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Barney Miller: Difference between revisions
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Also around are abrasive, uniformed Officer Carl Levitt (Ron Carey), who longs to be a detective but can never seem to snag a promotion (he finally got one in the very last episode); and Barney's immediate superior Inspector Franklin D. Luger (James Gregory), who does nothing but chew Barney's ear all day and long for the halcyon days of acceptable police brutality. In the first season or two, which had episodes alternating between the squadroom and Barney's home life, Barbara Barrie was a regular as Barney's wife Elizabeth. She disappeared when the Millers had an off-screen separation, but returned later on a recurring basis.
Throughout the run, the show tried adding new characters to the cast; most of them would be given a "test run" of about three episodes to make an impression. More than half a dozen cops were "auditioned" this way. Save for Dietrich, none of them really worked, resulting in many a [[Brother Chuck]]. (Linda Lavin probably would have stayed on too, if she hadn't been offered the lead role in ''[[Alice]]''; she appeared prominently in flashbacks despite being in only five episodes). Midway through the fifth season, actor Jack Soo (Yemana) died. The cast did a memorial episode out-of-character for Soo, but Yemana was never [[The Character Died with Him|killed off]] in so many words. Once in a while, he would be mentioned in the past tense, sometimes with an air of wistfulness. When Levitt worked in the detective squad room, he took over Yemana's desk.
This show is also remembered for its super-catchy [[Instrumental Theme Tune]], which has quite possibly the most famous bass line in TV history. If you've seen the show, you're probably [[Ear Worm|humming it to yourself now]].
Characters and references to the show still turn up. In a novel spinoff of ''[[The Blair Witch Project]]'', ''Confessions of Rustin Parr'', the investigations were headed by Detective Nicholas Yamana. In William P. Young's supernatural murder mystery ''The Shack'', a Polish police detective says his name is "spelled just like it sounds". In ''[[Frasier]]'', one of Martin's police friends was Stan Wojciedubakowski, and when he died, Martin briefly dated his widow.
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{{tropelist}}
* [[Ambulance Chaser]]: Arnold Ripner, a recurring character. At one point he sues Harris for putting a thinly-veiled version of him in his novel.
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* [[Disposable Vagrant]]
* [[Double Standard Rape (Male on Male)]]: Wojo, who is wearing drag in order to catch muggers, is almost raped. Everyone finds this hilarious.
* [[Drop
* [[Even Evil Has Standards]]: Arnold Ripner threatens to sue a lobotomist ''free of charge'' should he try to operate again on a patient who was rendered mentally incompetent by his amygdalectomy. (He then threatens Barney that trying to describe his actions as "noble" could be slander.)
* [[The Fashionista]]: Harris is a male version.
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* [[Meaningful Name]]: The aging inspector who looks back fondly on the life-threatening shootouts of the old days, waxes nostalgic about his old comrades getting shot down in their prime, and doesn't understand the modern force's need for things like proper procedures, suspects' rights, and paperwork is named "Luger."
* [[Mix and Match]]
* [[Mushroom Samba]]: In one of the most famous episodes, Wojo's girlfriend-of-the-week gave him a box of homemade brownies laced with hashish. Everyone but Barney (whose watching his weight) become affected by them in different ways - Yamana thinking his legs had walked off, Harris getting giggly, and giving Fish the energy to chase down and capture a suspect a third his age.
{{quote|'''Fish''': The first time in twenty-five years I've felt really good... and it has to be illegal!}}
* [[My Name Is Not Durwood]]: Inspector Luger's tendency to call officer Levitt "Levine."
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