| Barney Miller | |
|---|---|
| Format | Sitcom |
| Starring | Hal Linden Barbara Barrie (1975–1976) Abe Vigoda (1975–1977) Max Gail Ron Glass Jack Soo (1975–1979) Gregory Sierra (1975–1976) James Gregory Steve Landesberg (1976–1982) Ron Carey (1976–1982) |
| Country of origin | USA |
| No. of seasons | 8 |
| No. of episodes | 168 |
| Production | |
| Running time | ca. 26 min. |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ABC |
| Original run | January 23, 1975 – May 20, 1982 |
Barney Miller is a situation comedy television series set in a New York City police station in Greenwich Village. The series originally was broadcast from January 23, 1975 to May 20, 1982 on ABC. It was created by Danny Arnold and Theodore J. Flicker. Noam Pitlik directed the majority of the episodes.
Contents |
The series takes place almost entirely within the confines of the Detectives' Squad Room (and Captain Barney Miller's adjoining office) of New York City's fictional 12th Precinct, located in Greenwich Village. A typical episode would feature the detectives of the 12th bringing in several complainants and/or suspects to the squadroom. Usually there are two or three separate subplots in a given episode, with different officers dealing with different crimes. About once a year, there would be an episode which featured one or more of the detectives outside of the walls of the 12th Precinct, either on a stakeout or at one of their homes.
Primary characters featured on the series:
The show's focus was split between the detectives' interactions with each other and with the suspects and witnesses they detained, processed, and interviewed. Some typical conflicts and long running plotlines included Miller's frustration with red tape and paperwork, his constant efforts to maintain peace, order, and discipline, and his numerous failed attempts to get a promotion; Harris's preoccupation with outside interests, such as his living arrangements but mainly his novel (Blood On The Badge), and his inability to remain focused on his police work; Fish's age-related health issues, marital problems, and reluctance to retire; Wojciehowicz's impulsive behavior and love life; Luger's nostalgia for the old days with partners Foster, Kleiner and "Brownie" Brown; Levitt's quest to become a detective (which was eventually successful); the rivalry between the precinct's resident intellectuals, Harris and Dietrich and continually — but reliably — bad coffee (usually made by Yemana).
Years after Danny Arnold ended production (because he could not see any way to continue without repeating storylines; the show was not cancelled by the network), Barney Miller retains a devoted following among real-life police officers, who appreciate the show's emphasis on dialog and believably quirky characters, and its low-key portrayal of cops going about their jobs. During his appearance on Jon Favreau's Independent Film Channel talk show Dinner for Five, Dennis Farina, who worked as a Chicago policeman before turning to acting, called Barney Miller the most realistic cop show ever seen on television. Hal Linden has told interviewers that he is still occasionally called "Captain" by working police officers.
| Actor | Character | Seasons | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hal Linden | Captain Barney Miller |
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| Abe Vigoda | Sergeant Philip K. Fish |
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Vigoda was a regular for the first three seasons. Though still in the opening credits, he appeared in only about half of the episodes in the last half of Season 3. (The character was simultaneously seen on the spin-off show Fish at this same time.) Fish "retired" as of Season 4, Episode 2, though he returned for two guest appearances, one later in Season 4 and one in Season 7. |
| Max Gail | Detective Stan "Wojo" Wojciehowicz |
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| Ron Glass | Detective Ron Harris |
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| Jack Soo | Sergeant Nick Yemana |
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A regular in Seasons 1 to 5, Soo died on January 11, 1979 (midway through Season 5). A special memorial episode was aired, with the actors breaking character and recalling their favorite Yemana scenes. The episode ended with entire cast raising their coffee cups in tribute. |
| Barbara Barrie | Elizabeth "Liz" Miller |
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Though appearing in only a handful of episodes after the pilot, Barrie received billing in the opening credits of every episode in Seasons 1 and 2. Often mentioned, her character returned for a two-part guest appearance in Season 5. |
| Gregory Sierra | Sergeant Chano Amenguale |
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| James Gregory | Deputy Inspector Franklin D. Luger |
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A regular character throughout the series, usually seen in about a third to a half of any given season's episodes. Gregory was only listed in the opening credits during Season 4; in other seasons, he was listed as a "Special Guest" in the closing credits. |
| Steve Landesberg | Detective Arthur Dietrich |
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Landesberg was first seen as a one-shot character, a priest (Father Paul), in Season 2 Episode 1 - "Doomsday". Later that year, he appeared in one episode as Dietrich, a transfer from the 33rd when budget cuts closed that precinct. He became a semi-regular in Season 3 and a full-time cast member from Season 4 onwards. |
| Ron Carey | Officer Carl Levitt |
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Carey first appeared as a perp, Angelo "The Mole" Molinari, in the last episode of Season 2. He began his role as a recurring character, Officer Levitt, in Season 3, becoming a full-time cast member by Season 4. |
