Episode 46: Rachel + Contempt Part 1 & 2

Weird way. Welcome to the Life and Times of Captain Barney Miller podcast. I'm yours, Mike White joining me, of course, is the rookie mister Christashu. You'll notice I'm not in my karate outfit anymore. I gave that up long ago.

I'm glad that that made her return. That was pretty good. But I didn't go back to like look at the episode to see if little Rachel was in that or not. It was only five years ago, Mike, don't you know? Yeah, well, yeah, and Fish was here and Nick too.

Nick was here. Yeah, sure, sure you and you were here. You weren't you? Weren't you when you were here? Of course we're talking about the episode Rachel.

On this episode of the Life and Times of Captain Barney Miller podcast, we were covering three of the original Barney Miller episodes, Rachel, which dropped Thursday, February twenty sixth nineteen eighty one, Contempt Part one, which aired on Thursday, March twelfth, nineteen eighty one, and Contempt Part two, which was the following week Thursday, March nineteenth, nineteen eighty one. One. It's going to feel like a little bit of a short episode I reckon because really contempt per one and two flow together very well. And then we have Rachel. We have the return of Barney's daughter for no real good reason.

I don't think she's gonna come back again. Maybe ever, that is correct, Bob, Okay, here's what you win. If you play Barney Miller's daughter, you show up four times in the run of eight seasons of this show. So it was the same actress, same actress, same actress from episode what is it? Zero one?

Two? Was zero? I think, oh all the way back? U so zero one and five? So the Life and Times of Barney Miller, Ramon and the Courtesans.

Oh yeah, and that was season one. So actually that was six years ago show, not five. It's weird. I mean, well, look it's a it's not a weird episode, but the conceit of the episode is strange to me because I'm just going to put this and Auto Bruno, I can hear you already. Barney Miller's family is not part of this show, and I know, but they're not, and they're not in such a way that anytime this happens, which this has happened this season or last season where Barbara Barry shows up.

Oh, season six, season yeah, anytime they try to do anything that kind of returns to commenting on where Barney Miller was early on in the run of the show. Is weird to me because it again, like using traditional TV and movie storytelling techniques from the time, there doesn't need to be a character that walks in and goes, oh, I remember this place and there's a old Nick's desk. It's like, there are people that are watching this show that may not even know what the hell you're talking about. So I know that's probably a smaller case, and people are screaming at me right now saying it's not the case, Chris. But it's weird.

The conceit of the episode is weird because there was never a moment in the last season or two where I was like, well, I can't wait for Barney's daughter to come back. Whatever happened to Rachel Miller? Right, yeah, go ask little Rachel Miller down the street. She'll tell you all about it. It's strange.

Outside of that, it's a perfectly fine episode other than it has the mic of it all, which is like, oh, hello, where have you been this whole time? Like it's that same shit that they did we talked about with the Mic character so long ago, where it's like, you're trying to inject characters into this show that have meaning to the other characters that we've never seen. And so I don't know, She's fine and Wyndham's fine as Rachel Miller Barney Miller's daughter, but can we also just not do this storyline because where it goes is like what a TV show from the eighties, huh. Like, if there's a positive, it's that we finally get full confirmation that Barney is Jewish. I mean, we knew it, but like this one, they've very pointedly, you know, Wojo, you know, don't date my daughter?

Why because I'm not Jewish? Well or the or as they would say, the implication that Wojo is a big man whore. I guess by Barney's approximation. He's like, so you're gonna do You're gonna have sex with her? And He's like, what the fuck?

Man? Like, you know, Barney, you focusing on your daughter having sex with Wojo seems to be your problem? Yeah, yeah, weird. He's never been defensive about anybody else up until now. And it's like Barney as a dad just doesn't really work for me.

No, no, Well, and then there's the whole thing too where Wojo pretty much is like hitting on her and asks if she's a prostitute because he doesn't know who she it's I was Levitt, Levitt, Oh that's right. But I thought that there was a criticism of Wojo that he goes out with too many prostitutes. Well, I just thought he just goes out with too many people. Oh well, yeah, but he does. He does seem to enjoy the prostitute that they pick up here at the station.

I mean, have you seen them? Oh? I have gotten Yes of them are gorgeous. I don't. Yeah, look the idea that Barney is working late and unable to take his daughter out to dinner, so Wojo's going to do it, And oh I have a problem with that.

