"Do you know what it feels like to be running on 43rd Street when your partner is cornering a guy on 52nd Street? Do you know how I found out what happened? I asked a reporter. Four radio stations beat me to the scene of the crime." - Abe Vigoda as Detective Phil Fish on growing older
Barney Miller: The First Season DVD Review
By Jonathan Boudreaux
Police dramas have been a staple of network television practically since crime was invented. It is easy to name dozens of crimebuster shows that have been hits throughout the years, from classic series like Dragnet, Charlie's Angels, Hill Street Blues, and Baretta to the current batch of cultural phenomenons like C.S.I., N.Y.P.D. Blue, and the Law & Order franchise. It is harder, however, to name more than a couple of hit sitcoms that were successfully able to mine the world of law enforcement for laughs. Surely at the top of that list would be Barney Miller.
Level-headed Barney Miller (Hal Linden) is captain of the 12th Precinct in New York's Greenwich Village where he oversees a ragtag bunch of plainclothes detectives. Sad sack Phil Fish (Abe Vigoda) is so busy worring about the fact that he is growing older that he practically moves in slow motion. Stanley "Wojo" Wojciehowicz (Maxwell Gail) is a brash but easily impressionable karate enthusiast. Nick Yemana (Jack Soo) likes to bust bookies so that he can keep his promise of not using the station's phone to place his daily bets. Chano Amenguale (Gregory Sierra) is fiercely proud of his Puerto Rican heritage, and often berates Puerto Rican suspects for not making the most of their lives. Ron Harris (Ron Glass) dreams of being an author someday.
In addition to dealing with the crazies at the police precinct - both on the force and in its custody - Miller is also a devoted husband and father. Elizabeth Miller (Barbara Barrie) tries to be supportive of her husband's chosen profession, but she is also constantly worried about his safety. Their daughter, Rachael (Anne Wyndham), is a college student who is about to move out on her own. Son David (Michael Tessier) is too young to even understand the consequences of his father's job.
One reason why police shows are so popular with viewers and television creatives alike is that the profession provides a seemingly endless source of storyline possibilities, with each episode bringing a new batch of criminals. Barney Miller exploits this to great comedic effect. Over the course of these thirteen episodes, the detectives find themselves up against a mad bomber, a gay purse snatcher, a flasher who refuses to let a raging blizzard slow him down, numerous obscene phone callers, and a colorful group of "exotic dancers."
No one in the cast of Barney Miller could ever win a beauty contest. Unlike most TV shows, the precinct is not made up of cops that look as if they stepped from the pages of GQ. This is actually refreshing: the actors look like real people rather than Ken dolls. And while none of them look like models, they are still immensely appealing. Vigoda has perfect timing as the wry Fish, playing the character with a mix of Boris Karloff and Joe Friday and somehow making it charming. Gail brings the right mix of bravado and doltishness to Wojo. Soo can generate laughs simply by looking at another character. Linden himself is given a less showy roll, but his immense likeability holds the show together. Not much happens in the course of an episode of Barney Miller. The series is mostly about the interaction between the characters, and it is a credit to all of the actors that it works so often.
Sierra gives particularly strong performance in the final episode of the season, "Hero." After killing two bank robbers and preventing the deaths of several hostages, Chano is proclaimed a hero by fellow officers. While he recognizes that he did what he had to do, he feels incredible guilt at taking the lives of the two robbers and resents being called a hero. The scene where Chano wrestles with his guilt while alone in his apartment is extremely moving, and the entire episode is an excellent examination of the glibness with which most police shows treat death.
In a way, Barney Miller does for city life what The Andy Griffith Show did for life in the country. Both shows feature a centered, grounded law enforcement official with whom audiences can easily relate. Through them, we meet the various oddballs that make up both the law abiding majority (Fish, Floyd the Barber) and the not-too-dangerous criminal element (Otis the drunk and any of Barney Miller's petty criminals). By doing so, each series creates a richly detailed portrait of the communities in which they are set, albeit in Miller's case, a far less rosy portrait.
Unlike The Andy Griffith Show, Barney Miller quickly jettisons much of Miller's home life. In the series' first episode, we see more of Miller's family than we do in all of the other episodes put together. The creators wisely realized that Barrie's character in that first episode is too shrill, neurotic, and paranoid. She comes across more as a mental patient than as a loving wife. In subsequent episodes she is softened considerably and practically pushed aside, while the kids are referred to but rarely seen.
Barney Miller: The First Season also features several guest stars that will be familiar to TV fans. In an early episode, S.W.A.T.'s Rod Perry appears as a never-to-be-seen-again detective. Alice's Linda Lavin also guests as a female detective who struggles to move ahead in the male-centric precinct. Lavin's Alice co-star Vic Tayback shows up as the landlord of a building being staked out by Barney. Tayback's wife is played by none other than Brett Somers, the boozy Match Game bon vivant. Ray Sharkey (Wiseguy) and Nancy Dussault (Too Close for Comfort) play petty criminals. A young Todd Bridges (Diff'rent Strokes) appears as an eight year old who attempts to stick up Liz using an actual stick. Marla Gibbs (The Jeffersons) turns in a brief yet funny performance as a mugging victim who insists that her assailant had a scar on "his left shoe."
The thirteen episodes that make up the first season are divided onto two discs. The original pilot episode (featuring Abby Dalton as Liz and an almost entirely different cast) is not included. The simple menus allow viewers to play all episodes or to choose an individual episode. The episodes have chapter stops at the end of each act (at the commercial breaks). The discs are housed in a keepcase that contains an interior swinging arm for the second disc.
