Episode 54: The Arrival + Obituary + Inquiry

Weird. Welcome to the Life and Times of Captain Barney Miller podcast. I'm your host, Mike Woitcher, and me, of course, is the rookie mister Chris Dashue. I prefer to be known by my original stage name, Little Corky Carter. Onto this episode, we're talking about three episodes of the original Barney Miller.

We are heading towards the finish line here with the eighth season. We're talking about the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth episodes of that season. Talking about Arrival, which aired originally on February twenty fifth, nineteen eighty two, Obituary, which aired on March eleventh, nineteen eighty two, and Inquiry or inquiry whichever you want to say, which aired on March twenty sixth, nineteen eighty two. Three episodes, Well, I think some of them are pretty good. I think maybe some of them aren't as strong as they could be.

But Chris, I'm very curious, what did you think of this batch of episodes, sir? Pretty good? And also now we know Arthur Dietrich mad pussy fiend. I mean, we already knew that from before, but my god, if. You're talking old love, did you go ahead?

Did you watch past this? Did I watch the wrong ones? So that's what I warned you about via Facebook? Okay, so I fucked up then, huh okay, yeah, but one I don't know if she's stand something. Okay, what did I What did I miss watch?

Well? Uh, you might have watched Old Love first. Did you see the one where the old flame shows up at the precinct? Yeah okay, yeah, you did the exact same thing that I did. But did you watch the one where Wojo?

Uh? Well, the one that with Salvuscuso. Did you see that one where he brings it? Where Bojo brings in sal again the bald guy, right, No, no, I'm talking about like he's he he shoots sal in the arm? Yeah, the guy with the fake leg?

No? No, oh my god? What did I watch? Did I even watch Barney Miller? So you watched two episodes in a row that had Marco Racuzzo, right, the guy with the big head and the little face of the head.

Yeah, yes, okay, so you should have only seen him once, So you did bad and you saw him twice, just like the cowboy from Mulholland Drive. So yeah, you did like I said, you did the exact same thing I did. That's why I was trying to warn you, Chris. To warn you boy, I wasn't paying attention. Huh.

It's okay, we'll see how far we get through this episode. So which episode did I watch out of order? You watch Old Love out of order? So that actually airs after the Inquiry episode. So let's talk about Arrival.

The Arrival, which is about the disgruntled member of Mensa, Yes, as well as the arrival, the titular arrival of the male Order bride of mister Luker. Yeah, that's right. What a weird thing that we finally have to deal with in the show, with Luger having a male Order bride. Yes, a very nice male Order bride. I think career nice for him.

Yeah. Karina Folblay, I think she's fantastic in this role. I think she's really super cute, and her chemistry with Barney as such that I'm just like, I missus Bernie's wife. I really kind of think, you know, I like seeing him like playing with this girl, you know, I thought that was nice, like having her as like his comic foil here. But yeah, I don't know.

Yeah, tell me more about your thoughts. About this episode, Chris. I No, I enjoyed it. I mean, I think it's weird that we I mean, like again with with Luger being the way that he is with thing, it's odd to It's odd to me. It's odd to me because like, I don't I know that they brought this up and and then I know that this was part of what this sea.

Was it this season that they brought up the Luger's getting a wife thing? Yeah? Yeah, just the probably about six seven episodes ago. Okay, so it was this season. Like, it's weird that this show is now doing that.

I'm not saying it wasn't before, but the show wasn't really like holding itself to certain things before and this was one of those things. And one of those things being like, oh, we mentioned this thing out of hand and now it's like a big deal and now it's actually gonna happen like again, Like the show was kind of trending in that direction for a very not long time. But I guess like last season they did it once or twice, but now it's like here's an entire episode about it. So I enjoyed it. I think again, like it's weird to have this show holding itself accountable for things that it brought up.

But I'm kind of glad that it is because it speaks more to where television is going as a medium versus I don't know, again, like what this show. I mean, we've had people showing up in this show before that weren't playing the same people, but now we are getting to the point where people are playing the same person in the same episode. So like it's the show is like slowly melded into what it kind of needs to be as opposed to what it was before, if that makes sense. So I like it, but it is strange to me that I don't know, it's just strange, Like it's strange that we're actually having an episode about and a like Asian male order bride. Like it's it's kind of odd, isn't it.

Like ultimately it is kind of strange. Yeah, it is. It's well, and especially because yeah, they I think they brought it up twice before because it was the idea of the bride and him uh Luger asking Barney or pretty much guilting Barnie into writing the ad copy. And then another episode shortly thereafter where Frank was not happy with the quality of the copy and just thought that Barnie was making sound bad. Barnie right for me, Yeah, right exactly, but not like that.

Yeah yeah, but yeah, but make me sound better than I am. And it's like, oh, good. Luck, Like right, exactly, exactly. Well, and yeah, what you're saying about like recurring characters or recurring actors that come back as different characters. I mean, Mario Rokuzo is one of those guys.

We've talked about him several times, but now he's he's in this one as a certain character as Norman de Luca, and then he's going to be back in that Old Flame episode in three episodes as the same character as Norman de Luca. And yeah, this guy is a total sad sack, but he just wants to be really helpful. He's got this wooden leg. He just goes above and beyond trying to be polite to the point of just being really obsequious. And it's like, dude, just grow a spine, would you.

