The Barney Miller thread

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ox-DmJ9H3ng

wiki

The series takes place almost entirely within the confines of the Detectives' Squad Room (and Captain Barney Miller's adjoining office) of New York City's 12th Precinct, located in Greenwich Village. A typical episode would feature the detectives of the 12th bringing in several complainants and/or suspects to the squadroom. Usually there are two or three separate subplots in a given episode, with different officers dealing with different crimes. About once a year, there would be an episode which featured one or more of the detectives outside of the walls of the 12th Precinct, either on a stakeout or at one of their homes.

I remember being honestly surprised to find out Hal Linden was a Broadway singing star.

I watched this show all the time as a kid and I had no idea they were supposed to be in NYC -- I never really paid much attention, but I think I was under the impression that they were in like, I dunno, Maryland or something.

i remember watching it, but remember nothing about it.

except there was an asian guy on it.

About the theme song, which rules:

The distinctive opening notes of the bass line of Jack Elliott and Allyn Ferguson's theme music, performed by studio musician Jim Hughart,[1] are played over a shot of the New York skyline as seen from the water of Upper New York Bay — from Season 2 on, with a garbage barge being towed in the foreground — followed by shots of the characters. Several slightly different versions of the theme featuring minor variations in composition and performance were used during different seasons. The closing credits featured a different shot of the skyline.

It's like that one opening bassline completely negates and destroys eight or whatever amount of years Mr. Fart Pop Bass did for Seinfeld.

"Mr. Fart Pop Bass"

Yoink!

stole my new username!

Anyway, my parents were big fans so we watched this all the time when I was a kid. My dad especially liked Ron Carey and Max Gail.

That bass riff was one of the first things I learned to play on the bass.

Another name for the Barney Miller show acc. to me as a kid: "It's a bunch of old men talking: The Show"

I knew it was about cops, in the same way that I knew that WKRP was about a radio station but WKRP had more female characters, so I liked it better. I would have preferred to have been watching Facts of Life, tbh.

dr johnny fever

I always did like the theme to Barney Miller, though

Does anyone know if it holds up as a funny cop show? Does that exist anymore?

I had very dim memories of it being shown late at night on maybe BBC2 or C4 so I sought it out a few years ago and was pleased to discover that It still stands up pretty well today, because of it's constraints I guess. The racial aspect is maybe a little heavy handed but all the actors, esp in the first few series' are so damn watchable.

It has that pleasing NTSC 70's US TV fuzzy look to it, kinda chillwave. :)

The distinctive opening notes of the bass line of Jack Elliott and Allyn Ferguson's theme music, performed by studio musician Jim Hughart,

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=570018

Jim Hughart Jim Hughart is offline
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Join Date: Aug 2009
Who played the "Barney Miller Theme"?
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I'd like to put some misunderstanding to rest about this.
I am widely credited with having originated the bass line for this TV theme. THIS IS NOT TRUE! CHUCK BERGHOFER was the bass player on the original Season One session. He did most of the shows. Once or twice, when Chuck was busy doing something else, I was called to do the annual (new season) re-recording of the theme. The bass line was already established by the time I recorded it. Please pass this information on to your friends and colleagues. I'd appreciate it. I WILL NOT TAKE CREDIT FOR SOMEONE ELSE'S WORK !!!

Another misunderstanding: I was the bass player for the "Bob Newhart Show" sessions. I did them all. There has been confusion about this, too.

Back in the '70s, there was a TON of work! We all STAYED busy. We all had occasional schedule conflicts. We all covered each other.

That's so awesome.
What has CHUCK BERGHOFER been up to since?

Bob Newhart Show had a pretty great theme song too. Also paired with city skyline shots (but of Chicago, not NYC).

i'm not sure, but as workplace comedies go, it seems like a good premise. i think everyone imagines their workplace is like that sometimes, with a panoply of colorful characters. why not cops?
now that it's 2011, can cops still be a comedic foil for the rest of us or no?

Chuck Berghofer most famous for intro bass on "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'" but played on lots of other stuff.

Interesting!

Sure is. Jay Leonhart wrote a poem/song about him, http://lostandsound.wordpress.com/2008/01/04/poem-for-a-bass-player/, but said he would never do something like that again because all the other bass players came and bugged him saying "why don't you write one about me?"

Do any of you know the guy in NYC who deejays under the name Barney Iller? I believe he is friend of ilx favorite DJ Lupe Loop.

Saw Morbs make mention of BM in the Beetle Bailey thread and spent the rest of the morning reading quotes from IMDB:

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?

[Nick is talking to Internal Affairs]

Yemana: I'm not Chinese, you know.
Captain William Donnelly: That doesn't matter, Detective.
Yemana: Now it doesn't matter; but in 1942...

Nick had the best lines

[Yemana is reading an article in the newspaper for a horse race involving a horse named Pick-Me-Nick]

Wojo: Do you think it's an omen?
Yemana: Omen? It's practically an order.

Widely considered to be Night Court's prototype although I consider Night Court to be closer to Taxi and WKRP than Barney Miller. It's enjoyable but it doesn't stay in reruns for very long before it gets pulled, I remember it being on WGN last.

Ha Night Court is how I learned who Mel Torme was.

I work with a guy whose parents let him watch Cosby, Family Ties and Cheers, but drew the line at Night Court and would send him to bed.

