Interesting character portrayal by William Shatner. These shows from the 1970s drew on a wonderful group of "old pros" and that is one of the pleasures of watching a show like this, or Cannon or Mannix. The dvd print looks pretty sharp. Good dramatic tension between Barnaby and the bad guy which builds up. All-around good episode, well paced.
6 Reviews
Evil Kirk with a beard!
demodokos5 August 2023
Warning: Spoilers
Too easily solved. This is a 51 minute episode so I suppose it can't be too complex, but one clue leads Barnaby directly to the villain (Shatner, who's shaved off his beard as a "disguise") without any missteps. You've got to love Shatner in this role, and there's no characteristic over dramatics. And there's a nice performance by the ever-fetching Darleen Carr as the girlfriend of the poor murdered fellow whom Shatner's character murdered (unnecessarily in my view) to engineer his disappearance. In fact, if Shatner's character had been a little bit brighter, he could have managed his magical act sans the homicide. Only 7 stars because the last 10 minutes devolves into foolishness.
Wow...just...wow!
planktonrules14 September 2018
I never watched "Barnaby Jones" when it first aired. I was a kid and thought "who would believe that old man solving crimes?"....and I am sure I wasn't alone on this. However, the show did last quite a few seasons and was a hit....so I recently decided to watch a few episodes...and so far have been pleasantly surprised...especially by "To Catch a Dead Man".
The episode starts with a rich jerk (William Shatner) killing a man in order to make it appear as if the jerk was killed in an explosion. Soon, the real dead man's girlfriend comes to Barnaby--asking him to find her boyfriend. She thinks he's run away because of a bad check and wants Jones to find him and let him know it's okay to come out of hiding. Little does she know that Mike is dead. The interesting thing is that Barnaby Jones ISN'T trying to locate the rich guy who faked his death....but the trail eventually leads to him. What's next? See the show and find out for yourself.
William Shatner guest stars in this one and is quite good. I think the director did a nice job of getting a good performance from him. But the biggest kudos belong to the writer...he did a great job in creating a detective series episode that was wholly unique and interesting. Great job and well worth your time.
The episode starts with a rich jerk (William Shatner) killing a man in order to make it appear as if the jerk was killed in an explosion. Soon, the real dead man's girlfriend comes to Barnaby--asking him to find her boyfriend. She thinks he's run away because of a bad check and wants Jones to find him and let him know it's okay to come out of hiding. Little does she know that Mike is dead. The interesting thing is that Barnaby Jones ISN'T trying to locate the rich guy who faked his death....but the trail eventually leads to him. What's next? See the show and find out for yourself.
William Shatner guest stars in this one and is quite good. I think the director did a nice job of getting a good performance from him. But the biggest kudos belong to the writer...he did a great job in creating a detective series episode that was wholly unique and interesting. Great job and well worth your time.
WATCH BARNABY PSYCHE THIS GUY OUT!
tcchelsey24 May 2022
I agree with the last reviewer that this episode is fantastic. There's a very good reason. BARNABY JONES was part of the CBS Sunday night mystery lineup, along with MANNIX. They were up against COLUMBO on NBC. So producer Quinn Martin needed some solid mysteries. He got them.
In fact, I always thought the first season of the series was the very best as the stories were compelling, and kept you in suspense. Unlike Mannix or Cannon, Barnaby couldn't really beat guys up at his age, so he relied on his laboratory and solid investigative work, much in the tradion of CHARLIE CHAN! Hence, at the opening of each show the puzzle pieces falling together, right? Here, William Shatner plays the ultimate villain, a wealthy playboy named Carlyle who wants to stay wealthy and fake his own death --and start a new life with beautiful Janice Rule. A lot of fans forget that Bill Shatner also played bad guys to perfection. This is a classic example.
Bottom line, Shatner plays an embezzler (with his present his wife's money), then makes it look like he was killed in a boating accident. The fun to it all is watching him try to squeeze out of this dilemma.
Credit director William Hale, a director's director, who got the most out of his cast. He handled such shows as the cult classic INVADERS, among many others. This is also a very well written episode by Ben Maselink, behind such shows as the FBI, later STARSKY AND HUTCH.
This is the definition of a cat and mouse story that kept BARNABY JONES chugging along. Also to note is that co-star Janice Rule, after many years, earned a PHD in psychoanalysis, later known as Dr. Rule and practicing in Los Angeles, but she never gave up acting either. Good for her.