It's just like this show, of all shows, doing that at this point is a little strange. Like that has never been a thing that this show has seemingly cared about. I mean again, go back and listen to early episodes of this show. Barbara Barry re minutely underused in this show to the point where we stopped mentioning her because the show stopped talking about her, stopped billing her, stopped doing anything, And boy, I really would not have been like, oh yeah, Barney Miller's daughter is going to be part of that, But now she's kind of part of this conversation of well, they really are playing to the idea that the original show's title was the Life and Times of Captain Barney Miller, right, oh yeah, oh yeah, we're back to that.

Yeah, to your point, the rest of this is absolutely fine. I was I'm always glad to see Stanley Brock, and it was great having him back in this one, and then we haven't seen Ripner in forever, so it was almost good to see him, even though I mean, he just plays such a disgusting character. I love Alex hantel Off, especially because you know, he was one of my favorite chows of all times Mash. She showed up at least a few times, if not just one very memorable time. But yeah, like, he's just so annoying, and this whole thing of now, you know, Harris is trying to cast the movie and his people aren't backing him up when it comes to all this nonsense about Rypner trying to sue him for a defamation of character.

And you know what, Harrish should have done a better job of obfuscating these characters. Oh his name is Narnie Biller. What oh would that be? Yeah, it's like, yo, Harris, you mad fucked up on this one. Alex Henteloff has been on the show seven times, six times as Ripner.

One time, season two he did not play Ripner. He played Harold Polanski, which is weird to me because he has been playing Arnold Ripner since you want to take a swinging guest first season, first season episode two, Yeah, I mean, which is forever crazy. Yeah, it's crazy because I mean almost to the point of talking about Barney Miller's daughter to mention Alex Henteloff as Rpner is like, oh, yeah, by the way, this character has technically been here this whole time too, but even they kind of ignored storytelling tropes of the time, but then they re address them if he's not but he is, but he isn't, Like I don't know, that's odd to me. Yeah. His character is such a just obvious, detestable lawyer dickhead character written the way that a lawyer would be written on this kind of shit, which we've seen over and over again, which is the most obvious kind of lawyer in the world, which is the ambulance chasing type, especially at this time in America in the early eighties.

And yeah, I mean he plays it perfectly, but to your point, like, what a nasty fucking character. This is what a detestable character, because he comes into the precinct and just goes, well, I've got the law on my side, and I'm gonna sue everybody. Essentially, I'm gonna sue Harris, I'm gonna sue He's gonna sue the precinct too, And then he's also trying to sue Stanley Brock as well, because it's the age old thing of fief breaks in, gets injured by a home or store owner, thief then sue store owner, which wasn't is and has been a thing that has actually happened, maybe not in the way that this episode hasn't happened, but I remember a story of a gentleman falling through a skylight while trying to rob someone and him suing that, oh it's unsafe.

Yeah, well, you're also on the roof of the business and you're trying to break in, so yeah, I don't know. It's such a weird episode because if you take the Rachel of it all out, it is a fairly pedestrian episode, but when you add her in, it all of a sudden becomes more of like a character study for Barney again, like let's see what Barney is like as a father. And it's like that don't know how to put this show, but I don't really care, Like, well, it's really I mean, this whole episode is like this weird throwback thing that's going on. Because even the guy that Ripner is supposed to be representing, Chichu mal Lave is the actress name. He was fucking Ramote.

He was Ramone from those two pilot episodes, and he came back to also do like he was a gunman and another one it might have been him and don oh I meant Blake and the guy from Revenge of the Living or Return the Living Dead Don CALFI I think, oh yeah, don Kalph's partner or something. It was a Leeber's partner is who he was. But it's just like all of these all these characters coming back, you know, like that's really odd. I mean, the only person that wasn't on the first season. Is is Stanley Brock He started in the second season, but almost everybody else is coming back from like those first couple episodes.

Yeah, yeah, it's weird time to do this. Yeah, I mean the show is in it's kind of twilight hour. It has about half of another season and one more season to go, which with a show like this is really not that much space left for the show. I mean that's like twenty thirty episodes, which with this show aren't that much because this show is not normally covering narrative ground like this. So that's the thing about this episode, and definitely about the next two episodes, and I would you know, Concede.

You know, we've talked about Auto Bruno's book That Files the Old One Too, which is available at bear man Or Media right now. His book, and he has been on our show a couple of times. Go check those episodes out if you've never heard them. But he talks about in his book, and he talked about it last time we had him on about this season specifically, and this season kind of being the worst season of the show. Yeah, it kind of is, because these choices that the show is making are really antithetical to the forward momentum that the show has kind of been building in the last couple seasons.

