10 PLUS STARS. I truly believe this is one of the best performances of Arlene Golonka (as Sue Paige), who could play the funniest of ladies and some deadly females at the same time. She compliments Jackie Coogan (as Phil) who play desperate Hollywood agents for a rock singer --who accidentally kills himself! Now what?
Since everything hinges on their star client, Sue and Phil hide his body and concoct a bogus kidnap scheme to CASH IN on their big loss. Greedy is as greedy does. This is a pretty darn clever episode, well written by Martin Roth, who for years wrote lots of tv comedies, such as MY FAVORITE MARTIAN. This ain't No comedy.
Singer and songwriter Andy Kim plays the rocker, called Ron Michaels, who would actually have his own number one hit, ROCK ME GENTLY, about a year later. FYI: he wrote the famous teenybopper tune SUGAR, SUGAR for the Archies in the late 60s, which us kids couldn't get enough of.
The opening rock concert scene was filmed at the legendary Hollywood Palladium on Sunset Boulevard, next door to the old CBS radio studios.
Two cool things about this story. First, Barnaby discovers who the culprits are right off the bat, which is fun because he basically lets them hang themsleves. Second, without giving too much away, this is the only episode in which the victim at first was NOT dead??? Can't tell you anything more... Watch this all unfold.
Classic BARNABY JONES, and why I have always said the first season was the very best. The show was up against COLUMBO on Sunday nights, co-billed with MANNIX, so the scripts were fresh and extremely intriguing.
All of us children of the 70s grew up at the right time and saw some incredible tv shows like this. Today's programming pales in comparison.
A SEASON 1 EPISODE 18 remastered CBS dvd box set. Get this box set if you are a true mystery fan.