For all us fellow travel buffs, this sceneic episode was filmed up in Ventura county at Lake Sherwood, outside Thousand Oaks. It's about 40 miles from LA, and the home to many stars. The population count was only at 1600 in 2020. Could you imagine the population number when this was filmed in 1973? If you are a true movie buff, many classic TARZAN movies were filmed there in the 1930s and 40s. It must have been a time.
This was the second episode, SEASON 1 remastered CBS dvd box set.
In fact, I always thought the first season of the series was the very best as the stories were compelling, and kept you in suspense. Unlike Mannix or Cannon, Barnaby couldn't really beat guys up at his age, so he relied on his laboratory and solid investigative work, much in the tradion of CHARLIE CHAN! Hence, at the opening of each show the puzzle pieces falling together, right? Here, William Shatner plays the ultimate villain, a wealthy playboy named Carlyle who wants to stay wealthy and fake his own death --and start a new life with beautiful Janice Rule. A lot of fans forget that Bill Shatner also played bad guys to perfection. This is a classic example.
Bottom line, Shatner plays an embezzler (with his present his wife's money), then makes it look like he was killed in a boating accident. The fun to it all is watching him try to squeeze out of this dilemma.
Credit director William Hale, a director's director, who got the most out of his cast. He handled such shows as the cult classic INVADERS, among many others. This is also a very well written episode by Ben Maselink, behind such shows as the FBI, later STARSKY AND HUTCH.
This is the definition of a cat and mouse story that kept BARNABY JONES chugging along. Also to note is that co-star Janice Rule, after many years, earned a PHD in psychoanalysis, later known as Dr. Rule and practicing in Los Angeles, but she never gave up acting either. Good for her.
For all us fellow travel buffs, this sceneic episode was filmed up in Ventura county at Lake Sherwood, outside Thousand Oaks. It's about 40 miles from LA, and the home to many stars. The population count was only at 1600 in 2020. Could you imagine the population number when this was filmed in 1973? If you are a true movie buff, many classic TARZAN movies were filmed there in the 1930s and 40s. It must have been a time.
This was the second episode, SEASON 1 remastered CBS dvd box set.
Excellent performance by Wiliam Shatner
FloridaFred1 April 2021
William Shatner is at his acting best, as a rich sportsman who fakes his own death in order to start a new life. Shatner has the perfect getaway cabin on a lake, the phony passports for his new identity, and a beautiful girlfriend ("Diane Stewart", played by actress Janice Rule) awaiting him.
Barnaby Jones finds very interesting clues that lead him to Shatner. As another reviewer said, Jones didn't start out looking for Shatner... he was trying to locate a sad girl's missing boyfriend (the man who Shatner killed for the fake death scenario).
Great part on the writers, and good acting by all players. A very good second show for the TV series, "Barnaby Jones".
I rate "To Catch a Dead Man" 10 stars.
Barnaby Jones finds very interesting clues that lead him to Shatner. As another reviewer said, Jones didn't start out looking for Shatner... he was trying to locate a sad girl's missing boyfriend (the man who Shatner killed for the fake death scenario).
Great part on the writers, and good acting by all players. A very good second show for the TV series, "Barnaby Jones".
I rate "To Catch a Dead Man" 10 stars.
Stellar episode and my all time fave of the series.
kristiankayn3 October 2023
In most crime drama's there are good versus evil. So no cat out of the bag that Barnaby being hero, William ='s bad guy, and what a wonderful one he is here. This by FAR is my favorite episode of the series. Considered to me as the actual 1st episode (The pilot was primarily the movie series introduction) it just keeps moving and stellar writing. I love anything I can not foresee the ending and this one checked all the boxes. As a kid I too wasn't interested in watching and older gentleman in precarious and dangerous predicaments, so I never watched this. Only when METV started broadcasting them in recent years, that I gave it a watch. Seeing all episodes from the beginning till end, I found the 1st 3 seasons to be of the same caliber throughout and actually entertaining. After that it still was decent, but never captured those 1st 3 seasons. And this episode started it off. I posted this specifically tonight because it's soon to air again this evening. Kudos to the 2 faves of mine in this one as well. Lee Merriweather and William Shatner <3. Well worth a watch even if not a fan.
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