Episode 40: Guns + Uniform Days + Dietrich's Arrest

Weird. We welcome to the Life and Times of Captain Barney Miller podcast. I'm your host, Mike White showing me, of course, is the rookie mister Christashue. How do you guys feel about nuclear energy? I don't know.

It makes me uncomfortable. And also, transferring over from the ninth precinct is mister Richard had AT's rye bonn. You guys are gonna have old Captain Luga to push around for a little while long. I don't know. That wasn't a very good luger.

I tried. We are talking about four episodes of the original Barniey Miller Show from season six, episode sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, and nineteen. We're talking about guns, guns, guns, guns. We're talking about uniform Days, Dietrich's Arrests Part one, and Dietrich's Arrest Part two. Oh, we are we're missing some dates here man guns air January thirty first, nineteen eighty eight.

Yeah. Then we move over to February seventh, nineteen eighty h Okay, that's good. Oh, and then we jump a week to Dietrich's arrest for February twenty eighth, nineteen eighty and then Dietrich's arrest part two the next week March twenty eighth, but yeah, we're missing the fourteenth. Then feels like, yeah, I guess that's it. Just one week was missing there.

But yeah, since Dietrich's arrest is a two part, we figured we talk about that both together rather than breaking that up into our next episode. So guns we are. We're not talking about gun control at all, even though maybe we should be. Is that the brave statement to make? Or I'm not sure?

Chris? What did you think about guns? How you? First? Off?

Mike helped brave? I know, right, we're so imagine there's Novus, it's easy if you try. Oh Gil Goodo, you know she was never high in my book, but man, she's like rock bottom after that stunt. Yeah she U boys, just imagine heaven without those people, because I don't like to imagine. I don't even remember who else did that, but just Gail Gooda's face in my face during the pandemic.

I just wanted to Yeah, well, uh, if we're going to talk about guns, were going to let's talk about guns. Let's talk about guns. And this episode I think it's interesting because yeah, this was not on a very special episode of Barney Miller. This was on a very fucked up episode of Barney Miller. It's an interesting episode.

I think it has one of the best visual gags in the entire run of the show so far, which is wo Jehovah pointing a psuchin Barney going a barnow about that race, which is that should be in the opening credits. It should And that's what I was gonna say, like that, with this kung fu bullshit we saw for like the first four seasons, that is, without a doubt, one of the funniest visual gags. And the fact that I don't know if Bart how Linda was expecting it, but it seems like they also got a genuine reaction out of it. I'm the best I can tell. I think this is a fun episode.

It is a strange episode theme wise, but I like where it ends up going. It kind of subverted my expectations, especially with the title alone. Richard, what was your thoughts on guns? Yeah? I liked it too.

I you know, you can't. I'm not surprised they didn't do a straightforward gun control episode. It's a cop show, it was, I mean, they've never seen them shoot anyone that they've been but like people have been shot, they're they're you know, people have held a gun on other people in the show. So it's like they're there, there's guns in the show. So for them to suddenly do a show about, oh, you know, gun laws or something, it's sort of like you could, but this was more.

This touched on it in an interesting way, and it and it it's not like the you know, the character, uh, who's whose name I forget, but the guy who's almost like a vigilante, oh like Stanley Brock. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that that guy where he's constantly talking about, you know, we gotta you know, we got to keep ourselves safe and he sort of butts heads with Barney. Anyway, what's happening here is a guy, a young David Paymer, who is awesome. Oh yeah. I didn't even recognize him at first.

It's like I knew I knew him, but I'm like, wait a second, that can't be And then I looked it up and I was like, damn it, it's David Paymer, who's clearly been working steadily for forty five years, all right. So he comes in and the gag is that he was holding up a store but using a very old old gun, like an antique dueling pistol. Now, part of what this episode is about is that Luger has sort of been I don't know, I didn't see the previous episode. Has has he been busted down to captain or something like what happened to him? Or has busted down to captain?

Busted down to captain? Showed it a good enough job, letting you know without having to spend half the episode on it exactly. Yeah, yeah, I never a vague recollection of it. And none of the guys want to work with him because he's just too annoying to be around, so they're they're sort of cycling him or right, you know, first you work with Wojo today, Dietrich tomorrow, Harris the day after. Oh, you're just pushing just you know, like the old uncle who no one wants to be.

Just keep putting me with different people in different places. I understand, barn, I understand. But anyway, he disarms the guy in a really what sounds like kind of a badass way. Wojo later tells us it wasn't so much badass as it was quasi suicidal. I'm worried about Luger just interesting less.

Yeah, yeah, I love when he I love when wo just like I'm worried about and he like does the thing where he sticks two fingers in his mouth that he's going to blow his brains out and he makes a you know sound. Wojo's great, by the way, he's everyone's performance in this handful of episodes is pretty pretty spot on. I mean, these people have been doing these roles for six years now, six seasons. They're very comfortable anyway. So you've got is Luger.

Okay, that's sort of your B story, And I guess the A story is there's a guy who comes in who turns out to be the owner of that gun, and it is revealed that he owns tons of weapons. This is just his hobby, apparently legal and illegal, yes, exactly, and some of them is like a bazooka, a submachine gus who knows somebody grenades this guy had right the rocket launcher. Well, it turns out he was robbed but didn't report any of it because some of these were illegal. And now they're all on the streets and people are suddenly using them like very like it's all happening today. Everyone's using this weird array of guns to commit crimes and this guy's just really into it.

And what's cool about it is he does sort of express the Second Amendment person's personality, which is, I just fetish these things, and I fetish them because they have something to do with America. America is about guns. America is about weapons throughout its history, and I'm obsessed with it, and so I want them. And now you don't get the feeling. This is a guy who you know, goes out and shoots a lot of guns.

