Title: The Rainmaker
Directed by: Noam Pitlik
Written by: Paul Robinson Hunter, Frank Dungan, and Jeff Stein (story), Frank Dungan and Jeff Stein (teleplay)
Air Date: May 14, 1981
Previous: The Vests
Next: Liquidation
Guest Starring: J. Pat O'Malley, Leonard Stone, Beatrice Colen, Bruce Mac Vittie
"The Rainmaker" is the 21st episode of the seventh season of Barney Miller.
A Lillian Hamilton is in the squad room after being mugged. She makes a big deal out of how she was an easy target because she doesn't know the language or the customs, because she's a foreigner from—Canada. (Anglophone Canada.)
New York City is in the grip of a drought, which worries Wojo, who tends to worry about things he reads in the news. This becomes plot relevant when Dietrich and Wojo bring in Walter Dooley, an eccentric older gentleman who was arrested for starting a fire in a public park. It turns out that Mr. Dooley is a "rainmaker" who was conducting a ritual to bring rain. The situation becomes more awkward when Mr. Dooley reveals that he was actually hired by the city. Eventually Wojo calls in Ernest Lun, the harried Water Department bureaucrat who hired Mr. Dooley.
Meanwhile, Barney posts a notice about an open position in Vice. It turns out all three of his detectives want it. This provokes an extended discussion about how things are feeling stale in the squad room and how the detectives of the 12th Precinct do the same thing every day.
Tropes:
- Brick Joke: Mr. Dooley tells a colorful story of how he once made it rain in a town in Texas by conducting the "Plaskan Maiden Ritual", in which all the young women of the town ran through the streets naked. Later Miss Hamilton asks to work for Mr. Dooley, because she's suffering from the same boredom the detectives are. As they leave Mr. Dooley asks the pleasantly pretty Miss Hamilton "Have you ever heard of the Plaskan Maiden Ritual?" He hangs back for a moment to tell Wojo that "You've got to start somewhere," and Wojo laughs as the episode ends.
- Dramatic Thunder: The clap of thunder outside is directly plot relevant, as it means that the drought is over and maybe Mr. Dooley's ritual worked. But it also comes at the end of a long monologue by Barney about how he'd miss his detectives if they leave.Barney: I've been watching you guys for a lot of years. It's going to be hard to let go.
[burst of thunder from the window]]
Dietrich: [grins] I like your style. - Happy Rain: Mr. Dooley literally dances with joy in his cell at the end, when it starts pouring rain outside. Mr. Lun is happy too, until Barney reminds him that people still won't believe that his rainmaker did it.
- Job Title: "The Rainmaker" for Mr. Dooley, who is just that, and has been hired by the city to make it rain.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The opening in Vice leads all the detectives to start talking about how they do the same thing all the time, every day, and they're getting bored with it, and they want to do something else. At this late stage in the run of Barney Miller, the writers were struggling to come up with new ideas, and the show almost wasn't renewed. In the end it was renewed for an eighth and last season before going off the air in 1982.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Mr. Dooley the "rainmaker" conducts a rain-making ritual in the park. At the end of the episode it rains, and Mr. Dooley takes the credit.
- Uncoffee: Barney drinks the coffee Wojo made and is horrified. Turns out that the drought-conscious Wojo didn't make coffee, he made hot Dr. Pepper.