Yeah? Well, and I think what's I think what's funny is Mario Racuso plays that character so well, and we've seen him on the show before as other characters and when we cover night Court once we're done with this show, he will show up once there. But he's shown up, I mean a couple times in this show as not as this character. He's shown up in season five, in season six, and in season seven, and then this season we've already seen him once as Ed Brotsky, and now he's playing a character that the next time we see him it will be the same character, which is kind of again, kind of sort of odd to me because that's not a thing that the show did before. When he was showing up before, it was not you know, oh seeing you again, mister whomever.

It was just like, oh, here's a new guy every time. But I mean, those sad, sad characters, it can be a bit much. But I don't know. Mario Rakuzo just he looks the part so well that I just totally buy it. He looks the part and then the fake leg thing, like I don't know, he's he's doing some pretty good physical comedy with the fake leg.

I feel like. Anyways, Yeah, and good sound effect when Harris puts his hand on his leg and you hear the knock, you know, I thought that was nice. And yeah, he it's interesting because he can play a real scum very easily, and you buy him as that, But then I bought him as this really nice guy as well. I'm just like, that's super impressive. I mean, he's the same guy that was cooking up wasn't he cooking up Freddy Duke in that big pot with h thank you waas?

Yeah? Ants in that done? It wasn't night Gallery from the dark Side dark Side? Yeah, yeah, cooking up somebody in a pot? Oh it is?

This? Is this wine? And oh whatever? Like, oh my god, whatever? Yeah.

Yeah, I believe him more here than I did in that episode. Mm hmm, you know what I mean. Yeah, so well, I don't know. He's one of those actors who, like, when you cast him the right way, it really works. They in this show know how to use him because he just has a great look to him.

Like in that episode of Tales from the Dark Side, I couldn't I couldn't really buy it, Like I couldn't buy him as like this like devious cannibal husband, Like this is much more believable. It's just like sad sack dude who just kind of is haunting the precinct, kind of making a problem for everybody because he doesn't know how to just get the fuck out of people's way. Like it's get out of people's way, dude, Like just get out of their way and stay out of their way. And he's like, no, can't do that, and it's like, oh God, Like here, I mean, Harris gets to the point with him where he's just like sit down, like and that might be the next episode. But like I think again, it just gets more to the point of like we haven't had characters really like this in the show either that sit in the precinct for the whole episode, which is again I kind of like that because you get him interacting with the A plot and the B plot, because he even interacts with He even interacts with the woman that Luger ends up having, as is like I guess she's just gonna be his wife.

Yeah, what is your take on everything with Luger, because, like you asked me, I'm curious, like this this was a thing right at the time, Like this is a big thing. I mean people are still doing it now, but you know, at the time, this was like a this was like a new thing. I mean, she wasn't a mail order bride. But I always think of the bride from Adventures of Priscilla Quena the Desert, you know, the one where she's really kind of wild, especially sexually, and she does the whole thing with the ping pong balls and stuff. It's like, we married you, my I'm your wife, you know.

I'm just like, Okay, it's a little extreme there, but this woman is so nice. I'm just like, all right, yeah, I'm so curious what they're gonna do with her. But I don't think they're going to do very much at all, because she's just going to come back in Landmark two and three and that's it. Like we see her here and we won't see her again. Like maybe we'll see Luger and he'll come in talking about the old battle axe, you know, those kind of things.

But I don't see that happening. I'm I don't see it either. I'm very a transformative moment for our friend mister Luger, but it was. So strange way he just kind of like leaves the precinct and it's like he doesn't want to have anything to do with her at first. It really takes a lot of like no, you need to talk with her, Frank, Like, let's make this thing happen.

Hem and Hahn. Yeah, it's weird because of again to your point, in those original episodes when this came up, like he was really like hot to trot, he was pushing hard, like this was him, like this was his idea exactly. Yeah, and now it's like wait, wait a second, Luger, like you can't can't do that, Like no, nah ah, Like come on bro, Like that's that doesn't work here because like that, and like what's nice is the show holds him accountable through Barney, which is exactly which is nice. I mean again, like that's I think ultimately, you know our friend Otto who wrote the book on the subject, as we like to put it, and literally did I think one of the things that he would probably agree with me, as I know Easy sits here in his den and listens to this on his zoom that one of the most positive things about this show is the portrayal of Barney Miller, the character as this kind of I don't know, like and this is something as we kind of approach the end of this show, I mean, we're gonna be talking kind of I think broadly a little bit more and more as we get to the end of this because we only have two episodes left back past this, like, and I don't feel the way about any of the characters in this show like I felt about things before other than like my own personal stuff, because we've spent so much time with these characters.

We've spent years covering this show. We've watched the entire run of this show. I know people have watched this entire show, but have you sat down and watched it from start to finish recently, Like, because it's it takes a while. I mean, I don't know how long it would take to just sit and watch it. But my point being like all of that to say, I think the thing that this show benefits from the most is Hal Lindon is Barney Miller being this kind of paragon of virtue in the precinct at all times, even to his own detriment, and he upholds the law in a way that again, you would hope there are people like this out in the real world.

You would hope that there are people in positions of power, in positions of authority, that see it as not just an obligation to do the right thing, but it is my duty to do the right thing because that's why I'm here. And you see that in this episode with Luger's wife, and Barney's just like no, like you're not You're not doing that, Like, this is not what's happening here. You have made this situation and you are going to see it through and you are going to handle it. And Barney is standing up to the person who used to be his boss. He's not his boss anymore, but but like this is still someone who I would say ostensibly is like a father figure to Barney in the show.

And I think it's a pretty big moment where he stands up to him because he doesn't have to. He has no obligation to. There's literally nothing that he has to do in the scene because it's technically not even Barney's problem. I mean, this is this is Luger's kind of personal life intruding into the precinct. And like, again, this is not Barney's duty to help this woman.

