ODD REVIEWS BY ODDCUBE
Opinions on the Obscure, Off-Beat, and Outdated
BARNEY MILLER
Hello, and welcome to the column! Everybody’s buddy, Oddcube, here with another scintillating subject to share with you! But first, for those of you who are uninitiated and unaware of the usual on-goings that go on in and around my odd little area of the internet, I shall obtain the initiative to explain instantly!
I, Oddcube, gamer geek and total square, utilize my indefatigable devotion to duty to draw a random subject out of a hat and research it tirelessly, ceaselessly, and endlessly… Or until time for dinner, anyway. Now you may very well be asking, why do I do that? Well, because there’s a lot of cool stuff out there that doesn’t get the attention it deserves! And you don’t want to miss out on cool stuff do you? Man! The very thought that you could be missing out on something cool just keeps me up at night! I can’t deal with it, so I write up this column every month in a meager attempt to keep you informed!
Now, what kind of cool stuff do I talk about? Why, the COOL kind, HA! I slay me! Seriously folks, I talk about all kinds of stuff. I talk about movies. I talk about music. I talk about games. I talk about old time radio shows. I talk about cool TV shows. Hey, speaking of cool TV shows…
This month’s review is about an old sitcom called “Barney Miller”, which aired on ABC from ’75 to ’82. The show, of course, is about the titular Captain Miller and the detectives of the 12th Precinct in Greenwich Village, New York. The show was created by Danny Arnold and Theodore J. Flicker, and almost didn’t happen!
See, Danny Arnold had a nifty idea for a show about a Jewish patrolman. Ted Flicker wanted to do a sitcom about an L.A. detective. They put the ideas together and came up a show called “The Life and Times of Captain Barney Miller”. The network wasn’t really interested in it, but they did include the pilot as part of a special called “Just For Laughs”, which aired in August of ’74. However, ABC was negotiating with director John Rich to keep him working for the network after his success with “All In The Family”. Well, Rich had seen the special and was interested in working on the show, so he insisted that the show became part of his deal. The network conceded, and commissioned thirteen episodes for season one! And then John Rich had several artistic differences with writer/producer Danny Arnold and left the show after two episodes!
By then, I guess it didn’t matter, the show was saved! Changed, but saved. The title was shortened to just “Barney Miller”, and originally the show was going to follow his life both at work and at home with his wife and children. This concept was altered so that the show only followed the goings-on at the 12th precinct.
The show itself was way ahead of its time; it was politically correct before being politically correct was cool…or required. Precinct 12 did not discriminate due to race or gender, and the cast reflected this. First off, there was Hal Linden as Captain Barney Miller. Then, there was Abe Vigoda (from “The Godfather”!) as aging Jewish detective, Philip K. Fish. Maxwell Gail played Stanley “Wojo” Wojciehowicz, a naïve but gung-ho cop of Polish descent. Ron Glass, perhaps better known today from “Firefly”, played the ambitious, intellectual Detective Ronald Harris. Jack Soo was the dry-witted gambler, Detective Sergeant Nick Yemana of Japanese descent. Gregory Sierra was the dutiful Detective Sergeant Chano Amanguale, who originated from Puerto Rico. James Gregory was Deputy Inspector Frank Luger, the unintentionally insulting old-school superior. Ron Carey played the eager and ambitious patrolman, Carl Levitt. Steve Landesberg played intellectual and enigmatic know-it-all, Detective Arthur Dietrich.
Hmm, I haven’t mentioned any female cops. But trust me, they had some! The most noteworthy one was Detective Janice Wentworth, played by Linda Lavin. The character was a recurring character during the first and second seasons, but did not appear again after Lavin won the starring role on the sitcom, “Alice”. There were a few others, too, but they none of them seem to have lasted very long.
The show was pretty low-key for a sitcom and for a cop show. Sure the characters were kinda wacky in their own way, but none of them were really over-the-top. In fact, they were all pretty believable, probably because of their quirks. In fact, several real-life policemen (including policeman-turned-actor, David Farrina on the show “Dinner For Five”) have claimed that Barney Miller was the most realistic cop show on the air (I don’t know if that is still true today, but at least you didn’t have to see anybody’s bare backside).
