Line #3 YMMV/BarneyMiller


1	* AluminumChristmasTrees: In "Homeless", Bruno Binder's wife talks about making turkey stuffed with sauerkraut for Christmas. This sounds like a gag, but it's real, and traditional in Maryland.
2	* FairForItsDay: Among the recurring characters were a local gay couple, Marty and Darryl. While Marty (introduced first) was portrayed with the usual CampGay stereotypes of the era, Darryl's level of camp was dialed down after his initial appearance. Though the straight male characters sometimes reacted with the homophobic assumption that [[DepravedHomosexual all gay men are moments away from assaulting a straight man]], Barney always treated them with dignity and occasionally made a point of calling Wojo out on his homophobia. Uniformed officer Zatelli wasn't camp at all, and was only revealed to be a closeted homosexual after he'd already been a recurring character for some time; later episodes dealt with his fear of the effect being outed would have on his career, and [[spoiler:his later coming out himself in support of other gays on the force]]. (The show did also hire a consultant from the gay community for episodes where gay characters were featured, which can be seen in the credits.)
3	* GeniusBonus: One episode featured a tall, balding curly headed, eccentric man who wore a long striped scarf and claimed to be a time traveller. Typical American viewers would probably not have noticed at the time, but those in the know would have saw a resemblance to the fourth (then current) incarnation of ''Series/DoctorWho''.
4	* HarsherInHindsight:
5	** The second season's opening features a view of the New York skyline with the World Trade Center prominently featured. The first episode of that season is entitled "Doomsday" and centers around a suicide bomber attempting to destroy the 12th Pencinct. Not harsh enough? The aforementioned episode aired on ''September 11'', 1975.
6	** The second storyline in "The Doll" (1981) concerns an optician who wants to be one of the first [[UsefulNotes/{{NASA}} space shuttle passengers]]. A NASA official tells him that his occupation qualifies him to be considered as a mission specialist. In a buoyant mood, he prepares to leave, only to have Dietrich tell him not to worry about the heat shielding tiles falling off and causing a possible re-entry disaster. (The optician's name is Eugene Corbett, a possible ShoutOut to ''Tom Corbett, SpaceCadet.'')
7	** The fourth-season episode "Appendicitis," where Nick has to get an emergency appendectomy, became this after Jack Soo was diagnosed with esophageal cancer during the next season.
8	* HilariousInHindsight:
9	** In one episode, a crime victim tells Fish that he looks like Creator/BorisKarloff. ('''Fish''': That's because we're both dead.) In 1986, Creator/AbeVigoda would star in a Broadway production of ''Theatre/ArsenicAndOldLace'' as Jonathan Brewster, a part originally played by Karloff. The line "He said I looked like Boris Karloff" had been kept in TheMovie when Raymond Massey played Jonathan.
10	** In the second episode, a bomber is on the loose and Barney is looking through records. One suspect is [[Series/TheBigBangTheory Sheldon Hoffsteder]].
11	** An overweight burglar tells Harris that he's going to end up fat one day too, because "I can always tell who's going to end up like this." When Ron Glass was cast as the preacher Shepherd Book in ''Series/{{Firefly}}'', the costume designer restarted all the "flowing robe" designs she'd done for the character when she saw how buff Ron Harris still was thirty years later.
12	* SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome: When Wentworth saves a union leader from assassination, Scanlon (then a lieutenant at Manhattan South) steals her collar and then files a complaint against her when she protests. Barney is unable to convince him to give her proper credit, but Harris makes Wentworth's actions the focus of his column in his department newsletter... which, as it directly contradicts the official version, would cause quite a few questions downtown. Scanlon is forced to back down after Harris reads it out for the squad and Barney refuses to censor it.
13	* MeaningfulReleaseDate: “Voice Analyzer” (Season 5, Episode 14) aired on January 11, 1979, the exact same day Jack Soo died.
14	* MorePopularReplacement: The series had as one of the detectives for the first two years Chano Amenguale, an excitable Puerto Rican who didn't really make as much of an impression as other characters like Yemana or Harris or Fish. When actor Gregory Sierra left the cast after two seasons, he was replaced by Creator/SteveLandesberg as detective Arthur Dietrich, TheComicallySerious DeadpanSnarker who became a fan favorite and stuck around for the rest of the show's run.
