Barney Miller - General Discussion

[dgpolo]

9 hours ago, Egg McMuffin said:

Danny Arnold’s season as co-showrunner on “Bewitched” was also that show’s best season (the first), before it became gimmicky and formulaic.

That's not really saying much though, is it? It's easier to write creatively for the first season of anything, before the tropes start to form. If he had come in after the show became gimmicky and formulaic and turned it into something more original and creative, that would have something to boast about.

[Egg McMuffin]

I see your point. But in this case, there’s a real change between the Arnold year (and the following season), where Bewitched was truly a romantic comedy, and the succeeding years, where it was about Samantha’s relatives putting a spell on Darrin, or Samantha getting caught doing witchcraft and passing it off as an advertising campaign. Arnold saw the witchcraft as secondary to the show’s story about a newlyweds in a mixed marriage. His successors amped up the witchcraft far earlier than was necessary.

[shapeshifter]

The “Hash” episode just re-aired.

I enjoy the episode until near the end when Fish gets angry at the cop he knew 35 years ago who is talking about Bernice. 
Fishes reaction seems more typical of someone drunk than high on THC.

 

[TattleTeeny]

Haha, I always laugh at Harris's comment about driving a bus!

[januaryman]

Or when the guy says "You don't know what it's like to be oppressed" and Harris replies with "How long you been in this country?"

[shapeshifter]

20 minutes ago, januaryman said:

Or when the guy says "You don't know what it's like to be oppressed" and Harris replies with "How long you been in this country?"

Probably my favorite line in the series. Ron Glass was a great actor.

[TattleTeeny]

Or...

Nick, recounting Fish chasing someone down: What do you call those things in Africa that run and leap in the air?

Harris: Slaves?

[shapeshifter]

⁕Only yesterday did I notice that the show title really should be "The 12th Precinct." 
The Pilot was titled "The Life and Times of Captain Barney Miller," with the show intended to be split between work and home life of the main character, who was to be the Captain (wikipedia.org/wiki/Barney_Miller, popmatters.com/barney-miller-season-1-2496233021.html).

The title did get shortened from "The Life and Times of Captain Barney Miller" to "Barney Miller" when the premise changed to revolve around the squad room, but Hal Linden as Barney Miller is just part of an ensemble, not the focus of the show, just as in the game we know as "Chess," the King and Queen are just pieces.

• BTW, "chess" translates to "four arms" and refers to the "four members of the Indian army" that "were elephants, horses, chariots, and foot soldiers" (chessmaniac.com/the-etymology-of-chess).

I'm guessing the title wasn't changed to "The 12th" because...

1. the Pilot title name of "Barney Miller" and the character played by Hal Linden already had some caché and name recognition among producers and others upon whom the future of the show rested. 
   But I don't see anything written about that. 🤷🏻‍♀️
    
2. maybe in a largely pre-computerized industry, changing titles was a bigger deal, especially with regards to alphabetization. 
    
3. Barney was perhaps the most well-rounded character, played endearingly by Hal Linden, which the title "Barney Miller" emphasized in the minds of viewers, perhaps helping ratings?

____________________

⁕Shared some of this on a more general thread too

[Driad]

In the series finale (which I saw when it first aired but haven't seen since), Captain Miller read out the characters' new assignments.  IIRC, Wojo was to go to K9 Corps, and the audience reacted as if this was especially awful.  Probably Wojo would have to deal with riots etc., but was K9 Corps really so much worse than other assignments?

[possibilities]

I have zero basis for this, but I assumed Wojo is afraid of dogs.

[shapeshifter]

7 hours ago, Driad said:

In the series finale…IIRC, Wojo was to go to K9 Corps, and the audience reacted as if this was especially awful.…

5 hours ago, possibilities said:

I have zero basis for this, but I assumed Wojo is afraid of dogs.

I wasn’t able to pull up the entire episode, but I did get the very end (where the guys said their final goodbyes) and in one shot, Max Gail (Wojo) in the background, was unable to contain his emotion — his face briefly started to contort into a sob😭 that he just barely contained. 
So maybe the audience saw that and was hoping somehow he’d go with Barney or something?

IDK. In my personal head canon, Wojo discovers he really likes working with dogs more than people. This seemed to fit with his constant frustrations about how inhumanely humans behave. 
—And I say this as someone who determined a long time ago that I am really not qualified to be a pet owner. So it’s not an idea coming from my own feelings about working with animals.

[TattleTeeny]

Oh my goodness, the one with the ventriloquist is on now and I forgot how funny it is. 

[TattleTeeny]

Last night, I saw an episode where the guys were asked to take a lie detector test. Well, Wojo yelled at Scanlon and you can see Barney, off to the side a little, has a delighted look on his face at Wojo's outburst. It was so funny.

[shapeshifter]

2 hours ago, TattleTeeny said:

Last night, I saw an episode where the guys were asked to take a lie detector test. Well, Wojo yelled at Scanlon and you can see Barney, off to the side a little, has a delighted look on his face at Wojo's outburst. It was so funny.

I rewatched too. That was 5.14 “Voice Analyzer.”
I enjoyed Dietrich effectively lying to the machine and then later clarifying that he was born in Pennsylvania, not a galaxy far, far away.🤣🛸

[TattleTeeny]

Dietrich is a total dreamboat! As is Barney.

OH, also -- the part where Wojo wants to talk in Barney's office and says "Come on" to Barney, haha!

From about 5:30 you see Barney's eyes bug out, then at about 5:45, you see Barney's delighted smile. At about 30:28 is the "come on." Wojo is fabulous in this episode.

