Title: The Horse Thief
Directed by: Noam Pitlik
Written by: Tony Sheehan
Air Date: November 20, 1975
Previous: You Dirty Rat
Next: Rain
Guest Starring: Jack Dodson, Liam Dunn, Bruce Solomon
"The Horse Thief" is the 10th episode of the second season of Barney Miller.
A hansom cab driver, Mr. Fuzzo, comes in to the 12th Precinct to report the theft of his horse. Barney is amused to have the first report of a stolen horse that anyone in the squad room can remember. Barney is less amused when reports of a second stolen horse, this one taken from the NYPD's mounted division, are accompanied by word that Mr. Fuzzo is driving his cab again.
Meanwhile, there's a bicentennial celebration in a nearby park, including a visit by the mayor (who goes unnamed, but would have been Abraham Beame). This celebration is the trigger for a lot of chaos that makes problems for the 12th: rioting, a plague of pickpockets, protestors throwing tea into the East River, etc. Wojo arrests a guy selling tacky American flag souvenirs (and who is wearing blue jeans with an American flag decal on the butt), only to be told by Barney that flag desecration isn't illegal. Chano has brought in one Mr. Franklin, who was found in his room beaten up by a hooker, but who steadfastly refuses to admit there was a hooker in his room.
Tropes:
- Call-Forward: The episode ends with Fish saying "They say we're due for some rain next week." The next week's episode of Barney Miller was titled "Rain" and revolved around the roof of the 12th Precinct leaking during a torrential rain storm.
- Cut Himself Shaving: Mr. Franklin insists through the whole episode that he was alone in his room and he slipped and fell. That's despite him suffering injuries that are obviously from being punched, the witnesses reporting a man and a woman arguing in his room, the desk clerk reporting that a woman went to Franklin's room, and Chano finding a high-heeled shoe ("the point matches the hole in your head"). He still insists that he was alone even after the cops bring in the hooker and she says she beat up Franklin for refusing to pay her.
- Continuity Nod: There's a report of riots outside the Greenwich Hotel, which is the hotel that Wojo and Wentworth went to on an undercover operation in "Grand Hotel".
- No Name Given: The flag salesman, who much to Wojo's discomfort turns out to also have been a Marine, is never named.
- One Dialogue, Two Conversations: Wojo, who was out and doesn't know that Miss Gifford is a prostitute, sees her bicentennial buttons and asks for three. He's shocked when she tells him that they'll cost $180, but he's also dumb, so he doesn't figure out what she really means.Wojo: Do you know what that girl's selling?
Barney: (chuckles) Yeah, I know what she's selling.
Wojo: Seems like a lot of money for something you're gonna throw away in a couple of weeks. - Shout-Out: When a pickpocketing victim tells Yemana over the phone that he had cash instead of travelers' checks, Yemana says "Don't you pay attention to Karl Malden?" Karl Malden at the time was appearing in a series of commercials for American Express travelers' checks.
- Streetwalker: Miss Gifford, the hooker, was walking around the park selling commemorative bicentennial buttons...for $60 a pop.
- The Unreveal: The thief of Mr. Fuzzo's horse is not caught.
