10 PLUS STARS.
I believe this is one of the finest performances of Arlene Golonka (as Sue Paige), who could play the funniest of ladies and some deadly ones at the same time. She compliments Jackie Coogan (Phil), playing scheming Hollywood agents for a rock singer --who accidentally kills himself. Now what?
Since everything hinges on their star client, Sue and Phil hide his body and concoct a bogus kidnap scheme to CASH IN on their big loss. Greedy is as greedy does. A pretty darn clever episode, written by Martin Roth, who for years wrote lots of tv comedies, like MY FAVORITE MARTIAN. This ain't No comedy.
Singer and songwriter Andy Kim plays the rocker, called Ron Michaels, who would actually have his own number one hit, ROCK ME GENTLY, about a year later. FYI: he wrote the famous teenybopper tune SUGAR, SUGAR for the Archies in the late 60s, which us kids couldn't get enough of.
The opening rock concert scene was filmed at the legendary Hollywood Palladium on Sunset Boulevard, next door to the old CBS radio studios.
Two neat things about this story. First, Barnaby discovers who the culprits are right off the bat, which is fun because he basically lets them hang themselves. Second, without giving too much away, this is the only episode in which the victim at first was NOT dead? Can't tell you anything more. Watch this all unfold.
Classic BARNABY, why the first season was the very best. The show was up against COLUMBO on Sunday nights, co-billed with MANNIX, so the scripts were fresh and intriguing. A lot of memories here for all us kids who saw it when it premiered.
Trivia note; the clever title was also used in a Season 2 episode of MURDER SHE WROTE.
A SEASON 1 EPISODE 18 remastered color CBS/Paramount dvd box set. Get this box if you are a true mystery fan. Thank you again METV.