He just likes have them. There's just some weird quasi sexual thrill he gets out of owning a you know, a you know, a sort of shoulder resting rocket launcher thing. These giant phallic things that Wojo walks around with. He seems to like it too. When he aims at at Barney, he seems to be having a great time.

Well, we keep talking around this. The guy who owns all these guns is none other than Jack Dodson, who is one of my favorite character actors. I just I loved him as Howard on The Andy Griffith Show. But his apparently he only did this role three times. So that he made quite an impression.

He was Ralph Melf's dad on Happy Days speaking of happy Days from our ranking a bass chat recently. Oh wow, I got that. Yeah, Like he's one of those guys that if you're our age, maybe a little younger, you're like, oh yeah, that guy her and Howard in Andy Griffith was just terrific. I loved him. Yeah, yeah, he's great.

And he's a classic Barney Miller type of person to wander through the Twelfth Precinct, and that he's so he's soft spoken. So when he's talking about these guns and things, you're just like, this guy, this guy's the gun nut. You would think, like the Stanley Brock type character is like really into guns, but this guy, he's just so quiet and peaceful. And I guess we're forgetting the other story, which is the I guess it's really the c story, which is the guy whose TV was stolen. I think this is Madison Arnold as Joseph Osbourne.

His TV was stolen and he goes and breaks into the impound, and I thought that's where all the guns were coming from, was from this break in at the impound. But no, it's just this guy breaking in and stealing back what he thinks is his own television, only to find out that it wasn't his own television. And so then Dietrich brings in his own television and says, oh, yes, sorry, now we have to keep this as evidence as to your break in, so you can't get your TV back. Yeah, it's pretty great. I thought that too.

I thought somehow it was like, oh, the evidence Locker has been rated and all these guns have disappeared. But that's not what it turned out to be. So it's interesting. I will tell you that I'm currently teaching at UCLA, and you guys know this. I do this about once a year.

I'll do a class and it's almost always in the fall, and it's just a it's part of their Writer's Program extension. So it's ten Wednesday nights and my class right now. The students are great. I mean, this is like the best class I've ever had. These people are smart, and they're on it and they know stuff, and they actually know some TV history.

But Barney Miller came up in class last week and I was talking about it, and I'm like, how many of you have seen Barney Miller? No hands go up and I'm like, okay, well it was this show. It was the seventy's shabby Police Department. You know, it's just a bunch of middle aged guys talking. And then one guy's like, oh, I've seen that.

I know what you're talking about. Now, I saw it. I watched I watched the pilot. And then he just says boring. Oh and yeah, my soul was pierced.

And then I'm like, I know what you're saying. When you're saying boring, you're saying what we like about the show, which is it's charming and it's not overblown, and it has to do with characters, and you have to you know, with every episode you watch, it makes the next episode funnier because you've lived a little longer with those characters, and you've spent a bit more time with them, and you know them a bit more so by the time six season rolls around, they really are part of your family. Watching these episodes just reminded me of that. It's just like it's like I could show the class this episode, but then i'd have to explain. Okay, look, Harris is a particular way Wojo has a relationship with Barney that is unique.

You know Levitt? How do I explain Levitt? And it occurred to me that even though it's not serialized in any way, really this is a show that rewards repeated viewing in terms of getting to know these characters better. And then you can have a very little episode with Dietrich where he kind of is fucking with this guy about how he can't have his TV back, and it is hilarious because we know Steve Landisburgh, we know Dietrich, we know that he knows he's he's just just digging the knife in deeper for this guy, but he plays it off. Just don't worry about it, Okay, sign here, all right, Yeah, don't worry about it.

We got your TV. Yeah, you'll get it back one day. All right, goodbye, get out. And it's delightful. I appreciate it quite a bit.

In the next episode, Uniform Days, it's got some great Dietrich stuff and there as well, which I wasn't expecting, like this run of four episodes very Dietrich centric. Of course, you know, the next to Dietrich's arrest are based around him. But I wasn't sure where we were going to go with Uniform Days. Just it's this annual thing where they all have to have to dress in their dress blues, I guess. And I love how Levitt reacts to seeing Parnie in his captain's uniform that he's like barking out, like yes, it triggers some sort of full metal jacket kind of You find Levit in the bathroom late at night going for ould gomer Pile.

You were talking about Wojo, and his acting is great in this too, especially when he Levitt kind of squares off against him and Levitt does that like foot lift thing that he does to make himself look taller, and then Wocho makes this great goofy face and does the foot thing back to him, and I was like, all right, this is nice. I like how Max Gail he just yeah, he controls this role. He owns this role so well. And to your point, I think all of these guys are just spot on in this And the real conflict of this episode is that Harris won't wear the uniform. And then I do like that he turns around at the end is talking about how stylish she feels in it.

Well, it's so great because it's not It's not like in the episode where he is mistaken for the criminal right when he's responding to a crime, and it gets very serious and everyone is sort of like, no, we get it. This is more about I'm Detective Harris and I'm kind of being a dick. I'm kinda full of myself. And again, you know, it's not a super serialized show, but you know when they are referring to Bob and I know that means blood on the badge, and I know the blood on the Badge is his book, and I know that that storyline has been going on for a couple of seasons. But again, I'm like, because in the back of my mind, I'm like, I gotta show an episode to my class.

I got to prove to them how great this show is. And I'm watching this and I'm like, well, this is pretty in the weeds though. This is this is the culmination of a lot of of Harris's character traits and what I what personally I got to tell you in this app In the episode Uniform Days, where the one day a year where they've got to prove readiness by wearing their uniforms in case something ever happened, some sort of civil disturbance and all the cops had to put on a uniform. You got to prove you've got it. It's complete, you know it, you know it fits, it works.

