Episode: Season 1, Episode 3
Title: Snow Job
Directed by: Richard Kinon
Written by: Ron Friedman, Danny Arnold, and Chris Hayward
Air Date: February 6, 1975
Previous: Experience
Next: Graft
Guest Starring: Ron Feinberg, Richard Stahl, Jeffrey Kramer
Title: Snow Job
Directed by: Richard Kinon
Written by: Ron Friedman, Danny Arnold, and Chris Hayward
Air Date: February 6, 1975
Previous: Experience
Next: Graft
Guest Starring: Ron Feinberg, Richard Stahl, Jeffrey Kramer
"Snow Job" is the third episode of the first season of Barney Miller.
It's a cold February in New York and it's even colder in the 12th Precinct, as the heat in their decrepit old building isn't working. Barney is up for a promotion to Deputy Inspector, a job he badly wants. A flasher is brought in to the squad room, to the astonishment of everyone, given how cold it is outside. Meanwhile, Wojo arrives at 12th with over $200,000 in cash from Siegel's department store, which the detectives will be guarding temporarily as the armored trucks aren't running. Events take a turn when the flasher, escorted to the bathroom by Fish, tries to kill himself.
Tropes:
- Be Careful What You Wish For: The episode ends with the heat back on in the building...too much heat, as the heater is now malfunctioning in the other direction and the detectives are sitting around sweating.
- Briefcase Full of Money: A whole box full of money, as as Wojo has taken charge of over $216,000 from Siegel's. Things get serious when the accountant shows up for the money and $5K is missing.
- CPR: Clean, Pretty, Reliable: Barney manages to bring the flasher back to life by hitting him in the chest. (And just moments after the flasher was clinically dead, he's feeling lively enough to swipe $5000 from the pile of money as he's wheeled away on a stretcher.) One of the EMTs does tell Barney that he broke the man's ribs, though.
- Dramatic Shattering: Barney doesn't get the promotion. He blows it off, saying that he knew he wasn't senior enough. Then he goes into his office, and slams his door shut so hard that the glass shatters.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Barney calls the loony flasher a "prune danish" as he tells the detectives to send him to Bellvue. Such snarky comments like that would come from Harris, not Barney, in later seasons.
- Electrified Bathtub: An electrified toilet, as the flasher attempts to commit suicide by standing in the toilet and sticking his fingers in a light socket. It nearly works.Fish: I didn't know he was that tall!
- Shout-Out: It's so cold that Yemana answers the phone "12th precinct, Nanook speaking."
