Barnaby Jones Meets Frank Cannon

In its entirety, here's the pilot/first episode of BARNABY JONES. In the seventies, when every TV detective seemed to have a particular identifying trait--the bald detective, the black detective, etc--Barnaby was the geriatric detective. After a lifetime which included two careers--one as an eccentric dancer and one as a character actor specializing in "hick" roles, Buddy Ebsen here successfully re-created himself as a retired,cagey sleuth.

In this pilot, his son is killed while attempting to turn to his friend Frank Cannon for help. Cannon was TV's "fat detective" played by radio veteran (and ROCKY & BULLWINKLE announcer) William Conrad. Barnaby comes out of retirement and enlists his now widowed daughter-in-law (lee Meriwether) as his secretary/sidekick. The show went on to run for seven seasons.