 Barnaby Jones was a former private eye who temporarily came out of retirement to track down the killer of his son Hal, who had taken over the family business. After bringing Hal s murderer to justice (with the assistance of fellow CBS gumshoe Frank Cannon), Jones decided retirement just wasn t his bag after all, and rehung his shingle with the assistance of daughter-in-law Betty, who ran the office and Barnaby s personal crime laboratory, and (later) young distant cousin Jedidiah, who did the cases  legwork.