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Despite the fact that it shows up on very few lists of all-time great television shows, 'Barney Miller' made its mark on the world, and in the hearts of millions of fans. Eight seasons of the show managed to convince us of the better-than-average sensibilities of those responsible for it. From the quiet subtlety of the show's subject matter, all the way to the fact that the show knew when to end. 'Barney Miller', somewhat similar in this respect to 'Hill Street Blues', focused more on the drudgery of reality than the guns and chases of most police shows. It is a unique show indeed, that can pull an audience in and entertain them, but nevertheless causes them some difficulty should someone, even immediately after, ask what happened. ***

'Barney Miller' tore into this approach from the beginning, and took it to extremes never duplicated before or since. It was, perhaps, this unrelenting adherence to the mundane which captured not only audiences in general, but also police-specific audiences. The show was often heralded by police forces around the country for not simply being a favorite show, but also for delivering a realistically boring, yet still honorable, view of the life of a police officer. Though riddled with references to these aspects of this real view, none stands out better as being an absolute hallmark of the show than the simple fact that someone is forever winding some form or other into their typewriter. ***

Hal Linden led the crew as Barney Miller, and it was a character that might easily be thought of as a modernized version of Andy Griffith's sheriff. The constant voice of reason, and dealer in appeals to common sense, Barney Miller was ever the negotiator and 'political' peace officer... emphasis on peace. The crew itself epitomized the show's great concern for real life by being comprised of such a decidedly quirky group of 'regular' people. Though slightly, and probably necessarily, too easy to describe in terms of general characteristics, the officers at the 12th precinct were nothing if not just the sort of people you felt you could run into anywhere. Abe Vigoda's Fish, and Jack Soo's Yamana battled throughout their tenures on the show for the title of television's all-time most likable character. Max Gail and Ron Glass, as Wojo and Harris respectively, added an extra bit of charm to the show through their own quirks. Wojo as the 'simple' cop, who was nevertheless very real, and no less representative of his own version of honor and dignity (as opposed to falling into caricature for the sake of extra laughs). Harris, as the cop with tremendous fashion sense who didn't entirely want to be a cop. ***

Here is a show (and season) where the police deal with things like flashers, prostitutes, obscene phone-callers, and petty stick-up men. There are no kingpins, or huge drug busts, and it is just as likely that at any given point the thing at the front of our detectives minds is retirement or bad coffee. The wives and lives of the detectives frequently come into the picture, and they are no more interesting, in some sense, than anything else. Our 'heroes' deal with paperwork and politics far more than they do criminals, and at the end of the day it's just about getting to the end of the day. ***

'Barney Miller' is a show, perhaps unique in this distinction for a sit-com, that no one ever had to be apologetic about liking. Committed to honesty and reality, and backed up by intelligent writing (which became all the more apparent as time went on, especially with the addition of Detective Dietrich in later seasons), no one ever feared admitting they watched it. ***

The first season is a long, though well-planned, road of introductions. This is a season of experimentation, as this was a show that was not at all sure that it filled its niche, nor even that there was a niche for it to fill. Here we see Detective Chano, who never properly solidified a role that became integral to the overall scheme. We also get many introductions to characters that will become staples throughout the show's run. This is not the best season of the show, but for fans it is a necessary one. If for nothing else, then to see the ways in which the characters are being shaped by the actors through these initial episodes.

There are few noteworthy flaws to the picture quality of this set, but it is at the same time not the best quality to begin with. Not entirely surprising given the show, but with six and seven episodes per disc, we might easily have spread those out to one more disc, and managed a better compression. A few episodes are particularly bad in spots, but I think this is clearly due to problems with the source material. Overall, you aren't getting anything that is realistically below television quality, and it is hard to expect more than that. Color, clarity, edge detail, and other major concerns are simply as good as anyone has a right to really expect. It would be nice if these great old shows could get better treatment, but this is still a release that can count as being pretty nicely preserved. ***

The sound is simply 2.0 mono, and about all you can say is that it does its job. Here, all that really amounts to is that you get a dialogue track. There isn't much else to hear, and this is a spot where I have no problems letting a company cut corners (sort of) on a release. There's no sense in doing anything more with the audio anyway. There are no glaring flaws such as drops, or hiss, and that's as good as things are going to get.

With the way television shows are being released on DVD these days, a release such as this can tear a person in two. On the one hand, it's an absolute treat to be able to own a show like this. On the other hand, shows that have only existed for one or two seasons (and are still on), are getting the royal treatment for their releases, and shows like 'Barney Miller' can't get any special features at all. ***

This is one of the better shows that has ever come along, and I certainly recommend this, by no means inadequate, release. I have to admit to really only recommending the show itself though. There is nothing flawed about the transfer to DVD which would lead me to avoid recommending it, but there is nothing about the DVD that can be recommended over and above a mere statement about the show.

Marc Eastman

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