Barnaby Jones (TV Series) Death Is the Punchline (1980) User Reviews

Once again

[andricodrayford · 9/10 · 28 January 2024]

If everyone just shut up and stop complaining about J. R. and Betty and their friends always being in trouble and just enjoy the show, then they would see how good the episodes really are.

This isn't a bad episode at all. I get the fact that people come to Barnaby but he's not the only star and I truly enjoy the J. R. and Betty episodes; particularly Betty's.

At the beginning I just knew the long shark would be the killer, but once the murder happened I knew exactly who it was, but the second killer caught by suprise. It shouldn't have but it did.

All in all a good episode and should not skip it. Especially since we're down to the last five episodes and it is very bittersweet.

Once again...a friend of Jedediah's!

[planktonrules · 4/10 · 8 August 2021]

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.

Barnaby Jones

[rgfjzcjc · 3/10 · 14 May 2022]

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🎥🎭🎬