Barney Miller 

The Captain of the NYPD 12th Precinct and his staff handle the various local troubles and characters that come into the squad room.

Creators:

Danny Arnold, Theodore J. Flicker

Stars:

Hal Linden, Abe Vigoda, Max Gail

Won 2 Golden Globes. Another 7 wins & 43 nominations.

Cast

Complete series cast summary:
Hal Linden	...	Capt. Barney Miller 171 episodes, 1974-1982
Max Gail	...	Det. Stan 'Wojo' Wojciehowicz 170 episodes, 1975-1982
Ron Glass	...	Det. Ron Harris 164 episodes, 1975-1982
Steve Landesberg	...	Det. Sgt. Arthur Dietrich / ... 124 episodes, 1975-1982
Ron Carey	...	Officer Carl Levitt / ... 121 episodes, 1976-1982
Jack Soo	...	Det. Sgt. Nick Yemana 103 episodes, 1975-1982

Storyline

Barney Miller is the kind of cop we'd all like to run into. He is always sensible. He maintains order over a squad room of detectives who gamble for a hobby, get hit on by anything in skirts, go to renaissance philosophy conventions for fun, and would really prefer to be writing. Nearly all of the action takes place in the squad room where the citizens and criminals are brought in to complicate the mix.

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Plot Keywords:

cult favorite | intellectual | new york city | eastern philosophy | police officer | 

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Taglines:

One of the Funniest Police Comedies Ever!

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Certificate:

TV-PG

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

22 August 1974 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Life and Times of Captain Barney Miller

Filming Locations:

ABC Television Center - 4151 Prospect Avenue, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Four D Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

30 min (170 episodes)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

4:3

Did You Know?

Trivia

Early publicity for this show touted it as a cop show without violence. No serious violence ever took place on camera.

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Quotes

Rhonda Haleck: My old man took me to ball game once when I was a kid. I think we saw the Mets and the Cubs.
Wojo: Oh yeah, that's always a good game.
Rhonda Haleck: He got me a little pennant, a hot dog and a beer. We had really great seats.
Wojo: Sounds like your dad was a nice guy.
Rhonda Haleck: He was a mugger. Some guy he rolled had season tickets. Halfway through the game, a cop showed up. Dragged us both out of there.
Wojo: Oh.
Rhonda Haleck: Wanna hear about the puppy I got for Christmas?

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Crazy Credits

At different times in the production of the series Max Gail was credited as both Max Gail and Maxwell Gail.

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Connections

Referenced in Battle of the Network Stars IX (1980)

User Reviews

Quiet Start Yielded Impressive Results

This is the most impressive of the sitcoms ever done about law enforcement. It is understated, intellectual, comical, & entertaining while dealing with the beat of a group of New York City Dectectives. The show draws its characters well, & defines & redefines them throughout the show.

This show was a slow starter in the ratings, partly because of it's subtle humor, & partly because early on it would get distracted away from the police station with Barney's wife (played by Barbara Barrie). After the first couple of seasons, the show started concentrating more on it's knitting, the police station, & graduated into a more sophisticated comedy.

The recent death of the late Ron Carey reminded me of just how well he played Officier Carl Levitt. His character always behaved like all the Detectives looked down on him, an underling. Carey played that attitude brilliantly.

Hal Linden was always a consummate Captain Miller, always being put on the spot by his team & shooting from the hip at times. Steve Landesburg (Dietrich)was the most intellectual of the detectives always taking a simple conversation & making it complex.

James Gregory as Inspector Luger was alway bugging Barney with stories of the old days he'd have to listen to from a superior. In some ways this was the veteran movie actors best role. Max Gail as Wojo was always being played as stupid but often got the last word in.

Abe Vigoda was perfect as Fish, so good they spun him off from here to his own series. Jack Soo was brilliant as Yemana but sadly death cut his role short in this series, similar to Coach on CHEERS. Ron Glass as Detective Harris was very good as another mainstay on the show. This show had a diverse cast, even Linda Lavin who would go on to play ALICE got a good start on this show.

The writers were brilliant in that they constantly kept developing the characters to the point that when the last show came along, they ended the show with a script where everybody finally got what they wanted in promotions for years, and ended with Barney closing the door on the squad room for the last time.

As this show hits the DVD's, I bet it gets a slow start but once young folks get exposed to it, the sales will pick up speed. The shows are that good.