I don't fucking care about Barney Miller's daughter. Not because the show doesn't give me a reason to actually, far from it, I don't care because this has been a character that you're trying to make me care about. At the last possible moment, she doesn't come back again. What a surprise. So why are you setting up this weird conflict between Barney and Wojo, which, on top of everything else, that conflict feels like a throwback in and of itself.

Where it's like Wojo is sleeping around and Wojo wants to take my Woja wants to take my daughter out for dinner is essentially to Barney is Wojo wants to take my daughter out to dinner and turn her into a human pretzel afterwards. Maybe that is the case, maybe it isn't, But the fact that Barney is so bent out of shape that it's Wojo. It's like, but Barnie, Wojo is like your right hand man, and you have been through a lot as characters at this point, I would actually think if Wojo is taking her out, that's a better option than oh, I don't know, Arthur Dietrick, I don't know, man, woj just still can't get his shit together. He is consistently late, and it's like becoming more of the joke of the series is how late he is.

And this one it's like he finally comes in and he's like, oh, you want to hear my excuse? No? Okay, well I'll save it for next time because it was really good, you know. It's like, okay, yeah, I don't really need you to be late every single time, Wojoe. You can.

And the reason he is late is because they sleeping around with people. Apparently, Hey, he's doing the walk of shame back to work every day. Mm hmm, Well, if you're wearing that's how you'd be walking in shame as wall And that piece the piece is isn't as bad as it was a few weeks ago, at least, like it's lost the curl, but it's still pretty bad. Yeah. I was gonna say at this point in the show's run, like Max Gale's hair piece is out of control, like it he has never looked like this, and now he looks like this all the time, and we're supposed to just be like Yep, that's what he's been looking like this entire series, like all the time.

No, no, the eighties of it all is coming through, uh with the show. I mean we talked about Anne Wyndham playing Rachel Miller. When she walks into the precinct, she looks like a character straight out of the eighties. Her outfit, the way she acts, it's it's it's more weird than anything else that the show all of a sudden feels antiquated. The moment they have a female character is related to Barney show up.

The show like shows its kind of antiquated sense of morality. When she shows up, it's like, oh, but we're back to the whole Barney is a protective dad thing, and Barney cares about the jewishness of it all, and it's like, I don't know, I feel like I've gone on journey with this character at this point that Barney should be like, oh, Wojo is taking my daughter out? Okay, Like, you know, in a city full of millions of people, this guy is taking on my daughter. Like could be worse. Like you know, he's I mean, yes, he's late, but he seems still rather well put together.

He stopped calling sex workers terrible things. He doesn't show up in a karate outfit anymore, which I stuff for me is the strangest thing to re reference, like why yeah, what a strange choice, very strange. Some interesting topical references that I got to chuck a lot of. One was when I think it's Stanley Brocas talking about how good the Jewish Air Force is. I'm getting right, he's talking about some of the conflicts of the Leak's Head in the late seventies, early eighties.

We don't know anything about that now. Yeah, yeah, this is before the Lemanon War of eighty two. Yeah, as opposed to what's going on now in twenty twenty four. The other thing I liked. We I mentioned this very briefly, and I would not be surprised if you don't remember.

We watched the Columbo episode that Mariette Hartley was in, and I was talking about all of the Polaroid or Kodak commercials that she was in, and Brock makes a reference and hear about James Garner and that he doesn't like how Marriett Hartley is always bossing him around in the film commercials. Right, That was kind of nice, And I actually found again. The moment where Ron Carey and Barney's daughter's share together is weird. It's also strange because she's like when I was a child, I would just climb on his lap and whisper in his ear I love you and I love It just goes, well, it's worth a try. Yes, I was kind of hoping that that would happen by the end of the episode, like he's just a little guy.

So but I do find it funny that I guess Barney, in the grand scheme of things, has no problem with his daughter being loud like a freshly tilled field by Carl Levitt because the last name, Yeah, yeah, that's what it is. He doesn't have a lot of vowels in his name, does he. Yeah. But he just goes, I'll see you tomorrow, and it's like whoa what? Yeah, but again, like what a weird joke to make, like I'll see you tomorrow, pick you up at eight, Like right, what?

And Levin just like yeah, and Levit just like shit eating grins wo jaho. It's he's like, see see Barty likes me because I'm Jewish. It's just yeah, I actually think that Harris is really underserved in this episode, and I think it takes away from his storyline. Yeah, which I think for me so far this season really has been the standout and seeing kind of Harris's progression as an author, and this episode makes him look like a fucking moron, which he I don't know if he deserves to look like. But look, if he was right, he was actually this book and actually doing it, they would have vetted it a lot better.

