Barney Miller

Detective Dietrich releasing a prisoner who confuses Newton Minnow with Kermit the Frog.

Barney Miller was a long-running sitcom set in a New York City police station, focusing on the detective squad and their patient captain, Barney Miller (played by Hal Linden). The 12th Precinct played host to a parade of eccentric criminals, victims, officers, and average citizenry driven o the brink by life's petty frustrations. The series aired on ABC from 1975 through 1982 and spawned a spin-off, Fish (starring Abe Vigoda as broken-down Detective Fish).

References

When Hal Linden guest starred on The Muppet Show episode 517, Pops asks him if he's a cop. Linden clarifies that he merely plays a cop on TV, Barney Miller. Pops says that as soon as he said the name, it hit him like a ton of bricks. "What name?" "Barney Miller!" (cue ton of bricks landing on Pops)

Muppet Mentions

In the episode "Vandal" (1979), the detectives arrest Mr. Adelson, a man who attacked a TV programming executive. The man insists that TV will always be trash. Detective Dietrich quotes Newton Minnow, famous for referring to television as a "vast wasteland." Adelson's confused response: "He one of those little puppets on Sesame Street?"

Connections

In addition to Hal Linden, other Barney Miller actors worked on Muppet/Henson productions.

• Roscoe Lee Browne played Charlie Jeffers in "Escape Artist" (1975)
• Rosalind Cash played Carolyn Slade in "Dog Days" (1978)
• James Cromwell played Sgt. Wilkinson in "Group Home" (1977)
• Bruce Kirby played Lt. Rossmore in "Eviction, Part Two" (1978), Claymore in "The Search" (1978), and Frank Rossman in "Vacation" (1979)
• Steve Landesberg played Detective Arthur Dietrich (1976-1982) and Father Paul in "Doomsday" (1975)
• Christopher Lloyd played Arnold Scully in "The Vandal" and Vincent Carew in "Open House" (both 1979)
• Jenny O'Hara played Teresa Schnabel in "The Search" (1978) and Sgt. Holly Scofield in “The Dentist” (1979)
• Linda Lavin played Detective Janice Wentworth (1975-1976)
• Stuart Pankin played Anthony Morola in "The Radical" (1978) and Alex Fleischer in "Uniform Day" (1981)
• Charlotte Rae played Mrs. Sobel in "The Sniper" (1976)
• Doris Roberts played Louise Kaufmann in "Sex Surrogate" (1977) and Harriet Brower in "The Sighting" (1978), "Wojo's Girl" (1979), and "Agent Orange" (1980)
• Marilyn Sokol played Dr. Lorraine Dooley in "Sex Surrogate" (1977)
• Florence Stanley played Bernice Fish (1975-1977; also in the spin-off Fish)
• Jeffrey Tambor played William Klein in “Field Associate” (1981)