User Reviews

This is not really that bad of an episode, if you remember it back in the day. Producer Quinn Martin was obviously trying to attract a younger audience, and to a degree, he succeeded with episodes like this. We all used to talk about this stuff in high school.

The star attraction is pretty Robin Mattson, who also became a soap opera celeb. It's worth a look just to see her, and a good actress. Mann Rubin wrote this episode, and actually put Robin in a soaper type situation. She plays a young woman called Shelly who is saddled with a mother who has mental problems. To add to her unpredictable life, she's involved in an accident, is accused of murder and claims Barnaby is her father. That's three the hard way!

Actually, what surprises me after all these years, is that a story involving Barnaby and someone claiming to be his long lost daughter or son did not come sooner. It's a clever storyline, however Barnaby is absolutely no relation to Shelly. Good support from Inga Swenson (who passed in 2023), best known for BENSON. Swenson was a master at dialects, but was born in Nebraska.

Popular actor and producer Darrell Fetty plays Tom.

By the way, in case you are keeping notes, Robin Mattson appeared for years on GENERAL HOSPITAL, SANTA BARBARA and ALL MY CHILDREN.

Dedicated to all us fans rooting for poor Barnaby.

SEASON 7 EPISODE 4 remastered color/CBS.

Wow, have I noticed a huge drop-off in the quality of the episodes towards the end of season 6 and into season 7. While I have loved watching the show, many of these later episodes are simply badly written...no, terribly written...and "Hitch-Hike to Terror" continues this downward spiral.

When the show begins, Shelly is hitchhiking and accepts a ride from a real creep. He tries to get her to smoke some pot with him and soon he sees a police car and darts off...speeding and driving recklessly as Shelly hopes and prays she won't die! Well, the van hits a tree and he runs off...and she's left in the van. The police find her and the pot...and assume it's hers and arrest her....and take her to the hospital.

Now here's the weird part. She tells the police that Barnaby Jones is her father and they should contact him. Now, of course she is NOT Barnaby's daughter. And, when he comes to the hospital, she tells him to get lost...as she hates her father! Huh?! What?! Huh?! Well, try as he might, this really annoying and stupid character won't listen to his denials about him being her father. Instead, she assumes he must be because her mother insists that he is. Now comes the really dumb part...you soon learn that her mother is a severely mentally ill woman whose contact with reality is fleeting at best!! So, Shelly assumes a clearly insane woman is right...and Barnaby is a no-account guy who left her and her mother long ago!! This makes no sense but what makes less sense is how through the course of the episode, she keeps insisting he is her daddy....based on very, very little.

At the same time, Tony is trying to get to Shelly to kill her. But why? And, considering how annoying Shelly is, you wonder why Barnaby even tries to stop this killer!

This is a truly bad episode. It rarely makes sense and Shelly is among the most annoying characters I can recall. She simply makes no sense and it's easy to hate the episode....very easy. Bad writing truly sink this one...avoid like the plague!!

By the way, there is only one thing I like about the show...Barnaby talking to Mrs. Nicholson. This woman is a minor character...just an eye witness. But her reaction to being interviewed by a private eye is hilarious...and really smacks me as the only realistic part of the episode.

Season 6 was pretty bad, and Season 7 seems to be heading down-hill from there. At least the writers are consistent; all women are stupid and all men are creeps.

This story made no sense. This girl thinks Barnaby is her Father, because her mentally ill Mother has told her so. She's 23 years old; so in 23 years, she's never tried to find her Father before? Why not? She knew who he was, according to her Mother, so why on earth has she never tried to contact him before? Makes no sense. She's been told all her life, he's her Father and she knows he's a private investigator, so it's not like he'd be hard to find. Not to mention, her Mother is MENTALLY ILL. Just a really silly story, not worth watching.