Written by Jim Tisdale | Directed by Noam Pitlik
It’s not preferable, but, of the year’s heaviest shows, this one’s drama is the most personal, and the most justified.Ġ2) Episode 129: “The Delegate” (Aired: 11/13/80)īarney learns that one of his new officers isn’t actually a cop.
Thus, we have narrative irony, a chance for a didactic monologue from Barney, and the use of self-built emotional continuity to deliver a wallop that’s believable, yet not at all comic. Stone appear, along with the ever-reliable Luger, the engine of this entry’s interest - and the bolder Part II, specifically - is its climax, in which one of the precinct’s semi-regular visitors, Cotterman (Jack Somack), is killed after begging the cops for help that they can’t provide, because the police bureaucracy has forced them to specialize in homicides, to the exclusion of everything else. Although funny guests like Allyn Ann McLerie, Jack Dodson, and Harold J. Season Seven’s two-part premiere - which, like all non-news shows in the fall of 1980, was delayed by the three-month SAG strike - bears immediate witness to the year’s elevated sense of realness, projected through a darker, more dramatic lens that trivializes laughs. Written by Frank Dungan & Jeff Stein | Directed by Noam Pitlik The squad’s new specialization in homicide has fatal consequences. But Seven’s episodes tell another story - the true story: this may be the apex of realism, but that in itself is far from ideal, for us and for Barney Miller.Ġ1) Episode 128: “Homicide (II)” (Aired: 11/06/80) So, when Seven can’t amuse because it’s hyper-focused on being real because it has to distract from story issues that are so dire because of an idea-led design that exists because of an overcommitment to realism, the point is the same: Barney Miller’s goal has not been in alignment with the genre’s, and we can no longer pretend, as in Six, that the show is able to compensate for its deficiencies by emphasizing its one big asset, for its one big asset is now so big that it’s clearly exacerbating said deficiencies, proving the foundational link… And, okay, yes, any sitcom in its seventh year is going to disappoint, so the series’ basic consistency keeps it healthier than most. And while this might seem unfair - a pre-Seven problem that it’s nobly trying to underplay - the only reason Barney Miller has grown so starved of good stories is because its fear of putting the leads in direct conflict created an idea-driven procedural machine that just consumes. That is, it’s not as if there’s brilliant drama here heck, many of the year’s narratives are lame retreads from earlier, better seasons. This reinforces my macro analysis of Barney Miller‘s shortcomings relative to its contemporaries, for with a legacy built on believability, the season that projects it best - the most perfect on this metric - proves to not only be less funny (next to One as the least), but actively dismissive of humor, without a worthwhile trade. Yet this focus also minimizes results - namely, laughs, which I specify because, actually, Seven manages to preserve some drama, with a serious and occasionally dour sensibility (sometimes didactic) that can be effective, but squashes comedy, rendering levity even less of a presence than ever before. Indeed, Seven is the most naturalistic year of the entire run. It’s evidenced both in the year’s dramatically intelligent continuity, which reaches a climax via the libel arc with Harris’ book, and in producer Tony Sheehan’s (and Frank Dungan & Jeff Stein’s) 180-degree rejection of Reinhold Weege’s truth-stretching style, as they hone their sincere aesthetic that developed during Six by further tamping down on extremes, underplaying everything - even big ideas are muted - so that the leads, and the show, can grow more true-to-life. Season Seven is the apex of Barney Miller‘s realism.
#Barney miller full#
Welcome to a new Sitcom Tuesday! This week, we’re continuing our coverage on the best of Barney Miller (1975-1982, ABC), which is currently available in full on DVD.īarney Miller stars HAL LINDEN as Barney, MAX GAIL as Wojo, RON GLASS as Harris, RON CAREY as Levitt, and STEVE LANDESBERG as Dietrich.
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