They would have made sure it was a lot more air tight than having you know, the ambulance chasery lawyer from around town going I'm gonna sue you now, Like, Okay, go fucking for it, pal if this comes back later. But the asking of the movie, I was kind of hoping that this was going to be Ron thinking that he's going to get a movie made out of blood on the Badge, and then something happens other than Bribner that causes it to go tits up. That's what I was really hoping this whole thing would be, was like a whole story of Oh, I would cast this person for Levitt and I would cast this person for wo Choe, But we just get the Barney stuff and then Dietrich being played by Charles Nelson Riley, which made me laugh quite a bit.

I found it so strange that the trivia for this on IMDb, Barney talks about how he would like Roy Schneider to play him, and he's like, well, he played a cop already, and so my mind immediately went to the French connection. But whoever wrote the trivia for this episode was like, oh, yeah, Ry Schneider played sheriff in Jaws. That's what I was assuming it was. I've never seen the French connection. Oh okay, well, there should probably be a good video about it out on YouTube about you never seeing it.

Maybe maybe, who knows. I wanted this episode to be better, and I think again, like the subject material of the episode and the idea of interjecting Barney's daughter into everything does not serve this show well at this point, which I think again, like I mentioned already, with Auto's book, Auto makes a very clear case as to why that's the case, which is the people running the show just making very different choices this season and most of them don't work. Is the problem the show. I mean, look, this is the same season of the show that started with a guy getting gunned down like shot in the head, Yeah, blown away, and then the whole place becoming a hummu side Yeah. Yeah.

Uh it's odd. And this is another odd thing in a long line of odd things that this season has done. I don't know if it's in this one where Harris says that he Owes Rippner five million domes it is, it's the it's the end of this one. Yeah, this one, okay, because there is reference in the next episode that the two parter contempts part one and part two. There are references to this, to the previous episode, to the Rachel episode in that episode, which I thought was nice.

And then it's also the return of ray Oh, which was fucking fantastic. I mean, we've we've sung that actor's praises many many times, John Dullaghan, and he is so great coming back as ray a changed man wearing his uh Army Salvation Army uniform. I kept waiting for him to admit that he stole it and that he was the thief, but he's not. Thank goodness, he has turned his whole life around, and uh, it's fantastic. I just really was happy to see him in this new role.

Yeah. So he's been playing this character on the show, because he was in a couple early seasons just playing random one off characters. But he's been playing this character since season five. Yeah, and he's showed up one, two, three, four, five six times because he's been in a bunch of the two parters. Yeah.

I think it's interesting because again, like this is the kind of narrative choice that I vibe with with this show, which is you're bringing back a character that's already been into the precinct to have another go at it with the guys in the precinct. I'm all on board for that. Like that is the kind of storytelling that I appreciate with this show, at least a long term quote long term storytelling that they're doing, which is reintroducing certain characters and certain ideas back into the show that we've already seen. And yet John Dulligan is Ray is interesting. I don't think they do enough with it.

They don't do enough with his supervisor. This whole thing of like, you know, so for folks listening at home, so Ray is now working for the Salvation Army. Salvation Army is getting hit by burglaries all over the town. And what's really strange is that, And I didn't look this up the burglar because they eventually do catch the burglar because it's Bertie Miller and he always gets this man. I think that's his slogan, right, Bartie Miller always gets this man.

It's JJ Berry is back and he's playing a character named Arthur Duncan. That's not like the nice thief that we just saw, right, yeah, yes it is. So he became a dickhead after he was so nice in that previous episode. Are you sorrying about the end of movie right, movie? Yeah?

Yeah, that was him, Yeah, and now he's back, like christ, Yeah, it's like that's what I'm saying, Like I don't get the shows, Like I like that. It's like picking and choosing, like we're going to keep a narrative connectiveness with this thing, but not this thing. It's like, you know, I don't get that whatsoever. That is really silly because I liked his character of the stupid Yeah that's right. He was the guy who he saved fucking Wojo's life.

Yeah, and then he starts talking about like how he volunteers at Big Brothers and all this kind of stuff. So him suddenly deciding to rob the Salvation Army is completely antithetical to his character of the guy who is a thief but really shouldn't be a thief because he is morally just an upright he just doesn't realize it. That's a funny character. Don't take him and then turn him around like what five episodes? Six episodes, because it wasn't long ago.

