Barnaby Jones (TV Series) Catch Me If You Can (1973) User Reviews

Once I saw James Olson, I knew who the bad guy was!

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 7 July 2021]

Some actors appeared as guest stars in tons of cop and detective shows of the 1960s-70s and they always seemed to play bad guys. Jack Cassidy, Nehemiah Persoff, John Colicos and James Olson, among others, were often these baddies. So, when I saw Olson come onto the screen, I knew he was evil!!

When the story begins, Barnaby is meeting with a friend of his who is also a private dick. Eddie is apparently working on a case involving a weird killer who sends him taunting letters...and he tells Barnaby he's about to crack the case. You know what this means, don't you? Yep...this friend will be dead any minute! Now it's up to Barnaby to pick up the pieces of the case and determine who this serial killer is.

This is generally a good episode but the final few minutes of the tale are poorly written. Why does the serial killer leave Barnaby to possibly catch up with him?! Why give him a chance?! Considering he'd killed before and enjoyed it, why would he do this now?! Sloppy....but an otherwise fascinating story.

THE STRANGLER IS SNEAKING UP ON YOU!

[tcchelsey · 10/10 · 21 February 2023]

George Schenk wrote this creepy tale, and so rightly named. George would go onto write one of the best tv movie mysteries, the PHANTOM OF HOLLYWOOD, the following year, starring Jack Cassidy. Watch for it. He later produced over 300 episodes for NCIS.

Best of all is the casting of James Olson (who passed last year), playing a rather "quiet" guy called Randall, who kills one of Barnaby's detective friends, about to crack a complex murder case. Olson made one of the best villains on the series. He was in a league of his own, sort of from the Alfred Hitchcock school of depraved villains.

Naturally, Barnaby keeps his gun ready.

Walter Grauman directs this prime cat and mouse thriller beautifully, with just the right music, the right pause, all the quiet... and enter homicidal Randall, out to nail a few other people connected to the case. It truly has the feel of a HAWAII FIVE O episode, and no surprise that James Olson also appeared quite a few times on that super show.

The Greek typewriter --without giving too much away --is a fairly clever angle here, positioned beside an American typewriter. This was adopted from many old mysteries. Watch closely. There are a number of familiar faces, including Jean Bryan, playing a secretary, best remembered as PATTY DUKE'S mom and veteran Peter Mamakos, long time heavy in movies and tv. He plays the owner of a bar who serves milk to Barnaby while auditioning a belly dancer???

Look for Mary Jackson (the WALTONS), getting strangled as she is about to eat lunch all alone in a dark warehouse!

A Halloween treat.

For all of us late, late eerie mystery buffs. The title was also used on CANNON in Season 2, starring Anthony Zerbe.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 6 remastered CBS dvd box set.

Wouldn't Private Detectives Lock the Door and Be on Guard?

[FloridaFred · 6/10 · 7 May 2021]

As another review said in "Goofs", wouldn't two private detectives tracking down a Psychopath be more careful? Doors are not locked,and Wheelock doesn't pay attention to someone sneaking into his office. Other hard to believe scenarios include the scene where Betty is being walked down the crowded street in broad daylight, with a gun in her back - but she doesn't try to break loose, or cry out for help?

James Olson (as character "Randall Stone") is almost too cold and hard. Anbyody would know something is mentally wrong with him. For example, when he runs off the office worker (actress Judee Morton) who hands him a stack of paperwork. That is too creepy.

One interesting scene that the writers added, probably to keep the attention of the male viewers, is the belly dancer (played by actress/professional dancer Tanya Lemani) in the Greek restaurant. Barnaby Jones gets an eyeful, then returns to his glass of milk.

Rate this? Jones and Wheelock should have had their guard up. The psycopath should not have been so obvious around his co-workers. Those flaws, plus others, tarnish what could have been a much better episode. The best I can rate "Catch Me If You Can" is 6 stars.

Another Unrealistic Villain

[WYAdams · 4/10 · 16 June 2022]

The inane plot starts at the cemetery when Barnaby tells the police detective he is suspicious of the suicide determination. In a normal situation either Barnaby would have told the detective what he found, or the detective would have asked. In addition, any normal competent detective would be curious why Barnaby asked about scissors or knives in the office. The fact that the detectives didn't check for some device used to cut the phone cord casts them as bumbling incompetent fools, which real police detectives are not!

Somehow, the killer knows that Barnaby has tracked down the costume shop where he rented his costume and manages to get there first, killing the secretary and destroying the evidence. There are two things that make this whole scenario implausible. First is the fact that the killer did not do this earlier since he knew Eddie was investigating him previously. Second, in any normal situation, Betty would have gotten the name and told Barnaby like she does in almost every other episode when Barnaby has her do research, but for some unfathomable reason she doesn't, which allows the killer to kill the secretary just before Barnaby getakehere.

Barnaby is uncharacteristically stupid when trying to decode the message written in Greek. The most obvious code would be to type the key on the English typewriter that corresponded to the position of the key on the Greek typewriter, yet Barnaby spends fruitless hours tapping on the keyboards with no success. It should have been obvious how the code was generated, otherwise why did he have the typewriters side by side.

Taking Betty hostage was so obvious they might as well have announced it at the start of the program.

Telling Barnaby not to pick up the phone was nonsensical because there was no way the killer could know that Barnaby called the police. To add to the stupidity, Barnaby doesn't spend the few seconds it would take to call the police.

The whole milk drinking scenario is done prominently, with undue emphasis every episode, making it tiresome. We can't get through a single episode without Barnaby drinking at least one glass of milk in exaggerated manner. It makes me wonder if the American Dairy Association paid the producers to advertise milk.

This is a badly written episode with nonsensical plot twists that telegraphed events leaving no surprises. I was very disappointed, but not surprised because this whole series is written like this.