Barney Miller

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Danny Arnold & Theodore J. Flicker

Hal Linden - Capt. Barney Miller (171 episodes, 1974-1982)

Max Gail - Det. Stan 'Wojo' Wojciehowicz (170 episodes, 1975-1982)

Ron Glass - Det. Ron Harris (164 episodes, 1975-1982)

Steve Landesberg - Det. Sgt. Arthur Dietrich (130 episodes, 1975-1982)

Ron Carey - Officer Carl Levitt (128 episodes, 1976-1982)

Jack Soo - Det. Sgt. Nick Yemana (99 episodes, 1975-1979)

Abe Vigoda - Det. Phil Fish (62 episodes, 1974-1981)

James Gregory - Inspector Frank Luger (49 episodes, 1975-1982)

Barbara Barrie - Elizabeth Miller (43 episodes, 1975-1978)

Gregory Sierra - Det. Sgt. Chano Amenguale (35 episodes, 1975-1976)

George Murdock - Lt. Ben Scanlon (13 episodes, 1976-1982)

John Dullaghan - Ray Brewer (10 episodes, 1976-1982)

United States

Danny Arnold - Executive Producer / Producer (170 episodes, 1974-1982)

Roland Kibbee - Executive producer / Producer (117 episodes, 1974-1982)

Gary Shaw - Associate Producer / Co-Producer (66 episodes, 1975-1980)

Chris Hayward - Producer (35 episodes, 1975-1976)

Arne Sultan - Producer (8 episodes, 1975)

Tim Steele - Associate Producer (6 episodes, 1975)

Noam Pitlik - Producer (3 episodes, 1979-1980)

Tony Sheehan - Producer (3 episodes, 1979-1980)

Mark Goode - Associate Producer (2 episodes, 1975)

Reinhold Weege - Co-Producer (unknown episodes, 1978-1979)

Frank Dungan - Producer (unknown episodes)

Jeff Stein - Producer (unknown episodes)

Noam Pitlik (102 episodes, 1975-1981)

Danny Arnold (13 episodes, 1975-1982)

Bruce Bilson (10 episodes, 1976-1981)

Lee Bernhardi (8 episodes, 1975-1978)

Max Gail (5 episodes, 1978-1982)

Alex March (4 episodes, 1977-1978)

Gennaro Montanino (4 episodes, 1981-1982)

Hal Linden (3 episodes, 1977-1982)

Jeremiah Morris (3 episodes, 1977)

David Swift (3 episodes, 1977)

Lee Lochhead (2 episodes, 1981-1982)

Homer Powell (2 episodes, 1981-1982)

Alan Bergmann (2 episodes, 1982)

Tony Sheehan (2 episodes, 1982)

8

170

January 23, 1975 – May 20, 1982

Jack Elliott & Allyn Ferguson – music

Jim Hughart – musician/performer

Directors Guild of America, USA

1981 Won DGA Award Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy Series' Noam Pitlik; Chester Jackson (associate director) (plaque); Lee Grant (stage manager) (plaque); Ed Duzik (stage manager) (plaque) for: episode "Fog"

1980 Nominated DGA Award Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy Series' Noam Pitlik for: episode "The Judge"

Emmy Awards

1982 Won Emmy Outstanding Comedy Series Danny Arnold & Roland Kibbee (executive producers); Frank Dungan & Jeff Stein (producers); Gary Shaw (co-producer) (ABC)

1982 Nominated Emmy Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series Hal Linden (ABC)

1982 Nominated Emmy Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy or Variety or Music Series Ron Glass (ABC)

1982 Nominated Emmy Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy or Variety or Music Series Steve Landesberg (ABC)

1982 Nominated Emmy Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series Frank Dungan, Jeff Stein & Tony Sheehan (writers) (ABC) for: series' final episode "Landmark", part III

1981 Nominated Emmy Outstanding Comedy Series Danny Arnold (executive producer); Tony Sheehan & Noam Pitlik (producers); Gary Shaw (co-producer) (ABC)

1981 Nominated Emmy Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series Noam Pitlik (ABC) for: episode "Liquidation"

1981 Nominated Emmy Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series Hal Linden (ABC)

1981 Nominated Emmy Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy or Variety or Music Series Steve Landesberg (ABC)

1980 Won Emmy Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series Bob Colleary (writer) (ABC) for: episode "Photographer"

1980 Nominated Emmy Outstanding Comedy Series Danny Arnold (executive producer); Tony Sheehan & Noam Pitlik (producers); Gary Shaw (co-producer) (ABC)

