SPHE Pres Release: Barney Miller: The Complete Second Season (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

Barney Miller:
The Complete Second Season

Classic Award-Winning ‘70s TV Cop Comedy
Arrives on DVD January 22

All 22 Episodes Available in a Three-Disc Boxed Set


Culver City, CA (November 12, 2007) – Expand your television DVD collection of great classic comedies when Sony Pictures Home Entertainment debuts Barney Miller: The Complete Second Season on DVD January 22. The ABC series, which was nominated for six Emmys® including Outstanding Comedy Series, stars Hal Linden (TV’s “Search for Tomorrow”, The Other Woman) daytime Emmy® nominee Abe Vigoda (The Godfather), and Jack Soo (Thoroughly Modern Millie, The Green Berets).

The three-disc DVD set includes all 22 episodes from the second season, with guest stars Linda Lavin (TV’s “Alice”), David Doyle (TV’s “General Hospital”), and Adam Arkin (Hitch). Only available on DVD currently, watch these classic episodes on your own schedule! Barney Miller: The Complete Second Season will be available for $29.95 SRP.

Barney Miller is the kind of cop we'd all like to meet. He somehow manages to maintain order at New York City’s 12th Precinct in Greenwich Village and remains level-headed while dealing with a group of off-the-wall inner-city detectives. Among them is a gambler, another who attends renaissance philosophy conventions for fun, and a third who spends most of his time daydreaming about being an author. This season, the precinct deals with potential layoffs, a man who threatens to blow up the station unless he can speak with President Nixon, marijuana evidence that suspiciously disappears, and a job offer from Florida for Barney.

Barney Miller: The Complete Second Season episodes include:

Doomsday
Social Worker
The Layoff
Ambush
Heat Wave
Arsonist
Grand Hotel
Discovery
You Dirty Rat
Horse Thief
Rain
Fish
Hot Dogs
Protection
Happy New Year
Sniper
Fear of Flying
Block Party
Massage Parlor
The Psychiatrist
The Kid
The Mole

DVD Special Features Include:
· Digitally Mastered Audio & Video
· Bonus Minisode: Charlie’s Angels “Angels in Chains”
· Bonus Minisode: Facts of Life “The Growing Pains”
· Full Screen Presentations
· Audio: English (Stereo)
· Closed Captioned

BROADCAST YEAR: 1975-1976

Barney Miller: The Complete Second Season has a run time of approximately 553 minutes and is not rated. Artwork is available at www.SPHEPUBLICITY.COM. Visit Sony Pictures Home Entertainment on the Web at www.SonyPictures.com.

DVD Catalog # 22967
UPC Code: 0-43396-22967-9
Order Date: 12/20/07
SRP: $29.95

 

[Tory]

SO great to finally get to see this season of this series but I am worried over these minisodes. These minisodes are an evil "extra". Sony is wasting money to destroy classic television, devalueing it down to six minutes? I imagine a dark future where we will get all the shows we always wanted on DVD in minisode form and then we will be longing for the days of syndicated cuts.

 

[Don3996]

If the Facts of Life minisode were an ep from season 4...I would be excited because that would lead me to believe season 4 was coming and this is a teaser. Alas...no...just a season 3 ep.

 

[Robert13]

I know. I wonder what the purpose is of adding this as an extra. Maybe they want to attempt to drive sales on already released seasons. I hope there is an insert in this package with "coming soon" next to some long-awaiting follow-up series sets.

 

[MatthewA]

Color me unimpressed with those "extras". What's next, a 10-minute Gone With the Wind?

When I heard about minisodes I thought "syndication cuts to the extreme."

Why not some interviews with surviving cast members? Why not network promos? A blooper reel? Any behind-the-scenes stuff? No, that would be too logical. Let's just throw in cut-down versions of episodes of two unrelated series (and episodes already on DVD in their entirety, to boot). Sony must be the Japanese word for "clueless."

 

[Matthew H]

Abe Vigoda is still kickin'.. as often as I see him on Conan O'Brien, you can tell that guy would do commentaries, interviews, and anything else for a few laughs.

Wasn't he in Good Burger, too?

 

[Tory]

This is true and it would be a shame to miss the opportunity while he is still alive.

 

[Bob Turnbull]

I'm just catching up with threads here, so I just saw this...Leaving aside the minisodes for the moment, this is great news! I think many of us thought that "Barney Miller" was dead on DVD after the initial short first season was released and then nothing happened...

So as long as the episodes are intact (originally aired, no cuts, etc.), then I'm just thrilled.

Now I'd love to see some quality extras - interviews, docs and maybe even a commentary or two - but considering I didn't think we'd get anything released in the next decade, I'm fine with it.

Back to the minisodes (which unfortunately have got all the attention so far - too bad). This is the first I hear of these things - is there any reason to believe that they are anything but a different way of marketing already released sets? Instead of a trailer, you provide a portion of an episode (chopped up, but still giving the plot elements and possibly resolution) which may actually suck in the viewer into thinking "Hey, I remember that episode - that was good. Maybe I should pick up that set..."

I'm not saying I love the marketing angle, but is there really cause to cry foul yet?