Barney Miller

This is the most impressive of the sitcoms ever done about law enforcement. It is understated, intellectual, comical, & entertaining while dealing with the beat of a group of New York City Dectectives. The show draws its characters well, & defines & redefines them throughout the show.

This show was a slow starter in the ratings, partly because of it's subtle humor, & partly because early on it would get distracted away from the police station with Barney's wife (played by Barbara Barrie). After the first couple of seasons, the show started concentrating more on it's knitting, the police station, & graduated into a more sophisticated comedy.

The recent death of the late Ron Carey reminded me of just how well he played Officier Carl Levitt. His character always behaved like all the Detectives looked down on him, an underling. Carey played that attitude brilliantly.

Hal Linden was always a consummate Captain Miller, always being put on the spot by his team & shooting from the hip at times. Steve Landesburg (Dietrich)was the most intellectual of the detectives always taking a simple conversation & making it complex.

James Gregory as Inspector Luger was alway bugging Barney with stories of the old days he'd have to listen to from a superior. In some ways this was the veteran movie actors best role. Max Gail as Wojo was always being played as stupid but often got the last word in.

Abe Vigoda was perfect as Fish, so good they spun him off from here to his own series. Jack Soo was brilliant as Yemana but sadly death cut his role short in this series, similar to Coach on CHEERS. Ron Glass as Detective Harris was very good as another mainstay on the show. This show had a diverse cast, even Linda Lavin who would go on to play ALICE got a good start on this show.

The writers were brilliant in that they constantly kept developing the characters to the point that when the last show came along, they ended the show with a script where everybody finally got what they wanted in promotions for years, and ended with Barney closing the door on the squad room for the last time.

As this show hits the DVD's, I bet it gets a slow start but once young folks get exposed to it, the sales will pick up speed. The shows are that good.

"Barney Miller" showed the gritty realism of police work in New York City in the 1970s, albeit with humor. Skits about the impending bankruptcy of the city, some of the futile criminal behavior (man stuck inside ductwork trying to burglarize a store), the mundane day in, day out existence of police officers with the occasional heart-pounding, adrenalin rush of excitement, and of course, what we in the profession called "the hairbags" - the old cops, forever full of stories, content to live in the past as Inspector Lugar exemplifies. To those who say "Barney Miller" is dated, I say the show is a timeless slice of life, and can be set in almost any locale and time period. The cast could not have been picked with any more brilliance, and the production was seamless. I say "Barney Miller" is a classic for the generations.

How come there are not more TV shows like Barny Miller? This was one of the best TV shows on TV. The writing and characters were fantastic and even though it has a 1970's feel and look to it, the show still packs a punch.

Barney Miller dealt with important topics as gay police officers and the fact that even though they are gay, they are still valuable members of society.

There are not really and funny shows anymore. What is a TV viewer suppose to watch? Friends?? Paris Hilton washing a cow. Please give me something!!!

This show was one of the funniest in the history of television. The various characters that came in and out of the station made this show what it was. I really think the show was at its peak during the period when Abe Vigoda, Jack Soo and Steve Landesberg were all on the show together. However, once Vigoda and Soo were gone, the show seemed to shift to a more dramatic direction. This was especially evident in the memorial episode for Jack Soo. However, this was a highly influential show and if you look at Night Court, which was produced by pretty much the same team as this one, you will see some of the same qualities on that show that made this one great.

If there was a great TV show that emphasize the decade of the 1970's,the situation comedy series "Barney Miller",was just that. This was a quality series that became one of television's greats. In perspectives,"Barney Miller" was a show that changed dramatically during the course of its seven year run,despite the fact that its plot,setting and basic cast remained the same. This was a show that quickly became one of the biggest hits for the ABC-TV network,producing 170 episodes during its seven year run on the network from the premiere episode on January 23,1975 until the final episode of the series on May 20,1982. The series was created by Danny Arnold,who served as the executive producer along with Theodore J. Flicker. Arnold also served as one of the writers of the show along with Chris Hayward. The series was produced by Arnold's production company Four D Productions in association with the ABC Television Network(the series was filmed in front of a studio audience at ABC Television Center in Hollywood).

The show was about a detective squad at a precinct house in New York City's Greenwich Village,and often the strange people from the community went in and out their door each week. At the beginning of the series,the pace of the police department was fast and the comedy a bit loud.,and the emphasis was one-on-one liners and quirkiness rather than on real characters. Captain Barney Miller(Hal Linden)was head of the precinct,very put-upon and overworked,but nevertheless always wise and friendly. Wojo(Max Gail)was the well meaning detective who was a bit lacking in smarts. Harris(Ron Glass)was funny,fashion-conscious,and cool,while Yemana(Jack Soo)was much more introverted,though he also would provide the occasional witty commentary. Fish(Abe Vigoda,who was on the show for two seasons before being spun off into their own show "Fish")was the elder statesmen,the old man on the verge of retirement who had more ailments than you could imagine. Chano(Gregory Sierra)was the normal of the bunch after Barney,and always tried to have a positive outlook despite being constantly exposed to the less inspiring side of life. Other characters that appeared were Barney's wife Liz(Barbara Barrie),Barney's supervisor Chief Inspector Frank Luger(James Gregory),and Officer Carl Levitt(Ron Carey),and Detective Arthur Dietrich(Steve Landesberg).

The detectives were racially mixed,which,at the show's inception,would occasionally provide for some comedy. Other detectives came and went after an episode or two,especially during the very early years of the series. Its amazing that "Barney Miller" survived,but it laid the groundwork for what was great comedy and the awards that this show received: It won the DGA Award from the Directors Guild of America in 1981,and it won back-to-back Emmys for Outstanding Comedy Series and Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series(Hal Linden)in 1979,1980,and 1982. Not to mention winning the Peabody Award in 1979,and the Golden Globe for Best Television Comedy or Musical Series twice in 1976 and 1977.

Almost all of the action took place in the squad room and Barney's adjoining office,despite the fact that the station seemed very small considering its location. "Barney Miller" during the seven seasons that it ran on ABC,became a literate,well-written show with interesting characters and story lines mixed in with some grand comedy. In its later years it unfortunately suffered from "social-cause-of-the-week",syndrome by way of a'la' Lou Grant and every other socially conscious show that exploded onto TV screens in the mid-1970's and early 1980's. This was a series that is highly recommended as one of the best to come out of the 1970's and survived until its demise in the early 1980's.