The show itself was kinda weird, too, because it almost exclusively took place in the squad room of the precinct house. Out of eight seasons, only thirteen episodes featured some other location. But that was okay, because the show was about the characters and how they responded to all the criminals and wackos that they had to deal with.
The show won a whole slew of awards, including two Golden Globes, a Peabody Award, three Emmys, and a DGA Award from the Director’s Guild of America. Despite all of this, the show was losing its audience, and they decided to end the series before the network pulled the plug. The series ended with a three-part story in which someone finds an old revolver in the precinct house which leads to the discovery that Teddy Roosevelt was once stationed there when he was on the New York Police Force. So the Precinct House was declared an historic landmark, and the 12th Precinct was disbanded, with all the detectives getting transferred to new assignments.
To put it lightly, the show was just great, but has somehow become hard to find now-a-days. If you’re lucky, you can find reruns on some cable channel somewhere. Or you could go the DVD route, but only the first three seasons are currently available. I even found some rumor on the net that “They” (whoever “They” are in this instance) currently have no plans to release the rest of the series. But seasons 1-3 ARE available for purchase from Amazon, and for rent at Netflix. Oddly enough, the first FOUR seasons can (mostly) be seen on crackle.com. I say “mostly” because they are missing an episode or two from each season.
So, there ya have it! It’s a great show and you should check it out! Oh yeah, almost forgot! I still have to give it a rating.
My highly scientific and sophisticated strategy for rating is deceptively simple: I roll a pair of percentage dice from my D&D game. In case ya don’t know it, percentage dice is just a pair of 10-sided dice used to determine a number between 01 (Danger, Will Robinson!) and double-0, which actually means 100 (you have not LIVED until you have experienced this). So with all that in mind, I shall give my dice a toss just like this…
Opinions on the Obscure, Off-Beat, and Outdated
BARNEY MILLER
Hello, and welcome to the column! Everybody’s buddy, Oddcube, here with another scintillating subject to share with you! But first, for those of you who are uninitiated and unaware of the usual on-goings that go on in and around my odd little area of the internet, I shall obtain the initiative to explain instantly!
I, Oddcube, gamer geek and total square, utilize my indefatigable devotion to duty to draw a random subject out of a hat and research it tirelessly, ceaselessly, and endlessly… Or until time for dinner, anyway. Now you may very well be asking, why do I do that? Well, because there’s a lot of cool stuff out there that doesn’t get the attention it deserves! And you don’t want to miss out on cool stuff do you? Man! The very thought that you could be missing out on something cool just keeps me up at night! I can’t deal with it, so I write up this column every month in a meager attempt to keep you informed!
Now, what kind of cool stuff do I talk about? Why, the COOL kind, HA! I slay me! Seriously folks, I talk about all kinds of stuff. I talk about movies. I talk about music. I talk about games. I talk about old time radio shows. I talk about cool TV shows. Hey, speaking of cool TV shows…
This month’s review is about an old sitcom called “Barney Miller”, which aired on ABC from ’75 to ’82. The show, of course, is about the titular Captain Miller and the detectives of the 12th Precinct in Greenwich Village, New York. The show was created by Danny Arnold and Theodore J. Flicker, and almost didn’t happen!
See, Danny Arnold had a nifty idea for a show about a Jewish patrolman. Ted Flicker wanted to do a sitcom about an L.A. detective. They put the ideas together and came up a show called “The Life and Times of Captain Barney Miller”. The network wasn’t really interested in it, but they did include the pilot as part of a special called “Just For Laughs”, which aired in August of ’74. However, ABC was negotiating with director John Rich to keep him working for the network after his success with “All In The Family”. Well, Rich had seen the special and was interested in working on the show, so he insisted that the show became part of his deal. The network conceded, and commissioned thirteen episodes for season one! And then John Rich had several artistic differences with writer/producer Danny Arnold and left the show after two episodes!
By then, I guess it didn’t matter, the show was saved! Changed, but saved. The title was shortened to just “Barney Miller”, and originally the show was going to follow his life both at work and at home with his wife and children. This concept was altered so that the show only followed the goings-on at the 12th precinct.