It was movie Part two. I think he was in. Don't turn it around and have him come back and rip off the Salvation Army. But what I was gonna say is, first, like the race supervisor, she's like, oh, yeah, no, no, we don't need any help. And then basically it's like she does that like two or three times, you don't need any help, Ray, come on, let's go back.

And then I came if its Wojo or Barney, is just like, uh, shouldn't we be stopping this guy and helping him out? How could we help him unless we actually catch him? And she said, oh yeah, no, you're right. I was like, what, wait, where's the conflict to it? Yeah?

And that's what I meant. Like, the way that they used the Ray character is strange because again, like it should have just been him, but then they bring his supervisor and play by Maggie Brown, and she ends up taking away the focus from his character and Rand shockingly becomes a love interest for Wojo. It's a shocker of all, a shot. If anything, she should have been a love interest for Dietrich, right, because he likes those pure women. And I was really open, like he'd be like, oh, so do you take a vow chastity.

There's a reason that they call me big Arthur, that's right, and it's not because I'm six foot tall. They call me the nun break. Yeah, that's a good name. Yeah, Arthur Dietrich's Big Wang. Yeah.

But that's the thing. I mean, that's the thing. I don't understand why you focus on Wojehowitz because again, like you just had Wojehowits having a love interest with Barney Miller's daughter, and now it's like, well, n actually actually he's back to his old ways. It's like, then, what is the fucking problem here if Barney's not going to point that out at any point? Yeah, exactly.

Oh why can't Barney point it out? Because Barney is in prison. Oh, William Windham, as his cell mate, has never seen sell ma. I was waiting for him to show his face at the very end or something. Now, yeah, show William Windham's face because he's I don't know if you know this, Mike, but he wasn't there.

Really, you're saying that that was all post dub WHOA right? I know what a time. Nineteen eighty one was a crazy time. I know, the special effects industry was really taking off. I mean, we had Star Wars in seventy seven and now we've got William Windham as the unseen per center here in nineteen eighty one.

Wow, I know, right, Yeah, that's it's wild. Do you know what it was? He probably took Dexter's invisibility formula. Oh I was gonna say, Or maybe it was because of the addition of Alice in Wonderland and X Rated Musical's own Larry Gelman in this episode as a quote ugly man unquote what I was bizarre side? What a bizarre side tangent because Hair shows up with Larry Gelman and goes he was being a pest at a high end restaurant that was clearly discriminating against him.

But that's what I don't get, Like, how did nobody just go get get Arnold Ripner in here right now? Because this is the kind of shit that Rpner would get off on. Exactly, this is you know he should be. Is that guy a total smug asshole, the guy that runs the Good Looking People restaurant? Oh and like, yeah, what was the little guy strangled one of the ways so they had to fire him because he had a bruise.

Yeah, yeah, I don't I don't understand some of them. Again, Like the decisions that they make are so strange because it's it's a that is a fun side tangent that totally works within the world of Barney Miller. But Barney going to prison doesn't work at all. It's so strange to be out of the precinct after all this time. We haven't left the precinct for like years now.

It's the most misguided attempt here to be like, we're gonna incheck some new life into this show by sending Barney to the one place he's never been jail, like yep. Well, and the thing that kills me is he should have been in a cell with somebody that he has sent to jail, whether we knew this person or not. But instead Wyndham just has this whole fantasy thing that he's talking about and like puts Barney into that. I'm like, no, no, it should have been somebody should have slipped and called him Captain Miller. And then it's like, oh, that's where I know your face from.

You were the guy that sent me away or something like that. I mean, we had kind of that with Jim Sorry, Christopher Lloyd to give taxi. We had that with Christopher Lloyd where he was like, oh, you ruined my life because you arrested me the one time. He should have been another person with an extra grinde. I was on the plane and you were the crying baby and I didn't get any sleep, and now I'm going to take it out on you by crying in the seat next to you.

Which is a bit from Tim Robinson's show on Netflix, but it bears in comparison to what that episode that you're talking about is, which is where this should have gone with Barney, which is you have Barney Miller go to jail, to the New York County lock up. He doesn't go to sing sing thankfully, doesn't go arn tombs. Yeah, and you don't have him run into someone from a previous episode like does that shit not right? Itself. Do we want to go back in time and be like, hey, writer's room of Arnie Miller, let's give you a free idea.

I guess I don't understand why that wasn't the imminently obvious idea really should have been. It should have been two people. It should have been somebody that holds a grudge against Barney and is really angry at him and is as threatening him and all this. And it should have been another criminal who was way worse in the past and that he's seen the light in prison and he protects Barnie. And it should have been either like a really short guy like this guy in the cell, or something super huge and like scaring away this other criminal that should have been part of it, you know.

