![]() Teleplay by Danny Arnold, Chris Hayward, & Arne Sultan | Directed by Noam Pitlik Wojo and Wentworth go undercover at a hotel as a married couple. That’s for next week though first…Ġ1) Episode 20: “Grand Hotel” (Aired: 10/23/75) This all helps set the table for Three, the show’s peak largely because of Two’s strides with character and accumulating realism. Also, the year is still trying to shoot in front of an audience, and there’s a theatricality - see, for instance, Linda Lavin’s portrayal of Wentworth - that’s against the show’s softer baseline and stands out as false, even in comparison to One, which was at least grounded by heavier moments… And yet, while this does a number on Two’s overall standing, the last, oh, half of the season begins a formative self-correction, with the humor modulating alongside the characters, all of whom become more defined through added use, as scripts offer more of both believable heft and the series’ trademark continuity (practiced here within, among other things, the casual Wentworth/Wojo romance). This lack of emotional weight and more forceful drive for laughs makes narrative-based angst unusually strained (for Barney Miller), and with so few of the leads ready to participate, its rare sources of humor (like Fish) are magnified in a way that stretches their credibility, relative to everything else. It’s all most obvious in Two’s first trimester, when Chris Hayward’s old pal Arne Sultan is a credited producer and there’s an evident crusade to make the show funnier - not only through a reduction of drama (both didactic and personal), but also in an over-reliance on the few hooks and gags that have been carrying the comic burden, like weekly guests/plot, Yemana’s coffee, and Fish’s to-camera mugging. In other words, Two is a huge structural advancement, which makes it easier to find stories that satisfy the concept and make time for the leads, who yes, find definition gradually from mere exposure and thus naturally improve, but the year is so prematurely aggressive that it undermines what we already see as the series’ strength. If Barney Miller’s selling point is its realism, particularly via its leads, then Season Two is not a great advertisement, for while showrunner Danny Arnold wisely drops Barney’s home and wife (she only appears twice), and focuses on the precinct where there are richer opportunities with the regulars and the premise, he also makes a surprising attempt to rev up the show’s never-comparably-excellent comedic engine, and this doesn’t acquit the year well, especially because it isn’t aligned with the series’ slower, quieter understanding of character. With BARBARA BARRIE, LINDA LAVIN, and JAMES GREGORY. ![]() Welcome to a new Sitcom Tuesday! This week, we’re continuing our coverage on the best of Barney Miller (1975-1982, ABC), which is currently available in full on DVD.īarney Miller stars HAL LINDEN as Barney Miller, ABE VIGODA as Fish, MAX GAIL as Wojo, RON GLASS as Harris, JACK SOO as Yemana, and GREGORY SIERRA as Chano.
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