History Trivia / BarneyMiller

* AdvertisingCampaigns: Creator/{{ABC}} ordered the 1982 series ''Series/TheNewOddCouple'' starring Ron Glass as Felix as a last minute attempt to have a new show during an upcoming writer's strike, remaking scripts from the [[Series/TheOddCouple1970 Tony Randall/Jack Klugman version]]. As a result, no footage of the new show was available for Fall Preview Specials, so ABC used footage of Glass as Harris suffering from a cold from an episode of ''Series/BarneyMiller'' to approximate Felix, as well as footage of Demond Wilson from a [[ShortRunners One Season Wonder]] show called ''Baby, I'm Back'' to approximate Oscar.

Pretty frequent, as the series took almost a rep company approach to casting. A mugging victim in one episode might reappear as an armed robbery suspect the next season. Several later cast additions originally played criminals hauled in for questioning, before being cast in a permanent role.
** Steve Landesberg appeared as accused fake priest "Father" Paul in the Series 2 episode "Doomsday" before being cast as Dietrich later in the season.
** Ron Carey played bank robber Angelo "the Mole" Molinari in the Series 2 episode "The Mole", and began appearing as Officer Levitt starting in Series 3.
** Between his first and second appearances as recurring character Lt. Scanlon, George Murdock appeared as an Army master sergeant reporting a bomb threat to an Army recruiting station in the Series 3 episode "Group Home".
** In "The Architect", Paul Lieber played one of the gunmen; he returned a few episodes later as Detective Sgt. Eric Dorsey for several episodes.
** Recurring character Bruno Binder has a wife whom he's implied to beat. The same actress who played his wife previously showed up as a new detective sent to replace Chano (the request had been sent two years previously), while Binder is in the squad room looking at mugshots to identify the man who robbed his store.
** Character actor Creator/KennethTigar appeared in six episodes, playing five different characters (apart from his first appearance as a mugging victim, they all had some kind of supernatural complaint, usually MaybeMagicMaybeMundane). Actor Arny Freeman did five characters in six episodes as well.
** John Dullaghan appeared as four different suspects before settling into recurring character Ray Brewer.
** Many, many actors showed up several times playing different suspects, victims, bystanders or officials in each appearance. Members in good standing of the ''Barney Miller'' rep company (4 or more appearances in different roles) include: Don Calfa (7 episodes), Rod Colbin (7), Phil Leeds (7), Oliver Clark (6), Arny Freeman (6), Peggy Pope (6), Fred Sadoff (6), Philip Sterling (6), Creator/KennethTigar (6), Martin Garner (5), Walter Janowitz (5), Howard Platt (5), Leonard Stone (5), Ivor Francis (4), Jay Gerber (4), Larry Gelman (4), Michael Lombard (4), Edwin Malave (4), Rosanna De Soto (4), Todd Susman (4), Michael Tucci (4), Sal Viscuso (4), Creator/JamesCromwell (4).

** The show made frequent use of the same actors, so a mugging victim in one episode might reappear as an armed robbery suspect the next season.

** The early episode "Bureaucrat" has a terrific example. David Wayne's brilliant comic drunk performance has Jack Soo covering his mouth to keep his laughter hidden, as well as Hal Linden grinning, and Milt Kogan smiling and looking away to keep his laughter from ruining the take.

** Abby Dalton played Barney's wife Liz in the pilot, while Barbara Barrie took over the role for the series.

** Between his first and second appearances as recurring character Lt. Scanlon, George Murdock appeared as an Air Force master sergeant reporting a bomb threat to an Air Force base in the Series 3 episode "Group Home".

* {{Corpsing}}: Jack Soo was most prone to this. In the retrospective, the cast remembers how he would often be in the background of a scene, sitting at his desk, shaking silently with laughter. When Nick (Jack Soo) is flirting with Dorothy Murakami (Nobu [=McCarthy=]), she closes the last mug book and says "Are there any other pictures you want me to see?" Nick replies "There's a double feature playin' at the Toho[[note]]The [[http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/2932 Toho Theater]] on 45th St.[[/note]] -- [cracks up] oh my God." He sets off Nobu [=McCarthy=] too, she can barely get through her next line. And they [[ThrowItIn Threw It In!]]

** Character actor Kenneth Tigar appeared in six episodes, playing five different characters (apart from his first appearance as a mugging victim, they all had some kind of supernatural complaint, usually MaybeMagicMaybeMundane). Actor Arny Freeman did five characters in six episodes as well.

** As for [=DVDs=] of “Barney Miller”, somehow for some strange reason, some DVDs with "best of" episodes[[note]]leading fans to wonder how you could choose the "best of" an excellent show like this[[/note]] were released in the '90s; the first 3 seasons were released by Sony Entertainment in the 2000s; and that was it; no company ever released a “Barney Miller” DVD again until several years later. In 2011, Shout! Factory decided to release all the remaining five seasons and now offer a box set with all eight seasons.

* {{Corpsing}}: Jack Soo was most prone to this. In the retrospective, the cast remembers how he would often be in the background of a scene, sitting at his desk, shaking silently with laughter. When Nick (Jack Soo) is flirting with Dorothy Murakami (Nobu [=McCarthy=]), she closes the last mug book and says "Are there any other pictures you want me to see?" Nick replies "There's a double feature playin' at the Toho[[note]]The [[http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/2932 Toho Theater]] on 45th St.[[/note]] -- [cracks up] oh my God." He sets off Nobu [=McCarthy=] too, she can barely get through her next line.

* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: Although it has been proved moderately successful with the audiences, the show hardly shown in reruns until TV Land started airing it in late 1990s, until they stopped showing it in 2003 or 2004. In recent years (recently as mid-2010s), fetv and Sundance TV started to airing “Barney Miller” which continues to this day.
** As for a [=DVDs=] of “Barney Miller”, somehow for some strange reason, the first 3 seasons was released by Sony Entertainment in the 2000s. and that was it; no company ever released a “Barney Miller” DVD again until several years later, in 2011, Shout! Factory decided to release all the remaining five seasons.
** ''Barney Miller'' can be viewed (almost) entirely on [=YouTube=] though.

* AdvertisingCampaigns: Creator/{{ABC}} ordered the 1982 series ''[[Theatre/TheOddCouple The New Odd Couple]]'' starring Ron Glass as Felix as a last minute attempt to have a new show during an upcoming writer's strike, remaking scripts from the Tony Randall/Jack Klugman version. As a result, no footage of the new show was available for Fall Preview Specials, so ABC used footage of Glass as Harris suffering from a cold from an episode of ''Series/BarneyMiller'' to approximate Felix, as well as footage of Demond Wilson from a [[ShortRunners One Season Wonder]] show called ''Baby, I'm Back'' to approximate Oscar.

** Unwittingly played straight with Steve Landesberg as Dietrich; in his first appearance, Dietrich claims to be 28, and for many years, Landesberg was believed to have been born in 1945, which would have made him 30 years old at the time. However, he was actually born in 1936, making him over a decade older than Dietrich; self-consciousness about starting acting relatively late in life prompted him to lie about his age. (Even at his death in 2010, Landesberg's IMDB page listed his birth year as 1945.)

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: Season 7's "The Doll" features an optician who was conned into buying a passenger seat on the Space Shuttle Columbia. As the man leaves, hoping to qualify for a mission specialist position for maintenance of an orbital telescope, Dietrich remarks about heat shield tiles popping off. [[UsefulNotes/{{NASA}} 22 years later...]]

* ValuesDissonance: In "Blizzard" a man is brought in warning that the blizzard is a sign of a coming new ice age (in the 70s those concerned about climate change talked more of the world cooling rather than warming). If remade today it seems unlikely he would have been treated as much as a nut as he is here[[note]]Interestingly, even though climate change is driven by ''rising'' temperatures, results like higher numbers of blizzards and/or snowfall is actually predicted by the models (somewhat oversimplifying, slightly warmer air not only causes more water vapor, warmer air can ''hold'' more water, which means more energy for storms, and more potential water to fall as snow)[[/note]].

* ValuesDissonance: In "Blizzard" a man is brought in warning that the blizzard is a sign of a coming new ice age (in the 70s those concerned about climate change talked more of the world cooling rather than warming). If remade today it seems unlikely he would have been treated as much as a nut as he is here.

* PropRecycling: The familiar boxing poster regularly seen on the hallway wall opposite the squad room's door first appeared in Chano's apartment in the first season's "The Hero".

** As for a DVDs of “Barney Miller”, somehow for some strange reason, the first 3 seasons was released by Sony Entertainment in the 2000s. and that was it; no company ever released a “Barney Miller” DVD again until several years later, in 2011, Shout! Factory decided to release all the remaining five seasons.

** Inverted with Abe Vigoda as Fish. Vigoda was in his early fifties when the series began, but Fish was implied to be well into his sixties; Vigoda was cast in the role because the producer thought he looked tired during his audition (he had been jogging that morning), which fit the world-weary personality they had in mind for Fish. (Specifically, Danny Arnold looked at Vigoda and said "You look like you have hemorrhoids!")

* HeAlsoDid: Chris Heyward wrote 33 episodes as well as served as producer. Heyward previously co-created ''Series/TheMunsters''.

* ValuesDissonance: In "Blizzard" a man is brought in warning that the blizzard is a sign of a coming new ice age (in the 70s proponents of climate change talked more of the world cooling rather than warming). If remade today it seems unlikely he would have been treated as much as a nut as he is here.

** Character actor Kenneth Tigar appeared in six episodes, playing five different characters (apart from his first appearance as a mugging victim, they all had some kind of supernatural complaint, usually MaybeMagicMaybeMundane)). Actor Arny Freeman did five characters in six episodes as well.

** Character actor Kenneth Tigar appeared in six episodes, playing five different characters (most of whom had some kind of supernatural complaint, usually [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane]])). Actor Arny Freeman did five characters in six episodes as well.

** Before being cast as recurring character Lt. Scanlon, George Murdock appeared as an Air Force master sergeant reporting a bomb threat to an Air Force base in the Series 3 episode "Group Home".

** Recurring character Bruno Binder has a wife whom he beats. The same actress who played his wife shows up as a new detective sent to replace Chano (the request had been sent two years previously), while Binder is in the squad room looking at mugshots to identify the man who robbed his store. They don't recognize each other.
** Character actor Kenneth Tigar appeared in six episodes, playing five different characters (most of whom had some kind of supernatural complaint). Actor Arny Freeman did five characters in six episodes as well.

* ActorAllusion:
** Fish, Abe Vigoda's zodiac sign is Pisces whose symbol is the fish.
** Deputy Inspector Luger is forced to take some vacation time and doesn't know what to do with himself so he asks Yemana if ''Literature/FlowerDrumSong'' is still playing on Broadway. Jack Soo, Yemana's actor, was in the original Broadway run and TheMovie.
** When the squadroom gets a flier for a police department variety show, one of them says "Barney, didn't you sing in college?" and he says no. Hal Linden is a song-and-dance man who's been in many musicals.

** Character actor Kenneth Tigar appeared in six episodes, playing five different characters. Actor Arny Freeman did five characters in six episodes as well.