If anything, it's an obligation that he has to just like be a decent human being. But I think it's I mean, again, like it's weird to me that the show goes there, but I'm glad that it does because we get to see another moment of Barney kind of standing up to I would say the one person that he maybe like has needed to stand up to the most, which is Luger, because it's not that he hasn't it's not that Barney doesn't have a spine, it's that Luger needs to correct the way that he is, which I think has been one of the things we've talked about the entire run of this show is like Luger as a character changing from this character who was just kind of the worst at the beginning. Yeah, but now yeah, but now like with this episode, like you genuinely care about him, You care about the woman that like he like mailed away for, you care about like his interactions and his camaraderie and kind of companionship with her.

But the camaraderie that he shares with Barney not getting in the way of this. But Barney also knows that like he has to be the one to say something, And I like that about this episode. Again, this episode, for all intents and purposes, is a pretty big payoff for something that we've been seeing build for a while now, which is, you know, Barney's interactions with Luger changing over this kind of the seasons because initially he Luger was his boss, and then Luger went and did is now and you know, like pr and like public relations stuff. Right, he's like behind a desk now, so he's not even in the same line as Barney. So it's interesting to see them interacting essentially now just as friends, as opposed to you know, boss and you know, you know he who isn't he who is in charge having to be the thing that Barney was navigating.

He doesn't have to navigate that anymore. This is more like a fatherly you know, paternal thing pushing back on your parents, which I mean again, I think is a pretty big deal in media and in media at this time that wasn't the thing. Like you know, we see wojeho wits do it later in one of the other episodes that we're going to talk about, we see Wojehots kind of taking Barney to task a little bit. But for Barney to take Luger to task about this thing specifically, I think is a pretty big payoff. And I appreciated that the show show writers did kind of did a service to the setup because you know, they could have there could have been a pretty shitty payoff here, and I think they I think they avoided that pretty athlete.

I don't know. Yeah, again, it's not going to come back though, like you know, that's the problem. Yeah, well, at least they're they're trying to spin it off into a new show or something. And Luger and the Missus Yeah exactly, mister and missus Luger, right, I'd watch that show. Let's go check in on what the Lugers are up to.

The Lugers couldn't be any worse than Fishish, No, exactly, because that was really Yeah, don't forget people, there was one, two, three possible spin off shows that they tried to do with this. They did the Wojo thing they did. Wasn't there something else that was like a sideways thing with it? Was with fish and uh one of the first few times we saw Dietrich as Dietrich. Right, yeah, fish Fish as fish in his own show named fish about what Fish Fish.

It's where he becomes a fishmonger. Yeah, boy, yeah, that would have been better than what we got. Just Ava Gota sitting and fishing for like twenty minute. Yeah, nothing today, just kind. Of like like that.

John Laurie show where it's just him going out fishing. Yeah, sure, why not? I mean at this point, I would at this point, what's the harm? Could anything be worse than Wojo's Girl? I don't think so.

Wojo's Girl was a special kind of awful. So, and we should probably mention the c story, which was Vincent Brysome played by Andrew Block, the guy who comes in and I guess he robs Mensa's part of MENSA. Yeah, but he doesn't like MENSA because they're a bunch of stuck up a holes. Well, I will tell you. I I'm a member, but I've never gone to any of the meetings, so I don't know.

Hopefully, when we get to the Goodbye sky High IQ case that Columbo's going to break, we'll talk more about MENSA, because that's very much a MENSA type organization. But the Alan Hot I'm JUSI but the Allen Oppenheimer character, William Deets Deets like Deets is from something else, and I'm trying to thank you the idiot. Yeah, So his character and just the way he's just such a brick. I'm just like, Okay, I can see why this Vincent Bistrom character does not like the people at MENSA if they're all like this William deets guy, well and. They insulted, didn't they insult Barney the moment they walked through Wojo the month they walk through the door, like oh yeah, yeah, like thanks, thank you?

The fuck is your problem? And I like how the episode starts with the Rubik's cube, you know, and that that plays into it, and that bis from just solves it almost immediately, like oh sorry. Yeah, yeah. The Alan Oppenheimer character, like he's one of those I don't know, he's one of those guys that gets away with being an asshole in the episode. And that's not I mean, that's not always a constant in this show, but right in this in this episode it is.

But he's definitely the asshole who like he gets away with it, but he ultimately let's I mean, you know, again, like the whole MENSA thing, I don't know, the Mensa thing kind of feels unneeded, like we've seen this before, right, I don't know. Like again I'm not saying Barney Miller's going to the old well, but like that felt a little old hand for the show with how new hand everything else was with Luger and his like his you know, mail order bride, like everything else felt so new and interesting, and then it's like, but then we have this like thing about Mensa, like some cheap jokes. I get it, the eighties mens is a thing, right, Like or is that like to say Mensa? I think they've been around for a while, but I don't.

Know the popularity of things. Oh yeah, yeah, true right again, like things fall in and out of favor. Mensa has been around for much longer since the seventies. But like again, like this show feels like it always tries to like have its finger on the pulse of things, because again, in the late seventies early eighties, we know that aliens and were wolves and all kinds of weird stuff was in and we had Kenneth Tigar doing that how many times in this show? Yeah, three times, two times.

So the Mensa thing, I was just like, oh, this feels very of the times, like we've had Agent Orange stuff. Like again, you know we you know, in one of the episodes we're going to talk about we have a police brutality thing kind of sort of I mean again, as much as the show wants to wade into it, but it feels very of the times. I just don't know. I don't know. The mail order bride stuff is just of the times as much as I would think, so, like I'm more interested in that less the Mensa being ransacked by a MENSA member.

