BARNEY MILLER

'''Barney Miller''' was a comedy television series set in a New York City police station that ran from January 23, 1975 to May 20, 1982 on ABC. It was created by Danny Arnold (who also did work on ''Gilligan's Island'' and ''The Brady Bunch'') and Theodore J. Flicker. The show was frequently directed by Noam Pitlik.

Contents

Premise

Cast

Recurring characters

Awards

Pilot

Opening music

Production

Harris's Lament

Trivia

DVD release

Footnotes

External links

Premise

Captain Miller tries to remain sane while running a police station manned by pessimistic nearing-retirement Philip K. Fish, naive Polish-American Stanley "Wojo" Wojciehowicz, suave African-American Ronald Nathan Harris, philosophical Japanese-American Nick Yemana (who makes awful coffee every day), diminutive (and obsequious) detective-wannabe Officer Carl Levitt and old-school, rambling superior Chief Inspector Franklin Luger. Neurotic Puerto Rican Detective Chano Amanguale was replaced by soi-disant intellectual Arthur P. Dietrich from the third season on.
The show's focus was split between the detectives' interactions with each other and with the suspects and witnesses they detain, process, and interview. Some typical conflicts and long running plotlines included Barney'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 the writing and publication of his novel, and his inability to remain focused on his police work; Fish's incontinence and reluctance to retire; Wojciehowicz's impulsive behavior and love life; Luger's morbid nostalgia for the old days with partners Foster, Kleiner and Brown; Levitt's (eventually successful) quest to be promoted to detective; and the rivalry between the precinct's resident intellectuals, Harris and Dietrich.

Cast

★ Hal Linden as Captain Barney Miller

★ Abe Vigoda as Detective Phil Fish (1975-1981). Fish's wife Bernice (Florence Stanley) made an appearance from time to time. In 1977, the couple was spun off into their own show, ''Fish''.

★ Max Gail as Detective Stan "Wojo" Wojciehowicz

★ Ron Glass as Detective Ron Harris

★ Jack Soo as Detective Sergeant Nick Yemana (1975-1978). Soo died in 1979. A special memorial episode was aired, with the actors breaking character and recalling their favorite Yemana scenes.

★ Gregory Sierra as Detective Sergeant Chano Amenguale (1975-1976)

★ Steve Landesberg as Detective Arthur Dietrich (1976-1982)

★ Ron Carey as Officer Carl Levitt (1976-1982)

★ Linda Lavin in a recurring role as Detective Janice Wentworth (1975-76)

★ James Gregory as Chief Inspector Frank Luger, Barney's supervisor

★ Barbara Barrie as Elizabeth "Liz" Miller (1975-1978), Barney's wife

Recurring characters

Recurring characters included Barney's son David (Michael Tessier) and daughter Rachel (Anne Wyndham). After two seasons, Barney's family was largely written out of the show, although Ms. Barrie would continue to make occasional guest appearances.
Seen in occasional recurring roles at the 12th Precinct were other officers and staff, including Officer Kogan, the desk sergeant (Milt Kogan); Detective Eric Dorsey (Paul Lieber); Detective Maria Battista (June Gable); Officer Rosslyn Licori (Mari Gorman); and gay Officer Zatelli (Dino Natali). Stopping by from time to time from headquarters were aggressive Internal Affairs investigator Lt. Ben Scanlon (George Murdock) and Inspector Kelly (Dick O'Neill).
Regular complainants, habitues of the 12th precinct's holding cell, or other people who regularly dropped by, included unprincipled attorney Arnold Drake Ripner (Alex Henteloff); gay couple Marty Morrison (Jack DeLeon) and Darryl Driscoll (Ray Stewert); liquor store owner Mr. Cotterman (Jack Somack); vigilante Bruno Binder and his wife (Stanley Brock and Mari Gorman); building superintendent Beckman (Paul Lichtman); group home children Jilly (Denise Miller) and Victor (John Cassisi); delusional "werewolf" Mr. Kopeckne (Kenneth Tigar); blind man Leon Roth (Ralph Manza); Sidney the bookie (Buddy Lester); married couple Phillip and Harriet Brauer (Peter Hobbs and Doris Roberts); rabbi Yacov Berger (Nehemiah Persoff); transient Ray Brewer (John Dullaghan); crook Arthur Duncan (J.J. Barry); flasher Lyle W. Farber (Ron Feinberg); and Mr. Lukather (Judson Morgan).

Awards

''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 cancelled. 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 in 1977 and 1976, and was nominated for various other Golden Globe Awards.
The show won the Peabody Award in 1979.

Pilot

The series sprang from an unsold television pilot, ''The Life and Times of Captain Barney Miller'', that aired August 22, 1974, as part of an ABC summer anthology, ''Just for Laughs''. In this telecast, Linden and Vigoda were cast in their eventual series roles, and Abby Dalton played Barney Miller's wife, Liz; no other later ''Barney Miller'' cast-members were present. The pilot script was later largely re-worked as ''Barney Miller's debut episode "Ramon".

Opening music

The distinctive opening notes of the theme song's bass line, performed by studio musician Chuck Berghofer, play over a shot of the New York skyline followed by shots of the characters. The closing music also had a different shot of the skyline.

Production

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.
The show became notorious among television studios for its marathon taping sessions. 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 (sometimes heavily) rewrite and restage scenes; 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." The series stopped using a studio audience after the first three seasons.

Harris's Lament

''Barney Miller'' has contributed "Harris's Lament" ("All the good ones are taken!") to the lexicon. The catchphrase originated from an episode in which Harris attempts to find a good apartment in New York City. It has since been used to describe the problems of inherent scarcity of such things as the names of computers on networks^[1][2] and boyfriends^[3].

Trivia

★ This show was the last to win ABC top ratings on the coveted Thursday night until ''Grey's Anatomy''.

★ Some of the show's creative staff — though none of the main cast — went on to make the series ''Night Court'', which, while also popular, long-running, and similar in many key themes (including the bass line at the beginning), did not receive the same critical acclaim. A number of character actors who appeared on ''Barney Miller'' also appeared on ''Night Court''.

DVD release

On January 20, 2004, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released the first season on DVD in Region 1 for the very first time. Due to poor sales, Sony has no plans to release any more seasons on DVD.

DVD Name	Ep #	Release Date
Season 1	13	January 20 2004

Footnotes

1. UUCP Mapping project, January 16 1987
2. "All the Good Ones Have Been Taken -- In Domain Names, Too" The Wall Street Journal, 19 July 2006
3. Looking for a bad boyfriend on Craig's List Newsday, October 24, 2005

External links

★

★

★ TV.com: ''Barney Miller''

★ The ''Barney Miller'' homepage

★ Sitcoms Online: ''Barney Miller''