Those people seemed more like courtroom Cheers than Barney Miller, though.

You think about it, that was a pretty awesome set on Night Court.
Judge Anderson's quarters > Hallway > Courtroom > Hallway > Cafeteria.

Barney Miller was awesome for just having the one set during most shows.

Markie Post was pretty hot.

Yes she was.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGv_7VgFgeg

http://wherearetheynow.gophercentral.com/images2/markie-post-then.jpg

http://llamabutchers.mu.nu/archives/Markie%20Post%20joella.jpg

i've never watched this show but the quotes and clips on this thread make me want to

I like the original BM cast the best with Gregory Sierra as Chano and Ron Glass as Harris. That episode when Barney has to console Chano after he has killed a man in the line of duty was amazing.

I remember being honestly surprised to find out Hal Linden was a Broadway singing star.

http://kenlevine.blogspot.com/2009/04/writing-for-barney-miller.html

http://cm1.theinsider.com/thumbnail/280/280/cm1.theinsider.com/media/0/25/82/Markie_Post_at_the_1988_Emmy_Awards.jpg

Alice is my favorite theme song of all time!!
When I lived in Wilmington, NC, Linda Lavin lived there too and she was total theater supastar

Think I've seen this show exactly once -- it was about a year ago, on Me TV.

Love that show. "What do you say we guys go down to the beach, and shoot some clams?"

If you can stomach the dumb imbedded ads, BM has it's own YouTube channel with quite a lot of episodes.

Somebody said it was on hulu as well.

Hadn't remembered that Linda Lavin played a female cop on this show in the beginning.

Yep, I know, but sadly Hulu can only be acessed from within the US.

Sorry. And I guess it's not on Spotify.

http://www.jacksoo.com/

Goddamn, the theme song is a total jam.

only topped by Sanford & Son imo

Abe Vigoda has a website devoted to his mortal state, nice. http://www.abevigoda.com/

So pleased to hear this show holds up. I watched daytime reruns as a kid and thought I was alone in loving the pants off it.

That woman who plays Clare in Modern Family reminds me of Markie Post for some reason.

show avoided the most obvious stereotype by not having an irish-american cop character iirc

Well, just found out why we know him as Hal Linden:

Linden was born Harold Lipshitz...

Holy shit, this man is a true hero:

He has also provided voice-overs for such imported films as Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster, and Destroy all Monsters.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4-26UcGbaY

Linda Lavin just opened in the new Jon Robin Baitz play at Lincoln Center.

there's a fresh freckled face in the neighborhood

I just saw that Linda Lavin has a gig at Birdland this month!

No word on if and when Hal is going to play

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x77p2xQt9T0

omg
on so many levels

pouring one out for Detective Fish. His one-sided phone calls to his wife were probably the best sitcom derivations of the patented Newhart shtick (other than y'know the ones Bob did on his show).

abc needs to start doing public service announcements condoning sex for seniors again

until i scrolled up, i was gonna ask if that's how Vigoda went.

There are lots of great episodes on this show. Some of my favorites were the one about the hurricane (which I believe also had the guy that thought he was a werewolf), the one where the crew gets spiked with pot brownies and the two partner about NYC going broke.

Quite a few actors would return playing other characters including the actor that played Levitt who was first on the show as a burglar.

nifty Hal Linden interview

"I made a living in the ’60s doing anything you could do attached to show business. I never waited on tables, I never drove a cab, I raised four children from 1960 to 1967, and all I did was go from flop to flop Broadway show. I had a nice career doing demonstration records, doing backer’s auditions, doing whatever it took to make a living....

"And I did what they called looping for foreign pictures! In those days, there were only three major TV networks in this country, so the independent channels had very little programming. One of the things they did was, somebody would buy B-foreign pictures from France, Sweden, Germany, Japan, and someone would sit down and write an American script for it based on the lip movements in the original language. It took a good eye and a good ear to be able to put American words to the lip movements of the foreign actors. German was relatively easy because it has the same rhythmic patterns as English. Swedish was not hard. But when you got to Italian, they were twice as fast! ... I dubbed Godzilla Meets Mothra!"

http://www.vulture.com/2017/11/hal-linden-barney-miller-acting-career-interview.html

BM would play on UK TV in the 80s at like 3 in the morning & i'd try & wake up to watch it if i could: perhaps unsurprisingly my memory of it from those viewings is vague (the characters are familiar but no stories that i remember from them & i also wrongly remembered the set as more bright than dingy)

anyway ive been catching up the last week or so with the youtube versions, which are a bit randomly organised in various uploads, and loving it all over again

i dont really have a favourite character -- or let's say it just changes from episode to episode. the ones that make me laugh most often are maybe yemana (jack soo), dietrich (steve Landesberg) and levitt (ron carey). i like how they have a kind of revolving second cast of who return now & then, the same faces as different perps or victims -- maybe this does capture something about the more humdrum levels of the job? LL upthread and an age ago says it didnt occur to her that it took place in new york, but when incidents are phoned in it's all from the few bits of manhattan im (a bit) familiar with, from visiting my sister there in the early 90s (canal, bleecker, streetnames i actually know… )

was any other TV comedy ever so gentle!? (also were nyc cops ever remotely like this? im guessing no)

Probably not but I've read more than once that a lot of police types said it was one of the most accurate shows on the profession if only because so much time is spent sitting around in an office dealing with paperwork.