According to Wikipedia (with cites), live audiences had become a thing of the past by the fourth season.
Thanks for finding that! I was wondering when that happened. As I understand it also, the switch to being done w/o audiences was made because, IINM, the audiences would end up staying until all hours of the night. That’s how I understand it.
I hadn’t realized how much change-over there was in the core group until I looked at the wiki page: only Barney, Harris and Wojo were there for the entire run.
I also missed the memo that Deitrich had died. 
Deitrich, Yemana, Levitt, Luger have all passed.
And yet Fishis still kickin’!!!
There’s a story that while he was doing Barney Miller, Abe Vigoda got stopped by the police and held for questioning. The cop thought he looked suspicious. As it turned out, he remembered Vigoda as Tessio from The Godfather.
Very sad to report Abe Vigoda has passed away at age 94.
Yes, there’s a thread for it.
I know it’s an old post, but I have to get my digs in at Hawkeye whenever I can.
There was one episode wher Hawkeye was too drunk to operate, and when Radar called him on it, Hawkeye went off on him.
Radar lost a ton of respect for him because of it, but, this being series television in the 70s, forgot it next episode. 
The episode ended with them sitting next to each other in the mess hall and talking to indicate they had moved past the argument.
They didn’t just talk. Hawkeye ordered a beer, and Radar ordered a Grape Nehi. At the end of their conversation, they traded beverages.
But that isn’t the end of the episode. In the last scene, Hawkeye gives Radar his Purple Heart and a salute.
Ha, I would have sworn they didn’t make up in the episode. Must be conflating it with some other episode.
Good thing we weren’t in court!
“Evacuation” (S3E1) makes me wonder how these guys would have reacted to Sandy and the aftermath.
One of those nostalgia channels just finished running a marathon of all the shows with Vigoda/Fish in them, ending with his retirement (he was supposed to be 63, but as Wojo said “he looks much older”). The marathon was a memorial to his recent passing.
I always wondered if he wanted to leave, or if he was, um, terminated.
The episode of Barney Miller in which Fish retired was broadcast on September 22, 1977. The first episode of Fish was broadcast on February 5, 1977. So Vigoda had already started a new series before leaving Barney Miller.
One episode, Barney arrived very early in the office to find Deitrich already at his desk. He explained to Barney that he had decided to practice celibacy, to channel his sexual energies into more productive pursuits. He showed Barney the impressive stack of work he’d finished that morning.
Later, three hookers are brought in. One of them, a Miss Scott, is not only strikingly aristocratically beautiful (one of the other girls refers to her derisively as “Princess Grace there”), but also turns out to be a savvy stock market investor This gets the attention of Harris, who keeps vainly hitting her up for a stock tip.
Miss Scott is also very well-connected. Unnamed people high up in city government keep calling Capt Miller, offering all sorts of bribes to drop the charges against her.
“No, I don’t ski!”, shouts Barney before hanging up on an apparent offer of a fancy ski trip.
Wojo, witnessing the exchange, responds, “Uh, I do, Barn!”
After Miss Scott’s bail has been paid (three people had offered it), she bids the office farewell. Harris is particularly effusive, suggesting that they get together for dinner sometime.
“I’d like that”, answers Miss Scott. She hands him her card and walks to the door.
“You understand, Detective, all you’re going to get out of me is sex?”, and exits.
After the laughter dies down, Harris contemplates the offer. He finally mutters, “No!”, and begins to tear up the card.
Detriech roars across the room to stop him, hollering, “Yes!”, ending on a freezeframe.
I think there was an episode where Internal Affairs Lt. Scanlon thought that some of the 12th precinct were CIA operatives. Exasperated, Barney thunders at him: “Even the CIA, at their most cunning…could they come up with a group like that??”
Cut to a shot of Dietrich, Harris and Yemana. Nuff Said. 
I remember this episode. Wasn’t Scanlon but rather someone hiding from the CIA, IIRC a former agent who wrote a book and was afraid “they” would come after him.
Didn’t get it quite right. It was a former agent who ran amok at an unemployment office, thinking that it was a CIA operation aimed at keeping him quiet. Harris brought up the book idea, which was promptly rejected.
A group of people - males and females - are brought in on prostitution charges.
Wojo indignantly advises Barney that “This guy says he’s a doctor, but he’s running a - a - a brothel!”
The suspects, however, claim to be legitimate sex therapists. Some of the women are sexual surrogates (hence the prostitution charges). The owner explains this all to Barney, producing the appropriate documentation (medical diploma, business licenses, whatever - it’s been decades since I’ve seen this one.)
Barney is skeptical at first, but eventually is convinced. He acknowledges that the practice is legit, but as he’s letting them go, he asks that the doctor be discrete, and “have respect for community standards, and, conventions” -
Wojo cuts him off: “I bet they get a lotta conventions!”