User Reviews

Silly, ridiculous and absurd. It was a mash-up of Grease, West Side Story and Happy Days without the singing and dancing. Gangs do not operate or act this way, and never have (except in the afore mentioned stories). No self-respecting gang is going to hire a private investigator. I do have to admit that the scene at the end where they all ran to their cars and took off was hysterically funny. The rest of it was a really stupid story with some of the worst acting I have ever seen. Asher Brauner (as Duke Moran) did a decent job, but everyone else was awful. The worst was Kerry Sherman (as Sherry Gordon); that poor girl couldn't act herself out of a wet paper bag. Do yourself a favor and skip this one.

The saying "try it for yourself" is very true because this episode was not as bad as the reviews make it seem. I actually liked this episode better than a couple of the episodes in season 5. It's the best performance I've seen by Mark Shea (J. R.) as of yet (Season 6, Ep 6) he held this episode well without Barnaby and Betty at his side the entire episode. Normally, I prefer having episodes more focused on Barnaby and or Betty but going forward I wouldn't mind seeing J. R. lead and episode or two. Don't let the reviews turn you away. You might miss something good. By the way I love Betty's younger hairstyle in this one.

"Gang War" is an embarrassingly bad episode of "Barnaby Jones". It seems the more the show tries to be hip, the less it really is...and the more you'll snicker!

When the episode begins, two VERY tame looking gang members arrive at Barnaby's office to talk with him. However, he's not available so they do the next best thing...kidnap Jedediah and take him to see their leader. Jedediah then learns that a gang war is brewing between two VERY whitebread looking gangs and unless a recent murder is solved fast, a whole lotta blood will be shed. Can Jedediah actually solve the crime AND fit in with these tough guys(?).

While I am sure the folks who made this episode tried their best, it just comes off as ridiculous. The gangs seem about as scary as smurfs and there really is very little suspense as a result. Overall, a silly episode that just seems ridiculous.

I just found this episode to be absurd. The 'gangs' are having some sort of turf war, so JR is kidnapped because Barnaby wasn't available, and because JR had a better chance of blending in with the gang. I disagree. Barnaby could have joined and turned the gang on to drinking milk. Yeah, real scary gangs... cute outfits, though.

The most interesting thing about this episode to me was how much John Shea looks like Bradford Dillman. I never noticed the resemblance before. Shea was 20 years younger than Dillman but they look like brothers. I'm sure John Shea would like to forget this incredibly embarrassing turn. He, like Bradford Dillman, looks far too white collar upper class to pull this role off. As others pointed out, this episode is a mishmash of past incarnations of youth gone wild while portrayed by actors in their 30s. I admire any actor who works hard at his craft, but sometimes the end product is just terrible. The QM book I read blamed Marty Katz for a major decline in the quality of QM shows. I can see why.