You could be a what looks to everyone else as a cop. So when Barney gets angry at him, I gotta admit I'm team Barney, because Barney is basically saying, look, I'm glad you wrote a book and you're making money or your movie deal, blah blah blah, but your job here has to be number one. It's the kind of job that demands that you can't be one foot in, one foot out. This can't be this other thing that you do. If you're going to go be a writer, great, then you've got to go do that, But being a cop isn't a thing you can do halfway.

The last time I saw two characters having this conversation was James Gandolfini and Michael Imperioli mm hm, and the first episode of The Sopranos where they have a very similar conversation. It's like, either you're here or don't fucking be here at all. Don't bother now, And it is hard to side with Harris as a character in this episode. I mean, I get it. I get it because part of me is that has that same like fuck the authority thing, but dude, you're also the authority, so like it's like, you know what you're doing.

You're just trying to prove a point, and I don't. I mean again, I think what this episode does more than anything else is make it very clear that Barney and Harris are never going to be friends, at least not in the way that they were before this happened. And that's reflected in the next two episodes because I think after this episode their relationship has become very strained, primarily because again, neither one of them is going to back down from the things that they said and believe in, nor should they have to. Frankly, which I think is it's not a bad thing. It's just a very interesting decision.

Well, it's funny because I see a lot of those themes playing off in the next two episodes too, with the way that Dietrich is basically not he's breaking the law or the rules by going to this protest. Will get there obviously, but it's funny because it's very much like bucking against the system and how does the system react to you, right, and how does it stifle one's own ability to be one's self within the system. Again, the system doesn't owe you anything. System doesn't owe you any creative expression. It just doesn't.

But when you get it, you feel like you need to fight for it because the amount that you're given is so little that you know, they know, you know, they could take it away more or less. Immediate Paris of say two years ago, maybe three years ago, just would be fighting this because it's crimping a style, right that he doesn't want to wear a uniform because it doesn't make him look good, and he is very proud of the way that he'd is. By this time, though, he has moved into this world that you were talking about, Richard, where it's like I wrote this this movie, this book might be turned into a movie. I've got all these stocks and all this kind of stuff, and he now has gone from just the well dressed person to the person that thinks that they're better than other folks.

I mean, he he doesn't necessarily ever throw that in anybody's face, but in this one, I think he gets as close to that as he ever will. Yeah. Yeah, and it's interesting that Okay, so this is a workplace comedy, and and it doesn't like to a certain extent, the Mary Tyler Moore Show was a workplace comedy also, even though there were there were other things going on, and you visited her actual apartment. Yeah, the world outside of the newsroom. But yeah, here we saw Barney's apartment once.

We never will see it again. Right, that got phased out. This didn't necessarily become a fan family comedy. But I think you're so correct that in these four episodes, if you just look at these four there's growing pains with Harris, with Dietrich, and Barney of course is the de facto father figure. I mean, even if you could even look, if if we all had to write a college paper about these four episodes, you'd even go back to Lugers as the uncle that no one is quite comfortable with, and everyone is people are getting a little tight in the in these episodes.

People are not feeling a ton of elbow room. I'm getting cramped by Luger's presence. I'm getting cramped by what my outside opportunities are offering me compared to what my day job is requiring of me. I'm constrained by a rule that doesn't allow me to express my political feelings. But we're at a point where people are expressing their political feelings.

It's funny. And this is nineteen eighty okay, so what's happening. Carter's still president but Reagan's running right. Oh yeah, so this is the years morning in America. Baby yeah, and and people, you know, the Iran hostages and the energy crisis and all the stuff that's been played for laughs is now a little bit And again it's we're six seasons in.

Nick is gone, Fish is gone, and it's kind of like, well, so this is our family. Now, these are the guys. This is the show. It's funny is you mentioned Fish being gone? Fish is the only character that is mentioned as gone.

We had this conversation in the last episode. It's never actually made clear where Nick is. That's so funny, you're so correct because they do an entire episode where they talk about the actor. Right the actor has passed away, and it's like, look, we did this show with this actor and he was part of our acting family and we loved him. Then they come right back to the show and it's unclear and there's a there's a joke later on that is a pure setup for Nick.

And again, I'm sorry for jumping ahead in episodes, but I just want to I'll make the point that there is a cooler filled with possibly radioactive water. Yes, And someone makes the joke that, well, you can use it to make coffee, and I'm like, oh my god, if only Nick were here, we'd get the joke. Did you guys catch that? Yeah, totally or yeah yeah, and I was waiting, Yeah, it would would make it any worse, like yeah, or like Nick being like, oh you had some water over here, I used that or something. Yeah, yeah, spit take right, he uses it just by accident anyway, Yeah, exactly, Nick, did you do something different to this coffee?

This tastes really good? Yeah exactly. Oh, don't ask, don't ask, like, but what you but you're right. It would have been a perfect time to go Yeah, that's uh. If Nick we're here, he'd, you know, he'd you know, he'd go ahead and do it.

You know, you could everyone watching the show fell Nick's ghost in that in that setup anyway. Yeah, So it's well, here's here's why I feel that Harris is out of line, because yeah, not only you know, I don't think being a cop is the kind of job you can sort of do on the side if you're carrying a weapon and you're actually out physically doing that job. But the personal digs he takes at Barney that man's his boss. Yeah, you don't do that like in other shows, it would be like, I think I have to fire you. There's an episode of the Office where even Michael Scott has to has to face another character, Stanley and sort of go your insubordination, like I may be an idiot, but I'm still your boss.

You can't talk to me that way, especially in front of other people, or I'm gonna have to fire you. And the fact that that never even comes up is really interesting. It's just personal. It's like you said something to pissed me off. Barney never says that's in subordination.

You said things to me of an insulting nature that I could fire you for, and they never get there. So that's what makes it feel like this is a family dispute, and Chris is right, it's like we may be a little uncomfortable for a few episodes. The side characters in this are fantastic. I mean, I think we all love Stuart Penkin. His proto Newman character here, the guy who doesn't deliver the mail is terrific.

