Title: Evaluation
Directed by: Noam Pitlik
Written by: Larry Balmagia
Air Date: May 4, 1978
Previous: Hostage
Next: The Sighting
Guest Starring: Kay Medford, Eugene Elman, Richard Libertini, Mari Gorman
"Evaluation" is the 21st episode of the fourth season of Barney Miller.
Wojo barges in on Roslyn while she's on the toilet, causing awkwardness between the two of them. They make a big deal out of it, which adds to the tension when Barney reveals to the detectives that he's doing employee evaluations. Suddenly all the members of the squad start finding excuses to come into Barney's office and find out what Barney's putting down on their evaluations.
Meanwhile, the 12th Precinct is dealing with its usual two wacky cases. Harris is late because he went to the bank and wound up arresting a guy who was creating a disturbance. His perp assaulted a clerk after the clerk refused to let him open a checking account under the name of "Mr. 1223." 1223 refuses to give his true name and picked things like his name and address because they were good-luck numbers. The second case involves vandals that have been attacking a local porn shop, spraying offensive messages and throwing a brick through a window. When the owners of the porn shop show up, the cops of the 12th are surprised to discover that they are Mr. and Mrs. Schuman, an elderly married couple.
Last of three appearances for Detective Roslyn Licori, although Mari Gorman would pop up a couple more times in other roles.
Tropes:
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: It turns out that the people who have been vandalizing the Schuman's porn shop are their own grown children. Having failed to talk Mom and Dad into retiring to Florida, and being horrified at their elderly parents running a pornography store, the younger Schumans have been trying to scare their parents into retirement.
- Ambiguous Syntax: Roslyn, who is worried about how her evaluation will come out, tells Captain Miller "You've never had the opportunity to see me in action!" After a Beat she cringes and says "I was referring to police work."
- Blowing a Raspberry: Wojo usually does this when confronted with things he doesn't like, and he does it in this episode when faced with having to submit to a performance evaluation.
- Noodle Implements: Dietrich is going through a box of sexual paraphernelia seized from the Schumans' Garden of Earthly Delights merchandise store which has been selling porno:Dietrich: Look at this, will you?
Barney: What do you got?
Dietrich [takes out a whip, handcuffs, and a horse harness]: You got... here, you got your novelties, got your paraphrenalia, party favors...
Barney: Look, uh... hold off tagging that stuff until we see what happens.
Dietrich [finds another object which the audience doesn't see]: Yeah.
Barney: What, uh, what's that thing with the feathers?
Dietrich: No idea; it's reasonably priced, though. - Numerological Motif: Mr. 1223 chose his name because he thinks it's numerologically favorable. He chose his address, a hotel at 322 Lexington, because 3+2+2 is seven and seven represents "beauty" and "harmony".
- Predatory Business: Mr. Schuman tells Barney that he and his wife had a prosperous corner grocery...until the A&P opened up an outlet in the neighborhood.
- Reluctant Retiree: The Schuman's children beg their parents to retire and move to Florida, but they want to continue to be merchants, so now they sell porn. Mr. Schuman thinks that if he moved to Florida he'd croak.
- Serious Business: Both Wojo and Roslyn overreact about him barging in on her in the toilet, irritating Barney, who would prefer they stop talking about it.
- Unfortunate Name: Harris comes back into the squad room giggling when a fingerprint check reveals that Mr. 1223 is actually named "Ira Grubb". He says he doesn't blame 1223 for changing his name.
- You Are Number 6: Self-administered, as Mr. 1223, who says everybody gets numbers anyway—Social Security numbers, driver's license numbers, and the like—simply chooses a number for himself.
