KERN VALLEY SUN -- He changed his major to Radio, Television and Film, got his Associate of Arts at Bakersfield College, then moved to San Francisco and enrolled in SF State with a major in film. After graduating with his degree in 1966, Barbee hit the ground running as a cameraman and editor in the wildly creative atmosphere of San Francisco in the 1960s.
Barbee worked for two years shooting and editing documentary films at San Francisco television stations KPIX and KGO, where he worked as a film editor and news cameraman, but he found he didn’t like doing the news, so Barbee switched to documentaries and did short Christmas specials for the ABC station.
“I had a knack of putting music and images together that people responded to.” One of the people who responded was legendary and prolific network producer Lee Mendelson, mostly known for his Charlie Brown specials. Based in the Bay Area, Mendelson saw some of Barbee’s work and offered him a job. During the next ten years Barbee gained invaluable experience co-producing, directing, editing and photographing live-action, prime-time network specials and series for Mendelson Productions.