| Actor | Character | Seasons | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Milt Kogan | Officer Kogan |
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Though not seen after Season 2, Kogan (the downstairs desk sergeant) was frequently referred to throughout the series run. |
| Paul Lichtman | Mr. Beckman, the building repairman |
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| George Murdock ‡ | Lt. Ben Scanlon, Internal Affairs |
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A member of the Internal Affairs Department, the eternally suspicious Scanlon was not attached to the 12th Precinct. His visits from headquarters involved trying to find corruption inside the 12th Precinct. |
| Linda Lavin | Detective Janice Wentworth |
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After a short run as a regular guest on Barney Miller (beginning with Episode 8 of the first season, "Ms. Cop"), Lavin left the series to star in Alice. Wentworth's name can still be seen on the staff duty roster through most of Season 3. |
| June Gable | Detective Maria Battista |
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Short-lived addition to the 12th Precinct's detective room, lasting only 2 episodes |
| Mari Gorman ‡ | Officer Roslyn Licori |
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Gorman made a guest appearance (Season 4, Episode 3) as an amateur prostitute housewife, and then, after a three episode run as Licori, in Season 4, she played another recurring role on the show during Season 8, that of Mrs. Binder, wife of frequent precinct visitor Bruno Binder. |
| Dino Natali | Officer Zatelli |
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A gay officer. Particularly loathed by the homophobic Lt. Scanlon, who desperately wants to find a reason to fire him. |
| Paul Lieber ‡ | Detective Eric Dorsey |
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Another short-run detective (3 episodes). |
‡ Murdock, Gorman and Leiber all made guest appearances in other roles in addition to their regularly recurring series roles.
The 12th Precinct had a number of regular complainants, habitués of the holding cell, or other people who often dropped by. Characters seen on three or more episodes included:
| Actor | Character | # of appearances | Seasons | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jack DeLeon | Marty Morrison |
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Marty, a gay man, is arrested for snatching purses in the series' second episode. Later he is occasionally brought in as a suspect, other times as a complainant. |
| Alex Henteloff ‡ | Arnold Ripner |
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An ambulance-chasing attorney, Ripner visited the precinct whenever he had a client to defend. (He also sometimes visited just to drum up business amongst those in the holding cell.) Ripner later sued Harris for Harris' depiction of him in his novel Blood On The Badge. |
| Stanley Brock ‡ | Bruno Binder |
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A vigilante frequently in trouble for his overzealous ways. |
| Ray Stewart | Darryl Driscoll |
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Marty's somewhat more sensible and grounded lover, who lent Marty moral support during his visits to the precinct. |
| Jack Somack | Mr. Cotterman |
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Owner of the frequently-robbed Cotterman's Liquor Store. |
| John Dullaghan ‡ | Ray Brewer |
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A lonely transient, Ray stopped by the precinct during open houses to talk and sample the coffee. |
| J.J. Barry ‡ | Arthur Duncan |
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A small-time crook and frequent arrestee. |
| Doris Roberts ‡ | Harriet Brauer |
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Along with her husband Phillip, a frequent complainant. |
| Peter Hobbs | Phillip Brauer |
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| Ralph Manza ‡ | Leon Roth |
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A blind shoplifter who was caught on several occasions. |
‡ The actor also was cast in at least one other role at some point during the series run.
Note that Buddy Lester plays a bookie in three episodes, but twice the bookie is called Harry and once Sidney. It is not clear whether this was meant to be the same character.
Seen in two episodes apiece were delusional "werewolf" Mr. Stefan Kopeckne; Yacov Berger (Nehemiah Persoff); and Flasher Lyle W. Farber (Ron Feinberg).
Fish's wife Bernice made an appearance from time to time in Seasons 1 to 3. In Seasons 1 and 3 she was played by Florence Stanley (in a total of six appearances); in Bernice's only Season 2 appearance she was portrayed by Doris Belack. In that episode, Fish also had a grown daughter named Beverly played by Emily Levine. Also seen as recurring characters in Season 3 were group home children Jilly (Denise Miller) and Victor (John Cassisi), who would eventually become Fish's foster children. In 1977, the Fishes were spun off into their own show, Fish.
In addition to Barney's wife Liz, Barney's son David (Michael Tessier) and daughter Rachel (Anne Wyndham) appeared in the pilot. Barney's children were written out of the show after the first episode (though they were still often mentioned), while his wife made appearances through the second season. Wyndham also reprised her role in two later episodes.
The series sprang from an unsold television pilot, The Life and Times of Captain Barney Miller, that aired on August 22, 1974 as part of an ABC summer anthology series, Just for Laughs. Linden and Vigoda were cast in their series roles; no other eventual cast members were present. Abby Dalton played Barney Miller's wife, Liz. The pilot script was later largely re-used in the debut episode "Ramon".
