Title: Fog
Directed by: Noam Pitlik
Written by: Mark Brull (story), Frank Dungan, Jeff Stein, and Tony Sheehan (teleplay)
Air Date: May 8, 1980
Previous: The Inventor
Next: Homicide: Part 1
Guest Starring: Sydney Lassick, J.J. Barry, Robert Levine, Bill Dillard
"Fog" is the 22nd and last episode of the sixth season of Barney Miller.
New York City has been hit with the eponymous fog. The fog, in fact, is the direct cause of one of the wacky crimes. It seems that a Mr. Fred Bauer was attempting to rob a jewelry store, but, because he was confused by the fog, he accidentally broke into the Christian Science reading room next door.
The second wacky case involves one Victor Carse, a squat little round-shaped man (played by Sydney Larrick, who played the squat little round-shaped mental patient in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest). Mr. Carse is one of those paranoid types who is convinced that microwaves are frying his body, and he's been arrested for taking a sledgehammer to the microwave transmitter dish across the street from his apartment.
Unusually for most Barney Miller episodes, there's a third wacky case, namely one Edward Jennings, a jazz trumpeter of great skill. He has been arrested for physically assaulting a string quartet that took over the corner where he performs.
But all three of those cases take a back seat to personal matters. Barney is up for promotion to Deputy Inspector, and the three detectives of the 12th are all excited because if he gets promoted, one of them will make captain. Unfortunately, however, Barney doesn't get the job. A frustrated, depressed Barney, still stuck at captain, wonders if there's any point to his career with the NYPD.
Tropes:
- Cigarette of Anxiety: When Barney is passed over for promotion (again), he finds an old cigarette in his desk and smokes it. He had quit 3 years previously, and that cigarette was left over from before he quit.Harris: You smoked a 3 year old cigarette?Barney: Just wanted to make sure I didn't get hooked again.Harris: That'll do it.
- Continuity Porn: The squad room detectives, attempting to console Barney for not getting promoted, suggest that it's their fault for all their crazy antics. Harris mentions his Roman à Clef novel "Blood on the Badge", which the department didn't care for. Wojo confesses to being Hot-Blooded and cites the time that he, an NYPD detective, offered asylum to a dissident—that was third-season episode "Asylum". Dietrich mentions how he got arrested for attending a protest rally, which happened just a few episodes prior in two-parter "Dietrich's Arrest".
- Day Hurts Dark-Adjusted Eyes: Barney turns out the lights in his office and sits there in the dark, stewing over his failure to get promoted to Deputy Inspector. When Levitt comes in to the office on some business, Barney winces at the light.Levitt: Well, I'll be returning to the land of light now.
- Gloomy Gray: The fog billowing out the window fits Barney's mood, as he thinks about how he was passed over for promotion again and wonders if his career in the police department has been entirely pointless.
- Oh, Crap!: A depressed Barney remembers how idealistic he was when he was starting his career with the police, and remembers how they thought they would change the world—"me, Baxter, Cruzen." Then he catches himself and says "Oh my God, I'm beginning to sound like Luger!" (Inspector Luger was always boring the detectives with his maudlin stories about his old pals, Brownie, Foster, and Kleiner.)Harris: It's OK, we caught it in time.
- Passed-Over Promotion: Barney is bitter about not getting promoted to Deputy Inspector. He's even more bitter because Maddox, the guy who actually got the job, is in Narcotics and thus has gotten plenty of chances to attract the attention of command staff, chances that anonymous Captain Miller doesn't get.
- Shout-Out: Dietrich, observing the fog right outside the window, and being Dietrich, busts out a Macbeth quote: "Fair is foul, and foul is fair/Hover through the fog and filthy air." Wojo the meathead catches him by surprise by parrying with a Carl Sandburg quote, reciting the poem "Fog
" in its entirety. Dietrich then deescalates by quoting "I've got smog in my noggin' ever since you made the scene" from 1959 novelty song "Kookie, Kookie (Lend Me Your Comb)". - Street Performer: Mr. Jennings, who got arrested for assaulting a string quartet that had taken his corner. It's sad, as Mr. Jennings has no money and no friends to bail him out, so he's going to The Tombs and won't be able to play his trumpet. The detectives give him one last chance to play before going to jail, and he closes out the episode with his rendition of "I Can't Get Started."
- Stupid Crooks: Mr. Bauer, who got confused in the fog and broke into a Christian Science reading room instead of a jewelry store.