Uh what's the guy's name, Leonard Stone. I think that's that's a yeah, yeah it is. That's the moment he walked in. I went remember, yeah, I couldn't remember if it was him or okay, yeah, it's the guy who doesn't want to give Ruka bean feast. This her dad, right, you're right, okay, yeah, so yeah him him showing up as the supervisor and just like he's fantastic.

I love him. And then it's odd because like the other story, So there's that, there's that one going on. There's Dietrich doing hardcore detective work to track Downy on the eve of the Statute of Limitations expiring. Just look, I just started looking for you last Tuesday. And this guy's been in hiding for like twenty years or something, just making potholders.

And when he gets stuck in the cell with Ankin's mailman and just want to stop talking about potholders. Oh, it's so good. And then there's the other story, which is the guy who won the million dollars from the lottery, right or no? Am I jumping ahead with that one? Jumping out, yeah, okay, I'm just okay.

So yeah, he's it's just Pekin in the cage with the potholder guy. I love that. I love it. It's so great and and it, you know, Barney makes the Jean Valjean you know lady stuff. I love it.

And Dietrich's having none of it. Dietrich is like, wait what my Dietrich is like weirdly, like, yeah, I'm gonna get this guy. Yeah, dog is we investigator? Yeah? Where did this come from?

Yeah, it's like a season ago, two seasons ago. He would have been like, I don't care. I'm just here, you know, I'm just a guy observing police work. And now suddenly a guy. What Chris's theory that Dietrich is an alien?

Yes, okay, I mean he is. I mean the show has made that more or less clear to us multiple times. Well you know what, and maybe maybe this actually is in character that he suddenly decides, almost you know, on a lark, I'm actually going to do the job this week. That's why I thought it was so funny. He's like, I'm just gonna do it, and then he does, and he does, he does, and then and then and and as you said, Mike, this guy has basically imprisoned himself.

Yes, convinced that there is a twenty four hour you know patrol searching for him for seven years, Yes, and will not stop. And Patrick says, no, I started on Tuesday afternoon. My guy just keeps going for years. They were looking for me for years, No, mate, Yeah, I mean he might as well have been caught that day he committed the crime. He's been locked up, hasn't talked to anyone, hasn't done anything, and is doing a menial task.

He might as well have said he was in his apartment breaking rocks and making license plates exactly. Yeah, he has served the time or the crime, he certained it. They should just let him go. Yeah. I like that conflict too, and just the idea of Barney being like, uh, Barney is not nigiver about arresting people.

He doesn't want anybody in that room. He just, you know, oh, let's let's settle this and move our own ways. And here Dietrich being the dogged detective. I'm like, who are you? And it does seem a little like like the crime I forget even what it is.

It doesn't sound like it was that big a deal. No, No, yeah, I mean with a seven year statute to limitations, I mean, yeah, probably couldn't have been that bad, you know. Okay, And here's a random observation of all of the episodes. But it's clearly and it's something that I've seen a million times but I haven't really thought about it. But it's those it's those raking three shots, raking four shots that they do that are really great, where you're getting like four characters kind of stack, you know, in profile, almost like someone with their back to the front door.

Then usually the purp is the second person sort of facing Barney, who's the third person kind of facing away from the camera, and then maybe like Wojo or Dietrich or whoever is the other guy sort of closest to camera profile, but everyone is participating in the scene. And I think maybe I thought about it because when I'm looking at this show, it often it feels like I'm watching a play. It's like, well, we've got we're in that room and we're in this room, and we're just it's pretty subtle and it's just performance. And those shots that are that they do in literally every episode of this show are not easy to stage, because everyone's got to be like, Okay, you've got to be on your mark or you're out of the shot.

Oh yeah, and then you and you've got to be acting even though the camera is sort of over your ear, but you've still got to be in the scene, responding, listening, reacting. And it's just kind of when you look at it that way, fans of the show, newcomers to the show look at it and just sort of realize that almost never happens in a TV show where you've got four people in kind of a again, just stacked up and you're raking across them. That's some pretty impressive stuff. And it's just every episode of this show gets that, and it's great. Well, there was a really press a shot at the beginning of Dietrich's Arrest Part one where it's Dietrich and Bernie talking and Dietrich is talking about how he stayed there, he worked a double shift, and they're talking about the stubble on his face and he gives us bad Shakespeare quote and then he walks to his desk and we're following him, and then Levitt opens up the door, and then we follow Levitt and this is all one take.

We've got Dietrich and Barnie in a two shot. Then we follow Dietrich out. Dietrich just goes off screen. Levitt comes in, the camera, picks him up, moves him over to Barney. They have a conversation, and then the camera keeps no cuts, moves over as Levitt is starting to leave, and then Dietrich enters right in and becomes another two shot of those two and I'm like, then they start to cut after that, but that is one hell of a shot to just you know, this is just a sitcomb from nineteen eighteen, and we're just gonna have these three two shots that are all perfectly set up, all in one camera move.

I love that. I did not notice that. Now I want to go back and watch it. I think all four of these are Noam Pitlock episodes. Oh yeah, this whole season season.

Yeah, and again, I mean, I'll just I'll reiterate that Noam Pitlock, you know part of the show from day one. I mean, you're watching everyone at the top of their game. Everyone comes in, knows the game, knows everyone's moves, knows what to do. You know the fact that people are maybe I think they're acting out of character, but they're sort of bursting at the seams. A little bit of their characters can can be absorbed in the show.

And I think I think this is Otto Bruno's least favorite season. I think he's talked about that. Really, I thought it was his most favorite season. I thought he was I thought he had a complaint about six that it seemed like because it was the season that Danny Arnold left, because he was gone for six and seven, and he felt like there were uncharacteristic episodes. And I can see that.