Instead they literally just go back to the same well over and over again. But is Barney standing in the cell having to react to someone else doing William Windham's eventual lines, which is really what it is. And then they took it out in post and they, like we mentioned post production, just dubbed William Windham and which is fine, believe they did. That's that's wild that they could do that. Get the fuck out here.

It's it's a very lazy trick, and it's a cheap one, but it's I mean, I get it, but it kind of robs the episode of any emotional opportunity to have some sort of interesting conversation with Barney being in prison if you're going to have him. Let me rephrase this because everybody, or not everybody, but those of you who know what the difference between prison and jail are. Barney is not in prison. He is in jail. He's in the county lockup, which is not prison.

Prison is saying saying. So he's in jail. He's essentially a temporary oldings like, and they treat it like he's in prison, which is a problem because if you were in the New York jail lockup, he's thrown into a cell with a bunch of people. It's not thrown into a cell with one other person. That's prison.

He's in jail. Yeah, well it should have been he goes to prison, why not, right, right? I mean, I mean, at this point, send him to prison for something a complete fucking miss misread situation or something. He looks like somebody else or something I don't know, right, right, Yeah, somebody witnessed something. Yeah, something like that or like another case comes back or fucking scandalon somehow sends him to prison or something.

You know, there should have been something about this, because even when it comes to the bus that he's talking about with the cocaine dealer, I'm like, I have no memory of this, Was this in a previous episode or are you just making this up whole cloth? It feels like they're making it up because there was that drug bus with the cocaine m hm, and I think it was a black gentleman whose cocaine it was, And they were like, well, you know he was like a you guys could just make the cocaine disappear and take it right, Yeah, because it was fucking what's his name? Oh god, the hero of the three episode run here, Oh Dorsey Dorsey, Yeah, Paul Lieberman. Dorsey was like witnessing all this and he was like, is that enough for you to believe that I'm a straight cop?

Now? Yeah? Yeah, I know. There was nothing to do with sources, nothing to do with any of that stuff. So yeah, it's just again like you couldn't have done a better job with that.

It could have been another case. Well, and I find it also very weird that the reason the judge sends Barney to jail, it's not a real reason he would get sent to jail. You are not supposed to reveal your confidential sources to anybody. That's why they're confinential. Like the idea that the judges like, well, I'm mad at you for not revealing your confidential source in front of the courtroom, in front of everybody, is is asinine, frankly, And then they go as far as to say like, well, you know here some time in the ice box, will who you off?

Motherfucker? Is essentially what the judge says, And it's like Barney is just doing what any one of us would do, which is you don't reveal your fucking confidential sources. Because what happens when you reveal a confidential source, they don't become confidential anymore. And especially if they're ratting on other people in a drug bust, there's a nine out of ten chance that if they rat on that person and that their identity comes out, they're gonna get killed or murdered. So why you're just like, well, we're gonna punish Barney for doing the right thing.

Like I get that, that's kind of the conceit of the episode, but it's only used for to two scenes. It's really they really don't make it a point to show that, like the wheels of justice have kind of come off here and Barney's being unjustly punished. They kind of just going up. The judge is just a dick and just doesn't care. And on top of everything else, you're telling me that Barney's in jail and we don't get a scene with Luger coming to see him and or previously mentioned Scanlon coming to cloat.

You're telling me that these are opportunities that are fucking missed by this show. Like, guys, you've had these characters on the show for fucking years. At this point, Well, Miller, looks like they finally caught up with you, right, Scond, Right, we could write the scene right now. Well, I'm only in here as a as a mistake and identity. That's what they all say, Miller, Like, there you go.

I remember one time Brownie gott in a whole lot of trouble and they sent him to the whole scow. You gotta watch yourself, though, Bond. Don't let him drop the soap around here. Just doesn't help me. Now, Luger, they drop the soap, you just let it be all right, thanks, Luger.

I'll keep that one under advice man exactly. Yeah. And oh yeah, they do make a up to use a parlance a butt rape joke. Goodness, multiple butt rape jokes because they take they take his soap on a rope away. Oh yeah, yeah.

Well, and I was really hoping because like the cops that book him aren't that funny. Like one doesn't even have any lines, he's just writing down the stuff. And I was really hoping. Like when I first saw him from the side, he has a big fucking mustache. I was like, oh, is it fuckings a Telly?

Wouldn't that be great to have the Telly back? No, just some dude, Yeah, just the dude. And then the other guy who just seems kind of put out by stuff. And again that's not funny. He's no Frank from the Blues Brothers, you know, right, I do.