Mm hmm. Yeah, it does feel I mean, it feels very similar to the one we just had a few weeks ago where the guy was breaking into the warehouse to steal all of his own equipment back that because he couldn't pay the taxes, and then. We're gonna have to hold onto it again because it's evidence guy, right, Yeah, yeah, yeah, it felt very similar. I'm with you. Yeah, Well, let's move on over to a obituary, which has the storyline of a man's obituary being reprint or being printed in the paper and this young whipper snapper reporter refusing to ticket out of the out of the paper issue or retraction anything like that.

The young whipper snapper being played by Will Seltzer, who I mostly know from more American graffiti, but he's been a ton of stuff. And the person who he wrote the obituary about is Wendell R. Bergendhal, played by Barney Martin, who most people will know him as Seinfeld's dad on Seinfeld. Yea, but my god, I mean, the guy had such a huge career and just was in so many different things over the years, but he played Seinfeld's dad perfectly. So this is the weakest episode of the three, right.

I would think? So yeah, I mean it's pretty just like, Okay, we've seen this before. No, it's and like what's kind of a shame is the episode has some familiar faces. The Peggy Pope. Peggy Pope is back once again for like the thirteenth time or whatever it is.

And this, I mean, I'll tell you at this point, like even when it hasn't been her, I've thought it was her, do you know what I mean? Like, that's how many times I feel like Peggy Pope has been on Barney Miller. Is that like every time we've seen someone who kind of looks like her, I think it's her, even though it probably has only been her half of the time. She was in six episodes of the show twice in season three, once in season five, once in season six, once in season seven, and once in season eight, so it hasn't even been that much. But for whatever reason, it feels like she's been in the show way more because we've seen the kinds of characters that she plays a lot.

It's just she hasn't been the one to play. But it kind of feels like a shame that she's in this episode because the storyline between her and Barney Martin is kind of weird and oddly touching. The other story is like we've kind of seen this other thing that the reporter thing. We've seen this before, like we've we've seen that before, but the other thing is like kind of oddly touching. I don't know, like where they get to at the end of it where it's like, well, I'll be out later, like okay, like because I'm not because I'm not, in fact your dead husband, right, yes, yeah, in Wyoming.

I don't Like that's the thing I don't understand, Like what So the guy writes an obituary right for the guy who's in prison and the woman, but so the woman but not the guy who's in prison. The guy is then pitcked up because he has the name of the guy who's in the obituary, and they call the woman down there because she saw the obituary as well. Right, Yeah, what the fuck was reported as being dead. Is like, you, you need to put in a retraction. He won't put in an attraction.

They get in an altercation. That's why he's down in the cage and the other guys there by Harris's desk trying to file the complaint. And luckily he's there for Joe's latest crusade, which is all of the chickens and other food that are in warehouses everywhere, which is funny because talk about the eighties, I mean, the whole idea of government cheese that was you well, just the idea of like, oh, you're you're so poor that you get cheese from. The government food stamp, food stamp, King and queens. Yeah, we're talking like total like social shaming kind of thing, like oh, you probably probably shop at Kmart and know I was like okay, yeah, yeah, I do.

You're right, amen. I go to good Will for my clothing and it's not because I'm poor, it's because Goodwill's got some banging deals and who doesn't like to buy. Other people's shit? Well, I mean, it's it was. It was quite a traumatizing thing when I was in seventh grade, but by the time it was in tenth grade, it was like okay, yeah, like or even when you're in elementary school.

The whole government cheese thing was like such a oh they st poor, they need food? Yeah, how dare they want to eat? The shaming was not good. Yeah, I know, and it's kind of nice. Like speaking of Peggy Pope, it's a little bit of a nine to five reunion because Richard Stall who plays the government a hole guy, but he was in uh, nine to five as well as Peggy Pope, and he plays this government person.

He's been in so many things and he just plays that same type of like at first when I saw him, I thought he was the psychiatrist from Terminator who we've also seen in the show, but no, he's a totally different bald character actor. Also Chris who's in Under the Rainbow. Oh, one of my favorite things we've watched all year. I know. Yeah, oh yeah, right up there with Spies like Us.

Yeah, right up there with Deal of the Century. Well, a movie that I'm not even sure you could convince me is different from Spies Like Us. You showed me scenes from that movie. Both of those movies just intermixed. I would probably only know which is which because Dan Ackward's not in.

One of them, right, right, not mugging as much? God yeah. Yeah. Like the the description of the episode on IMDb for this one is just terrible because they talk about how they arrest a chicken thief and I'm like, chicken thief, Like yeah, no, it's like it's meat basically, yeah, they are. It is poultry that he's stealing.

But I would think a poultry chief thief would make more sense. Yeah, I don't know that that whole like, oh, he just happened to be there when the other guy came in with Wojo's like lead, Like I don't I don't like that because like this show has never gone to that, like has never gone there before, like not like to this extent where it's like and now I'm put like, I don't know, I didn't care enough about the Will Seltzer character to care. Does that make sense? Well, he's kind of a little prick. Yeah, like you will also that like yeah, he looks like typical eighties like prick, like prick journalist like in another movie he's or a TV show he's getting murdered for following too close to the lead, Like oh.

Yeah, exactly exactly like you kinda or he's in a he's restoring artwork in a museum and the artwork captains be possessed by the story, by the spirit of Vigo. Yeah, I mean he looks very Peter mcnicholl, very Peter mcnickoll. I love Peter mcnichkel. Peter mcnicholl has like one of the great movie freakouts of all time. And bean, I mean I love Peter mcnickell.

