Best tv shows like Barnaby Jones
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
Barnaby Jones is a television detective series starring Buddy Ebsen and Lee Meriwether as father- and daughter-in-law who run a private detective firm in Los Angeles. The show ran on CBS from January 28, 1973 to April 3, 1980, beginning as a midseason replacement. William Conrad guest starred as Frank Cannon of Cannon on the first episode of Barnaby Jones, "Requiem for a Son" and the two series had a two-part crossover episode in 1975, "The Deadly Conspiracy".
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: detective
Best tv shows and movies like Barnaby Jones (1973):
Similar in 77%
Beverly Hills Buntz (1987)
Plot Summary:
Beverly Hills Buntz is a spinoff from Hill Street Blues. It aired on NBC during the 1987–88 season.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 111
Genere: Comedy, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 30 min
Plot tags: detective, sitcom
Similar in 78%
Private Eye (1987)
Plot Summary:
Private Eye is an American crime drama that aired from September 13, 1987 until January 8, 1988.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 166
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: detective
Similar in 75%
Petrocelli (1974)
Plot Summary:
Petrocelli is an American legal drama which ran for two seasons on NBC from September 11, 1974 to March 31, 1976. Tony Petrocelli is an Italian-American Harvard-educated lawyer who gave up the big money and frenetic pace of major-metropolitan life to practice in a sleepy city in the American Southwest. He and wife Maggie live in a trailer in the country while waiting for their new house to be built, and travel around in a beat-up old pickup truck. For a quiet rural area, Petrocelli seems to have no trouble running into his share of murderers to defend.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: vintage
Similar in 88%
Switch (1975)
Plot Summary:
Switch is an American action-adventure, tongue-in-cheek detective series starring Eddie Albert and Robert Wagner, who work as private eyes, for a deceptive sting operation. It was broadcast on the CBS network for three seasons between September 9, 1975 and August 20, 1978, bumping the Hawaii Five-O detective series to Friday nights.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 463
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: detective
Similar in 83%
Most Wanted (1976)
Plot Summary:
Most Wanted is an American crime drama series shown on ABC from October 16, 1976 until August 20, 1977. It stars Robert Stack, Jo Ann Harris, Shelly Novack, and Hari Rhodes. This program marks the reunion of series star Stack with noted producer Quinn Martin, as the two had worked together previously on the legendary hit crime series The Untouchables. This is one of only three series from QM Productions not to have an announcer reading out or accompanying the opening credits.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 84
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: detective
Similar in 87%
Agatha Christie's Hjerson (2021)
Plot Summary:
Swedish murder investigator Sven Hjerson forms an unexpected detective duo with stubborn TV producer Klara after several years of isolation. Will she also manage to recruit him for her new TV show?.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: Sweden, Germany, Finland, UK
Duration: 44 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, disturbing, detective
Similar in 88%
Booker (1989)
Plot Summary:
Booker is an American crime drama series starring Richard Grieco that aired on the Fox Network from September 24, 1989 to May 6, 1990. The series is a spin-off of 21 Jump Street and the second installment of the 21 Jump Street series. The character of Dennis Booker was originally a recurring character on that police drama during its third season. The theme song for the series, "Hot in the City", was performed by Billy Idol.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 971
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: USA
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: detective, neo noir
Similar in 83%
Mannix (1967)
Plot Summary:
Mannix is an American television detective series that ran from 1967 through 1975 on CBS. Created by Richard Levinson and William Link and developed by executive producer Bruce Geller, the title character, Joe Mannix, is a private investigator. He is played by Mike Connors. Mannix was the last series produced by Desilu Productions.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: detective, retro, exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful, vintage
Similar in 84%
Cannon (1971)
Plot Summary:
Cannon is a CBS detective television series produced by Quinn Martin which aired from March 26, 1971 to March 3, 1976. The primary protagonist is the title character, private detective Frank Cannon, played by William Conrad. He also appeared on two episodes of Barnaby Jones. Cannon is the first Quinn Martin-produced series to be aired on a network other than ABC. A "revival" television film, The Return of Frank Cannon, was aired on November 1, 1980. In total, there were 124 episodes.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: USA
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: detective, surprise ending
Similar in 81%
Harry O (1973)
Plot Summary:
Harry O, sometimes spelled Harry-O, is an American crime drama series that aired for two seasons on ABC from 1974 to 1976. The series starred David Janssen and was executive produced by Jerry Thorpe. Harry O followed the broadcast of two pilot films: Such Dust as Dreams Are Made On and then the second, Smile Jenny, You're Dead, both starring Janssen.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 874
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: detective, serious, realistic, suspenseful, vintage
Similar in 89%
McMillan & Wife (1971)
Plot Summary:
McMillan & Wife is a lighthearted American police procedural that aired on NBC from September 17, 1971 to April 24, 1977. Starring Rock Hudson and Susan Saint James in the title roles, the series premiered in 90-minute episodes as part of the wheel series NBC Mystery Movie, in rotation with Columbo and McCloud. Initially airing on Wednesday night, the original line-up was shifted to Sundays in the second season, where it aired for the rest of its run. This was the first element to be created specially for the Mystery Movie strand.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: detective, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 89%
Man in a Suitcase (1967)
Plot Summary:
Man in a Suitcase is a 1967–1968 British television series produced by Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment. It originally aired in the United Kingdom on ITV from 27 September 1967, to 17 April 1968. ABC broadcast episodes of Man in a Suitcase in the United States from 3 May 1968, to 20 September 1968.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 445
