An Underrated Great
Now Playing: BARNEY MILLER
It's a mystery to me why BARNEY MILLER is so rarely seen these days. An enormous popular and critical hit during its 1975-1983 ABC run, it has only been sporadically rerun in the two decades since (including briefly on TV Land) and its only DVD release to date is its first season two years ago this month. Presumably BARNEY MILLER: THE FIRST SEASON didn't sell that well, or else we would have seen Season Two by now. Oddly, NIGHT COURT, an '80s sitcom that blatantly ripped off BARNEY MILLER, is still widely seen in syndication and DVD (NIGHT COURT was a good show, but was more cartoonish with less believable characters than BARNEY).

Catching up with the first of Season One's two-disc DVD set this weekend, the problem could be that the earliest BARNEY MILLER episodes were not as good. I'm not saying that they aren't good, just not great, like the show would become the following year when the show got its bearings. Sitcom episodes are normally taped in one evening before a live studio audience, but BARNEY was notorious for its all-night shoots and last-minute script changes by executive producer Danny Arnold, so the live audience was soon scrapped. Perhaps the chaotic atmosphere in which the series was produced contributed to its awkward beginnings.

Originally conceived as a contrast between the professional and personal life of a Manhattan police captain named Barney Miller (played by Broadway veteran Hal Linden, cast by Arnold against the wishes of ABC, which wanted a known TV personality in the role), the show eventually phased out Barney's home and family almost entirely. Although Barbara Barrie is good in the role of Barney's wife Elizabeth, the scenes involving her and Barney's two children are weak and "sitcomy"--there's nothing here that we haven't seen in a hundred other domestic sitcoms.

But no comedy had ever before taken such a realistic and bitingly funny view of police work. The 1970's produced some of the finest ensemble comedy casts in TV history--THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW, TAXI, ALL IN THE FAMILY, THE BOB NEWHART SHOW--and BARNEY MILLER deserves a berth among them. From Linden on down, BARNEY's cast--and there was considerable turnover during the years--was never less than believable, three-dimensional and hilarious.

The show's best-loved character was undoubtedly Phil Fish, the broken-down, fedora-sporting old cop played by Abe Vigoda. It's odd to think of Vigoda still being alive more than 30 years after the pilot was filmed, since his characterization of a well-past-middle-aged detective plagued by aches and pains was dead-on (heh). Vigoda's sense of comic timing is stunning in these early episodes, particularly in one where he's attempting to dispose of a bomb left in the precinct house. Vigoda left the series after three seasons for a spinoff, FISH, which is also coming to DVD later this year.

Also in the regular cast the first year: Max Gail as the overexuberant Wojciehowicz ("Wojo"), a somewhat dimbrained but tremendously complex character; Ron Glass (seen only twice in the first nine episodes) as the natty black detective Harris; Jack Soo as the befuddled gambling addict Yemana; and Gregory Sierra as the hotheaded Puerto Rican Chano Amengual. Sierra's stint was even shorter than Vigoda's; he also left for his own sitcom, A.E.S. HUDSON STREET, which turned out to be a bomb.

Among BARNEY MILLER's most rabid audience were real-life police officers, who appreciated the characters' realistic, sensitive portrayals and the ability to mine big laughs out of circumstances that were often quite tragic. The precinct setting allowed the writers a wide range of guest characters and odd situations, but unlike M*A*S*H, BARNEY MILLER never allowed things to get too serious. Although it mined real life for its stories, it never forgot to be funny.

BARNEY MILLER was nominated for an astounding 32 Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Comedy Series all seven seasons it was on the air. Ironically, it only won in its seventh year--after ABC had already cancelled the show.

While you won't be getting top-grade BARNEY MILLER, you should give the DVDs a spin anyway, as there is much in the first season to love. Its multi-cultural cast is practically unheard of in TV sitcoms today where every show is either all-white or all-black (and can you imagine the late Jack Soo landing a TV gig these days?), and its ability to reflect the uncertainty of the post-Watergate '70s without becoming heavy-handed or issues-oriented is admirable.