I mean, Peter McNichol is one of the reasons Ghostbusters Too is such a fun movie. Well, Peter mcnicholl, I mean, I grew up watching him fighting dragons. He's awesome at that fuck in dragons Layer. Never seen it? Oh, you got to check that out sometime.

I wish it was Peter mcnicholl in this episode. Yeah, not that I would think it would have worked any better any worse. Like, I think this is one of those episodes where the the A plot and the B plot intermixing the way that they do does not work because it's, like I guess, the A, the B and the C plot technically all intermixed with each other, making kind of like a nothing at all plot, which doesn't really work. For me. Yeah, I forgot that Will Seltzer was the guy who created the nuclear bomb in that episode back in season four.

Oh wow, yeah, god, it was on Nick's desk when it was nixed desk. Oh god, yeah, jeez, Louise, many moons ago, as they would say, yeah, yeah, I don't even know how many years ago that was in the run of this show, Like season four was four years ago, No, I guess yeah, see, it would have been. Like yeah, yeah, they kind of go in order, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, god Jack Sue was still alive. Everybody exactly the show.

Reached, Like when did the show reach like its final form? Was it season sixs six? Right? Yeah? Season five?

No, season five. I think it was season five when Dietrich came aboard and we. Exactly away, right yeah, and so five, six, seven, eight, we got four seasons. Half of the show has kind of been, yeah, half of the show has been kind of the best version of the show. I think this season and last season shared the same opening credits.

I don't know if the season prior had the same like Levett Dietrich combo towards the end, yeah, I don't know if that was still like when they added in, I guess there was Dietrich, Levitt and Luger. We're all in the opening credits, and Uger hasn't been in the opening credits for at least two seasons now. It's right, man, we've been covering the show for a while. Yeah, we've been a part of our lives. Like again, like again, like seeing Barney a positive like a positive male role model on television.

I cannot think is a bad thing for anybody growing up at the time watching this show, because I think this show is for adults. But I also think this show you could have watched it with your family, right, Like I think, like, I don't think the show is excluding anyone in terms of the subject material. I think the show's comedy sometimes maybe is on a spectrum in terms of who it's gonna get a laugh from, because there are some episodes of the show that we've laughed out loud at. A lot of them have just been like a snigger or two or a chortal but like not laugh out loud laughter. Right.

But I think that the show, I think is overall a good, a positive thing in terms of the representation of the police and the representation of a mixed workplace as well. You know, the only thing that would have made it better is if a female character had stuck around. Really, like that's the thing that the show is ultimately missing, Like go after me as a wokester whatever the fuck horseshit term idiots use, but like this show would have benefited from a woman police officer maybe even And like this, you know what this is. This is how I would have done the show if it had been me. Levitt would have been a female character.

Yeah, I can see that, right, And like because Levit already has like a sense of like there's like a like the way Karl Levitt plays the way Ron Carey play plays Carl Levitt is kind of like the housekeeper of the twelfth Precinct, at least for them. Like he shows up, he gets them stuff, Like he's always like, I don't know, there's something that's a little less masculine about his character than everybody else. And maybe it's the uniform of it all. He's the one in uniform and they're the ones out of uniform. So I mean again, like their uniforms are suits and ties and his uniforms a suit and tie.

But he always looks a little bit more again, like there's something about him. He's diminutive, he's smaller than them, Like he's very clear I'm not saying. Like again, like, if you had a female character in this show, it would have been the Levitt character. You could you could swap that in rather easily, and a lot of the lines would still work, Like most of the comedy would still work. Levitt doesn't have a family, Like could that out?

Yeah, you could just had a career police off police officer woman, like you know what I mean, Like I and I again, Like that's the one thing the show is missing. But this show, I think, for the most part, does a very good job at being a positive representation of police in the media. But I think positive male role models in the media at the time. And look, there are other shows on at the time like this one. But I don't know.

This show never deviates into like weird like areas that make me kind of like feel icky about the characters. Like the characters. There's only been a handful of times where I'm like E But I think again, Like, I also chalk that up to sometimes the writers who are writing this show aren't consistent. But I think overall, the show has been very consistent in the way it portrays the male characters, especially Barney and Wojahowitz and and and uh Ron Glass as well. Like the three of them, like they are the most consistent, Like everybody else kind of showed up later, But those three are kind of like the pillars that have held this show up the whole time.

And I think they're all very positive representations of what they're trying to represent. I guess too, we find out that Bernie is a Pisces, if that's to be believed by when this episode comes out, because it is Bernie's birthday. That's right. They really go all out with these presents, I tell you, and love it with that little cupcake with one solitary candle. I bet you love it.

Though at least he tried, He did try. Yeah, I love Lovett. I love Steve Landisburgh so much. What a good addition to this show. Seriously, it's a shame we did this show, and we did because so many of the people in this show have like long since passed away.

Oh, there was a time where they probably would have talked to us willingly and would have been happy to talk to us about it. I mean their kids talked to Otto for his book, So if you want to read more about what the people were like, go pick Auto's book up. But oh, it's a shame because too many of the people on this show have passed away. And I'm not just talking about the main cast members, but like pretty much everybody from this show in their sixties, seventies and or passed away. So this is a coming up with inquiry.

It is another episode that has just stacked with very familiar faces and faces that we've seen before on the show. Alan rich In here he starts off the episode you got Barry Gordon, who also we talked about on the Fish Show. Are told again showing out the exact same hair as before. Did this guy's hair ever change as an actor? Did he always look the same?

