Episode 25: Eviction + Wojo's Problem

Welcome to the Life and Times of Captain Barney Miller podcast. I'm your host. Mike White joined me, of course, is the plain clothes men with the most men, maybe, Chris Dashue, I have a terrible and horrible announcement to make. They're putting me on leave. Bump bump bum.

We're finally here, Mike. Stakes have been raised with Barney Miller and with Wojo, but we'll get to that. We are talking about a two parter Eviction. The first part ran February second, nineteen seventy eight, the second part February ninth, nineteen seventy eight. Took a week off, and then we came back with Woe Joe's Problem, directed by the one and only Max Gale, written by our friend Tony Sheehan, that came out February twenty third, nineteen seventy eight.

These first two are non pick episodes, and you got your ryinhold Weegee, Tom Reader and Tony sheen working on these as well. So Chris, I guess we should probably talk about Eviction one and two almost together because they pretty much just run right from one to the other, though there's a period of time in between, and I wasn't sure how long that period lasts for Yeah, me, either indeterminate amount of time. Again, this is one of these things that's an expectation of ours now versus the way TV was written. Then obviously you have the problem here, which is they don't know, I guess enough to care or think that we care enough to ask, so they're just like whatever, it was a little bit of time. This isn't the first two part or there's like the second or third one we've seen, because there was the Goodbye Mister Fish one, which was awful if memory serves, Goodbye Mister Fish was not good.

It was a sour note for Fish to go out on. And the other one that was the one where they were spending the night in the precinct because of the plague. I can't remember quarantine. I think for me, this is probably the best. Yeah, the other one was strike.

Just for the record, Yeah, we went from a two parter end of season three to a two parter beginning of season four, and then we've got this eviction not in the middle, kind of more towards the end. We're entering the last third of the fourth season. Let's say we're barreling towards the end of the show's fourth season. It's interesting, like with this two parter, it kind of builds some momentum on some things that again I did wasn't so that I wasn't expecting the show to finally suspend Barney. But I guess a man of his honor, right, I mean, he's a man of his word, So he gets suspended for being a man of his word.

That's the way I look at it. I mean, again, I don't know how else you would look at the situation you're presented with in this episode of not wanting to evict people who cannot live somewhere else. But Barney just this is his eyes. They would say, this is his hill to die on. So the story is, there are some people hold up in a hotel where they've been living their regular residence there, and there's a little businessman, you're a crack guy.

I mostly know him as Reuben Kincaide from the Partridge Family, but that's Dave Madden as Clayton Walsh, and he wants these people out of there. And man, when Dave Madden gets going, he's got that kind of squeak in his voice, so annoying. To listen to him when he gets really upset, but he plays the character very well. He wants them out of there. Barney, of course we've talked about this before.

He wants to settle everything with a fucking conversation. Nope, very tg of Barney, very very He really wants to work through this, and nope. Clayton Walsh is not having that and eventually goes above or around Barney to Manhattan South and they're the ones that go in there and start busting up the joint trying to get these people out, and it ends up there is like an armed standoff between the people at the hotel and the police force. So imagine that I did go through the archives trying to find a similar situation that happened in New York, because this feels very much like it was ripped from the headlines. The entire conflict comes from Barney's interior conflict, which is nice.

I mean, again, it's an interesting way of telling this story because again, Barney normally, I would say almost always, probably to a fault at some point with this show's ability to create character growth, because I'm not sure there has been frankly a lot. I think the character with the least amount of growth in this show is the character whose name this show is named after. When you agree, it's kind of shocking in a way. Barney is at times the least important character and the most important character in his own show, but he has like no character growth whatsoever. He's essentially been somewhat the same character unfalteringly good since you know real one that we saw of this show.

