User Reviews

"Poisoned Pigeon" begins exactly the same way the prior episode, "The Deadlier Species" began....and that was NOT good. The writer emplys a bad cliche where the victim of some crooks goes to the crooks to announce they know they are crooks and are going to the police. As you'd expect, the crooks, being evil crooks, simply kill the guy! Duh!

The widow of the dead man hires Barnaby and he soon learns that the trail goes to a man and woman who are selling copper stock...worthless copper stock. However, there's more to it than this...including a betrayal and the theft of money from a VERY dangerous mobster.

For the start of the show, I'd give it a 1. Really....this is a bad and senseless cliched part of the show. As for the rest, it gets better and is worth seeing. Overall, I give it a 6 and not higher simply because the start was so rocky.

Skip Webster wrote this interesting episode, and did his homework. Skip was behind FANTASY ISLAND, and later wrote for MATT HOUSTON, which co-starred Buddy Ebsen as Matt's uncle. That was a fun show.

The theme here is all about copper. There was a big copper shortage in the mid 60s, that lasted until around this episode was filmed in 1975. The shortage forced home builders to re-wire most houses with aluminum wiring. Accordingly, and probably based on real incidents, a couple of cons are selling copper stock that is absolutely worthless. This is a good story, and with a few twists, although it does resort to a man and woman behind it all, as was the case in the last few episodes.

You have to like this cast, lead by Penny Fuller, who played some intriguing bad ladies in her career. A must see in any role she did. Popular actor Michael Callon plays Tim. Look for Alex Henteloff, playing Bruno. Alex was yet another one of those actors who turned up everywhere (usually as a con man), but you never knew his name. Deadpan Jack Riley, from the BOB NEWHART SHOW, plays Norm. Jack was a tv original, versatile in both dramatic and comedy roles for years. At times, he looked a bit like Steve Martin, and just as funny!

Filmed at Burbank Airport, off Hollywood Way, a great place for filming because there's less traffic, less everything than LAX. The crew on CANNON, however, filmed many episodes at LAX, though they were often in Burbank and North Hollywood. Go figure! I guess producer Quinn Martin did not interfere when it came to location settings.

Worth having that second cup of late night coffee! SEASON 3 EPISODE 22 remastered CBS dvd box set.