Because the cops didn’t leave their desk without doing a full background check, pulling up known acqaintances files, and reviewing all the security cam footage for the area. Then they just do a drive-by grab of the guy.
I suggest, then, that you avoid the remastered show about Rob and Laura Petrie, now listed under “The Penis von Lesbian Show.”
It is true, there are always problems but the 90s were a more optimistic time. And I did say “most” purposely because I know life was awful or bad for many.
The final season and a half of Barney Miller. Up until that point, the differences were good, not dated–they establish the time, place and settting*. The last season and a half, about every other episode was some (invariably leftie) protestor arrested for doing the morally correct thing in the wrong way (protesting VA treatment of people who’ve been exposed to Agent Orange, the dreaded dangers of Nuclear Energy, pollution, the ERA, whatever). And they hand Wojo a pamphlet just before being locked up. The rest of the episode is then split 50/50 between Wojo regurgitating talking points from the pamphlet as a straw conservative (“God Barney! Did you know that every nuclear power plant leaves behind 65-trillion tons of waste every three minutes of use? Why don’t dey tell us about this stuff???”).
I think the difference between “period piece” and “dated” may be how specific the issues dealt with are. Because that last season or so, Barney Miller, a brilliant period piece for most of it’s episodes suddenly becomes dated. (It would also explain why all of Norman Lear’s stuff is unwatchably dated. Everything’s about specific issues, not broader trends)
*In the first season the differences aren’t dated as much as revelatory: a gay guy suggests that he could join the police and everyone…including the gay guy…shares a happy laugh at how silly the basic idea is. A wife is raped by her husband and everyone’s unsure what to do. Is it rape if she’s saying “no” but he does it anyway?