1980 Nominated Emmy Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series Hal Linden (ABC)

1980 Nominated Emmy Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy or Variety or Music Series Max Gail (ABC)

1980 Nominated Emmy Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy or Variety or Music Series Steve Landesberg (ABC)

1979 Won Emmy Outstanding Directing in a Comedy or Comedy-Variety or Music Series Noam Pitlik (director) (ABC) for: episode "The Harris Incident"

1979 Nominated Emmy Outstanding Comedy Series Danny Arnold (executive producer); Tony Sheehan & Reinhold Weege (co-producers) (ABC)

1979 Nominated Emmy Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series Hal Linden (ABC)

1979 Nominated Emmy Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy or Comedy-Variety or Music Series Max Gail (ABC)

1978 Nominated Emmy Outstanding Comedy Series Danny Arnold (executive producer); Tony Sheehan (producer) (ABC)

1978 Nominated Emmy Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series Hal Linden (ABC)

1978 Nominated Emmy Outstanding Single Performance by a Supporting Actor in a Comedy or Drama Series Larry Gelman (ABC) for: episode "Goodbye, Mr. Fish" part II

1978 Nominated Emmy Outstanding Single Performance by a Supporting Actor in a Comedy or Drama Series Abe Vigoda (ABC) for: episode "Goodbye, Mr. Fish", part II

1977 Nominated Emmy Outstanding Comedy Series Danny Arnold (executive producer/producer); Roland Kibbee (producer) (ABC)

1977 Nominated Emmy Outstanding Continuing Performance by a Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series Abe Vigoda (ABC)

1977 Nominated Emmy Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series Hal Linden (ABC)

1977 Nominated Emmy Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series Tony Sheehan & Danny Arnold (writers) (ABC) for: episode "Quarantine", part 2

1976 Nominated Emmy Outstanding Achievement in Video Tape Editing for a Series Homer Powell, Fred Golan & Paul Schatzkin (ABC) for: episode "Happy New Year"

1976 Nominated Emmy Outstanding Comedy Series Danny Arnold (executive producer); Chris Hayward & Arne Sultan (producers) (ABC)

1976 Nominated Emmy Outstanding Continuing Performance by a Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series Abe Vigoda (ABC)

1976 Nominated Emmy Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series Hal Linden (ABC)
1976 Nominated Emmy Outstanding Single Performance by a Supporting Actor in Comedy or Drama Series Roscoe Lee Browne (ABC) for: episode "The Escape Artist"

1976 Nominated Emmy Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series Danny Arnold & Chris Hayward (ABC) for: episode "The Hero"

Golden Globes, USA

1981 Nominated Golden Globe Best Performance by an Actor in a TV-Series - Musical/Comedy Hal Linden

1978 Nominated Golden Globe Best TV Actor - Musical/Comedy Hal Linden

1978 Nominated Golden Globe Best TV-Series - Musical/Comedy

1977 Won Golden Globe Best TV-Series - Musical/Comedy

1977 Nominated Golden Globe Best TV Actor - Musical/Comedy Hal Linden

1976 Won Golden Globe Best TV-Series - Musical/Comedy

1976 Nominated Golden Globe Best TV Actor - Musical/Comedy Hal Linden

Humanitas Prize

1978 Nominated Humanitas Prize 30 Minute Category Reinhold Weege for: episode "Goodbye, Mr. Fish", part II

Peabody Awards

1979 Won Peabody Award (Four D Productions, Trisene Corporation [US] and American Broadcasting Company (ABC)

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There's a daily parade of lawbreakers in New York City's Twelfth Precinct, where the detectives are as nutty as the perps.

With its distinctive bass-note theme song played over the skyline of New York City, the long-running hit Barney Miller was one of the most "street" sitcoms of the 1970s: gritty and often morbidly dark in its comedy. Resurrected from an unsold pilot created by Danny Arnold called The Life and Times of Captain Barney Miller, the show was revived by legendary director John Rich, who had been given a development deal with ABC after he directed the first few seasons of All in the Family. Rich saw the unsold pilot and requested that the show be picked up as part of his deal, but friction between Rich and Arnold forced Rich out after two episodes. Arnold viewed Barney Miller as his baby and exerted a great deal of control over every aspect of the production. The tapings became legendary, often lasting until three o'clock in the morning. (Arnold was notorious for doing massive rewrites after the first taping, stretching tape day to the point that it became unworkable to use a studio audience after the third season.)