I like he says that, and you can make that argument, or you can make the argument of it's uncharacteristic, but but it's stepping into areas that are interesting and legit and are carried off well. I would not say these are not well executed episodes at all. Yeah. I've been really enjoying this season. It's a bunch of bangers for me.

Yeah, say yeah. And Nome Pilick directs this entire season and the next season in its entirety, so wow. Yeah. I mean, that's the thing about this show is that it is It is a show that has been in capable hands. Even when the show runner has to step away and you mean there are plenty of shows that would fall apart were this to happen to it.

Yeah, but the lack of a guiding hand looking at you, Dexter, you know, and again that's more of a narrative based show, lesson sitcom, but the idea still remains. The show runner is a massive part of the show, as you know, we have heard, and obviously Jared has been part of that process as well and could speak more directly to it. But it's pretty clear that the show is in capable hands yet because I'm with you, Mike, I have enjoyed this season immensely. Frankly, Yeah, it just feels more consistent. I would say I didn't mind switching directors every episode, but maybe just having Pitlets hand on the tiller the whole time just makes it feel a little bit more cohesive.

And you know, Richard, you're talking about how the previous episode was uniform days was making all these references to other things. This two parter. I love the moment spoilers when Dietrich gets arrested, thus the title of the episode, when he is being questioned by Ron and he's like, well, there was that time where you moved in with me and oh and there's a time I saved your life and I'm like, oh yeah, all these things that happened between these two characters, and I have to say, I think this might be one of the strongest two parters that I've seen. It doesn't feel, well, we could have resolved this all in just one episode. I think it would have been wall to wall Dietrich if that was the case, which you know, no complaints for that, but I don't think we would have had any B or C stories at all had this been all crammed into one.

And I think having that slight cliffhanger, you know at the end of the first one, where really there is no cliffhanger, it just feels like two really strong episodes that needed to be told in this way. Yeah. I thought that this because we've talked about that before, Chris as far as like did this really need to be a two parter like Wojo's Burul or whatever, you know, like, did that even need to be an episode? Yeah? He didn't need to exist.

Yeah, Well, you know, Dietrich is a great character. He's he's a little bit emotionally aloof Oh yeah, I didn't know it was made of either a little bit well yeah, okay, all right, I'm being you know, uh, I'm understating it as compared like Harris, who who has episodes where he becomes really angry for for reasons that we sympathize with. And I think we intellectually sympathize with Dietrich's concern about nuclear power and and you know, and then nuclear weapons as an extension of that, well, yeah, because he knows what happens in the future, the future, because it's a fucking alien, that's right, becomes our national currency. Yeah. Literally, In the last episode, Richard Libertini goes the Arthur D trick.

I'm in again. If the show is giving us all the information, I'm just going with what the show wants us to pick up on. But that's why I assume he wants the nuclear That's why I assume he's against nuclear power is because he's an alien. Okay, But but it's it's like, okay, look, Harris, if there's a racial issue that obviously is extremely personal to him, and we see it play out in a way that's respectful, and he owns that with Wojo, Vietnam is his sort of thing, and disliking and disliking prostitutes, right, but they can be sincere in a particular way about a particular subject for a certain amount of time, and we buy it Dietrich. You know, there's never a big fight between him and any other character where Dietrich has to say, no, you don't understand why this is so important to me.

He can do it, and we get that he is. Intellectually it's like, look, i have to do what I have to do and I'm not complaining, and you can arrest me, and I'm going to go lock myself in the cage and I'll take my lumps. But then the seriousness of the subject has to be sort of shunted off to other characters. So that's in part two. We bring in the guy who works at the nuclear power plant, and so he becomes the opposing voice, but not even necessarily to Dietrich.

It's almost more to Wojo, who has read the book Nuclear Power, Licensed to Kill and Love It. And Wojo's like, I'm going to get my book. So we get all the talk, we get all the debate, which is great, but Dietrich is allowed to remain somewhat detached and above it all I love too that there's the running theme of Barney and his well, he calls it his townhouse or sorry, he calls it his apartment. But every single time Harris calls it his condominium, I think, yeah, yeah, wherever it is he's living right right. But yeah, there's this whole thing because we have had the storyline already of him his apartment being privatized and he now needs to either buy it or get out right, and this whole thing if he just needs nine thousand dollars to wrap this up.

And then of course there's the guy who won the million dollars as one of our b stories, and he's just throwing money everywhere, causing riots, and we've got like so many riots in this episode. We've got him causing riots. We have the riot at the nuclear thing, We've got the riot of the guy sprinkling radioactive water on people, and then we get the last one, which is the guy throwing money again. I think, so, yeah, thank god, we got we got Candy a Zara in this episode. This is prime Candy Azarra too.

Well they okay, so, so Barney's apartment is going condo if he wants to remain in it, he has to come up with nine thousand dollars, right, yeah, okay, So I went on my phone, I did, I checked it. That would be the equivalent of thirty five thousand dollars in today's dollars. Yeah, not petty cash, not anything I have in my savings account, that's for sure. Yeah, and you and again we know these guys, they've been working the same job like, and we know Barney's not making money anywhere else. Harris of course, is okay, we got that, and he says, hey, can I you know, can I help?

And Barney says, you got you got nine thousand dollars, which would be the equivalent of me saying to you, you got thirty five grand you want to give me? Now? Of course, Harris does have that money, and later on the episode says, here's a solution. Why don't I buy I'll buy your apartment and sublet it to you, and I'll just increase your rent a little bit. And it's that i'll your rent a little bit.