It's kind of it's not disappointing in a way, but when you think about it, we know how Lyndon's a really good actor because we get to see it in every episode that he's in, but he is kind of one No, I think it's good though. He's the straight man, and he has to be that straight man throughout so much over that constantly, constantly it works. This is the first time on this show where that has become a problem, like a genuine problem for his character because now suspended and it's like, I can't believe it took them to season four to get here. I'm kind of I'm kind of surprised in a way, but I like it. I appreciate it because again, now do I miss maybe what we could have gotten out of a Vagoda with that interaction.

Sure, but at the same time, we've got Landisburg, who's who gets the B plot. The entire B plot is his, which is also kind of a testament to where the show is going and a little bit of a changing of the times, given that this is season four of the show, and the season four started with part two of or part one of a part two part A right the goodbye mister Fish. It's kind of a it's it's a little bit kind of a changing of the of the guard a little bit with the show, because they gave Landisburg just his own two part B plot, which is fantastic. He's got the scale, who's got amnesia, And of course he is so astute that he is able to diagnose her with amnesia, takes her down to Belleville, they agree with his assessment, releases her back into his care, and then he basically is kind of dating this amnesiac And yeah, is this creepy.

It's the first time I saw Dietrich as kind of a predator A little bit. There was a little print, a little little predatory at print actually allowed predatory to be perfectly honest. Who one the way that he is peppering his dialogue with you know how, Barney's like, well, she could be faking it, and he gives us very scientific explanation. Then he goes plus so size won't lie. He's like something something something her great big old gams, and it's like, what the fuck that?

I was not a fan of the implications already there without it. You don't have to like lean into it. We should lift the cat out of the bag. In the second part, they eventually figure out who she is and more importantly, what she is, which is a nun, and it sounds like they had been fun king though she almost like once she remembers who she is, it's almost like she forgot who she wasn't you know what I mean? And there's that line about how can I thank you or whatever, and it's like, well, I think you already did.

And basically, yeah, it sounds like they had been having sex, deflowering the nuns. D trick, you dirty, dirty dog. And when I lose, I lose big. Yeah. I love Steve Landisburg in this show.

He has absolutely made this show a lot more fun by having him around. But yeah, this this two parter, he was a little much. It was at times unsavory to say the least. Would you get that weird thing too where he wants Bernie to call him Arthur and does not. Yeah, yeah, he goes gotcha that that gotcha?

Shit was great? Hey that I would say that reminds me of Spider Man No Way Home. They do that exact same gag. That's stupid fucking gag. That's such like a cheesy gag.

I actually think it works really well here, though it normally doesn't get a laugh out of me because they always play that like call me this is no, call me this, and then somebody like immediately doesn't get It's like ha ha, I don't know. Landisburg's delivery is just he's so funny. It's unfair how funny he is because a lot of the other people, and like a lot of the other people in the show this season have been really given a backseat to Landisburg, like I'm not gonna lie to him, like Jack Sue this season has done like nothing. Yeah, though he's pretty funny in this too as far as the whole The only real clue for me as far as how much time passes between this is when I think it's Dietrich is talking to him about William Henry Harrison and that Harrison.

It might have been Harris might have said this, I can't remember who it was, but talking about how William Henry Harrison died before he even had thirty days in office, so at least Anna made it that far without dying before this new piece of shit lieutenant comes in and tries to take over things. This guy, he's got problems. He Wow Vogel Lieutenant Vogel is his name. And John Cleaven great character actor. What a just what a real piece of shit?

Yeah, like like the massive but yeah but awful at the same time. Yeah, oh yeah, no he's again again that That's that's the thing with this show. It feels like whenever they show the other cops, like the other the other kind of higher up cops, what was the Scanlin is the one that always shows up. They're like they're they're they're like worse than worst, They're worse than you could even imagine because they're dickheads to other cops. Like you assume that the cops are gonna be dickheads to you, General John Q.

