Barney Miller is the Emmy award-winning sitcom centered in the 12th Precinct station house in New York City. Captain Barney Miller(Hal Linden) is the straight man to a colorful cast of characters inhabiting his station. Detective Wojohowicz aka "Wojo"(Max Gail) was a trusting and naive cop while Detective Nick Yemana(Jack Soo) is a calm philosophical soul. Detective Ron Harris(Ron Glass) is a wiseacre, as is Detective Arthur Dietrich(Steve Landesberg). Feeble Detective Fish(Abe Vigoda) was a popular character in the station house before being spun off to his own series Fish, which ran for 2 seasons from 1977 to 1978. (The complete first season of this spinoff is included in this DVD set.)
BARNEY MILLER The Complete Series
DVD Set
Studio: Shout Factory
Year: 1974-1982
Rated: Unrated
Film Length: 74 hours
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Subtitles: None
Release Date: October 25, 2011
The Series
Barney Miller premiered in its regular timeslot on January 23, 1975, after its try-out as part of an anthology series on the ABC network entitled Just For Laughs. "The Life and Times of Barney Miller" aired originally on Just For Laughs on August 22, 1974. Many of the roles were recast for the regular series, although Hal Linden and Abe Vigoda were retained in their roles from the original pilot episode. The series was created by Danny Arnold and Theodore J. Flicker, whose combined writing credits included McHale’s Navy, Bewitched, That Girl, Night Gallery, and The Streets of San Francisco. Barney Miller enjoyed healthy Nielsen ratings through most of its run, and was especially popular among police officers, as well as the general public. Author and former police officer Joseph Wambaugh is known to be a big fan of this series. The final first-run episode of Barney Miller aired on May 20, 1982.
This set consists of the complete Barney Miller of 168 episodes on 23 discs plus the first season of Fish on 2 discs. The packaging includes an illustrated booklet with episode titles, summaries, and airdates, and a salute to Barney Miller written by Howard Rosenberg. The packaging is very nice as it resembles the entrance door to the 12th Precinct.
Video
The series is displayed in its original 1:33:1 screen ratio. The video quality is merely average due to the series’ production on videotape instead of film. This is probably as good as this series will ever look, even though detail is poor and colors tend to be murky and black levels are inconsistent. It is unfortunate that this classic series was not created on film instead of videotape. (The original pilot episode "The Life and Times of Barney Miller" was filmed rather than videotaped with the result that it has noticeably crisper image than any of the regular series episodes.) The same transfers for the first several seasons seem to have been used in this set as were released originally by Sony Home Entertainment prior to this complete series set being licenced to Shout! Unfortunately, some of those prior releases included shorter syndicated versions of certain episodes, including the first regular episode "Ramon". Thankfully, Shout! has located a full-length version of that episode which is included among the bonus features on disc 23. Although most of the episodes are full-length without any edits, there are still a few syndicated versions included in this set. I infer that Shout! made every effort to locate network versions but was not successful for every episode.
Audio
The Dolby Digital 2.0 audio track is not exceptional by modern standards but accurately reproduces the audio of the original broadcasts without any perceptible defects. The sound mix is more than adequate, if not exceptional, with dialogue always appropriately audible. There is none of the crackle, hiss, or fluctuation in sound level that we sometimes expect from TV series of the 1970s.
Special Features
The special features are included on disc 23, which is disc 3 from season 8. The special features include all of the following:
Inside the 12th Precinct(29:18): This terrific featurette includes new interviews with Hal Linden, Abe Vigoda, and Max Gail.
Salute To The Old One Two(24:07): Another featurette with older interviews with cast and crew.
Inside The Writers’ Room(16:30): Writers Jeff Stein and Frank Dungan reminisce about the series.
"The Life and Times of Barney Miller"(26:44): This is the original pilot that aired on the ABC-TV anthology series Just For Laughs on August 22, 1974. Video and audio quality are surprisingly good on this rare gem.
Pilot(26:44): This is the full-length version of the episode "Ramon" that is included in abbreviated version on disc 1.
"You Don’t Know Jack" Excerpt from the Jack Soo Documentary(7:39): Jack Soo’s character Detective Yemana was so beloved that a special episode retrospective episode of Barney Miller aired on May 17, 1979 following Soo’s death in which the cast members reminisced about working with him.
Commentaries: The final 3-part episode "Landmark"includes commentary by writers Tony Sheehan, Jeff Stein, and Frank Dungan.
Conclusion
Barney Miller The Complete Series DVD set is a terrific collection of a classic TV sitcom. In retrospect, it is unfortunate that this series was not produced on film instead of videotape since we would have much higher video quality of this series today. As it is, the video quality in this collection has the episodes looking pretty much as good as they ever will. The audio has aged better than the video elements and sound as good as, or perhaps even better than, originally aired. The special features are genuinely interesting and not merely filler. The inclusion of the original pilot episode as well as the extended version of the first regular episode are welcome inclusions, as is the first season of the spinoff Fish. The only way the special features could be better is if the entire second season of Fish were also included in this set; hopefully that season will be released by Shout! in the near future. TV viewers who enjoyed later character comedies like Cheers and Friends will find much to enjoy in Barney Miller, which in many ways inspired those later shows. Barney Miller The Complete Series DVD set is recommended.
Timothy, nice review.