Well, there's got to be something in it for me, and you're going to own the place. I'm going to be just paying rent every month, and it's what breaks Yeah, Well, it's like It's like, if we hadn't had the exact argument we had two episodes ago, I might at least pretend to consider this, But I'm not going to have you be my landlord. That's a that's a bridge to fall. We're not going there. My question is why is hair is still working at the police station if he's got all this money?

Right? Yeah, well, I think a lot of it is in the offing. It's like they're they're you know, there's talk of a movie deal, there's talk of a sequel, and with you know, I will say spoiler alert, this issue gets resolved, this issue, A thing happens that makes it clear why Harris continues to work at the precinct. But we won't go any further. We can't as much, I assumed as much, given that he's on this show until the end.

Well, I mean, look, okay, one argument could be he wrote a book about being a cop. If he's going to write a sequel, it's going to be about being a He can't quit being a cop, right, that's his bread and butter, that's his you know, that's his Hemingway goes bullfighting, you know, that's what he knows. Of course, in this episode two, we get the return of Scanling, and then I didn't realize until it happened. Go ahead, Chris, I'll go for it. I want to hear you say it, because I didn't realize it either.

I didn't realize that Scamming and Luger did not know each other. So the introduction of these two guys, and then when they go into Bernie's office and she's like, that's my seat. Even call him his name right outside of the one time, because I'm pretty sure at one point James Gregory calls him Lieutenant Scallion. He sure he calls him. He has to call him Scallion at one That is pretty sure he did, so, M yeah, that is totally Oh, I love it.

Yeah. I didn't realize that either. I was like, oh my god, they don't know each other, Like this is kind of mind blowing. You would think that they had met on the show. But even without the show, you would think that they would have met, you know, like not the actors but the characters, just because they work in the same precinct.

Yeah, but I guess Scanlon is internal affairs, right, which is the whole I mean, that's why Luger's making all those faces Xana, Like, I don't know what he was doing, but he was making a lot of faces about it, so I don't assume. Yeah, like it's weird. I assumed they knew each other, but apparently they didn't even they had never even heard of one and apparently well and I love too that at one point I think it's Dietrich says like big brother might be listening, and Barney repeats that later on, and then Scanlon says, how you doing with that loan? And it's like, what, how do you know about this? And then like, of course there's a cleaning woman that's introducing this episode, and she asks, how about that loan?

How's that loan going? I'm just like, holy shit, everybody knows Barney's business, Like it makes sense for her to know about it because she cleans out the trash and read that missing chapter of Blood on the Badge, which sounds like it might be a little steamy. But yeah, I was like, how does he know about that unless he is listening in on their conversations. We did have that whole Bug episode way back in like season two or something. It's it's totally crazy that that they suddenly bring in this character because they're working late tonight, right rich good because and it's sort of like wait what And it's like, on the one hand, again, she's great, and she's just yes, you almost feel like, oh is this going to be are we are we going to see her again?

No? But she wanders through, she's cleaning up. She knows everyone's business because she's going through their trash. And Harris does this really great little bit of blocking they gave him that that doesn't even get remarked upon. But when she says something about, oh, I read the first draft, and then while there's dialogue, you see him open his desk drawer, take out the manuscript, look at it, look at her, and then put it back and close the drawer again.

Oh wow, I didn't even notice that. Holy cow, it's so good. I mean again, it's like all these deep cuts that that reward the second viewings and repeated knowledge of all the storylines. But anyway, she's great. She's really funny that the episode ends on her.

So it's you know, she's force of nature the way she comes in singing and being so loud about everything, and I was like, she runs the risk of being a really annoying character, but yeah, I ended up kind of liking her. I'm hoping we don't get too much more of her, if anything at all, because you never know with characters like this, I don't think I mean, maybe, but I don't. I don't think we do. It does not she doesn't turn into Levitt for sure, you know. Yeah, I love the retcon of a character being like I've been here this whole time, like what the It just felt like a weird like a weird red coon like it was like it felt like when they're like, oh, hey, Mike can't remember Mike.

Everybody it's like the same thing. Where is the Is the cleaning lady gonna come back? No? But she's there every night, So there you go, right, yeah you can. In nineteen eighty you could get away with that.

But it's funny because they've had other episodes where it's clear the whole episode is about night shift and it's midnight and right, you know, you never see a cleaning lady, you never. You know, it's like, really, they never work past five ever, they've never met for four years for the majority of the show. Even even Dietrich worked double the you know, the previous episode. Yeah, it should have been. They should have known each other, high Blanche, you know whatever, should have done a thing.

I don't know, but Mabel, I think is isn't that what? Yeah? Hazel Hazel is what Luger calls her because of the famous made character. Yeah, right, right, right, right right. So this actress has been in three Bernie Millers.

She was in one in season two, two in season six. So we just saw her, and this is her last appearance. In fact, this is the last role that she ever played as far as I know, because she passed away in nineteen eighty. Oh Jesus, had she been a recurring character, they wouldn't have got too much out of her. All right, Well, in that case, watch this episode and enjoy this woman's possibly last network TV performance.

Yeah, and she fucking nails it. This is This is these two episodes Dietrich's arrest and being about the subject of nuclear energy primarily is extremely timely in China Syndrome, which Chris and Susan and I talked about on Culture Cast earlier this year. I'm so glad that that Chris is aware of all this stuff. Yeah. I was actually like I was really at one point I was like, I didn't want to look into the episode was over.

I was like, did this come out before or after? And then the second episode they answer that question, Oh yeah, God, and that horrible movie. He says, yeah, I looked it up. It was the previous year, so that way was the previous spring. And then they were like, okay, over the summer, and as they're writing these episodes, they're like, okay, let's do let's do our China Syndrome.

