Title: The Election
Directed by: Lee Bernhardi
Written by: Tom Reeder
Air Date: October 21, 1976
Previous: Bus Stop
Next: Werewolf
Guest Starring: James Gregory, Brett Somers, Richard Venture, Gilbert Green
"The Election" is the fifth episode of the third season of Barney Miller.
It's Election Night 1976, President Gerald Ford vs. former Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter. Nick is placing all kinds of bets, including a wager that Hawaii will go Republican based on a tip from his uncle. Wojciehowicz has already voted, and, geeked out with enthusiasm for democracy, he pesters everybody else in the squad room to say who they're voting for. Inspector Luger drops by the station to urge everyone to vote for an old crony of his named Scofield who is running for city council.
Harris brings in a fellow named Crippen who was busted for shoplifting ladies' underwear. Crippen insists on being allowed to cast his vote, so Wojo escorts him to the polling place...and to Wojo's intense humiliation, Crippen escapes. The other case the 12th is dealing with involves a toilet seat flung out a window that nearly hit a pedestrian. It turns out that the toilet seat was thrown by one Edna Relkie, as a call for help, after her husband Charles had locked her into the bathroom because she said she was going to vote Republican.
Tropes:
- And Starring: Gregory gets his usual "Special Guest Star", and Landesberg, not yet added to the opening credits, again gets "Steve Landesberg as Detective Arthur Dietrich".
- Bad to the Last Drop: The Running Gag about Yemana's coffee.
- Barney asks if the coffee is fresh, Yemana says the grounds were fresh but he can't vouch for the water, which leads Barney to snark "What could live in your coffee?"
- Yemana offers Mrs. Relkie some more coffee and she says "Oh no thank you, I can't drink coffee." Then she holds up the cup Yemana already gave her and says "Do you have any more of this?" Just what was in that cup?
- Corrupt Politician: Luger's old crony Jacob Scofield. When Barney recalls that Scofield was implicated in a garbage payoff scandal, Luger indignantly says "They never pinned a thing on him, Barney!"
- Election Day Episode: Aired 12 days before the actual 1976 election in which Carter narrowly beat Ford.
- Five-Finger Discount: Mr. Crippen seems to genuinely not understand why he stole the ladies' underwear instead of paying for it.
- The Gambling Addict: Yemana as usual, having placed all sorts of bets on the presidential race, senatorial races, side bets like who will carry Hawaii. By the end he realizes he's placed so many bets he can't remember who he needs to win, so he decides to vote for someone he likes.
- Landslide Election: For whoever was running against Luger's crooked buddy Scofield; the radio reports that the other guy got 57,000 votes while Scofield got 8000. A disappointed Luger says that being Police Commissioner would have been too much of a hassle anyway.
- Let Off by the Detective: Wojo is pretty pissed off that Crippen escaped from the polling place—but then Crippen returns to the squad room and steps into the cell himself. He insists that he didn't mean to escape from Wojo and he took the time to go back to the department store and pay for the underwear. So, after Barney's gentle suggestion, Wojo doesn't press an escape charge and instead lets Crippen go.
- Mathematician's Answer: When Wojo presses Barney on whom he's going to vote for, Barney replies "I'm gonna vote for a lot of different people. One for each office, of course." When Wojo, not getting the hint, asks about Barney's potential vote for President, Barney replies "Yeah, I'm gonna vote for one of them too."
