set by all accounts — and a bit of a family affair. Bonnie Ebsen, the daughter of Buddy, pictured, appeared on the series. Meriwether's daughter Kyle Aletter, who later became a model on The Price is Right, also popped up, as did Martin's daughter, Jill Martin.

Image: The Everett Collection

6. William Shatner and Robert Reed played villains.

 

Barnaby Jones proved to be a great forum for familiar faces to break from expectations. The bad guys included the Star Trek captain as a man who fakes his death and the erstwhile Brady Bunch father as a journalist who will literally kill for a scoop. Meredith Baxter-Birney also played a serial killer.

7. There was a slight nod to 'The Donna Reed Show' when former sitcom dad Carl Betz guest starred.

 

Another familiar face that met Barnaby was Betz, who formerly played patriarch Dr. Stone on The Donna Reed Show. In the episode "Stand-In for Death," Betz's jealous husband character slept in a separate twin bed from his wife, which was a subtle, intentional nod to the sleeping arrangements on The Donna Reed Show.

Image: The Donna Reed Show

8. A 'Beverly Hillbillies' crossover was planned with Buddy Ebsen playing both Jed and Barnaby.

 

Now here's a great "What Might Have Been." There were plans to produce a crossover with The Beverly Hillbillies that would have featured Ebsen portraying both Barnaby Jones and Jed Clampett. The proposed plot remains a mystery, but Jones would likely have to come to the rescue of Clampett. This didn't officially happen for various reasons, though a similar scenario did materialize years later…

Image: The Beverly Hillbillies

9. EBSEN APPEARED AS BARNABY JONES IN THE 1993 'BEVERLY HILLBILLIES' MOVIE.

 

Though the Hillbillies crossover never came to fruition, the two worlds would meet in 1993 when Ebsen's Jones character makes a cameo in the dud big-screen remake of The Beverly Hillbillies. Jim Varney was playing Jed, however.

Image: 20th Century Fox

10. Andre Previn turned down the offer to compose the theme song.

 

Previn, principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, turned down the gig. Jerry Goldsmith stepped in to craft the instrumental theme, though he, too, almost backed out. On seeing the pilot, Goldsmith tried to get out of the gig as he disliked the show. Turns out, however, it would end up being his second longest running theme song next to The Waltons.

Image: The Everett Collection

11. Buddy Ebsen published a Barnaby Jones novel in 2006.

 

Three years after his death, a posthumous Ebsen novel titled Sizzling Cold Case was published. It opened with a "theme song" of sorts, which featured the line, "Barnaby, Barnaby—can one man save the human race?" Late in his life, Ebsen published a handful of books, ranging from romance to mystery.

Image: AuthorHouse via Amazon

There's more: 12 fascinating facts about Buddy Ebsen

 

Ebsen was a dancer, an actor, a singer, a soldier, a writer and a painter. What couldn't he do? READ MORE

Image: Buddy Ebsen's Uncle Jed Country