I loved the show, but there were some things that confused me. I don’t think IRL precinct captains ever went out on calls. Meetings, yes, but not calls that required donning body armor. And I think Capt Miller would have spend a lot more time dealing with uniformed officers.
That being said, I recall cops saying, at the time, that Barney Miller was a lot more realistic than most of the cop shows on TV. And I was happy when Wojo made sergeant.
The local ABC affiliate runs a pair of episodes Sunday nights at 11 & 11:30 on one of their secondary channels. Followed by a pair of WKRP.
That’s 2 solid hours of funny!
“Mooshie mooshie” followed by “MISTER Rodruhgweez”! Ha! That’s some Let’s go to the quarry and throw stuff down there TV, that is!
70’s cop shows apparently have a huge budget to pay off stoolies but can’t afford to pay a cleaning lady or paint crew more than once a decade.
Yes, most of the cops I worked with said it was the most realistic cop show on TV.
Bad coffee, pranks, jokes, drudgery, many calls that were just personal issues, and so forth.
If you are comparing Brooklyn Nine-Nine favorably to Barney Miller, I may have to give Brooklyn Nine-Nine a shot.
Two bits I loved:
Inspecter Lugar: “I don’t wanna marry Ag-a-ness, Barny. It ain’t the marrying part, it’s the Ag-a-ness part!”
(James Gregory was wonderful as the all-but-put-out-to-pasture Inspector Lugar. Witness his unique pronunciation of the name “Agnes”.)
And, from a long-ago thread:
[QUOTE=BrotherCadfael]
My all time favorite is an exchange between Deitrich, the intellectual poseur, and Wojo, the “dumb Polack”.
The two of them arrive at the precinct quite early one morning, and talk about the fog they saw on the way in. Deitrich quotes Heine or somebody, and Wojo replies with Sandburg’s “the fog creeps in on little cat feet” – possibly the only poem he ever read. The two share a quiet moment.
Then Harris walks in, and Wojo asks HIM about the fog. Harris says, “Yeah, its like pea soup out there.”
Deitrich and Wojo look at each other and sadly shake their heads. Harris just wasn’t in the moment.
[/QUOTE]
From the same episode Yemana was complaining that he hadn’t been offered a bribe, and the other officer (I forget which) in a shocked voice said “You wouldn’t have accepted it, would you?”
“No, but sometimes it’s just nice to be asked.”
Barney: Harris, take these down to the lab and have them analyzed.
(Harris starts to eat a brownie.)
Barney: NOT THAT WAY!
Great show. I still catch episodes from time to time on MeTV or AntTV or one of those. And, yes, it’s still funny.
Much of the cast seemed to disappear after the show ended, but I certainly did a double take when I realized that Max Gail (Wojo) played Burt Shotton, the manager of the Dodgers, in the movie 42.
Best theme song around, too!
I remember that when Jack Soo died, they did a tribute episode out of character. Just them sitting on the set talking about him and playing clips. (At least, that’s what I remember- it was the original airing.)
That’s Cheye-Cheye Rodruhgweez! (Cheye rhymes with eye.)
Mr. Linden reportedly didn’t care for it, though. Paraphrasing: “Those other guys get some cool music when they walk out on stage. Me? I get a lame jazz riff.”
Yamana: (pointing to a prisoner in the holding cell) "What’s up with him? "
Harris: “He thinks he’s a werewolf.”
Yamana, after a pause: “I’ll put down some newspapers.”
Or the time traveller from the future who was so deeply honored to meet Dietrich. So they take the guy away to Bellevue. Dietrich turns to the squad room with a big smile and says,
“I could never have done it without you guys.”
Regards,
Shodan
And drinking coffee.
Ron Glass had a great turn as The Devil in the '80s Twilight Zone revival, with Sherman Hemsley as an exasperated teacher.
Teacher: “You can return from anywhere?”
Devil: “Yes.”
Teacher: “Get lost!”
I always liked Barney Miller. I used to watch it with my dad when I was a kid, but I haven’t seen it in years.
I’m pretty sure he’s very well known to many SDMB posters for his role in Firefly.
Doesn’t ring a bell.
and the little mexican dogs - chiya-hooa-hooas
Actually, that sounds like Antenna TV. They’re a network like MeTV that airs episodes of “classic” shows. They run Barney Miller and WKRP on Sunday nights and in my area they’re on a digital sunchannel of one of the main network affiliates.
Jack Soo knew he was dying from cancer and reportedly his last words to Hal Linden were, “It must’ve been the coffee.”