Barnaby Jones
Requiem for a Son
TV Flash files “Requiem for a Son” as a desk essential hour — Barnaby Jones (1973–1980) on CBS, season 1, episode 1, aired 1973-01-28, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S01E01: listed hour 1 of 178 in the Barnaby Jones guide, first listed hour of season 1. It aired 1973-01-28 (60 min). No earlier hour is listed in this guide. Next is “To Catch a Dead Man” (S01E02).
Essential hour: “Requiem for a Son”. Requiem for a Son is the origin named as grief. Ebsen clocks out of Clampett overalls into a Quinn Martin trench: older lead, home lab, a youth-drunk decade getting a patient detective.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
When his mistress Karen Armsby commits suicide during a party at the home of rising young político, Terry McCormack, he persuades private eye Hal Jones to help move her body to her own apartment so he won't be implicated. When a blackmailer phones, McCormack assumes it's Jones. He gets Jones to agree to come to the drop, and then tails him. When he sees Jones in a phone booth, McCormack kills him. Jones had been calling his friend, Frank Cannon, for advice on the messy affair. Cannon comes over the next morning to find Hal is dead, and his father, Barnaby Jones, who'd retired and given his son the business, at the house. When another blackmailing call comes in, McCormack realizes he got the wrong man. Barnaby calls in the course of his investigation and McCormack hires him to find the blackmailer, who he claims is Hal's killer. Karen's escort at the party, Reed Carpenter, turns out to be the blackmailer. Jones is concealed when McCormack delivers the money and accuses him of the murder. Carpenter denies it, Jones reveals himself, and the trapped McCormack tries to kill Jones but loses his nerve. Jones decides to come out of retirement and reestablish the business he'd left his son.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Requiem for a Son sit in the Barnaby Jones guide?
S01E01 is listed hour 1 of 178 — first listed hour of season 1, season 1 episode 1.
When did Barnaby Jones S01E01 air?
Requiem for a Son aired 1973-01-28 and is listed at 60 minutes.
Do I need The Beverly Hillbillies first?
No. Ebsen's Clampett fame is the career footnote. This is a Quinn Martin PI hour with a home lab, not a rural-comedy reunion.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Buddy Ebsen clocks out of Jed Clampett overalls and into a PI trench with a home lab. An older lead in a youth-drunk decade, solving murders with patience instead of karate. Second-act star power: gray hair owning a Quinn Martin hour without pretending to be thirty.
Requiem for a Son names the origin as grief: a retired private investigator returns to the game after his son's murder, and Buddy Ebsen clocks out of Jed Clampett overalls into a Quinn Martin trench with a home lab. CBS's Barnaby Jones (1973–1980), from Edward Hume, ran eight seasons, 178 episodes of steady crime. Lee Meriwether's Betty Jones, Mark Shera's J.R., and John Carter's Lt. Biddle filled the office. Ebsen was in his sixties as a leading man — rare in a youth-obsessed decade — and often crossed over with…
Filed against
- Buddy Ebsen as Barnaby Jones
Buddy Ebsen’s Jed Clampett struck oil and moved The Beverly Hillbillies into a ratings weapon — 1960s catalog rube-versus-elites, then Barnaby Jones clocking out of overalls into a PI trench with a home lab. TV Flash files him as the…
- Lee Meriwether as Betty Jones
Lee Meriwether's Betty Jones kept Barnaby Jones in the lab and the living room — Buddy Ebsen clocking out of overalls into a PI trench, an older lead in a youth-drunk decade, murders solved with patience instead of karate. TV Flash files…
- Mark Shera as J.R. Jones
Mark Shera’s J.R. Jones partnered Buddy Ebsen’s second-act PI trench on Barnaby Jones — home lab, patience instead of karate — then hit S.W.A.T.’s helmet-and-van gloss. An older-lead Quinn Martin hour; disco-era tactical acronym…
- John Carter as Lt. John Biddle
John Carter’s Lt. John Biddle backed Barnaby Jones as Quinn Martin hour muscle — Buddy Ebsen clocking out of Jed Clampett overalls into a PI trench with a home lab. An older lead in a youth-drunk decade, murders solved with patience…