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: detective, neo noir, eurospy, cult film
Similar in 88%
Stingray (1986)
Plot Summary:
Stingray is an NBC television series produced by Stephen J. Cannell that ran from 1985 to 1987. It stars Nick Mancuso, who plays the mysterious character known only as Ray, whose trademark is a black 1965 Corvette Sting Ray.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 882
Genere: Action, Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 48 min
Plot tags: detective, neo noir
Similar in 85%
The New Mike Hammer (1984)
Plot Summary:
Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer, with Stacy Keach in the title role, is a television series that originally aired on CBS from January 28, 1984 to January 12, 1985. The series was 24 sixty minute episodes. The show follows the adventures of Mike Hammer, the fictitious private detective created by crime novelist Mickey Spillane, as he hunts down criminals on the mean streets of New York City.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: detective
Similar in 88%
Take Two (2018)
Plot Summary:
Sam Swift, the former star of a hit cop series whose epic breakdown is broadcast to the public and sends her to rehab. Desperate to restart her career, she talks her way into shadowing lone-wolf private investigator Eddie Valetik as research for a potential comeback role. Though Eddie resents the babysitting gig, high-spirited Sam uses the skills she learned as an actor playing a cop and proves herself to be surprisingly valuable.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Comedy, Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 43 min
Plot tags: feel good, light, captivating, sweet, detective
Similar in 89%
Case Histories (2011)
Plot Summary:
Case Histories is a British drama television series based on the Jackson Brodie detective novels by Kate Atkinson. It stars Jason Isaacs as Jackson Brodie.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: detective, tense, touching, serious, suspenseful, crime drama, atmospheric, anime, hardboiled detective, realistic
Similar in 89%
Mike Hammer, Private Eye (1997)
Plot Summary:
Mike Hammer, Private Eye is an American syndicated television program based on the adventures of the fictitious private detective Mike Hammer, created by novelist Mickey Spillane. The show starred Stacy Keach and was seen as an attempt to revive the character he had played in Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer and The New Mike Hammer - two moderately successful syndicated CBS series from the 1980s. Mike Hammer, Private Eye premiered on September 27, 1997. The show failed to gain a wide audience and, as a result, it was canceled after only one season. The final show of the series aired on June 14, 1998.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 675
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: detective, rough, serious, neo noir, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 88%
Terriers (2010)
Plot Summary:
Ex-cop and recovering alcoholic Hank Dolworth partners with his best friend, former criminal Britt Pollack, in an unlicensed private investigation business. The series is set in Ocean Beach, San Diego, California, although it is portrayed as a distinct town, with Dolworth having once been a member of the fictional Ocean Beach Police Department.
IMDB Rating: 8.4
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Comedy, Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 45 min
Plot tags: neo noir, suspenseful, dark comedy, captivating, detective, tense, atmospheric, serious, anime, realistic
Similar in 76%
Banacek (1972)
Plot Summary:
Banacek is an American detective TV series starring George Peppard that aired on the NBC network from 1972 to 1974. The series was part of the rotating NBC Wednesday Mystery Movie anthology. It alternated in its time slot with several other shows but was the only one to last beyond its first season.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: detective, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 90%
Murder, She Wrote (1984)
Plot Summary:
An unassuming mystery writer turned sleuth uses her professional insight to help solve real-life homicide cases.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 28000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: USA
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags: clever, detective, witty, thought provoking, thrilling, suspenseful, realistic, serious, iconic
Similar in 84%
Jake and the Fatman (1987)
Plot Summary:
Jake and the Fatman is a television crime drama starring William Conrad as prosecutor J. L. "Fatman" McCabe and Joe Penny as investigator Jake Styles. The series ran on CBS for five seasons from 1987 to 1992. Diagnosis: Murder was a spin-off of this series.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 120 min
Plot tags: detective, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 78%
Quincy M.E. (1976)
Plot Summary:
Quincy, M.E. is an American television series from Universal Studios that aired from October 3, 1976, to September 5, 1983, on NBC. It stars Jack Klugman in the title role, a Los Angeles County medical examiner. Inspired by the book Where Death Delights by Marshall Houts, a former FBI agent, the show also resembled the earlier Canadian television series Wojeck, broadcast by CBC Television. John Vernon, who played the Wojeck title role, later guest starred in the third-season episode "Requiem For The Living". Quincy's character is loosely modelled on Los Angeles' "Coroner to the Stars" Thomas Noguchi. The first half of the first season of Quincy was broadcast as 90-minute telefilms as part of the NBC Sunday Mystery Movie rotation in the fall of 1976 alongside Columbo, McCloud, and McMillan. The series proved popular enough that midway through the 1976–1977 season, Quincy was spun off into its own weekly one-hour series. The Mystery Movie format was discontinued in the spring of 1977. In 1978, writers Tony Lawrence and Lou Shaw received an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for the second-season episode "...The Thighbone's Connected to the Knee Bone...". Many of the episodes used the same actors for different roles in various episodes. For example, an actor who plays a crooked Navy captain also plays a ballistics expert in several of the later episodes. Using a small "pool" of actors was a common production trait of many Glen A. Larson TV programs. Before becoming a regular cast member as Quincy's girlfriend-wife Dr. Emily Hanover in the 1982-1983 season, Anita Gillette had portrayed Quincy's deceased first wife Helen Quincy in a flashback in a 1979 episode "Promises to Keep".
