Title: Call Girl
Directed by: Noam Pitlik
Written by: Tony Sheehan
Air Date: December 18, 1980
Previous: Agent Orange
Next: Resignation
Guest Starring: Paul Lieber, Nancy Bleier, Tasha Zemrus, Arthur Malet
"Call Girl" is the sixth episode of the seventh season of Barney Miller.
Harris and Dorsey bring in two hookers and a would-be john. It seems a Ray Adams approached a fancy hooker at a hotel named Christine Scott, and, when he was rejected, created a disturbance that required bringing in the police. One Leonore DuBois, a rather less fancy prostitute who seems to be closer to a Streetwalker, got swept in as collateral damage.
Dorsey, following up, brings in a far more disturbing case. He arrests Miss Rhonda Haleck, picked up after she tried to bribe the bartender to let her work, and who by her own admission is only "15 1/2." Rhonda lives at a group home for teens called Rainbow House. After finding out that over a dozen underaged girls at Rainbow House have been picked up on prostitution charges, the 12th brings in the operator of Rainbow House, Malcolm Gower.
In other news, Dietrich, always unconventional, has taken a temporary vow of celibacy.
Last episode in the three-episode run of Paul Lieber as Det. Sgt. Eric Dorsey. Apparently the attempt at adding a new regular was deemed unsuccessful.
Tropes:
- Blunt "Yes": Mr. Adams seems to be having difficulty with the idea of prostitution as a crime.Mr. Adams: I was just looking to have a good time. There's a law against that?
Harris: Yes! - Call-Back: At the beginning of the episode Dorsey is irritating Wojo with his enthusiastic talk about a video game called "Missile Command". At the end Dorsey establishes something in common with Rhonda by asking "Do you play Missile Command?" and finding out that she does.
- Fetish: According to Miss Scott's book, one john requires his hookers to wear "Austrian peasant garb" and that they "must yodel."Miss Scott: Who am I to judge?
- High-Class Call Girl: Miss Scott is high-class indeed, having a black book that apparently has all the important men in New York on it. She makes enough to have a large stock portfolio and to buy fancy gold lighters.
- Karma Houdini: Mr. Gower, who is clearly a pimp running a whole gang of underage hookers, gets away with it when Rhonda refuses to put the finger on him. Subverted when Dorsey warns Mr. Gower that he, Dorsey, will be stopping by from time to time to make sure that Gower hasn't restarted his prostitution ring.
- Newhart Phone Call: Several of these, with Barney getting increasingly irritated as a succession of VIPs call in, worried that Miss Scott's little black book might get out to the press.Barney: I haven't reached the K's yet...yes, Judge Kemp, I'm sure it would be a tragedy if it fell into the wrong hands.
- Saying Too Much: Mr. Gower gives himself away as the perv that he is, when he describes how he took Rhonda in on a cold winter day.Mr. Gower: Her delicate body braced against the elements, the wind whistling against her torn...tight jeans...[coming back to himself] I do go on about the weather, don't I?
- Vow of Celibacy: Dietrich has taken one "for the next year or two" in order to focus on his work. Naturally this is when a smoking hot fancy hooker is brought into the 12th.