Public, but like you don't assume that they're fucking dickheads to each other, and every single cop that's not from the twelfth Precinct in this show is just like the biggest piece of shit. They're just they're horrible, every single one of them. Well, yeah, especially the guy from South that comes in here, Bruce Kirby, Bruno's father. Actually, you're going to be seeing a lot of him in Colombo, where he is one of the very few reoccurring, reoccurring Ish type characters. He plays this guy Sergeant George Kramer a few times, but then Sergeant Brindle TV repairmans, so he plays a few things in here.

But yeah, he shows up from Manhattan South, and it's just like, Okay, who's the bigger dick? Is it him or is it Vogel. They're both pretty terrible, and they both make Luger seem just so nice, and Luger seems genuinely upset when he has to deliver the news to Barney that he's being relieved duty and take his gun and badge. It's again one of those moments in the show where he's playing against the way they care, like I never would have us imagined that's where his character would end up. But yet here we are and it's like, like you said, Lucas like heartbroken, I'm yeah, I mean Baddy, It's like, oh my god, what this man is trying not to cry.

I don't know where that came from. That was too much. I hear his voice in my head. That's how good that fucking fake voice that James Gregory does for Lugar. Because we know that's not what he sounds like, but his voice, that his just his delivery every time he's on screen is just so good.

I know we joked about it with the Lugar alert and everything, but he's just so good in this show. I never expected the chemistry between him and Levitt now. I know that they have spoken before, and he always calls Levitt by the wrong name, including this one, I think because I'm like green back or something. Usually calls yeah. But they are both cut from the same cloth as far as so, Lugar is supposed to be going on vacation, has no idea what to do, and when he talks with Levitt, Levitt is very much the same.

Like I don't know, it's like both of these guys would never take vacation. Hold on as I you didn't go as far. It's not that he's taking a vacation. He's being forced to take a vacation because he has like, what did he say, twelve weeks of vacation or something. He is that person that people have heard of at their jobs that just doesn't go on vacation.

He is that person. Twelve weeks of vacation is a fucking ridiculous amount of vacation. Oh yeah, I'm counting out every hour or every minute practically, like I could. I could take half a day here, and then I could take an hour off for this, and every year it's the struggle waiting for your time off to refill Levitt. Just I'm still waiting for that moment where I kind of like Levitt And seeing him playing back and forth with Luger was kind of an interesting moment because I was like, maybe there is more to this character.

I hope there is. I mean again, Richard had him expert on all things, including Barney Miller, has said we will like him, and so did Otto. To be fair, Otto, author of the pre eminent Barney Miller expert I guess live it's all about like how professional he is and how great he is as a cop, and when he volunteers in the second part to be the translator for Barney and has no idea how to speak Spanish. I thought that was pretty good. Instead of saying to go to his house, he's calling in his homos.

He's pretty funny in this episode. I like him in this episode. Again, he's not his character's not for everybody, and he's growing on me very slowly, not like Landisburg. I mean that the humor stylings of Steve Landisburg. I think we're much an easier entry point than Ron Carey's kind of I don't know, is he kind of a prototypical George Costanza in a lot of ways, Like there's kind of that, like like the neuroticism there and like the whole like constantly like self image obsessed thing, you know.

Like, Yeah, it was in the what the fuck does Costanza say about his dick shriveling that I could see Levitt saying that because he's already had that kind of this show's equivalent where they were talking about him being like a fucking pip squeak and stuff. So I like where his character may be going. But yeah, seeing him and Luger together I think was pretty funny. The one thing I really liked kind of an in joke in the episode the first part was when Luger's trying to figure out something to do and he stops Himana and he asked him if Flowered arm Song is still playing, which is a role that Jack Sue was actually in the movie of That was nice. Jack Sue not looking great.

No, no, as it it's not getting better unfortunately. I mean again, like with real world kind of knowledge in history, knowing that he I think we're within a year of him passing away at this point. I remember distinctly. I don't remember which episode of our show, but I think it was like season two. Maybe you mentioned like he looked kind of sickly, and I think he was going through something then, but now it's just like he's he's really I mean again, I mentioned Kenny Jackson hasn't been around this season.

