Barney Miller Complete Series 25 Disc Set Oct 25th - Page 4

The HTF review has been posted.  Read the review and tell us what you think at:  http://www.hometheaterforum.com/t/316089/barney-miller-the-complete-series-dvd-review#post_3868987

Going through more of the set, and I have to say that it will not bother me one iota if the second season of "Fish" never gets released. As great as "Barney Miller" is, "Fish" is absolutely dreadful as a sitcom on all levels and a classic case of how a character who is great as a supporting character in an ensemble piece can not carry the load as a star/lead. The humor in Abe Vigoda's Fish was how he reacted to the craziness of the criminals who were arrested and his own foibles as a cop nearing retirement. In "Fish" all of that is gone and we just have a cantankerous grouch uttering the same one-joke premise asides acting as surrogate father to a bunch of annoying misfits (especially the kid who plays "Victor" who you just want to see get run over by a truck). It might have helped if there'd been some genuine crossover with the parent show to liven things up like having Harris or Wojo stop by once and getting exposed to Fish's situation, but since Abe Vigoda really wanted to get off the parent show entirely (which was the real reason why Fish was finally "retired" at the beginning of Season 4 of BM and the second season of Fish) that no doubt wasn't an option. I've only seen one episode in the first five where Fish even refers to his colleagues at the 12th by name.

I'm going to slog my way to the end of the 13 episodes in this set because that way it can make me better appreciate then watching his "retirement" episode on "Barney Miller" and then his two appearances on BM post-retirement (once more later in S4 and then a return three and a half years later during Season 7). I have no desire to see how this show managed to last another full year because it should have been canceled after this half-season and maybe that way Vigoda would have realized the wisdom of staying with the parent show.

Currently $79.99 -- 50% off -- at Amazon (11/23)...

Well, I have finished all eight seasons of Barney Miller and I'm pretty pleased to have finally seen the entire run. The acting and quality of the writing never wavered during the entire series. While I do feel that the show really lost two great characters when Fish retired and Yemana (Jack Soo) died the series just seemed to get better and better. True the real fate of Yemana is never revealed, but the loss of the character was a big one.

While overall the sound and picture quality of the DVD set is good, there are a few issues. A couple of episodes the sound is a bit muffled. This is mostly contained within the last three seasons. There are also a few episodes throughout seasons 4-8 where the picture quality tends to go up and down. These faults may lie in the original source material. I don't know.

All episodes for seasons 4-8 appear to be complete and uncut. The running times usually hit the 25 minute mark, but there are a few that run about 24:30 or so. Still within the standard running time for a show of the late 70s and early 80s.

There were a couple of obvious sound issues that I did happen to notice. During the season 6 episode where the man is arrested for taking an ax to the Muzak machine in a department store, the word Muzak is bleeped out. Therefore when Harris first mentions Muzak, the joke is lost. You can still get the gist of the conversation and make the deduction that Muzak is the word that keeps getting bleeped. It’s rather annoying and very noticeable. I assume that this was done for legal reasons but it is still annoying and noticeable.

Also, now I don’t know if this issue was done in post production (I would assume so since it shows up again in the Jack Soo clip show), but the scene where Yemana is taking the call about a stolen car and is looking for his other chopstick has a rather obvious audio anomaly. If you watch closely when Yemana asks what kind of car was stolen, he clearly says Ford Mustang but you hear Studebaker instead. Thus the joke about the car not being stolen but maybe it ran away is lost. Again, I don’t know if this was done in post production but the same audio anomaly is heard in the series twice. If it was done in post production (since it is Jack Soo’s voice doing the overdub) then they didn’t do a very good job of covering it up. It is more likely that for legal reasons (just like the Muzak situation noted above), they couldn’t say Ford Mustang. Then again, it could have been done just prior to the series going into syndication sometime around the start of season 5. It is possible that Ford wasn’t a sponsor for the series in syndication and therefore they couldn’t use the word anymore. Whatever the reason for the overdub, it was done very poorly and quite noticeable. Who knows?

It should be noted that a brief disclaimer pops up on the screen just before the series finale stating that the only full length master they could find was used and an apology for any video issues that may follow. So, yes the video quality of the last episode tends to be all over the place. Clear one minute, fuzzy and grainy the next and back to clear again. It is quite noticeable.

Inspite of a few minor imperfections, the series looks great and it was a real treat to finally get to see all of it. Barney Miller is without a doubt, one of the best shows that has ever been on TV.

If I recall, there's one episode where they walk into the squad room and discover that Yemana's old desk has been removed, and their quiet attitude is that of one remembering a colleague who has in fact, passed away. There's one other reference to Yemana when Fish returns after three years and Barney in giving him coffee says, "It's not as bad as Nick's but we're working on it."

When you go through the whole series it's also amazing to see how this was the first sitcom to really observe a strict standard of continuity with previous shows, and subtle running subplots over time. Sometimes the same criminals would get arrested again and make off-hand references to the previous episode they were in even if it was a couple years ago. That was something you just didn't see in sitcoms back in the 70s or before.

What "Muzak" is Brian Himes referring to? This?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muzak_Holdings

In the episode "Inquisition" the characters refer generically to easy listening re-recordings of standards and pop songs as Muzak. Since Muzak was actually a trade name, legal restrictions required the word to be edited from the broadcasts. Even if unedited versions remain extant somewhere, I'm sure the same legal problem applies since I think the company still exists. The extremely negative connotation applied probably made a difference, too.

Yes, that is the Muzak I and the episode "Inquisition" was referring to. That tacky elevator music.

I'm just now wrapping up the first season of Fish that's included with the complete Barney Miller set. I loved the show as a kid and I've found it pretty much as I remembered it...not nearly as good as the parent show, but it does have some laugh-out-loud moments.