Barney Miller: Difference between revisions

A police squadroom sitcom airing on [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] from 1975-1982, '''''Barney Miller''''' was considered quite realistic by actual cops, especially in comparison to police dramas at the time. The episodes tended to take place entirely within the bleak, ancient squadroom as the detectives booked and processed various suspects. Action sequences usually took place off-camera and were described by the detectives as they returned from the scene. What made the show worth watching was the razor-sharp writing and the eccentric personalities of the detectives, including:

* The eponymous Captain Miller ([[Hal Linden]]), whose underlings exasperate him and whose superiors ignore him; an [[Only Sane Man]] who often feels ineffectual and under-appreciated. Best known for leaving suspects and victims together for a while in hopes that they will work things out without pressing charges (and therefore without the associated paperwork).

* Sergeant Nick Yemana ([[Jack Soo]]), Captain Miller's second in command who is in charge of "the files" and is generally the [[Hypercompetent Sidekick]] of the squadroom. He takes a laissez-faire attitude to most things and often makes inappropriate jokes. His bad coffee is legendary.

* Sergeant Philip K. Fish ([[Abe Vigoda]]), an elderly and dyspeptic complainer who alternately wisecracks about today's batch of criminals or his wife. Despite his endless moaning, he can't stand the thought of his impending retirement. The character began appearing in a spin-off series, ''[[Fish]]'', midway through the third season but didn't leave until the end of it (getting a proper send-off in the fourth season premiere). The spin-off didn't last two years, and Fish continued to return for occasional appearances on the parent show.

* Detective Stanley Taddeus "Wojo" Wojciehowicz ("You say it like it's spelled!" or "Spelled just like it sounds!") ([[Max Gail]]), who tended to act entirely on his impulses, causing Barney endless headaches. His original uncouth and dense character gradually became more enlightened as the series went on.

* Sergeant Ron Harris ([[Ron Glass]]), whose police work frequently took second place to his novel-writing. He had a diva-esque attitude, best exemplified by his reluctance to wear anything he considered unstylish, even during undercover work. He also considered himself the squadroom intellectual, at least until the arrival of...

* Detective Arthur Dietrich ([[Steve Landesberg]]), a [[Deadpan Snarker]] and card-carrying intellectual, whose long-winded speculations about criminal psychology, science, and just about anything else that happened to come up in conversation drove the other detectives crazy. He particularly annoyed Harris, who didn't appreciate having a rival for being "the Smart One".

* During the first two seasons, Sergeant Chano Amenguale ([[Gregory Sierra]]); an amiable, talkative guy, but basically deficient in outstanding personality quirks. He [[Brother Chuck|disappeared]] when Sierra got a lead role on another sitcom, which promptly crashed and burned, beating ''[[Fish]]'' to the punch by a season.

Also around are abrasive, uniformed Officer Carl Levitt ([[Ron Carey]]), who longs to be a detective but can never seem to snag a promotion (he finally got one in the very last episode); and Barney's immediate superior Inspector Franklin D. Luger ([[James Gregory]]), who does nothing but chew Barney's ear all day and long for the halcyon days of acceptable police brutality. In the first season or two, which had episodes alternating between the squadroom and Barney's home life, Barbara Barrie was a regular as Barney's wife Elizabeth. She disappeared when the Millers had an off-screen separation, but returned later on a recurring basis.

Throughout the run, the show tried adding new characters to the cast; most of them would be given a "test run" of about three episodes to make an impression. More than half a dozen cops were "auditioned" this way. Save for Dietrich, none of them really worked, resulting in many a case of [[Brother Chuck Cunningham Syndrome]] ([[Linda Lavin]] probably would have stayed on too, if she hadn't been offered the lead role in ''[[Alice]]''; she appeared prominently in flashbacks despite being in only five episodes). Midway through the fifth season, actor Jack Soo (Yemana) died. The cast did a memorial episode out-of-character for Soo, but Yemana was never [[The Character Died with Him|killed off]] in so many words. Once in a while, he would be mentioned in the past tense, sometimes with an air of wistfulness. When Levitt worked in the detective squad room, he took over Yemana's desk.

[[Category:Police Procedural{{PAGENAME}}]]

[[Category:BarneyPolice MillerProcedural]]