That's probably due to his declining health, unfortunately, and he's really barely in next episode, I mean, and we're kind of we're kind of closing in on that point. But it's it's unfortunate because he was such a big part of this show, especially in those first three seasons, first two seasons. Really it's nice to see him still like kind of around, but it's just it's unfortunate because it's not like a Vagoda where we know he's off making whatever you want to call fish the show we can't find that's what we should call it. Interesting thing for me in the second part of this two parter is that we actually get to leave the station. You know, this is so rare that we leave the one too.

And here we are at that hotel and we've got Rosanna de Soto, who I think is fantastic in this role as Elena Elexando. She and Philippe Turk as Jorge Rodriguez. Those two are the representatives of the tenants. Though Joge doesn't speak English, she speaks both. And of course we get that thing that Danny Arnold like where she starts to get angry and starts speaking Spanish really fast.

But I'd like her character and I'd like also that she's a prostitute. And it took me a little while to realize that they had said that. And then when Woejoe of course denigrates her, you know, oh yeah, that hooker, and Party's like, ah, who Joe, how it's man like, chill your ass out, man with every time I think that he's growing as a character, he opens his mouth and says hooker, horror prostitute, and it's just like, dude, what I get where the line is for the joke. But it's just I wasn't good then and it's not funny now, that's for sure. I really appreciated what she was bringing to it.

I didn't realize just how many things that she had been in and still is. Like it seems like she's still working, which is fantastic. There's not a lot of people from the show that are still out there working, which is a shame. But she seems to be killing it, and she had been in things all along. And she actually played a courtesign in the episode The Courtesigns, and then she'll be back again, probably also playing a sex worker in an episode called Strip Joint.

That's my guests. Anyway, you mentioned people from the show that are still working. I do want to point out we're recording this sometime in twenty twenty two. Hallan didn't Max Scale are still working actors. How Linden is in his mid eighties, Max Scale is in his late seventies.

We don't talk about that enough because again, we're we'd love to speak to them, but it's I think it's still great that they are they are still working actors, because, like you said, there are a lot of character actors still working from this show. Obviously, given the age of the show, most of I think most of the most everybody's passed away out of the main cast. It is really just how Linden and Max scale, right. It is kind of nice to see them still working way to bring the show down. Chris, who's going to be in Grandpa daycare otherwise, ry to bring the show right back to where it belongs.

But yeah, it's nice that they send out Barney to negotiate with the folks from the hotel, and yeah, and things don't go as well as I could, but eventually there is a settlement. And I keep calling I'm rubing Kincaid in my head. But the Clayton Walsh eventually figures out that there's another building that they could move all the folks from the hotel together into another building. It'll be torn down in a year, but with all the red tape and all those things, it'll probably take quite a few years before they're able to shut that down. So basically, they're gonna squat in this other place, move the problem on down the road.

That's what we'd like to do, not in my backyard. Baby. It's okay, Jack is Nimby whatever. Again that the show wrote itself into kind of a corner, so I was kind of trying to figure out how the episode was going to fix itself there at the end, and it didn't really it just said oh there, Like you said, it's it's kind of lazy. I think we both agree, But it's also seventies television, so there's not a whole lot more that they can do in this I mean, they want the best way that they could.

I guess we'll just move him, like all right, we again, like you said, at least we saw the buildings, so we know it exists. But this episode served as kind of giving you that cliffhanger moment of Barney getting suspended, and that was that's kind of what this episode's kind of big hinge moment was. And then past that, it's like, well, you know whatever, we got the big moment of Barney getting suspended. It's kind of what it feels like really, I mean, it's not a bad episode, but it's kind of it kind of does exist to kind of encapsulate this weird thing where Barney gets suspended for an episode. I guess, well, yeah, and it's not like he's even away.

