(This was posted on Max’s Facebook page this past March)
Wishing the legendary Hal Linden a happy 92nd birthday! Nobody could have played Captain Barney Miller any better. Hal brought his expertise as a Tony Award winning stage actor to the table, and it brilliantly complimented the sitcom that itself was like a play, taking place in one room while most of the action happened off screen.
He made Barney likable and real. While he could be tough as nails when needed, he also wasn’t afraid to show his compassion and empathy toward both the people that came to them for help and those they arrested. While it didn’t always go over well (in his sleep while quarantined in the squad room, Harris referred to Barney as a “compassionate turkey”, and Inspector Lugar once admitted he thinks Barney is a bleeding heart), he doesn’t let it stop him. If Wojo was the heart of the squad room, Barney was its conscience, and he never failed to show it.
Some of the show’s most powerful moments were when Barney’s frustration boiled over and he’d make s fiery and often emotional speech. For example, we felt his anguish when he raged about Mr. Cotterman, whose death could have been prevented had they been allowed to help him instead of being restricted to homicide cases.
“Want to hear a joke, Inspector? I got a joke for you,” he says. When Lugar agrees he continues.
“It’s about specialty squads. This one. About cops. Bureaucratically confined to one singular, dehumanizing task, so they become so myopic, so cut off from the people, from the community around them, so insensitive to their needs!
A man who trusted us…who came to us for help…who lives around the corner for God’s sake! That man is dead now. And we could have prevented it. That’s the funny part, Inspector.”
He laughs bitterly.
“The whole stupid joke was on him.”
He also wasn’t afraid to express his frustration at continuing to be passed over for deputy inspector, or his sadness when he and Liz separated. He tried to hide it but we all felt his broken heart.
There were also the quiet moments where he said so much with just a few words.
“I’m gonna miss a lot of things.” he says softly and somberly as he and his men gathered in a circle around the empty spot where Nick’s desk once stood. With that one sentence we now knew Nick had died along with the actor who played him, the incomparable Jack Soo. We felt the grief, and the empty spot reflected the great loss they’d suffered.
(And then, showing great compassion, Barney goes and gets the desk returned when he realizes its removal made Levitt feel hurt and rejected.)
Then there was the way he reacted when he had to defer to Dietrich’s encyclopedic knowledge or Levitt’s attempts at getting his approval which never got old.
Barney sighs. “Deitrich!”
“What now Levitt?” Barney asked impatiently.
(Admit it, reading those brought you right back to those scenes didn’t it?)
But it’s when Barney finds himself the only squad member who didn’t get accidentally stoned out of his mind on hash filled brownies that gave us the show’s funniest moments. The next day, when he tries to reassure the men that the incident will be forgotten, the look on his face when he realizes they don’t have a single memory of the day before is priceless.
(What did he do? We’ll never know, but I’d guess he eventually had to explain, which led to a talk in his office with a horrified and embarrassed Wojo!)
And there always seemed to always be a need for a talk in the office, and they provided some of the show’s best moments. A particularly memorable one was when a suspect died as Wojo was booking him and he’s distraught.
“Barn, all my life I’ve intimidated people. I make ‘em nervous.” he explains.
“That’s not true!” Barney replies.
“So this Lujack he sees this big Polish hot dog coming, I probably scared him to death!” Wojo says, still upset.
“Wojo, the force of your presence is not that strong. There are times you are talking and I find myself not even listening to half of what you say!” Barney reassures him.
In another memorable office talk, he wasn’t afraid to put Inspector Lugar in his place, enraged when he finds out the older man committed police brutality but is unconcerned about it.
“Inspector, you violated that man’s civil rights!” he says angrily.
“Ah, don’t give me that legalese bunk.” Lugar replies dismissively.
“It is not bunk, damn it!” he shouts, “It’s the law!
And we, of all people have to uphold it, no matter what your personal opinion happens to be!”
Probably the most memorable was when he had to help Fish come to terms with the fact his police data were over due to mandatory retirement.
“There is no more work! You are retiring TODAY!” he tells him.
Moments later all he can do is listen as Fish breaks into tears.
“Not me Barney! Not me!”
There were plenty of hilarious moments too, when Barney had to listen to Scanlon’s latest attempt to bust the squad, another one of Lugar’s stories about Brownie, Foster and Kleiner, or deliver a shoplifter’s baby-and in one of the shows best episodes, finds himself on the other side when Wojo, Harris and Dietrich comfort and reassure him after he gets passed over for deputy inspector once again.
“Oh my god, I’m starting to sound like Lugar!” he says after waxing poetic about his early days as a police officer.
“It’s all right,” Harris replies soothingly, “we caught it in time.“
The office is also where we listened in on Barney and Liz’s marriage troubles, as Liz struggled with her valid fears for his safety, and Barney with his equally valid frustration over her not being able to understand that being a cop is who he IS, not just what he does. It’s also where we saw Barney’s softest side as he showed just how much he loves her, and in one rather spicy moment, throughly enjoys discussing “dessert” on the phone with her, until Dietrich and Levitt rudely interrupt.
Barney was never afraid to fight for his men and defend them, and in the case of Zatelli, protect them. He didn’t hesitate to stand up for him after he came out as gay, which was a pretty groundbreaking moment for TV at the time. Barney’s willingness to learn from and accept those different from him set an amazing example to his men and all of us.
Although he was positioned as the straight guy, Barney made us laugh, just as much as the others and he also made us think. A brilliant combination that was an integral part of the magic that came together to create Barney Miller. Here’s to you Hal! Happy Birthday!