The show itself was way ahead of its time; it was politically correct before being politically correct was cool…or required. Precinct 12 did not discriminate due to race or gender, and the cast reflected this. First off, there was Hal Linden as Captain Barney Miller. Then, there was Abe Vigoda (from “The Godfather”!) as aging Jewish detective, Philip K. Fish. Maxwell Gail played Stanley “Wojo” Wojciehowicz, a naïve but gung-ho cop of Polish descent. Ron Glass, perhaps better known today from “Firefly”, played the ambitious, intellectual Detective Ronald Harris. Jack Soo was the dry-witted gambler, Detective Sergeant Nick Yemana of Japanese descent. Gregory Sierra was the dutiful Detective Sergeant Chano Amanguale, who originated from Puerto Rico. James Gregory was Deputy Inspector Frank Luger, the unintentionally insulting old-school superior. Ron Carey played the eager and ambitious patrolman, Carl Levitt. Steve Landesberg played intellectual and enigmatic know-it-all, Detective Arthur Dietrich.
Hmm, I haven’t mentioned any female cops. But trust me, they had some! The most noteworthy one was Detective Janice Wentworth, played by Linda Lavin. The character was a recurring character during the first and second seasons, but did not appear again after Lavin won the starring role on the sitcom, “Alice”. There were a few others, too, but they none of them seem to have lasted very long.
The show was pretty low-key for a sitcom and for a cop show. Sure the characters were kinda wacky in their own way, but none of them were really over-the-top. In fact, they were all pretty believable, probably because of their quirks. In fact, several real-life policemen (including policeman-turned-actor, David Farrina on the show “Dinner For Five”) have claimed that Barney Miller was the most realistic cop show on the air (I don’t know if that is still true today, but at least you didn’t have to see anybody’s bare backside).
The show itself was kinda weird, too, because it almost exclusively took place in the squad room of the precinct house. Out of eight seasons, only thirteen episodes featured some other location. But that was okay, because the show was about the characters and how they responded to all the criminals and wackos that they had to deal with.
The show won a whole slew of awards, including two Golden Globes, a Peabody Award, three Emmys, and a DGA Award from the Director’s Guild of America. Despite all of this, the show was losing its audience, and they decided to end the series before the network pulled the plug. The series ended with a three-part story in which someone finds an old revolver in the precinct house which leads to the discovery that Teddy Roosevelt was once stationed there when he was on the New York Police Force. So the Precinct House was declared an historic landmark, and the 12th Precinct was disbanded, with all the detectives getting transferred to new assignments.
To put it lightly, the show was just great, but has somehow become hard to find now-a-days. If you’re lucky, you can find reruns on some cable channel somewhere. Or you could go the DVD route, but only the first three seasons are currently available. I even found some rumor on the net that “They” (whoever “They” are in this instance) currently have no plans to release the rest of the series. But seasons 1-3 ARE available for purchase from Amazon, and for rent at Netflix. Oddly enough, the first FOUR seasons can (mostly) be seen on crackle.com. I say “mostly” because they are missing an episode or two from each season.
So, there ya have it! It’s a great show and you should check it out! Oh yeah, almost forgot! I still have to give it a rating.
My highly scientific and sophisticated strategy for rating is deceptively simple: I roll a pair of percentage dice from my D&D game. In case ya don’t know it, percentage dice is just a pair of 10-sided dice used to determine a number between 01 (Danger, Will Robinson!) and double-0, which actually means 100 (you have not LIVED until you have experienced this). So with all that in mind, I shall give my dice a toss just like this…
and roll a respectable 93! Read it and weep! Even the dice say it’s too good to miss!
But hey, you don’t have to take my word on it! Go check it out and see for yourself! That’ll give me time to figure out what I’m gonna tell ya about next time! So be there, and be square!
-----Your Buddy, Oddcube!
But hey, you don’t have to take my word on it! Go check it out and see for yourself! That’ll give me time to figure out what I’m gonna tell ya about next time! So be there, and be square!
-----Your Buddy, Oddcube!
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