It's fair time. Yeah, because what happened was and what we discovered doing Chris's episode of Culture Cast talking about the movie was that China Syndrome came out and I had it backwards. I thought that the Three Mile Island you know, scare was right before it came out, and so when it came out, everyone fled to the theaters. As it turns out, the movie came out, you know, you know when people sort of knew about nuclear energy and stuff, something on sixty minutes probably, but it was like a month into the movie being in theaters. Three Mile right, yeah, wow, the headlineses sh no, the order is crazy when yeah, when you it, it's kind of nuts, like right when the movie would have been dying advertising that movie ever could have gotten you.

Literally, the movie studio must have been going like, you've got to be kidding me, Oh my god. I mean, oh, it's terrible, but Paramount or whoever is, it's like yeah, and then it plays all summer. I mean, it becomes the most famous movie year. It's Oscar nominations and it's a good movie, but it's not like and Jack Lemon is amazing. But you watch it again and you're like, okay, and it's not The Godfather, you know, it's whatever.

Yeah, yeah, And that started him down a really bad path though, because he got fired from Three Mile Island. He started selling real estate and just couldn't get it working. Rio Rancho properties, Rio Rancho begs were weak, became a very grumpy old man the lead for Week Your Week hit the bricks. That's that's yeah, and that's so, but that's boy. Wouldn't that be something the Extended China Syndrome Universe, right, Well, yeah, I mean, Marvel's been hinting that they were going to branch into the China Syndrome universe, but it just, yeah, fig fucked it up, so he couldn't afford the rights to it.

I do. I do like how we bristle at the idea of Barti Miller trying to increase its universe by adding a cleaning lady, and it seems very strange when they do no girls, No girls allowed. So it's really weird. Is like, I can't they show the board a couple more times in these two episodes than they normally do, and I was looking for names to see if Wentworth was on there or if Chaana was on there. Those names are gone.

They don't show up as they don't show up as much as they used to, which when they used to go to the board, you would see one of those two often right right. Well. As the oldest person on this podcast, I will say that there is like something weirdly nostalgic about that subject matter, because we you know, when you're watching this show and you're alive in nineteen eighty and nineteen seventy nine, your chief concerns in your life are nuclear bombs and nuclear power plant meltdowns. I mean, these are very right there with you. You might be a little older than me, but the day after scared the shit out of me.

Man. Yeah, so all of this stuff is like, oh no, this is serious stuff. And the debate about nuclear energy. Now, I'm not coming out pro or con All I'm going to say is that having been alive and aware in nineteen eighty and then being alive and aware forty three years later, and there haven't been like fifty nuclear meltdowns around the world. You know, there was Chernobyl, there was Shima Fukushima because of a an earthquake.

Yeah, I mean it was it was. Yes, you would hope that any nuclear power plant could withstand any environmental threat. But while I'm looking back and going, oh, that's kind of weird to think about the fact that there there weren't. There haven't really been a ton of nuclear power plant emergencies in the past forty three years. It's the same well that, but at the same time, we've got I don't know if you guys know this, but there's the Fermi plant is the nuclear power plant here in Michigan.

It's about maybe twenty thirty miles away from me, and we've got that. I mean, to your point, Richard, we haven't had that many meltdowns to your point, Chris, that we know of. But why are we still so reliant on coal? Why weren't. Is is this time where they make them and then they just stop making them?

Because I can't think of any time that another nuclear power plant has opened anywhere in the state. We just have the one, and we're still burning coal like crazy folks. Yeah, yeah, there's I mean, obviously in the energy world there's huge lobbyists and huge political interests going back and forth. So I don't know the number of nuclear power plants, nuclear energy power plants we had in nineteen eighty compared to the one. You know, if we have more, a lot more, no more.

I have no idea. All I know is whatever that that particular fury is up until this day right now when we're recording, has not manifested as and we were right. It's a crazy, fucked out industry that was poorly regulated and we've had many many chernobyls. And not only that, but I will say and again God forbid, but it is miraculous to me that there have been no nuclear bombs. It's like in wartime, in terrorist times.

This sort of God Richard is putting this energy out of the world, and now it's gonna hat Oh crazy, I haven't had a new go This will be the again again the episode that historians listen to in the future. But no, no, no, no, no no no no, no, no no no, the Robert BT's name shows up and we're all fucked. Yeah. To answer your question, a power plant opened in the United States this year. You're in Tennessee, and the last time one opened was in twenty sixteen, also Tennessee.

Fifty four nuclear power plants operating in the United States, according to the ei A dot Gov, and the average age is forty two years old. Well, that answers that question as well in a way. Okay, but this guy, you know, the character the nuclear engineer who comes in and features in this episode as as sort of the opposing voice to the protesters, of whom or of which A Dietrich is apart. He's like, it's totally safe, you know. And I brought here's some water from the nuclear power plant.

This is the cooling water, and it's totally safe. I thought they were going to do a thing where someone was gonna have to drink some of it. They never do. They make the coffee joke, but whatever. Anyway, but it's the atomic water and he's saying, look, it is totally safe and and you know, it's better than gas, it's better than coal, which causes pollution, and wind and solar isn't ready yet.

And it's funny because these are still conversations we're having. Oh yeah, well, I mean after I'm so surprised that we just haven't seen that influx because from what I understand, windmills cause brain cancer, so like people should just be dying left and right plus right, killing all the eagles, and now it's even forcing whales to beach themselves. This has got to stop people, I mean, and then too, like with solar power, as soon as the sun goes down, everything stops. That's how it works, right, Yeah, exactly, Yeah, I know, you're yeah, you're you're right, Mike, You're you're you're really you're speaking for a lot of very sane people. The exact time I want lights is when there are no more because power just doesn't work at nighttime.

Yeah, when the sun goes down and you need a light, you can't use it. Oh, your solar power isn't coming back for another you know, eight ten hours, so you're screwed. So you want that or do you want brain cancer? Which is it? I think we missed our calling here, the three of us, we could be very convincing for the wrong group of people, I feel, don't you see the space lasers are powered by solar power.

