Title: Fire '77
Directed by: Bruce Bilson
Written by: Tony Sheehan, Danny Arnold, and Reinhold Weege (story), Tony Sheehan and Danny Arnold (teleplay)
Air Date: January 27, 1977
Previous: The RAND Report
Next: Abduction
Guest Starring: Howard Platt, K Callan, Sal Viscuso
"Fire '77" is the 15th episode of the third season of Barney Miller.
Yemana decides that making terrible coffee isn't enough, and ups his game by making disgusting food. He brings in the ingredients for shabu-shabu
and starts cooking it on the coffee pot. Everyone is revolted by the horrible smell of Nick's stew, and Barney is even more grossed out when Yemana, when he has to go out on a call, makes Barney stir the revolting shabu-shabu for him. In other squad room news, Harris is worried about his stock portfolio.
One Lawrence Weiskoff comes into the precinct and says he'd like to confess a murder. The detectives urge him to take a seat, and when Weiskoff says they'll find his victim in a particular alley, Barney hurriedly sends out Dietrich and Yemana (which is why Barney has to stir the shabu-shabu). Weiskoff explains that he didn't actually kill anyone, it was a suicide pact and he chickened out. Mr. Weiskoff is startled when his suicide partner, Gwen Baxter, is brought into the squad room very much alive.
Previously to that Wojo and Fish arrest a Thomas Vitella for attempting to steal the collection money from a church. It turns out that not only does Vitella have a long list of priors, he is a prison escapee, having slipped away from a Rikers Island work detail. Vitella begs for mercy but Wojo, naturally, ignores him. So Vitella sets fire to the bathroom.
Tropes:
- All Women Are Lustful: Gwen Baxter gets visibly turned on by the fire and smoke filling the squad room. It becomes clear that for her at least there was a sexual fetish component to her death pact with Mr. Weiskoff.
- Churchgoing Villain: Thomas Vitella, who tries to shame Wojo about not going to Mass in an effort to get out of being arrested for robbery.
- Interplay of Sex and Violence: Interplay of sex and death as Gwen gets turned on by the fire in the bathroom. After she starts getting really aroused and shouts "Yes, oh God, yes!", Leonard says "She's a little kinky."
- Lethal Chef: Yemana, branching out from making bad coffee, instead cooking shabu shabu in the squad room. After Wojo says it smells like garbage, Yemana indignantly lists the ingredients—fish heads, cabbage leaves, cucumber rinds, celery tops— then says "Come to think of it, that is garbage!" At the end, after Barney tastes the shabu shabu and likes it, Yemana realizes he cooked it wrong.
- Prison Rape: Vitella cites this as the reason he's scared to go back to Rikers Island. Since this is the 1970s it's Played for Laughs with the detectives wincing sympathetically.
- Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: When Gwen Baxter is brought into the squad room very much alive, Dietrich says "The reports of her death have been greatly exaggerated. Barney, seemingly to prove that Dietrich isn't the only one to read books, says "Mark Twain". Dietrich smirks and says "Yeah, but it's in the Public Domain now."
- Seeking Sanctuary: Vitella says he tried to claim sanctuary after the priest grabbed him in the church.
- Suicide Pact: Weiskoff and Baxter entered into one, pledging to off themselves to avoid aging and death. By the end of the episode they seem to have settled for going to Weiskoff's apartment for sex.