Mind? God? His I know his hairline couldn't change, but like he always looks the same like every time we've seen him. Well, and then speaking of hairline, Michael Lombard, famous bald guy actor who just oh he's so. Good, famous bald guy actor, also a famous asshole bald guy actor, because I think this is the second or third time we've seen him in the show, just playing like an unrepentant asshole, right, or was he in something else that we saw?

Like, I know he's been in other things that we've talked about. He's been in so many things. Yeah, Like you look at his picture on IMDb and you're just like, oh, I know this guy, Like I've seen him and a bunch of stuff and you know, not small stuff either, Like you know, he's in Rounders Thomas Crown Affair, like you know, pet Cemetery. But yeah, he was in three episodes of this, three episodes higher. This is his last episode.

But yeah, he just like just bald, the most bald stereotypical guy possible. There you go, yeah, oh yeah, he's amazing. And I love the relationship that he has with his wife. It's pretty pretty hot. She's the one who wears the pants in the relation.

Yes, definitely. Salviascuzzo, who we've talked about many times. Otto generously hooked me up with Sal so that we could talk about the taking problem one two three. Sal is a fucking trip man. He is great and the reason to pick up that book of autos because what he brings to the party is pretty fantastic.

But yeah, he's barely in here. He barely gets any lions. He's the guy that Wojo shoots, and it's like, okay, you know, like I would like some war from him. But he's so drunk through most of the episode that he doesn't even realize that he's been shot or who shot him? Did you do this to me?

Right right at the very end, yeah, Like we. Literally get like a freeze frame of like did you shoot me? Like, oh my god, dude, you've been in this room the whole fucking time. Like yeah, but he's fantastic as has strung out, just like the bags under his eyes and the pale face. They make him live very strung out.

He looks like he looks like he could be an extra in Return of the Living Dead. Oh yeah, that's how like fucking wild his makeup is they I think they make him look a little too strong out. Maybe yeah, he was kind of unreal. He looks he looked like you've always talked about, like you don't like things where people are pretending to be drunk. Like they probably went a little too far and make him look strung out because he looks more dead than strung out.

Like it's it's a bit much, But we finally get a Cops Dealing with Cops things episode for the first time in quite some time, which I found in I find interesting because this, again, this show is kind of it's not that it's straight away from it. It's had on a very special episode of Barney Miller from time to time. I wouldn't say this is one of those episodes, but it could be kind of classified that way, given the conversation that again, our kind of four or five leads have with with Wojo at the end, Like again, like again, doing your duty as a police officer means sometimes having to just like do the thing, and sometimes the thing is the least palatable thing that you have to do, but like that's their job, that's their obligation and duty and again part of what is expected.

And I like how he's like, you know, he's like, I'm the one that answered the phone. Any one of y'all could have answered the phone. It's like, yeah, but that's the way it goes sometimes, Like that is literally just the way it is. And he's pretty repentant. He's just like, oh, yeah, I shot this guy and needed to.

Basically I was like all right, and yeah, Barry Gordon coming in as basically the good IA person, and then Joe Mantel coming in as Raymond Wymond, who does not hesitate to tell you what his name full name is. I was really surprised that it wasn't the guy from IA coming in here and just being a complete prick. Now, mind, I don't mind not seeing Scanlon, but I'm just surprised that it was David Fingler and Raymond Weyman coming in here. I'm disappointed it wasn't Scanton. I am thoroughly disappointed.

I mean because Scanlon is such an asshole. He is, He's such a fucking asshole, and like the last time we saw him was like the peak of his assholeery. So I would have liked for it to beIN Scanlon, but I understand why it wasn't for logical reason. But at the same time, why he's an internal affairs, Like I don't get why he's not unless it's because of what happened in the last time we saw him, which okay, fine, Like if that, if, if, if you're gonna do that, have somebody say that, like that's an easy enough throwaway line, like oh where's Scanlon? Oh he you know whatever, Like he passed this one on to us, like you you can say that show, like you have the permission to say that, like.

Right, exactly. I don't know what I mean before Yeah, yeah, Zach, I mean how many how many times they do with Barbara Barry's character, like all the time, like constantly, Like you're telling me that the show is above doing throwaway lines for characters. Come on, we literally just address the possibility of them doing that with uh, with Luger's wife like that. It's just like she's not on screen and he's referring to her. Like that's called economics, like being economical.

You don't have to trot people in and out for characters in the show to reference them. Uh yeah, yeah yeah, Well, I mean Barbara Barry, you know, and the kids. They bring up the kids, and they bring up Barbara Barry. Yeah yeah, oh yeah, I mean they don't how are they doing, yeah exactly. How are the little ones uh not so little anymore?

Love it? Yeah? Yeah? What the fuck? Like yeah, it's it's I don't know, it's odd, but I do think that again, this is a missed opportunity for Scanlon, But again, he does come back before the end of the season.

I'm pretty sure he comes back in the Landmark two and three, so. Oh yeah, well that's when his wife's in there. So yeah, well, and also I'm assuming Scanlon comes back at some point in one of those episodes. I would think so, but now I'm curious. Yeah, George George Murdoch is I don't know.

I feel like George Murdoch has been a periphery player here, but it is it is missed. He is missed in this episode rather like I I don't I don't understand why you don't take advantage of the easy layup. If you're not going to have him, at least have somebody reference because he's been the internal affairs guy this whole time, like, and he's been going after them for nothing this whole time, and now he has something to be there for and he's not like, exactly, come on show, like, don't don't try it, don't try to put one over on me like that. Well, and it's amazing that it's so immediate, because usually with things like this, it's like two or three episodes later, it's like, oh, here comes Scanlon to talk about like Wojo's pants problem.