15	* RetroactiveRecognition:
16	** Frank Dungan and Jeff Stein wrote 39 episodes as well as served as producers and story editors. Both are best known as developers and executive producers of ''Series/MrBelvedere''.
17	** Reinhold Weege wrote 34 episodes as well as served as producer and story editor. Weege is best known as creator and executive producer of ''Series/NightCourt''.
18	** Howard Leeds wrote an episode. Leeds is best known as creator and executive producer of ''Series/SmallWonder'' as well as for co-creating ''Series/SilverSpoons'' and co-developing ''Series/TheFactsOfLife''.
19	** Sam Simon also wrote an episode. Simon is best known as co-developer and co-executive producer of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''.
20	** Possible with Ron Glass, better known to ''{{Series/Firefly}}'' fans as BadassPreacher Shepherd Book.
21	* TheScrappy: Levitt. Ron Carey was a good comedy actor, but Levitt's syncophantic comments and shamelessly passive-aggressive behavior towards Barney, and acting like ItsAllAboutMe while there was an obvious situation (even crisis) that Barney ''had'' to interrupt him for -- to the point that when he was about to tell Barney something related to the crisis, Barney ''assumed'' he was going to ask for extra duty -- made him very grating on some viewers. It made it hard to understand why Barney would bend over backwards dissuading him from a request to transfer rather than instantly accepting it.
22	* TearJerker: The out-of-character "Jack Soo: A Retrospective" made in tribute after Soo passed away from cancer. The show never did an episode to give an in-universe death to Nick, but the somber way in which all the characters spoke when his name was mentioned afterwards makes it clear that they were mourning him.
23	* ValuesDissonance:
24	** "Rape". Although the female DA treats the case seriously and laments that there ''will'' be other opportunities to test it in court, it's presented as a comedy storyline and the man is treated not so much as abusive (although he willingly admits that he forced his wife) but as someone who needs to learn how to approach it more romantically, have a candlelit dinner et al, and his wife as someone who should probably put out more.
25	** Additionally, instances of [[DomesticAbuse battered wives]] were PlayedForLaughs in a few episodes.
26	** The second season episode "Heat Wave" combined the two for extra helpings of dissonance. The A-plot involves Wojo [[DoubleStandardRapeMaleOnMale almost being raped]] while disguised as a woman to catch muggers, and Detective Wentworth being [[ArentYouGoingToRavishMe offended that the would-be rapist didn't pick her]]. The B-plot involves a battered wife with a huge, ghastly bruise over most of her face deciding whether to press charges against her husband. The detectives are totally blase and utterly lacking in compassion for an obvious victim except for the lone female detective, Wentworth, who is aghast and extremely supportive. (However this is played more as the seen-it-all detectives typically under-reacting to events vs. the extremely excitable Wentworth ''over''-reacting.) Lots of laughs (from a live audience, not a laugh track) all around, and the applause she got for deciding not to sign the complaint ("He once made love to me in a field of daisies!") was much bigger and more enthusiastic than the applause she got for coming back a couple of minutes later and signing it (which today would be a definite SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome).
27	** In "Dog Days", Wojo and Yemana break up a dog-fighting ring and bring in a suspect. Barney gives him a ration for pitting helpless animals against each other, but his treatment of dog-fighting as an ordinary sport and talking as if he were a boxing trainer seems kind of PlayedForLaughs. Or maybe he's just AffablyEvil.
28	** In "Blizzard" a man is brought in warning that the blizzard is a sign of a coming new ice age (in the 70s those concerned about climate change talked more of the world cooling rather than warming). If remade today it seems unlikely he would have been treated as much as a nut as he is here[[note]]Interestingly, even though climate change is driven by ''rising'' temperatures, results like higher numbers of blizzards and/or snowfall is actually predicted by the models (somewhat oversimplifying, slightly warmer air not only causes more water vapor, warmer air can ''hold'' more water, which means more energy for storms, and more potential water to fall as snow)[[/note]].
29	* ValuesResonance:
30	** "The Harris Incident." Black detective Harris is shot at by white cops while he's trying to make an arrest. This still happens today, often with tragic results.
31	** "The Hero", where Chano shoots and kills two bank robbers. Even though it's a totally justified shooting, Chano doesn't notch his gun and go around for high-fives, he thinks MyGodWhatHaveIDone, and experiences PTSD, an unusually realistic thing to portray happening even today, much less in the 70's.

Context YMMV / BarneyMiller