User Reviews

Not that bad of an episode, especially if you're a Lee Meriwether fan. True, Barnaby had another smaller role, but it made more sense to have Betty in this type of a part, and it's a good story.

All about a shady sanitarium where a patient turns up dead. Betty goes undercover to check out the place, only to find --quite cleverly -- the patients are actually being hooked on drugs to keep things going. As usual, Ed Power has a good role as the manipulating doctor. This would be his final appearance on the show. Sharon Spellman, also popular on tv, plays the head nurse.

To a degree, this reminds me of a later episode on CANNON, where Barbara Rush, playing a woman who had been addicted to drugs, was also stuck in a sanitarium with a conspiring doctor.

Look for Michael Masters as Bill, frequently appearing on MANNIX as hoods and tough guys.

Good direction from Michael Caffey, who like Walter Grauman, did a fine job with the cast, especially Lee Meriwether.

Not to worry, Barnaby is always around.

SEASON 7 EPISODE 16 remastered color CBS dvd box set. 2018 release.

"She's a real bow wow..." Jedediah Jones

During the first half of the run of "Barnaby Jones", it was one of the better detective shows. It was written well and Buddy Ebsen was enjoyable in the lead. However, starting in season five, the show really started to go downhill. First, they brought in a new assistant, Jedediah. Second, they started sending Betty out on cases. And, as a result of both, Ebsen was practically written off the show by seasons six and seven and eight. I am not sure why this occurred....but it wasn't good for the fans of the show.

This episode features one of Betty's friends (sign #1 that the show will be poor as this was a WAY overused trope) and it features Betty going undercover (sign #2 that Ebsen will only be in the beginning and end in token appearances). The story is set at a fancy (in other word expensive) drug treatment center. It seems that a friend, Peggy, went there and came back MUCH more screwed up than when she arrived. In addition, there was a suspicious death there and so Peggy investigates....and Barnaby goes fishing! Soon Betty realizes the treatment center does everything it can to keep everyone addicted! Can Betty manage to unravel things AND have Barnaby and/or Jedediah at the end come to her rescue...which is usually the case when she goes under cover.

I really wish that by the time "The Enslaved" came out they'd just done a spin-off show called "Betty and Jedediah", as the show no longer was exactly "Barnaby Jones". At least would have seemed a bit more honest. I also wish they'd come up with a plot that was at least somewhat believable....and you just have to see this one to see how ridiculous the plot was...and how much the show had slipped. A dumb plot and yet another practically Barnaby-less episode.