You know that he's shooting Blanks. It's like that was many episodes ago by the time Scanlon shows up and it's like, no, I heard about that complaint from this late. Yeah, it's like, oh okay, you know, it's weird that it's right now, right here, at this particular time that like sal is in the precinct in the cage and these guys are there at the same time. Yeah. Yeah, it's I mean, again, a little bit of convenience, a little bit of convenient timing with the show, which is fine.

I just the show doesn't do that very often. Is it doing it now exactly? Oh? Well, it's I really like this, and I know I probably shouldn't like it as much, but I like the storyline that we mentioned briefly with Bonnie Bartlett as Emily Loftus and Michael Lombard as Joseph Loftis and having I think it's really what does it for me? So they're a couple who are trying to get their very rich couple and they're trying to get their kid into an exclusive sounds like daycare, but it's like not even elementary school, not even kindergarten.

They're just trying to get this kid in a daycare type of thing or preschool and no, he's not good enough, not smart enough, whatever it is, and being told that by Norman Bartold as Gordon Wendell and Norman Bartold is another guy who plays an obsequious asshole like nobody's business. He's just got that kind of the guy that played Higgins from Magnum p I. Like, he's kind of got that look to him and he just can play that so well that like roll you know how those neody like yeah, just amazing. And his hairline he literally looks like to me, a rankin in Basque character comes to life with that hairline and like his kind of like somewhat exaggerated features but not really like he just looks I don't know.

They always cast him perfectly in this show because he has such a you know, he's got that like he's got that look. He's just got that look about him, and so it they lean into it with this show. Again, the show knows how to make the most out of the people that are coming in to be the character actors in these situational comedies, like especially this show, like they know how to cast people that look the part of the fat Maleman and Stuart Penkins you know case, or the you know the woman, the distressed woman in Peggy Pope's case, or the bald asshole in you know Michael, Yeah, Michael Lombard's case, like all of these people like well cast, I mean, like even I mean even in this episode where I feel like the the kind of Alan Rich storyline kind of gets lost in the mix.

Ultimately like it does it totally, he does. Like I'm disappointed that it does, because again, you have a great looking character actor who I would describe as like human amphibian, like you know, kind of like frog like. And he is great too, like he's he just has a great look to him and wearing that fucking bucket hat makes it look like he's going fishing constant. Yes, but he's great. He's great too.

This is the fifth and last time that are told is on this show. He came in while they were watching the dirty movie that Harris had made. He also came in and was the guy who was in charge of the Musac company. Remember when the guy was going crazy about the Musac and the sublimental messages, and he was the guy who was denying it faintly, you know, Yeah, he plays those characters so well, yeah, no. He really does.

And you know, for me, I think the thing that makes him such a good actor is his ability to again, like playing the part is one thing, looking the part as another. Like those two things kind of intermingle when you have a great character actor like him in this show, because again, he's he looks the part, he plays the part. He it's like he's barely trying. I mean, I know he's trying, but you know what I mean, Like he makes it look effortless. And that hairline, I swear, I.

Keep going back to that hairline. It's like great hairline. And he's just such a dick, such a perfect snooty dick. Like again, another one of those actors who I like. I feel like we've seen him a bunch of times in this show, but it's probably only been like four so but again, this show has had that kind of character over and over again, and every time they cast them, they always cast them pitch perfect.

The casting on this show has always been so good. I don't think we've like we've acknowledged it plenty by it, you know, by essentially highlighting the fact that this is a character actor's show. In a lot of ways, but to mention the fact that they always cast the right people too, like even if people come back, like Kenneth Tigar played the same character twice but did similar things three times and was perfect every time. Like again, kudos to the people casting this show, because yeah, there's a Hue's pool of character actors in Hollywood at the time, not every single one of them. There there have been people we've been shocked to learn aren't in this show, right, you know, like yeah, yeah, there were running out of time for anybody to surprise us at this point.

But like again, like this show has also been perfectly cast from the main people down for the most part everybody. I mean, like again, like the Michael Lombard just alone in this episode, like perfect bald dickhead, but then he has this like weird submissive side that comes out. You're just like, okay, this is super believable, Like all. Right, what what what do we find out? That that's called the FLS female.

Fur female led relationship. Yeah, not to be confused with flear, the thing that they use to like look at like night vision footage of Bigfoot. Yeah there you go, yeah yeah, yeah, easily mistakable so yeah, at least for me anyway. Yeah, yeah, to your point, there's only six more episodes of this show to go. There's wild Yeah, there's one more where we're gonna finally talk about Old Love, the episode that we both watched.

Which I think maybe end up being one of the best episodes of this show. It might be which is like the really fucked part of this is. Yeah, like Old Love is like an oddly like kind of great episode. So I'm excited to talk about it. But yeah, yeah, I'm excited to talk about that.

We've also got and that's directed by hel Lindon. Then we've got Altercation, and then we will finish up with Bones, which was directed by Max Gale. And you will be very happy about this because while we've been having this conversation tonight, I have been texting with Max Scale. No you have not, I have, Oh my god. Yeah.

So I'll just go ahead, and mister gail Otto Bruno gave me your number with your permission, I do a podcast about Barney Miller and was hoping to get you on the show before we wrap. We have two more episodes to go. Could we find some time in early January for a phone or a zoom interview. Just wrote back yes with an exclamation mark. I said, fantastic.