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: detective, medical drama, retro, sincere, serious, realistic, suspenseful, vintage
Similar in 87%
Ironside (1967)
Plot Summary:
Ironside is a Universal television series that ran on NBC from September 14, 1967 to January 16, 1975. The show starred Raymond Burr as a paraplegic Chief of Detectives, Robert T. Ironside. The character debuted on March 28, 1967 in a TV movie. When broadcast in the United Kingdom the show was initially titled A Man Called Ironside. The show earned Burr six Emmy and two Golden Globe nominations. A new television series having the same name, Ironside is currently under development and is scheduled to debut on October 2, 2013.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: USA
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: detective, tense, clever, serious, realistic, suspenseful, talky, vintage
Similar in 79%
Baretta (1975)
Plot Summary:
Baretta is an American detective television series which ran on ABC from 1975 to 1978. The show was a milder version of a successful 1973–74 ABC series, Toma, starring Tony Musante as chameleon-like, real-life New Jersey police officer David Toma. While popular, Toma received intense criticism at the time for its realistic and frequent depiction of police and criminal violence. When Musante left the series after a single season, the concept was retooled as Baretta, with Robert Blake in the title role.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: detective, retro, exciting, rough, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 75%
Dalgliesh (2021)
Plot Summary:
A recent widower and acclaimed poet, enigmatic Inspector Adam Dalgliesh employs his exceptional empathy and insight to plumb the darker depths of the human psyche while investigating complex crimes in 1970s England.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: UK
Duration: 45 min
Plot tags: detective, tense, captivating, disturbing, crime drama
Similar in 90%
Vega$ (1978)
Plot Summary:
Vega$ is an American detective television drama series that aired on ABC between 1978 and 1981. It was produced by Aaron Spelling. The series was filmed in its entirety in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is believed to be the first television series produced entirely in Las Vegas. The show stars Robert Urich as private detective Dan Tanna, who drove around the streets of Las Vegas in a red 1957 Ford Thunderbird solving crimes and making Las Vegas a better place for residents and tourists alike.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Country: USA
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: detective, exciting, serious, realistic, suspenseful
Similar in 85%
Columbo (1971)
Plot Summary:
Columbo is a friendly, verbose, disheveled-looking police detective who is consistently underestimated by his suspects. Despite his unprepossessing appearance and apparent absentmindedness, he shrewdly solves all of his cases and secures all evidence needed for indictment. His formidable eye for detail and meticulously dedicated approach often become clear to the killer only late in the storyline.
IMDB Rating: 8.3
IMDB Votes: 40000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: clever, captivating, detective, suspenseful, serious, realistic, retro, witty, spiritual, anthology
Similar in 85%
The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (1991)
Plot Summary:
Sherlock Holmes and his intrepid companion, Dr. Watson solve the mysteries of the disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax, Thor Bridge, Shoscombe Old Place, the Boscombe Valley, an illustrious client, and a creeping man.
IMDB Rating: 8.7
IMDB Votes: 6000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: detective, spiritual, anthology, mind bending, realistic, suspenseful, stylized, scary, serious, vintage
Similar in 90%
Strike (2017)
Plot Summary:
A war veteran turned private detective operates out of a tiny office in London’s Denmark Street. Although wounded both physically and psychologically, his unique insight and background as a military police investigator prove crucial in solving complex crimes that have baffled the police. Based on the bestselling novels written by J.K. Rowling under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 23000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 60 min
Plot tags: detective, tense, serious, suspenseful, crime drama, ironic, talky, psychological thriller, saga, anime
Similar in 78%
Agatha Christie's Poirot (1989)
Plot Summary:
From England to Egypt, accompanied by his elegant and trustworthy sidekicks, the intelligent yet eccentrically-refined Belgian detective Hercule Poirot pits his wits against a collection of first class deceptions.
IMDB Rating: 8.6
IMDB Votes: 50000
Genere: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Country: UK
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: clever, realistic, captivating, detective, serious, suspenseful, exciting, stylized, crime drama, spiritual