Over the past few months I’ve been watching Barney Miller on Tubi. It ran from January of 1975 until May of 1982 with 170 episodes. If you’re unfamiliar with the show, it was a situation comedy set in a New York City police station in the fictional 12th Precinct, which included Manhattan’s Greenwich Village area.
Barney Miller was fair and thoughtful, and a little flawed. During the run he had a separation from his wife, which they eventually figured out. Barney was always the even, measured voice of reason. I can see why my mom had such a huge crush on him.
Sgt. Stanley “Wojo” Wojciehowicz — it’s spelled just how it sounds — (Max Gail) was simple and kind of dumb, he was passionate and headstrong, but a little misguided at times. His character showed the greatest development as the series progressed.
Sgt. Ron Harris (Ron Glass) was the snappiest dresser, and had a wonderful sarcastic streak. Those three characters lasted throughout the entire run.
Sgt. Philip K. Fish (Abe Vigoda) was the source of every old person joke the writers could think of, which is hilarious to me now considering the fact that he was only 54 when the series started. He was eventually replaced by Sgt. Arthur Dietrich (Steve Landesberg) who was one of my favorite characters due largely to his intelligence and quick, sarcastic wit.
Sgt. Nick Yemana (Jack Soo, who died during the run) was like a walking one-liner machine.
Sgt. Chano Amengual (Gregory Sierra) was a Puerto Rican cop with a strong moral streak who hated seeing his fellow countrymen breaking the law. Chano disappeared from the show with no explanation.
My least favorite character when I was watching the show as a teen was Officer Carl Levitt (Ron Carey), who became one of my favorite characters upon my recent viewing. He was sarcastic, and a little needy, but was one of the best cops out there.
Same deal with Inspector Frank Luger (James Gregory) who I found annoying in my youth. That opinion didn’t change, Luger was supposed to be annoying, but seeing how James Gregory played him made me change my mind.
Honorable mention has to go to Linda Lavin who played Detective Janice Wentworth on several episodes. She played the character with such spunk and drive, and I really wish they could have kept her on longer. But she went on to make the series Alice, and she did pretty well there.
Then we can talk about the cavalcade of recognizable faces who played other cops, perpetrators, and victims who paraded through the episodes. Fans of M*A*S*H (like me) or pretty much any TV show of the era saw so many character actors parade through the ol’ 1-2 — sometimes several times playing the same or different characters.
The show wasn’t just a goofy comedy. It dealt with real world issues, and contemporary themes of the times: nuclear proliferation, gay rights, city and national elections, freedom of speech on the job, feminism and sexism, and did it all without being too trivial or too preachy. Very few modern comedies (many of which I see as just an endless procession of terrible people being terrible to each other) could say that.
My life changed in April of 1981 when my dad died at the age of 50. TV shows weren’t all that important to me then, and that hasn’t really changed much (the notable exception would be the Star Trek franchise). As a result I never saw the last couple of seasons of Barney Miller.
The last three episodes are about the precinct building being sold by the city for development, and the final scene has Barney having a few short flashback memories of Amengual, Fish, Wentworth, and Yemana. Barney turns out the lights, walks out, and closes the door behind him.
And I cried.
I cried for a lot of reasons. I cried because the characters all went their separate ways. I cried because I remembered how my family used to gather around the TV to watch the show. I cried because of my dad.
It’s weird to cry over a show that’s over 40 years old, especially one that I could just start over by just clicking “play.”
Nostalgia is a hell of a thing.
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