I do like the Dale Robinette Matt Hagen character of this, like Chevy Chase somewhat look alike. Like I saw that guy and I was like, he looks like like we have Chevy Chase at home. Like t MoU chevy Chase, like really like, I mean, I know they couldn't get chevy Chase for a whole host of reasons, namely, he was too busy making modern problems this is eighty one. But he really chevy. Yeah, he has he has that energy of like just this like smug dickhead.

I liked that character. They don't do enough with him. He's kind of a one note gag too. Yeah. He like I said, he doesn't get his come up and whatsoever.

And he's so should you know, and the guy who's in jail, he's got some of the best lines. I was just like, I'm not Gavin McLeod. Would it surprise you to learn I'm forty one. No. The whole thing about the Elephant man, well, I haven't seen them, Molie, but I understand it's good.

That's pretty great. I will say. We find out another thing about the precinct. Apparently, for some reason unbeknownst to us, up until this point, there's been a Grandfather clock behind the door when it opens. Yeah.

Convenient. Yeah, I mean, hey, it's just like Mike there for one episode to serve a purpose and now he's gone. Just the reflection. Yes, yeah, I've never noticed it until now because it hasn't been there, because it has literally not been there until now. Because I can guarantee you if we go back last episode, if or the last time that shot is used where it's kind of a wider shot and we're just to the left of the door a little bit so you can see through the door when it opens, guarantee you there's no clock there at all, just like the goddamn windows that are all of a sudden here in the episode that I have to think about all the time.

Yeah. Yeah, but seeing out the precinct was weird in and of itself, frankly, but we didn't see much, you know, No, just the room where they booke them, and then the hallway and then do we see Yeah, I guess we get to see the room where they come and visit him, right, which is a pretty good scene in the second episode. Yeah, which was nice because you also get a nice hostage reference with the yellow ribbon that Levitt's wearing, right. Yeah. Well, I was like, oh, look at you have a great family, I think is what somebody says to him when they're visiting, which is I found that seemed to be very charming, but at the same time, like I don't, I don't know, like they really this season, they've really fumbled a lot, and this is just another fumble in a long line of fumbles.

Because I mean, again, Barney going to jail is a fun idea, but I mean, you know, i'd watch that, but I just I don't know, like the idea, like the idea, there were so many things left hand that they don't do, and the things that they do do aren't particularly interesting. Like it's clear Barney hasn't showered the whole time he's been there, Like they don't really acknowledge that, Like I don't know, like they don't. They don't do a very good job at making us understand why Barney's in prison. They just go, oh, he's doing the right thing and now he's in prison, Like I okay, Well, they don't even do a great thing when it comes to back at the precinct, Like Arthur is being a total jerk to Harris, but I don't think that it's not bothering Harris nearly enough, and Arthur's not being that much of a jerk.

But just like the handwriting stuff instead of typing it or like just kind of refusing to do some of the things that Harris is asking him to do, or just being very lax lackadaisical about stuff. It's like, all right, that should have been like a real tense relationship, and like suddenly Harris has to learn what leadership is like. And I kind of like since idea of sending out one of the guys to go to the Salvation Army go undercover, like either as one of them, as when the Salvation Army people, or as somebody that needs help, and then you catch the criminal that way, and it's like that could have been a whole episode, but it really isn't, Like it should have been like coming back in and you are a dressed one way and like, oh I got offered charity or something like there should have been jokes.

I guess that's my whole thing. There should have been more jokes in this episode. You got joke show You don't Got jokes is a problem. It does have jokes, but the idea of the four of them taking time out of their busy schedule to come visit Barnie is like it's a funny gag, but again, like also in reality, it makes no sense, right, because well, and then it gets sad when they're like, did you visit Bernie? No?

I didn't. Oh yeah, I guess he spent the whole weekend alone and there should have been devasty right, guess not guess they don't care. That's the thing, Like, you're telling us that there should be stakes here, and I'm not saying that there aren't, but in this show, you don't need that. There don't need to be stakes in this show, like it would be like it would be like for me at this point in the show, being like, oh no, wo joho, it's got shot. Whatever will happen?

Like nothing will happen, exactly nothing. Barney going to jail means effectively nothing for the show unless they bring it up again, which this is a fifty to fifty chance of that happening. I don't see the point of sending Barney to jail because they don't do enough with it to justify a a two parter. And b not only is it a two parter, but in the second part it ends up taking up all of the time that could have been used for a storyline that is set up in the first episode. The John Dulligan stuff with the with the Salvation Army.