Should we should I throw out some dates and times or wait until later in December to lock that down with you? And he just responded two minutes ago, no harm in getting started. So we will we wrap up this recording. Chris and I will be talking about when we can talk with Max Gale because that's going to be a two person interview because we have to both be on the phone to talk with that. There's no We've been talking about him for all this time.

Now I am super stoked that we will finally get the woes on the show. Chris is it Because this is an audio medium, you can't see it. Chris is somewhat crying, So there you go. I am if we got to talk to how Lindon as well, that would be amazing. I know we've tried, and like dear listener, we have tried, like Auto got to speak with him, so we know that there is a way to talk with him.

But how Linden is all also still working, just like Max Gaala's which you know, by the way, like they're not young guns anymore, they still got it. But they're not young guns anymore, which is like again, like I'm impressed because in the industry that they work in, like people want you out the door once you hit a certain age, and like they're still doing it, which is beyond impressive. So I'm excited. I am beyond it. I can't even I can't even wait, Like I can't even believe it.

Good on, good on you, good and thank you Auto Bruno for being our friend and going out on a limb for us, because you know, this industry that we work in and doing podcasts, like so much of what we do really is just based on the kindness of each other to like help each other out and like put out, you know, because this is our own putting out of a shingle here thing like, and I wouldn't be nearly where I am without you, Mike as as kind of a mentor and a creative partner. And this show, like Auto's book has been immensely helpful to us, like Auto's book has been indispensable. We bring it up on like every episode, and he's also been indispensable and hooking you up with people to interview and now hooking us up to interview Max Gale so, yeah, this has been a you know, it takes a it takes a village sometimes, and like this show has been a labor of love because we have been doing it now for like four years.

This is the longest thing we've ever done together, like as a as a combined creative endeavor. And I'm so excited that we get to bring an interview with Max Gale to everyone who's been with us from the start, because I know that there have been people who have been listening to this show since we started it, and there have been people that have found it along the way. And hopefully you'll stick around when we talk about Night Court, and if you don't, we understand, but we would hope that we've done enough here to convince you to join us for a show that I don't think either one of us have as much of a history with if I have never even seen a episode. I had never seen an episode of Barney Miller either, but it felt like the logical step in the what in the end, then the in the legal system, we have the investigative journalist, then we had the cop, now we have the judge.

We're doing our own version of law and order here. Yeah, we're circling and whatever. The show after night cored is is gonna have to be like a prison show. So yes, oh oz, there we go. Oh good, I hear that's a real happy, go lucky kind of show.

Isn't that about the Wizard of Oz? I believe it is. Yeah, there's a pin man, there's a scarecrow, there's a yeah boy god yeah. JK. Simmons does the scarecrow.

I think, yeah, Well, I don't know if we're committing to watching that yet. I know it's good, but I also, you know, this show hasn't had enough of you know, people in prison for my taste. I don't know if I really just want to throw ourselves into the deep end of like the most notorious prison show kind of of all of them. So but that's super exciting and I'm super excited. But it is wild that we're in the last, like the next episodes of the penultimate episode of this show.

So yeah, well yeah, before we had on out, I want to thank John Walker for our theme song. And I want to thank my co host here, Chris Stashue. Chris whatever you what are you up to these days? Sir? Working on audio stuff over Weirdingwaymedia dot Com, where this show and so many other shows can be found.

Like we mentioned, we used to do a Colchack show. We did an entire run of that and the remake, much to the chagrin of the people who liked the original show, and then that show ended, and that's where this show came out of. Is kind of our just next logical progression of the colecheck Show. And so if you're hearing this now and you haven't listened to anything else before, go on back to the Colechack Show. Listen to that, then start with this, Listen to all that, and by the time you make it to this point, if you did that, you will have listened to a lot.

Yes, but you will be knocking at the door of us talking about night Court, which we'll be starting here. The moment this is done, we'll probably I mean again, we clearly have a little bit of wrapping up to do, Max Gail interview being one of those things. But we have oustentically three episodes left of this show. So if you want to hear that and this and everything else, Weirdingwaymedia dot Com. Is where you can go.

What about you, Mike. Same thing, wheredowemedia dot com for all episodes of the other stuff that I work on, like the projection booth or Chris and I work on midnight viewing along with our friend Father alone. So yeah, there's a lot of entertainment out there. And then occasionally Chris lets me come on the Culture Cast and pick movies or just talk about other things. So I'm still super happy about the whole series of Francis Weber films that we did for Mike White May.

It was this year, and those really opened my eyes to so many things. I've actually been going out and watching a lot of French comedies apart from those four films, four or five films I think we talked about, plus all the remakes, so that it was like a ten to eleven film commitment. But it was so bringing in the work for everybody involved. I don't mind it. I don't mind it.

I always you know, doing the work is Doing the work is three quarters of the fun. There's so much work that goes into making one hour of content, Like I wish I could describe to anyone listening, but like if you think we just watch these things once, we don't. If we were able to have conversations. This good off of watching things just once, we'd be really good at our jobs and we would have no ceiling on what we do. But that's not the case.

So yeah, when we were watching ten movies in a month, that was that was like the old days, back in like ten years ago type shit. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that was something. Well, thank you everybody for listening. Please come on back and listen to us again next month, where hopefully we will have mister Gail on the show and it will be wrapping up this whole endeavor. Thank you everybody for all of the hours that you've put into us.

I've definitely had a lot of fun and yeah, in that last episode, I think we're going to be wrapping up with a couple other special guest co hosts, so it should be a lot of fun here in the next few months. So thanks again, and stay safe and keep it legal, folks in