The only actors retained from the original pilot were Hal Linden, straight from a long career on the Broadway stage, and the hang-dog Abe Vigoda as the lugubrious Detective Phil Fish. Like those of Mary Tyler Moore, The Bob Newhart Show, Taxi, and WKRP in Cincinnati, Barney Miller's expert ensemble signaled the demise of the character actor in modern situation comedies. In addition to Linden and Vigoda, the original cast included Max Gail as the hotheaded Detective Wojohowicz; Ron Glass as the suave Detective Harris; Gregory Sierra as the street-smart Detective Amenguale; and the hilariously deadpan Jack Soo as Detective Nick Yemana.

The squad room was a veritable melting pot of race and class, fueled by the most toxic coffee outside of Chernobyl. Often dropping in was the windbag Chief Inspector Luger, played by James Gregory, who possessed a borderline-sick obsession with the blood and guts of his own salad days pounding a beat. Rounding out the cast and providing the home-life facet of Captain Miller's life was the sensational Barbara Barrie as his wife, another New York stage transplant. Unfortunately for Barrie, the domestic side of things proved less colorful than life at the station house, and her character (along with the two Miller children) was phased out of the series; however her name remained in the credits until the end of the season.

Functioning almost as a character in itself was the precinct room, perhaps the most atmospheric set of any sitcom. The detail in the set decoration was extraordinary, light years more believable than the sprawling apartments of Friends or Will & Grace or the state-of-the-art workplaces of Suddenly Susan or Just Shoot Me. As the show evolved, it became more and more like a Broadway play, rarely straying from the precinct room and Miller's adjoining office. The cast of guest stars added a lot of flavor to the show, as neighborhood "regulars" getting booked and interviewed by the detectives. These included a gay couple, Marty Morrison and Darryl Driscoll; local liquor store owner Mr. Kotterman; Sidney, the local bookie; and ambulance-chasing attorney Arnold Ripner, in addition to a steady stream of pickpockets, hookers, and other assorted undesirables.

The show went through a series of cast changes, but, perhaps because it took place in a workplace, like M*A*S*H and Cheers, other shows that centered around a group of people brought together by circumstance as opposed to a family unit, Barney Miller held up well under the shifts. Actress Linda Lavin briefly joined the cast as the only female detective on the squad, and Steve Landesberg and Ron Carey came on board in the third season, as the pseudo-intellectual Detective Dietrich and the pipsqueak Officer Levitt, respectively. The show lost two of its most beloved characters, first when Abe Vigoda was spun off into his own short-lived series called Fish, and later when Jack Soo died. So popular was Soo with the cast and audiences that the producers put together an unscripted tribute show where the cast reminisced about their favorite episodes featuring Soo.

And speaking of favorite episodes, one of the most memorable shows of Barney Miller's nine seasons featured a plot line that might not survive the gauntlet of today's network censors. In the third season, "Wojo" brought in brownies baked by his girlfriend. As it was the mid-1970s, the treats were, of course, laced with hashish, and each detective who sampled the magical baked goods had his own hilarious reaction. The episode was a triumph of comic character writing and acting.

The episodes were originally taped before a live audience. This element of the show was eliminated in later episodes.

During its broadcast run amid the many cop shows on television, many real-life police officers considered this the TV show that best depicted the reality of police life.

One of the props used on the police station set was a chalkboard used to show whether the policemen were on-duty or off-duty. When the show ended, the chalkboard was donated to the Smithsonian Television Museum. In addition to the names of the characters on the show, the board listed other names which were those of technicians who worked on the show's crew. The Smithsonian also has the police badges used by the actors (signed by producer Danny Arnold) and Jack Soo's coffee mug.

Yemana: Then Fish runs in the alley and he leaps over us like one of those...what do you call those things in Africa that run and leap in the air?
Harris: Slaves

Detective Ron Harris: Barney, his wife has decided not to press charges, so I let him go after giving him that spiel you always give about "not losing one's perspective."

Dietrich: I've always admired the Japanese outlook on death. The calm acceptance, the treating it as a part of life...
Yemana: [to Wojo] I dunno what he's talking about - personally, I'm going kicking and screaming all the way.
Wojo: Well, why don't you tell him that?
Yemana: I like my image.

Detective Ron Harris: Hey Fish, does it hurt when those stones come out?
Fish: It can't be too bad. The doctor says it's like giving birth.

Yemana: Mine's the sashimi and cream cheese on a bagel.
Delivery Guy: You mean lox?
Yemana: We had it first.