User Reviews

Up until season 5, I really enjoyed the episodes of "Barnaby Jones" and thought they were among the better detective shows of the era. However, starting in season 5, they began making more and more of the shows about Betty and a new character, Jedediah Jones. If this wasn't bad enough, soon about one in every two or three episodes involved friends of Betty or Jedediah...to the point of being ridiculous. After all, how many friends can one have who are murdered, commit murders or are falsely accused of murder?! The friend trope drops into the episodes more and more and by season eight, probably half or more of the episodes were like this and the show clearly suffered.

In "Death Is the Punchline", the episode involves a friend of Jedediah who is a a terribly unfunny stand-up comedian who is accused of murdering the club owner. While this motivation seems tenuous, what's really amazing is how unfunny Ed Begley Jr. Is in this role. However, at the same time, some loan sharks are hanging about the place and they might be the killers....or, perhaps, some other party.

I thought the casting of Begley was odd. I have nothing against him...he's a decent actor...but folks just don't think of him as being funny. His character also is completely clueless when it comes to his lack of ability. He just didn't fit in the role.

Overall, typical of too many later "Barnaby Jones" episodes, this one was just watchable and nothing more.

True, both JR and Betty had some friends who they should have parted with a long time ago, however, this episode holds the distinction of featuring a young Ed Begley, Jr., who has been around Hollywood for a long time. If you're a fan, it's interesting to see him in an early role.

Ed plays a stand-up comedian called Lindy who loses his job and is quickly accused of killing his ex-boss. You have to admit, it's a clever set-up, and Begley is the perfect fall guy. In fact, he looks the part, and probably the reason he was cast. JR naturally jumps into the case to help an old bud, and really has no choice.

Good thing about this story is there's some interesting characters, so there's enough suspicion to go around to make guessing the killer fun. Paul Robert Coyle obviously wrote the episode with a sense of humor, later writing many episodes of JAKE AND THE FATMAN and CRAZY LIKE A FOX.

Popular actress Virginia Kiser guest stars, later appearing on DAYS OF OUR LIVES. As for Ed Begley, Jr., he's still acting, best known for playing Dr. Linkletter in YOUNG SHELDON, and years back playing Dr. Ehrlich in ST. ELSEWHERE, and many, many other classic roles. At this stage in his career, he probably did more film and tv work than his famous dad.

Some memories here for us long term fans of Barnaby, especially as the series nears a close. SEASON 8 EPISODE 18 remastered color CBS/Paramount. DVD box set released 2018 and with a classic cover.

I agree with a lot of the review on the opposite page of me it's right it's just when they added JR and all the friends who are murdering who what where wasn't really around Barnaby Jones anymore it was all about murderer Friends yeah unfortunately that's the way it was I was down the street when this episode was being filmed yeah there was a lot of that going on other shows the same thing just like mash for example with the main characters Leaving it was about character back then like mash people couldn't handle the new characters as popular as the first season second and third unfortunate but that's Hollywood for you win some you lose some🎥🎭🎬