In the first four years "Barnaby Jones" was on the air, Barnaby was the main character. But starting in season five, they brought in Jedediah Jones to do many of the things Barnaby usually did. In addition, in the following four seasons, Betty went from Barnaby's secretary to an investigator. No, she didn't get a private detective license but just became a nosey woman who took on cases involving mostly (though not exclusively) friends and family. This meant that about 10 times a year, one of Betty's friends would kill someone, be killed or be accused of murder! This in and of itself is totally ridiculous, as unless Betty had 150,000 friends, no one knows that many people involved with murders! It made me think that perhaps Betty was a serial killer who got off on framing innocent people for these killings! Yes, I hated this trope.
This is similar to these bad episodes in that Betty gets involved and investigates...and it's about a friend. But, unlike these other situations, no murder is involved but rape. And, while I hate Betty the P. I., I do appreciate how the episode dealt with rape...something most shows were still afraid to do in 1979.
Early in the story, a friend of Betty's is raped. The woman does NOT want to talk to the police nor identify who her attacker was and Betty convinced her to go to the police, as other women are at risk from this predator. This made sense. But good intentions bit Betty on the tush, as the friend quickly identifies a man as the perpetrator...mostly because the police seemed to be telling her he was the rapist. Now, Betty is horrified, as she didn't want the friend to pick someone so cavalierly and she spends the rest of the show trying to find out who the real perpetrator is...which was interesting. What's more interesting? Robert Davi played someone in the show who was NOT evil...probably a first for this actor!
While I hate the Betty the investigator trope (boy, was it overused), I do appreciate the episode. It was NOT saying that rapes don't occur but was saying that folks can be in such a rush to judgment that mistakes can happen...which seems pretty reasonable. This is an episode that makes you think....and it's pretty well written.
This is similar to these bad episodes in that Betty gets involved and investigates...and it's about a friend. But, unlike these other situations, no murder is involved but rape. And, while I hate Betty the P. I., I do appreciate how the episode dealt with rape...something most shows were still afraid to do in 1979.
Early in the story, a friend of Betty's is raped. The woman does NOT want to talk to the police nor identify who her attacker was and Betty convinced her to go to the police, as other women are at risk from this predator. This made sense. But good intentions bit Betty on the tush, as the friend quickly identifies a man as the perpetrator...mostly because the police seemed to be telling her he was the rapist. Now, Betty is horrified, as she didn't want the friend to pick someone so cavalierly and she spends the rest of the show trying to find out who the real perpetrator is...which was interesting. What's more interesting? Robert Davi played someone in the show who was NOT evil...probably a first for this actor!
While I hate the Betty the investigator trope (boy, was it overused), I do appreciate the episode. It was NOT saying that rapes don't occur but was saying that folks can be in such a rush to judgment that mistakes can happen...which seems pretty reasonable. This is an episode that makes you think....and it's pretty well written.