We should we should just do a left wing radio show, trolling idiot magas. Yeah yeah, and we'll call it making America Great on every episode, no bookop ranking on Trump. It's too on the nose though, even for us, that's too on. This isn't the name of the show gonna be ranking on Trump? Chris Well, I guess it has to be now really yeah, well, okay, well you said it now, you put that right.

Speaking of Trump like characters, I do like that Scanlon is a proper dickhead and will probably never not be in this show. Yeah, but he also is a nice counterpoint to how far Luger has come as a character, because there is a moment in time where these two could have interacted and it would have been like hey buddy, hey pal, and like it wouldn't have been what it is now, which is Luger says not fuck you, like right hard fuck you dude, because he loves the people in the precinct. That didn't used to be the case. Ye're right, but that's also that's also traditional, like everybody hates I, I A internal affairs where everyone hates I, A and AI. Let's just say it's true.

Well, that's because they're also corrupt in the twelfth Precinct, that's why, right. Yeah, it is funny that you know, he walks in and just these stacks of cash, right, yeah, I don't even want to know. And the guy who's like, i'll pay you fifty dollars to this, they give me a cup of coffee. Yeah, maybe's seventy five, right, I don't even want to know. Yeah.

These were four very very solid episodes, and like I said, I think this might be my most favorite two parter because it's both parts are very solid, and they just they're two solid, solid episodes. I mean, I don't even know if they needed to be a part two, just because we are crossing over into things actually really starting to follow from one to the other. Like I said, maybe that's no, I'm not sure, but I really like this idea of being able to reference the previous episode and episodes even in previous seasons. Well, you know what they did was I don't know how it cut into the timing, but the end of Part one was a preview of part two, which took up a minute or so of airtime, and then the beginning of part two was a recap of part one, not a traditional sort of cold open, which led into the opening sequence, so that eats up another minute or two of story time.

So again, these were not two full separate episodes. They were each trimmed by a minute or two of flash forward flash back. They felt very married together. They again, like you said, very cohesive, interesting story, totally on character people. It didn't feel hyped up necessarily.

So yeah, we hit a good streak. And oh, by the way, and I wanted to say, I looked at the book and I'm so sorry. Otto Bruno does not rank this season low. I think it's this. I think you're right.

I think it is the seventh season that that he began to sort of have a problem with. It might be the peak, right we might have. Yeah, yeah, I don't. I don't want to misrepresent the great Auto Bruno. I've enjoyed the episodes where he's on.

I hope you guys keep having him on. I'm a fan. I love this book. I I thank God every day the book exists for people like me, who are Barney Miller addicts and stands so so, mister Bruno, I I correct myself and I will not speak on your behalf again. I hope that Atto is listening to this episode with hearing just how much Richard is pleading to have him back on and have my book signed.

I don't know how it will. Wow, I want it so bad. I get my book signed, and then I got the author. Yeah, not even a hard back minds, what's this here? Yeah?

I bought because I went on Amazon and bought the fucking hardback. Wow, that's not my fan. Yeah, about two of them. I gave one to Larry Larry. Larry Larry's got one.

You Larry fucking Larry? Am I right? I hope that guy? That guy. Yeah.

Look at all the praise we're heaping on Auto Bruno's book. It's almost like you should go check it out at Bearmanner dot com. Oh you guys, it is Manner is completely out of the Weekends and Lemon parties O C n F N J O I baby, go to just guys, just go to bookshop dot org and order it. You'll be fine. You ordered it off Amazon, though Richard aren't you part of the problem now, No, I ordered it off bookshop.

I don't get anything from Amazon except for condoms. Wow that you look on Why uh, ch because I don't know what you're buying me you can't get at the store. But whatever it is must be pretty pricing. I was just trying to come up with something controversial. I have to get my condoms from Norway.

There's the special lines. They're extra hard. They make sure that accommodate all the way to the elbow. They're the fist condoms. So when we come back next month, we're not going to be talking about fist condoms.

We will be talking about the last three episodes of Bernie Miller's season six, possibly where we're at the summit of the mountain. We were not sure, but we'll be talking about the architect, the inventor, and fog. So until we come back then, Chris, what are you working on, sir? Just trying to make sure that a prototype for my fist condom makes it through the initial taps. Now you can find all the things that I work on at weirding media dot com, and if you're expecting them to be as exciting as fistcondoms, They're just audio podcasts that you can entertain and enjoy yourself with while you fist.

So, uh yeah, Weirdingwaymedia dot com is where you can find all the things that I work on. What about you, Richard Adam? I am spending my days and nights helping my lovely wife Susan Lambert do her podcast Eighties TV Ladies. I write the show descriptions, so I'm actually involved. Wow was that allowed under the WGA contract?

Yes? That was okay, weirdly that was okay, We're weirding way. That was okay, weirdling Way. Yes. EIGHTYESTV Ladies taking a look at female driven television from the eighties, both in front of the camera and behind.

They're they're having a blast over there, talking to fangroups. There's a lot of Scarecrow and Missus King action going right now. They're just they're just having a party over there. People are coming out of the would work going hey, what's this show and volunteering to be on. I don't know, it's it's going crazy.

So if you want to get involved in that party, go check out Eighties TV Ladies Fantastic What about you? Mike? Oh? Everything I do is over at weirdingwaymedia dot com, which makes it very convenient, and I work on a couple other things, including a show called The Projection Booth. You may have heard of it.

If not, definitely check it out please so you get to hear more of me just droning on over and over again until we come back next month. And unfortunately Richard will not be with us. This is just a guest appearance, so until we come back, definitely rate and review the show over on iTunes or wherever you gave podcasts, probably not Stitcher anymore, sorry, folks. Shops closed in