Humor, wit, tragedy, pathos and human feeling were all highlighted in "Barney Miller.":. The show demonstrated just how boring and routine actually police work could be but effectively milked the routine for thoughtful laughs. While occasionally referenced (largely through the "Wojo" characters..there were no brutal fights, car chases or gun play displayed. Each of the characters had their own persona and all of those characters were brilliantly portrayed by the respective actors that played the character. My only complaint about the show is how they were too loose with NYPD realities. For example, all of the central characters were "Detective Sergeants" (Wojo eventually got there after several tries) and none of them, with the possible exception of "Fish" very early in the series ever had supervisory responsibilities. (note: I assume that the "check-in/check out" board listing other squad room personnel was to demonstrate that the squad was much larger than the featured cast as a nod to practical reality). Also, I noted that on the episodes when the detectives wore uniforms (for whatever reason) other than Captain Miller and Inspector Lugar they each had a patrolman's badge. On the last show Officer Levitt is promoted to "Detective Sergeant" without ever having to go through the usual NYPD Detective 3rd Grade, 2nd Grade and Detective 1st Grade ranks and then successfully completing sergeant's testing. Finally, normally a precinct is commanded by a uniformed captain. A detective commander who overseas a detective squad embeded within a precinct would not have had precinct command as, while never specifically stated was too often implied in some of the shows. Nitpicking...possibly/probably...but I still think that "Barney Miller" was one of the finest shows ever on T.V.
Review of Barney Miller
