Deadline for Murder

A clever story, written by series regular Larry Alexander, who also wrote for CHIPS.

At the very least, you have to admit its original because you never thought something like this would happen to Barnaby. Alex Henteloff plays a reporter called Al Geiger who uncovers a HOT story. It's so hot that he's told to check it out with Barnaby, just in case.

The catch is Al is conned BIG TIME by two guys pretending to be Barnaby and JR. They get the info they want and Al is toast.

Barnaby and JR now have to piece this all together, and with unfriendly competition. Watch how this all plays out, and the cast is good. True, this kind of gag was done on other cop shows, but it's interesting to see it happen to the "senior" detective. That said, yes I agree, JR is no help to Barnaby minus a gun. By this stage, he should have been a bit more detective saavy. What Larry Alexander should have done was arm JR with a second (hidden) gun or at least a switchblade to surprise the creeps. That would have been a neat trick.

Maggie Cooper guest stars, who later appeared in FALCON CREST. Look for veteran Carmine Caridi, known for the GODFATHER movies.

Also in the cast is Roger Perry, always used by producer Quinn Martin.

Only debit, Alex Hentelhoff has a small role. He played some neat villains or victims. Alex appeared many times on BARNEY MILLER.

9 Stars for Barnaby, who is always armed and ready, and for a few memories watching this back in the day.

SEASON 8 EPISODE 21 remastered color CBS/Paramount. 20 hrs dvd box set running time.

Al Geiger is a reporter has stumbled on something big while he's writing a profile...so big he is unsure of himself and could use some help. His boss suggests he go consult with Barnaby Jones to have him check out the facts. So, he visits who he THINKS is Barnaby and Jedediah...though the real ones were called away and two phonies posed as the detectives! Then, once they got what they wanted out of Geiger, he was killed! Not surprisingly, the real Barnaby and Jedediah get involved with the case...though whether or not they can figure out that there are phony versions of them out there...well that's for you to see.

While the idea of a phony Barnaby and Jedediah is neat, what isn't is the finale to this one...which simply is bad writing. Jedediah has mostly figured out the crime and he confronts the gang of criminals with absolutely no backup and no gun. Fortunately, Barnaby just happens to arrive and stop the folks from air conditioning Jedediah's skull. VERY weak indeed!

By the way, something very similar happened on the old "Hawaii Five-O" series when a group of fakes impersonated McGarrett and his staff! This faux team was shaking down people in order to destroy the reputation of Five-O ("Welcome to Our Branch Office", season seven episode eleven).