It's it's so poorly handled because they give all the time to Barney, which in and of itself ain't great either. I would have loved if Harris comes in and he really starts to feel the pain that Barney feels being the leader. But then he he takes Wojo aside and says something to him that really hits home with Wojo, something that Barney would have been able to say to him. I don't know what it is, maybe just like, hey, when you come in and you're late, you make all of us look bad, not just yourself. So think about that the next time you come in late or something like some sort of way that Hair's right better than Barnie, but then he's also so much worse than Bernie in so many ways.

And when Barney's back, it should be like, oh, thank god you're back, you know. Like as it is, he settled into the office, he's got plans, he's got artwork, he's got all that. That is a funny thing. I laughed out loud when that when Barney comes in and his whole office has been taken over. Okay, but like again, there's not enough jokes after that.

Yeah, it laughed a few times very hard while I was watching this, but nothing very sisting. Yeah, no, same. And this show, I think is known for actually allowing the situational comedy to play out and actually get some interesting jokes mined out of it, because ultimately, that's all this show does is you set these characters up into a situation and you mind the comedy out of it. It's a sitcom for a reason. And I think the show has kind of lost sight of what makes the show funny this season.

I think it really has come down to the show is a lot more narratively driven than it was before. And weird choice. Like, I'm not saying it's a bad choice. I'm just saying they didn't execute it very well. This is a perfectly advisable choice to make in the eighties if you wanted to do a little bit of a different way of doing storytelling and again kind of pushing the envelope for a show that didn't have narrative through lines and you wanted to add that to your show.

Cool, fine, perfectly fine. They don't do a very good job of doing that, and again, this show doesn't need it. This This is not something that the show needed. And I think you can kind of see like how you know, blood not like blood donors or like organ donors reject the boty, you know, it rejects the organ. That's what it feels like.

The show is really rejecting like these things that it can't figure out how to use, and they just kind of stick out and the show taking everything so seriously all of a sudden, it's just strange. Does it work for me? Yeah? I want a joke, and then I want another joke, and then I don't want there to be a little paused, and then I don't want a third joke that makes a reference back to the first joke. Is that so hard?

I guess? So, I mean, I under I think we both understand now why Otto dislikes this season so much. It really does feel like now the rains aren't in the hands of people I trust. And what's weird is if you go and look who wrote these episodes, recognizable names. Yeah, it's not like they suddenly switched everybody in the seventh season.

Nope. Directed by Nome Pittlick, written by Frank Dungan, Jeff Stein and Danny Arnold. Like, if anything, these should have been the best season because Danny Arnold is back, he is operating in full form, and instead it's like, let's do something different with Barney Miller. With Barney Miller, Okay, what are you doing? Well, it's going to be a serious cop show now with some jokes.

Well, why why are we doing that? I have not found out a good reason why they decided to change the show like this, because it's just doesn't work for me, doesn't work for you clearly either. It's the show has become kind of unfunny in this seventh season in a way that I was not expecting, because I think the one evergreen quality of the show up until the seventh season has been it can get a laugh out of me every episode. Not the case anymore. Well, the good news is we only have six more original episodes to go through in this season, which will take us two of our podcast episodes to cover.

When we come back next month, we're going to be talking about the Doll Lady and the bomb and riot all from late March and early April of nineteen eighty one. Hopefully it will be a little bit better. That's what we can hope. Until then, Chris, what is going on with you, sir. Everything that I'm doing can be found at Weirdingwaymedia dot com.

Weirdingway Media is the podcast network that you and I started two years ago. Almost two years ago now I know. It's pretty crazy and there are over twenty shows on the network, including pop culture shows, true crime, paranormal, supernatural, and kind of everything in between. If you can't find it on weirding Way Media, might not want to be listening to it. So that's where you can find the things that I work on weirdingwaymedia dot com.

What about you, Mike Well, I host a little show called how Did This Get Made? Me and my two friends. We'd like to yuck it up, talk about movies, just kind of make fun of them, you know, take them out for a walk, just look them up a little bit, punch them in the alley, that kind of thing. It's pretty funny. I get some words and accolades out of it, So that's pretty good.

But that's not on Weirdywaymedia dot com because I don't believe in supporting the network. Oh got it makes sense. Thank you for your continued support. Find that over your Wolf dot com. So there you go.

Until we talk again next month. Chris, I want to thank John Walker for our theme music, and I want to thank all the good people that listen to the show and hopefully know that I'm kidding around when I talk about how did this get made