The distinctive opening notes of the bass line of Jack Elliott and Allyn Ferguson's theme music, performed by studio musician Jim Hughart,[1] are played over a shot of the New York skyline as seen from the water of Upper New York Bay — from Season 2 on, with a garbage barge being towed in the foreground — followed by shots of the characters. Several slightly different versions of the theme featuring minor variations in composition and performance were used during different seasons. The closing credits featured a different shot of the skyline.
As the show progressed, and especially by the final seasons, the program became unusual for its increasing resemblance to a stage play, in that its scenes almost never strayed from the single set of the precinct station's squadroom, with its prominent open-barred holding cell, and Miller's adjoining office. Almost all of the action and dialog took place on this single set. Characters came and went, but they were virtually never shown outside or in other buildings. Moreover, each episode in the later seasons usually took place within the course of a single workday. Thus, Barney Miller tended to obey two of the three classical unities of drama, unity of place and unity of time. The third unity, unity of action, was not followed, since each episode had multiple subplots.
The show became notorious in the industry for its marathon taping sessions.[2] In the beginning, it was taped in front of a studio audience. After the audience left, creator and executive producer Danny Arnold would begin to rewrite and restage scenes, sometimes heavily so; a taping session that began in the afternoon or early evening would then continue on into the early morning hours. Max Gail referred to this in the Jack Soo retrospective episode; he remarked that one of the clips shown was a scene that "we finished around 2:30 in the morning." In a 1977 blooper, a crew member mentions it being 3:15 a.m.
Writer Tom Reeder described working on the show thusly:
| “ | Danny Arnold was the creator of the show, and especially in the early years, he was a marvel. When he was "on", he could spin out entire scenes, ad-libbing dialogue — and great jokes — for every character. By the time those scenes got to script form, though, he obsessively rewrote them.
That's true of a lot of showrunners, but Danny couldn't seem to stop himself. Sometime during season 2 (or maybe it was 3) the show was no longer taped in front of an audience, partly because the script was rarely done by show night. When one season began, six pages were in print. Not six scripts — six pages of one script. This meant that on the day the show was taped, the actors would hang around on the stage, waiting for pages to be sent down. Then — sometimes at 2 a.m. — they would have to learn new scenes. Ron Carey (Officer Levitt) would get his fairly quickly: "Here's your mail, Captain." On the other hand, poor Steve Landesberg (Dietrich) might have to memorize long speeches explaining how nuclear fission works. In the early years, Danny benefited from the heroic writing efforts of Chris Hayward, who was a veteran writer, and rookies Tony Sheehan and Reinhold Weege who, like me, didn't know any better. They were the Barney Miller writing staff. My agent wisely turned down Danny's annual offers of staff jobs, negotiating freelance assignments (so-called "multiple deals") for me instead. Even so, the pace was frantic — on one assignment I was given 3 hours to write the story outline. On another occasion, a friend came into my office at ABC-Vine Street and said, "Hey, Reeder, want to go get some lunch?" I pointed to the paper in my typewriter and said, "This script is on the stage — thanks anyway." [3] |
” |
Marty and Darryl were among the earliest recurring gay characters on American television. Danny Arnold worked closely with the Gay Media Task Force, an activist group that worked on LGBT representation in media, in developing the characters.[4] Initially both characters were presented in a stereotypically effeminate manner but in later appearances Darryl began dressing and speaking in a more mainstream fashion.[5] Officer Zitelli's coming out was the first gay story arc on American television, occurring across the series' sixth and seventh seasons.
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Barney Miller won the DGA Award from the Directors Guild of America in 1981.
The series won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series in 1982, after it was concluded. It also won Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series in 1980 and Outstanding Directing in a Comedy or Comedy-Variety or Music Series in 1979, and was nominated for numerous others.
It won the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Comedy or Musical Series in 1976 and 1977, and was nominated for various other Golden Globe Awards.
The show won the Peabody Award in 1979.
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has released the first 3 seasons of Barney Miller on DVD in Region 1. Season 1 was released on January 20, 2004, to slow sales, and Sony decided not to release any more seasons. However, the decision was later reversed and Season 2 was released in 2008 (four years after the release of Season 1), followed by Season 3 in 2009.
On July 11, 2011, it was announced that Shout! Factory has acquired the rights to the series and they released a complete series set on October 25, 2011.[6] The 25-disc set features all 168 episodes of the series as well as many bonus features, including the first season of the spin-off, Fish.
Season 1 was released on DVD in Region 4 on December 20, 2006.[7]
| DVD Name | Ep # | Release Date |
|---|---|---|
| The First Season | 13 | January 20, 2004[8] |
| The Complete Second Season | 22 | January 22, 2008[9] |
| The Complete Third Season | 22 | March 17, 2009[10] |
| The Complete Series | 168 | October 25, 2011 |
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