It's not like this. The second part has no how lended, because he's back within fifteen minutes. The show's two parts are not great, but this is the better of the ones I think so far. I think you're right. Yeah, I think maybe Strike might have been up there, just because that was another one where people are in crisis.

The actual guys from the one too are in crisis. But finitely this was better than say, Quarantine, and definitely better than Goodbye Mister Fish. Yeah, well, Goodbye Mister Fish's premise was so fuck to begin with. It was so worthless to begin with. Where's Fish?

This is not the way this show needs to be handling this character. You know what, though, Mike, you know what, we should be talking about male impotence on this episode of Barney Miller. Brought to you by blue Chew bluechow dot com. If you don't want to swallow viagra, chew it, and brought to you by Roman and Hymns. What a fucking left field thing.

Huh so strange? Yess woe Joe's problem he couldn't get it up? Is literally what you think it is. If you told someone an episode is this character's name and a problem, You'll probably be like, is it they can't keep it up? Was it Wentworth that he was with or somebody else?

Has he moved down from Wentworth? I don't know, because there's that whole thing where Barney's try to take a message and the woman is very persistent. But I couldn't tell you. I my head, Cannon, I would like to believe it's Wentworth. I didn't mention the guy from the last episode was a pretty big reoccurring character on Alice Wentworth Show, Dave Dave Madden I think was his name.

Yeah, so he he was a recurring character there on Speaking of Wentworth, I don't know. Was it supposed to be Wentworth? Is that was They never say Barney I think would recognize her voice, right, Yeah, it seems like he would say something, Hey, Wentworth? Funny? Yeah, what a weird episode?

What like? What a This is one of the stranger episodes of this show, for sure. We've talked in the past about the ab and C plot. This one definitely has the AB and C going on, because our A is Woe Joe's problem, his impotence, We've got. I guess our B might be Stanley Brock As back as Bruno Bender, he was the one who was trying to hire or give money and basically start vigilantism in New York because the cops aren't doing their job.

And here he is. He got robbed ladies and gentlemen, and he's like, you know, if I had those posters up, this would probably be all taken care of. But and he's trying to be nice. He's trying to be nice to the police, but he just kind of keeps throwing in little like you guys are so incompetent type of lines. And our sea plot is, interestingly enough, the replacement for Chano has finally shot shown up.

I hope this character and gentlemen, yeah, I hope this character does not stick around. Officer rosalind Licori, who looks like Liquory if you look it up and it looks like, yeah, it's literally Liquorice sands two letters and her crazy possessive husband and boy, oh boy, does that where thin very qui I don't know what wears the more woe Joe's lack of keeping it hard or possessive husband, Like, what where are the cat calls in this episode? That's what I was waiting for. We have all the stereotypical male bullshit, literally impotence and being a jealous husband. Well, like, let's fantasy.

What would have been the third thing? If you want to go for the trifect in the seventies, what's the third thing? Domestic violence? I don't know, losing your job to someone who doesn't look like you. Oh there go, Yeah, we'll go to Archie bunker round.

Who Joe's mad that someone who doesn't look like him as his job or some bullshit, you know, something to that effect. This is really a dumb This is kind of an insulting episode. Frankly, I don't I don't know. I was to say it. I'm sorry.

I was hoping that it would be kind of one of these very special episodes with actually talking about you by impotence back in nineteen seventy seven. But yeah, I'm sorry. Nineteen seventy year, I looked up our officer Lacoory. She's back twice more as officer Lacori, and then she comes back as a character named Naomi Bender, including the third part of Landmark, which I think is the last episode. She was also in the episode Bugs that we've talked about before where they find all of the listening devices in the office, remember that one that was That was a halfway decent episode.

It's pretty good. So she'll be back twice more, hopefully her husband won't. In the episodes Hostage and Evaluation. I want to know who in the writer's room thought that this was funny, because it's not even funny. It's just kind of a jealous husband.

