Reminds me of the couple who kidnap their daughter from a new-age coffee shop where everyone uses Hindi names.
Daughter: “Praknamurti.”
Barney: [blank stare]
Daughter: “Prak-na-mur-ti.”
Barney: “Go with Wojciehowicz.”
Daughter: [blank stare]
Barney: “Wo-juh-ho-witz”.
I remember one time they went on a raid and recovered some military weapons. Back at the station -
Wojo - (carrying a recently liberated bazooka) Walks into Barneys office. “Hey Barn, about that raise”?
Didn’t that also have a great Deitrich line, when they were all convincing themselves the student couldn’t have actually built a nuclear device?
Dietrich walks in and just says “Hey, where’s you get the A-Bomb?”
That scene was not in the script, but a total ad lib by Max Gail.
Pre-Barney Miller, Ron Glass was in an excellent episode of All in the Family Everyone Tells The Truth, playing a refrigerator repairman in a scene told by Archie (who has him acting like a militant Black Panther), Mike (a Stepin Fetchit type) and lastly by Edith (as a regular person). Well worth watching.
There was an episode where, inspired by Roots, he was trying to trace his ancestry back to Africa. He got upset when the report came back that his ancestors had lived in Scotland for hundreds of years, as far back as anyone could find.
And Dietrich’s little interplay, right at the end.
Harris: Go ahead, get your little dig in.
Dietrich: I was going to ask if you ever saw the movie Belinda. It’s about a cop, tortured with desire for a woman he can never have.
Harris: So?
Dietrich: It’s playing at the theater down the road. Wanna see it?
And Harris and Dietrich roomed together for a while, but Harris had to move out, because other people had houseplants. Dietrich was growing wheat.
Regards,
Shodan
Reminds me of a scene in which (for reasons I’ve forgotten) Harris has no clothes and has to borrow one of Barney’s suits. He and Barney are talking about a case, and Harris turns to go. Barney stops him.
Barney: Harris … nice suit.
Harris (looks down at himself): Yeah, all that money I spend buying tailor-made clothes … turns out, I look good in anything.
I think that was one of the times when Harris got wet. Maybe the sewer epsiode?
Just remembered the episode with the psychic who ended up in the cage because a would-be mugger had him arrested.
Psychic: “I sense a gloomy presence nearby.” Then Luger walked in.
I liked watching Yemanas reaction to the “werewolf” in the cell undergoing his transformation. The plaintive way he called out for help, “Barneeeeee!” was just so typical of his character.
Some Levitt lines
They’ve brought in a deaf crook, and nobody knows sign language except for Levitt.
Levitt: My sister’s deaf, sir.
Barney: I’m sorry.
Levitt: That’s OK sir. It wasn’t your fault.
later
Levitt, wanting his name included in the case: It would make my deaf sister proud, sir.
I have just earlier received my purchase of Shout!'s complete release of Barney Miller from Amazon. There is at least one thing that I have noticed about the same, and that is that each individual season (8 in all) has an image of one of the major players on its discs, and the image assigned to that season is used on all the discs (except for #1 of Fish, which has two images of Abe Vigoda).
Y: " He was starting to change, I swear! There’s hair growing out of his face".
B: “It’s called a beard. Haven’t you ever seen a beard before?”
Y: “Not in my family.”
Nod to Dietrich, who always seems to pull something obscure but helpful out his ass
The squad has brought in a pregnant woman who only speaks German. Miller looks lost until Dietrich starts conversing with her. Miller gets Dietrich to talk to her.
Dietrich: Gesehen keine gute Filme in letzter Zeit?
Woman: Nein.
Miller: What’d you say?
Dietrich: I asked her if she’s seen any good movies lately.
Dietrich: I knew a guy who when he got depressed would just put on his coat, leave the house, and just start walking.
Barney (to Wojo): See?
Dietrich: Sometimes for hours on end. One time he was gone for almost a whole day.
Barney: Yeah, some people just like to be alone. He came back, didn’t he?
Dietrich: Yeah.
Barney (to Wojo): See?
Dietrich: The tide brought him in.
Barney is having marital problems with Liz, and she leaves after a discussion in his office.
Dietrich: Was that Mrs. Miller?
Barney Miller: Yeah.
Dietrich: Past tense was unintentional.
There’s also the woman who everyone thought was crazy but Dietrich figured out she was speaking an unusual Eastern European dialect.
Levitt keeps badgering Barney about promotion to Detective, and is told that “these things take time”:
That’s OK, sir, I’m here until 5.30.
Wojo is processing the criminal who blew out all the windows of a bank when he tried to open the vault with the bazooka.
Criminal: You ever fire one of those things?
Wojo: Sure, in 'Nam.
Criminal: Big deal. Outdoors.
Harris wrote a semi-fictional (and overly sensationalized) novel, Blood on the Badge, which made him loads of money. But he got successfully sued by the shyster lawyer (Stuart Pankin) for defamation of character and lost it all. That scene did start out very serious, Harris (again, drunk) begins by telling Barney, “You are looking at one aaaangry nigger!”. Back then something like that, in that context, was just honest, realistic dialog. Him making the joke later did lighten things up a bit!
4th vote for “First season sucked”. Pretty good afterward. Make that ‘great’.
Absolutely right! I can’t wait to get through #1 (short as it is) and move on to #2 and beyond.