Title: Homicide, Part 1
Directed by: Noam Pitlik
Written by: Frank Dungan and Jeff Stein
Air Date: October 30, 1980
Previous: Fog
Next: Homicide: Part 2
Guest Starring: James Gregory, Jack Somack, Jack Dodson, Tricia O'Neil, Harold J. Stone, Marjorie Bennett
"Homicide, Part 1" is the first episode of the seventh season of Barney Miller.
Season 7 starts off with the detectives handling wacky cases. Harris processes Mrs. Stratton, an old lady who's bounced some $40K of checks going back to 1967; Wojo brings in a guy who tried to lift his wallet; and Levitt introduces a man who was robbed and then locked in the trunk of his car for four days. The precinct's old friend Mr. Cotterman, the liquor store owner who's always getting robbed, is in for a new complaint: he got into a fight with his neighbor, grocery store owner Mr. Haddad. But those petty crimes aside, the 12th Precinct squad room is humming with rumors of some sort of big change in the works. Wojo is nervous about a rumor that junior detectives like him might get transferred back down to uniforms. Levitt for his part thinks that the squad room building may get sold to developers.
When Inspector Luger shows up he reveals that the big news is something nobody guessed. NYPD brass has gotten a bright new idea: instead of the personnel in a precinct responding to all the crimes in the precinct, they will be broken out into specialty squads. Some precincts will do Vice, others Narcotics. Luger has arranged for his favorite squad, the 12th, to get what he imagines is a plum assignment: homicide.
So Harris winds up dealing with a maniac who is chopping up bodies and dropping the pieces in trash cans. This is disturbing but has a happy side effect when he has to talk to Alex the extremely attractive crime scene photographer (Tricia O'Neil). Dietrich interviews a Henry St. Martin, who slit his barber's throat after receiving an unsatisfactory haircut. The episode ends on a cliffhanger when a Mrs. Harriet Shelton comes in, reports that she contacted a hitman named Vincent to kill her husband David, and asks for the 12th's help in calling the hit off.
In other business, Inspector Luger demands Barney write him a recommendation letter for a job that Luger is horribly unsuited for: public relations.
Tropes:
- And Starring: James Gregory gets his usual "Special Guest Star" credit.
- Black Comedy: A lot of this, as Dietrich interviews a nutcase who killed his barber over a bad haircut, and all the crime scenes with body parts in trash cans make Harris unable to have his morning pastry.
- Blunt "No": When Barney says "Dietrich, do you want to take care of Mr. Roth?", Dietrich takes one look at the very smelly Mr. Roth (four days in a trunk!) and says "No." When Barney gives him a Death Glare Dietrich says "You shouldn't have asked!"
- Cliffhanger: The episode ends with Mrs. Shulton coming in and asking for the 12th's assistance in calling off a hit on her husband.
- Cool Old Lady: Mrs. Stratton, who is cheerfully unapologetic about bouncing $40,000 worth of checks (in 1960s and 70s money!) over thirteen years. When Harris observes that it can't have been an accident as she's done it in 48 states, she says "I'm going to Hawaii next month!" Then she offers to write a check for restitution.
- Double Entendre: Harris is busily flirting with good-looking Alex. He offers her coffee and says "How do you take yours?" When she answers "black," he says "Oh, good."
- Multi-Part Episode: A two-part Season 7 premiere in which the 12th is made a homicide specialty squad.
- Neat Freak: A dark Black Comedy version of this with Mr. St. Martin, who, in an unsettlingly calm and polite manner, says that he considers "good grooming and personal hygiene" very important and that he killed his barber for leaving him with uneven sideburns and a cowlick. (His haircut is actually fine.)
- On the Next: Previews for Part 2 show Cotterman appealing to the 12th, now a homicide squad, to make an exception and help him with his latest store robbery.
- Punk in the Trunk: Discussed Trope, as Mr. Roth says he was in his trunk for FOUR DAYS and only got out when his parked car was rear-ended, popping the trunk open.