Like we've seen this well, actually, you know what the biggest problem is, we've seen there's like five times now at this point. You know, we've seen jealous wives, We've seen jealous husbands, you've seen jealous gay lovers in this show. Why keep doing it? It reminds me of kind of like the late problems with Tales from the Crip or it was just like we're just gonna do love trying goals for half the season. It's like why, But because I guess it's easy, and you have a bunch of character actors that are just like you look kind of like a you could play a jealous husband, right, yeah, okay, easy enough, you get my daily sag pay, and we'll just move on to whatever fucking show they're shooting on the back lot, because I'm sure it's just bounce from here to Cotard to something else to something else to something else, and you do the circuit.

Because this is what the fifth or sixth time we've seen Stanley Brock on this show, as the third time that he's played the same character, and he's going to be back like two or three more times. At least his character's okay, His plot's okay. It's not much of a plot, not too much. Yeah, that whole like finger gun thing that he's doing actually seems kind of threatening to me, Like he's just like, Hey, if I had a gun, I could take care of this problem kind of thing. I'm like, all right, thanks, well, okay, so hold on a second.

So he's getting robbed. Wasn't there an episode a couple episodes ago where that guy was like a fucking like vigilante detective guy. Why don't they just be like, hey, go talk to him and he'll protect your store. Pay him the vig they're going through the effort to have some of these people come back as the same characters. So in my mind, there's someone in the writer's room who is keeping track, So why not just have that character actor come back, because more than likely he is.

Anyways, that actor probably comes back again. I guarantee it. If we went back and looked, No, he definitely does. He was in Goodbye Mister Fish pert one one, he was another he was the guy that owned the comedy club where's there's the unfunny comic I think? And then yeah, Bruno Bender.

The character comes back several more times, including Landmark per three, so all the way at the end we will get Bruno Bender. It's kind of like a Greatest Hits. It sounds like, you know, Stanley Brock's a great character actor, so it's always welcome. He's always a welcome presence, even if he's being given nothing to do, literally just sit in a chair the entire episode, even if he is just there, you know, at the counter, serving Steven Seagal and hard to kill. You know, it works for me, right, Yeah, that's yeah, Yeah, it all comes back to Seagal in the end.

One of the reasons why he's calling the police incompetent is because of a criminal that they capture, Henry Slate as Lewis Frankel, who is in a wheelchair and he manages to keep getting away from Is it from Yamana? Yeah? From Yamana. It's actually kind of funny, especially the very last bit when you actually see him trying to scoot on down the hallway and somebody's like, should we tell him that there's you know, just stairs down there, right? He ain't going very far fu, But it's okay, you'll find out soon enough.

The problem with this episode is that's saying, I guess I would be the c plot that splot is the only funny thing here and in it being the only funny thing it's given. I think if you talk about these kinds of episodes A, B and C, the Sea plots given what maybe five minutes in total, six six minutes, maybe those six minutes are funnier than the twenty two minutes or sixteen minutes of everything else. Like the Wojoe being in potent is just I genuinely don't understand who fucking cares about Wojoe not being able to keep a stiffy like well, it doesn't really have a beginning, middle, and end to it either. So I don't know if this is going to keep coming back. I hope not.

Potens Like what that's how the episode essentially ends a fucking freeze frame of them being like your dickcake get hard? Oh like yeah, like what the what the fuck naked gun? Like all of a sudden, the show just goes right over, just jumps the shark completely. Yeah, that's that's my point, Like it's literally a freeze for a moment about how Wojo cannot keep it hard? Like wow, did other shows ever tackle male impotence in a serious form, because again, this show is this is the same season of rape.

Yeah, I'm sure that there were other serious that did this, but I'm just not sure and when that would have been. But I thought it was kind of Guy's special welcome back cotter. I thought it was kind of gutsy, and I also thought it was interesting that it's Max Gale directing this, so you could have given himself a bigger part. It feels like he is being pursued by women and he can't keep it up. It's there is like it's still like how bad do we really feel for you?