Edited September 20, 2023 by TattleTeeny

[voiceover]

23 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

I enjoyed Dietrich effectively lying to the machine and then later clarifying that he was born in Pennsylvania, not a galaxy far, far away

“It needed to be said.”  🤣🤣🤣  Steve was such a great addition to that cast.

[shapeshifter]

Watching 5.22 “Computer Crime” —
Dietrich has another great line:
“‘Honesty is the best policy,’
  but Insanity is a better defense.”

[shapeshifter]

7.5 "Agent Orange" (1980) is airing on Antenna TV.

Wojo is processing an offender who, like Wojo, was in SE Asia during the Vietnam War. Both have been exposed to Agent Orange. Wojo tries to get justice, of course, by contacting the VA, but ultimately gets a bureaucratic brush off.
Both Wojo and the arrestee talk about specific and numerous possible side effects of their exposure to Agent Orange. 

A year later, 8.1 "Paternity" airs, in which Wojo learns he's sterile, but no mention is made of Agent Orange possibly being a cause. 

I guess they decided the topic had already been covered, and cause of Wojo's sterility was not going to be the focus of the "Paternity" episode, but it seems odd.

[possibilities]

Was Agent Orange associated with sterility? I know it was associated with cancer, but I didn't know about the sterility issue.

[shapeshifter]

21 minutes ago, possibilities said:

Was Agent Orange associated with sterility? I know it was associated with cancer, but I didn't know about the sterility issue.

Not definitively, which might be why they didn’t bring it up (my.clevelandclinic.org/health/symptoms/24689-agent-orange-effects).

[voiceover]

Watching “Quo Vadis?”, wherein the squad room freaks out when they get the news that Barney’s been shot.

Turns out to be nothing (the bullet grazed his finger), but Liz shows up at the 12th precinct, terrified & upset, after the hospital where Barney was treated calls her about their insurance coverage (without being specific to his status…can you imagine?).

Barbara Barrie was so terrific in that role.  When she & Hal Linden’s Barney are having what must be their hundredth fight about his line of work, and his tone dips to patronizing, she fires right back (“I just hate it when you assume what I’m feeling!!”).

I thought, not for the first time, that two of the greatest leading men of 70s comedies (Barney Miller & Hawkeye Pierce) had two of the best & most underrated actresses as their Great Loves (Barrie and Blythe Danner as Carlye Walton).

[SnarkShark]

On 9/2/2023 at 12:37 PM, shapeshifter said:

⁕Only yesterday did I notice that the show title really should be "The 12th Precinct." 
The Pilot was titled "The Life and Times of Captain Barney Miller," with the show intended to be split between work and home life of the main character, who was to be the Captain (wikipedia.org/wiki/Barney_Miller, popmatters.com/barney-miller-season-1-2496233021.html).

The title did get shortened from "The Life and Times of Captain Barney Miller" to "Barney Miller" when the premise changed to revolve around the squad room, but Hal Linden as Barney Miller is just part of an ensemble, not the focus of the show, just as in the game we know as "Chess," the King and Queen are just pieces.

• BTW, "chess" translates to "four arms" and refers to the "four members of the Indian army" that "were elephants, horses, chariots, and foot soldiers" (chessmaniac.com/the-etymology-of-chess).

I'm guessing the title wasn't changed to "The 12th" because...

1. the Pilot title name of "Barney Miller" and the character played by Hal Linden already had some caché and name recognition among producers and others upon whom the future of the show rested. 
   But I don't see anything written about that. 🤷🏻‍♀️
    
2. maybe in a largely pre-computerized industry, changing titles was a bigger deal, especially with regards to alphabetization. 
    
3. Barney was perhaps the most well-rounded character, played endearingly by Hal Linden, which the title "Barney Miller" emphasized in the minds of viewers, perhaps helping ratings?

____________________

⁕Shared some of this on a more general thread too

There are definitely times in TV history (and the mid 70s was one of them) where making a show with a character name was favored.  I think doing so goes in and out of fashion.  

Shorter titles vs. longer ones also is a thing.  A lot of writers like longer titles.  A lot of TV executives like shorter ones.

[Prairie Rose]

On 9/24/2022 at 1:26 AM, voiceover said:

Tonight was “The Kidnapping”, parts 1 & 2: one of the great ensemble pieces as far as guest cast — the A-plot served as the sole focus, as even the B-plot (Barrie Youngfellow’s friendly hooker) was absorbed by it.

Jack Soo had one of his best moments of the series (he pokes his head into the office, letting the Captain know he was off to the bank to collect the ransom; Barney says, “See you soon”; Nick tilts his head a moment, considering: “Maybe!”); Todd Susman, as the kidnap victim’s mousy son, finally draws a line in the sand with his overbearing sister (“Some things in life, YOU PAY FOR!!”); and recurring bit player Ralph Manza is his usual sad sack self as the kidnap victim’s elderly chauffeur (he’d later pop up in one of my all-time fav eps “The Movie”, as the blind man who got mugged by another series regular).   Tonight it pinged that he was also in a Friends ep as one of the tenants in Ross’s building (“No…I’mi all alone..”) who Joey meets while trying to find the “hot girl”.

The only prostitute I really liked with Wojo!  But Barrie went on to bigger roles.

Ironically, Barrie Youngfellow around this time played the love interest of Gregory Sierra on the short-lived AES Hudson Street. She then went on to play the long-lost love of Andy Travis (Gary Sandy) in an early episode of WKRP. Barrie Youngfellow was matched up onscreen with a lot of cute sitcom guys from the 1970s/80s...and was married to one offscreen for the rest of her life (Sam Freed).