Barney and Friends: The anniversary of the acclaimed cop show

Here’s your “do you feel old yet?” moment for today: It was a half-century ago today that ABC-TV debuted “Barney Miller,” about an eclectic squad of police detectives working out of a run-down precinct house in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village. The show would win three Emmy Awards and a Peabody Award over its 170 episodes and eight seasons on television.

The Origin of The Ol' One-Two

The idea was to depart from the usual action-adventure cops n’ robbers police shows that were so popular in the 1970s and focus more on the more mundane side of police work: lots of paperwork, dealing with an endless parade of pimps, perverts, thieves and wackos who spent time in the holding cell, and overseen by a crew of detectives nearly as eccentric as the people they arrested. Nearly every episode took place on just one set: the precinct squadroom.

Series creators Danny Arnold and Theodore Flicker created a TV pilot called “The Life and Times of Captain Barney Miller,” that was broadcast on Aug. 22, 1974, as part of a summer anthology series on ABC. The pilot was eventually green-lit as a TV series, keeping stage veteran Hal Linden and Abe Vigoda but replacing the rest of the cast.

The show won a Peabody Award in 1978 and Emmy awards for Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series in 1979, Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series in 1980 and Outstanding Comedy Series in 1982. In 2013, TV Guide named it one of the 60 best TV series of all time.

The Cast of 'Barney Miller'

Capt Barney Miller. Hal Linden, Season 1-8.

Detective Ron Harris. Ron Glass, Season 1-8.

Sgt. Phillp K. Fish. Abe Vigoda, Season 1, 4, 7.

Liz Miller. Barbara Barrie, Season 1-2, 4, 5.

Sgt. Arthur Dietrich. Steve Landesberg, Season 1-8.

Detective Stanley 'Wojo' Wojclehowicz. Max Gail. Seasons 1-8.

Inspector Franklin D. Luger. James Gregory, Season 1-8.

Sgt. Nick Yemana. Jack Soo, Seasons 1-5.

Sgt. Miguel 'Chano' Armenguale. Gregory Sierra, Seasons 1-2.

Office Carl Levitt. Ron Carey. Seasons 3-8.

Eight Seasons of SITCOM Brilliance

The show was designed to be staged as if it were a theatrical play — something that appealed to Hal Lindon. Of the show’s 170 episodes, all but 13 were filmed exclusively on the squad room set. The pilot had been filmed at CBS Studio Center, but when the series began production, the sets were moved to ABC Television Center in Hollywood.

On Feb. 5, 1977, the character of Fish was spun off into his own show in which Fish and his wife become foster parents for five racially mixed children. Vigoda continued to appear in “Barney Miller” for a while but left in Season 4. “Fish” lasted only two seasons. Vigoda returned for a guest appearance in a Season 7 episode of “Barney Miller.”

The fifth episode of the first year of “Barney Miller” featured officer Wojo growing disgusted while arresting workers in a brothel. He ends up falling for one of the hookers, asks her on a date and she says she’d have to charge him her usual rate. After pondering this, Wojo turns to Barney and quietly asks him: “Can you lend me 50 bucks until payday?”

At the end of Season 4, acyor Jack Soo was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. He missed five episodes and returned the next season but his cancer had metastasized and spread. After appearing in nine more episodes, Soo died on Jan. 11, 1979, at age 61. The Season 5 finale consisted of Linden and the rest of the cast stepping out of character and paying tribute to Soo.

New York City hasn’t had a 12th precinct since Dec. 1, 1916. When production ended, the daily duty roster chalkboard on the back wall of the set, the old cell door, the cast’s police badges and Jack Soo’s coffee mug were all donated to the Smithsonian. The fictional 12th precinct room was rebuilt and used in an episode of “Castle” in 2009.

Danny Arnold said he had run out of fresh ideas by the end of Season 8. “Everyone on staff and their kids were contributing scripts by that point,” he said. That, along with some health issues of his own, caused him to bring “Barney Miller” to an end. The network had been quite willing to keep the show going.

Real-life police officers say that “Barney Miller” was the most realistic cop show in TV history, because it focused on behind-the- scenes work. New York police detective wrote in the New York Times in 2005 that the action was mostly off screen and the characters were “a motley bunch” who worked hard, made jokes and answered to their straight-man commander.