You're still setting it up as like oh, I gotta keep women away with a stick, and it's like okay, so what then again, you know, it's like it's not like he's just as like William Sanderson Nebbish guy, I just can't keep it up, like it's your Max fucking Gail, right. You say as much in the episode like I am having a beat women away with a stick, Like I just can't keep the stick up. Like you still got the stick, bro? Yeah, it's a Again, it's like I don't feel bad for you. I just I don't know the idea for the episodes just a little for this show.

It's a little weird. I think, is this something that other men are telling each other, like, hey, I can't keep it up? But me either, Like it feels like something that's deeply personal and might for obviously for a lot of men, be deeply embarrassing and like, but that's the thing, Chris, we have to normalize this. Well, I agree, I agree, Open and start to talk about it, makes it comes about it, you know, it's just the whole show. It's just it's just that what's that was that movie called Me and My Dick or whatever Griffin done Griffin done.

Yeah, just that is a TV show. It wasn't that just the basis that show hung or or that show with Tom Jane with this like thirteen inch dick, like with things like Roman and Hymns and blue Chew, Like, I think it has normalized it away because like you don't have to go to the doctor and be like that doctor. I have to talk about something like I can't keep Bob Dole led the way man got on TV. I'm just doing that Vigor com get these things delivered to your house now. The podcasters sell this, some podcasts that I listen to sell it, so like it's actually kind of funny that we as podcasters are talking about an episode of a show about male impotence when a large portion of things that are sold through podcasting are sexual devices, including sexual contraception.

I gather these contraceptives, I don't know, sexual aid devices like irectile dysfunction. I mean that's a male impotence. What the fuck is the term that people would prefer, erectile dysfunction? Yeah, Ed Baby Ed, that's me. That's me.

It's Ed Baby D two on nine. Can't kill RoboCup because I can't shoot bullets. I'm only shoot Blakes. I gotta say. Looking ahead, it's the timing of these next few episodes.

We've got five left for this season. I mentioned this episode was February twenty third. The next one I would think would be February thirtieth, But oddly enough it's March second. Just kidding, but you go March second, March twenty thirds, so we're missing a couple weeks in there, just a week. And then he jumped to May fourth, May eleventh, and May eighteenth, so they just took off April with this one.

I guess that's what you did. I thought that you were pretty regular on these weekly series back in the seventies. I don't know. All I know is the next episode has a great title, quois where are you going? Or is that where are you going?

Where are you going? I think it is, yeah, because isn't that what Jesus says to Paul or Peter when he's leaving leaving to not be executed. He's like, where are you? Like? Why are you leaving?

Don't do that? Sorry. That's about as much Bible as I know that begins and ends there. I think he would have said it an aramaic but that's okay. Well, in Latin, Joe was the penitent man Nils before God.

But he doesn't roll. That's not part of it. Why is he rolling? I never understood that part. He said the penitent man.

Jill pass that the penitent guy who then rolls forward. That's right. Oh my god, jeez, we're way off. We're flying off into into the other realm, into a Barney Miller multiverse of man, oh god, oh lord. Now that's all in the families the multiverse I think Jesus is yeah, right, that's the one where it like even the what the Caretaker had a fucking spin off show?

Or is that the Jeffersons? What was the one where it's like the maid had their own show? That was so that was Maud is Edith's cousin, and Maude's maid was Florida, who then was the star of good times. That even the maid had her own show, boy, and they say that the MCU did it first. That I mean that to me is like, which wild that Barney Miller's success was contained to fish.

You could have just been like, oh, we're just gonna go off with somebody else and somebody else, Like why was there not a Wentwords show really. They gave her her own show anyways, And well, Cagney and Lazy, it would it be like we're within striking distance of Cagney and Lazy, right, Yeah, I think that was early ish eighties. I'm not sure when that started. I mean, it would almost be like a follow up to Barney. I think denstly popular, massively popular show.

