Paramount Home Entertainment
Release date: Feb 16th, 2010
MSRP: $39.98

Stars: Buddy Ebsen, Lee Meriwether, Sandra de Bruin, Brendan Dillon, Bill Erwin

OK, I’ll admit it. When this was on I made fun of the old guy solving crimes. But because of my mother’s love for crime fiction TV shows I watched every week. Back in the day nobody did these shows as well as Quinn Martin and this is one of the shows I’ve been waiting for on DVD.

The opening premise is actually great, Jones comes out of retirement when his son is killed. He continues to solve crimes with the aid of his daughter in Law played by the AWESOME Lee Meriwether. Like Cannon the first thought is to wonder what the Hell this guy is doing working as a PI. But though he’s not chasing bad guys down alleys he has worlds of experience and you believe it. That’s in part to Buddy Epson being good at what he does. What he also does is really make you like the guy.
I love the pilot. Great story telling Murder In The Dollhouse is an episode about an author being killed for something in his book, a plot that was popular in those days but still works great. Sunday: Doomsday is a wonderful beat the clock episode as someone is planning to kill Jones and lets him know ahead of time

William Conrad is in the pilot as Frank Cannon. The second episode has William Shatner. The character of Jones was also on an episode of Cannon, The Deadly Conspiracy in 1975’s season 5 of Cannon. The crossover was a nice touch and is still used on occasion today. The show ran for 8 seasons proving you don’t have to be young and pretty to be success on TV as a detective.

I loved watching these again, and as an adult I can appreciate just how well they were done. I can’t wait for more!

Jon