Was it as popular as we remember? Well, I don't know. I don't know either. I mean it's still popular now. Yeah, yeah, well it was pretty groundbreaking.

Well I assume things that were well, never mind, that's a dumb assumption to make Blade Run was not cool when it came out, but people won't stop talking about it now, so there are plenty of things I guess. I guess. Yeah, I would like to believe Cagney and Lacy was a bigger deal than maybe it was. But yeah, it's pretty important. I think this show.

Is this show important? It feels like it. You know, there's that story Otto told us all those months ago about Dennis Farina talking about how this show captured the police experience better than any other show, just because it shows the waiting and doesn't have the emphasis on the gunplay and all that kind of stuff that is just more I mean this episode actually both we'll just problem and I think the first part of Eviction both have Barney passing off reports that people have to do. You know, Harris sitting there smoking at his desk, feed up on the desk, and then Barney coming in and just like, oh yeah, you look pretty relaxed, and then asking him if he can do these manpower reports, and Harris like, oh yeah, I'll fit it in.

And I think, to your point, I think that's the thing about Barney Miller that is better than most of the cops shows I've ever seen. I'm not saying I'm a cop show expert, but the ones that I have seen. I have friends that are firefighters, and I have friends that are both paid firefighters and volunteer firefighters, and this is what they do. Like firefighting and policemen are very similar in that firemen don't necessarily roam the streets looking for people like the cops do. But I'm not sure they would be doing that in New York in the seventies anyways, and I don't think detectives would, right.

So it is just a lot of sitting and waiting. So if someone were to ask me what Barney Miller's about, I would say it's about cops, but it's ultimately about what do cops do when they're not on the streets. Because again, like you mentioned, and I think this is as good of a time to bring it up as any this is one of the few, very few times we're not just bound inside of the precinct. It's like probably one of three or four times, and I don't know how many more times, but we saw Barney his house one two times maybe I can't even I can't remember past the one time, you know, the one time where it was like his daughter was there because he has a fucking daughter too that we yeah, who is engaged to the associate district attorney.

So right, I think that would come into play or something. I don't know, but like I think they realize, like, hey, the show is in the precinct. The show is not even really about Barney Miller anymore. Like the show could be called anything else and you would be like, it is an ensemble show because while Barney is the captain, like I kind of mentioned a little while ago, like for me, this is more the ensemble and Barney's just kind of always does the same thing. So, Chris, when you are not talking about Barney Miller, what are you up to?

Over at the Culture Cast, my main show, we're talking movies, one movie a week, every week of the year, unless something comes up, which sometimes things do come up, folks, that's reality for you talking about Rutger Howard movies in August, which is not Blade Runners, so don't But we are going to talk about The Hitcher though, so if you're into that, which I don't think I've seen the original, I've seen the remake. Sean Bean is good in most things. Most miss the key most sometimes even Sean Bean can't write upside down eighteen Wheeler. But that's where you can find me, and as always C Statue dot com, cstacchiw dot com. That's my link tree for things that I work on, not just by myself but with Mike because we do another show about some more cops in the seventies, one singular cop as opposed to a whole group of them.

I guess yeah, all about the Columbo over at Shabby Detective dot com. And for me, I am it's kind of a grab bag this month over at the Projection Booth. There are a few films that were requested, Wise Blood, the Canno Ball, Run, Gumball Rally, The Conformist, and then also talking about Kenji Fukasaku's Black Lizard and that ball of laughter that we call the night Porter. So all of that is available over at Projection Booth, podcast dot com. And I don't have a cool link tree, But Chris, why don't you plug your link tree?

Man? Didn't? I I thought you did not, but maybe you did. Statue dot com, c STAC dot com. I don't know.

Go to The Shabby Detective. If you like this show, go listen to The Shabby Detective. How's that? Just a singular suggestion. If you like Barney Miller, you would more than likely like Colombo.

How's that? And I hope nobody at homes is saying, who's Colombo? What? What is this? What are you talking about?