When cops in that era were asked which TV show was the most realistic, they'd always say "Barney Miller." Kudos to Danny Arnold for portraying reality.

"I'm not frivolous, I'm homosexual." I'm using that now.

Barney Miller is a criminally underrated show.

I absolutely loved this show! Fish, who challenged ageism, Nick, an Asian, Wojo, and Harris...and Barney, the moral heart of the show.

My favorite thing about Barney Miller was it's theatricality - everything takes place on one set, with no location shots.

Eleanor's actions really aren't all that unrealistic. The gripe about the non-primary-custodial parent being the 'fun' one is common, particularly for ex-wives (who often have to carry the burden of providing food, shelter and discipline on their own). And once custody fights start, it's also not uncommon for the aggrieved (legitimately or otherwise) parent to use whatever tool is available, even if they don't really believe what they're saying. So her heel-face turn doesn't really read as all that improbable. Basically, if you remove Daryl's homosexuality, and then have her digging in her heels over some other issue, it would still stand on its own; it's just that in that time and place, in particular, that tactic would've been extremely successful with the courts.

I miss Barney Miller. The stories depicted good people, multiple racial, female representation, the bigots were shut down, it was how I wished the world worked, gritty but idealistic.

Darryl: "I told you he was ugly." Marty: "You were being kind."

My college roommate’s dad was a retired NYC detective and he said Barney Miller was the only realistic cop show on television.

Loved the episode!!! Some of us 70's Kids were watching over our parents shoulders and episodes like this helped us to realize that there were other stories out there to be told, and compassion for all was not a weakness. Thanks!

Barney Miller's theme song had the best bass line of the 70s & early 80s.

What I loved most about Barney and his crew was that they treated everyone with humanity... even non humans (werewolf) 😀👍

I was in my twenties in the seventies (much more fun than being in my seventies in the twenties) and Barney Miller was one of my favourite shows. Thank you for pointing out all the nuances of the characters and their stories that as a straight young woman I simply watched and absorbed without appreciating the significance. I would love to go back and watch the show again with an extra 50 years of life experience.

Literally gasped when you said "if he looks familiar, it's Shepherd Book from Firefly" - dramatic reaction maybe but a necessary one!

Not being gay myself I really appreciate how far we have come and decry how many steps back we also have taken. The spectrum of sexuality has always been a part of being human. Accepting this fact is only accepting ones self and everyone we meet.

When that first Darryl/Marty episode aired, I was fascinated: a gay couple on tv. And the police aren't contemptuous of their search for justice. It was definitely groundbreaking.

A former cop told me that “Barney Miller” was the most realistic cop show on TV.

I was a big Barney Miller fan. If I may, years ago I was invited to an ASCAP fundraiser and Hal Linden was part of the show. He told some funny stories, sang, and then played a classical clarinet piece (with a full orchestra), and then played some jazz on an alto sax. He was a very fine musician. Who knew? Your video was very well written, presented, and edited, an interesting take on the intersection of media and culture.

Barnie miller is a show that stands the test of time. It's witty ,funny and puts forth a lot of social topics.

I loved when Zetelli wrote the annonymous letter to the papers about being a gay cop (this was his first appearance and he was still closeted). Lt. Scanlon from IA came to the station to find out who it was. Barney informs him that the NYPD doesn't officially discriminate against officers, based on sexual orientation. Scanlon says he's aware. Barney asks why, in that case, he wants to find out who the gay cop is. Scanlon answers, "Because I want to tell him that."

Perhaps it is just the similarity between their faces, but I swear Marty could have been Robin Williams twin. In addition, some of Marty's mannerisms remind me really strongly of 1996's The Birdcage.

As a HUGE Barney Miller fan , I enjoyed your analysis here.

Marty and Daryl had to be in the finale. Their storyline was one of the most interesting story arcs on the show.

I started re-watching Barney Miller last year. It was in syndication when I was growing up and I remember watching 2 episodes a night most week nights. I was amazed they were as open as they were with the gay characters, and I was also appalled by the episode where a transvestite is arrested for "Wearing a costume in public" even tho he had committed no crime. It was a really fascinating look into an another era. Thanks for another great video.

Matt at 2:45: "By the way, if he looks familiar, it's Shepherd Book from Firefly." Me thinking: "That's funny, when I first saw Firefly, I was like, 'Oh, it's that guy from Barney Miller!'" 😂💖

I wasn’t born when these episodes first aired, but I recall watching Barney Miller reruns with my father as a kid. Some lines flew over my head however I strongly remember the gay characters, and I thought they were just the best! This show had some of the best one liner quips. Thank you Mr. Matt Baume for reminding me of the good times with my Dad, as well as continuing to teach me the culture and politics of it’s time.

One of my dad's friends worked for a local police department and I asked him what the most realistic cop show was; he said "Barney Miller". I loved that show, grew up watching the episodes the first time they aired.

Recently discovered this show while trying to find something to watch on my elderly mom's antenna-only TV and stumbled on a Barney Miller marathon. Great sitcom writing. Loveable characters.

The bit about not realizing a song was not written for the Chipmunks nearly made me snort my water. I had several Chipmunks cassette tapes as a kid, and it was a legitimate surprise later in life to learn that they were all not, in fact, original Chipmunks creations. :P

The one where they eat hash brownies is hilarious! 😂 Frankly tho, there are no bad episodes of Barney Miller. Watched it every summer night at 11pm when I was 11-13. I should watch them again...

The character of Marty would have gotten a spin off if he was introduced 20 years later.

Barney Miller is one of the few 1970s programs that I really enjoyed in primetime. when it appeared on DVD, I bought the entire series.

To be fair, almost all clothing in the 70s was flamboyant.

Only 4 minutes in and I'm immediately in love with Marty as a character

Prejudice and bigotry is always the same, once the unfamiliar becomes familiar and everyday many people forget what they hated in the first place. My family was upset that I married a non-Indian man, it took very little time before that went away and they realized he was just a person like them. It just takes time and an a lot of courage to challenge what is considered different or "unnatural". There is not much you can do about the zealots, they will always be like that.

I loved watching Barney Miller growing up and still do in my advanced years. I had no idea it was such a ground breaking show. Thank you for this very well done tribute and giving credit where's it due.

The 70’s were a period of astounding social progress and embrace of change in many ways. It felt like the Regan years clawed it all back, and we still haven’t recovered. This was great to watch. I remember watching this show when I was a kid and enjoying it, but I don’t remember any specific episodes.

I grew up with Paul Lynde and Clifton Webb as my film hero. Yet I didn't understand I was Gay until my 40's. After I came out my brother and I connected with each other as your posts shinned a light on how I gravitated toward certain programs and tastes. Thank you for helping to open the channels of understanding

Thanks for this wonderful behind-the-scenes look at one of my favorite old shows. I was surprised by how many storylines and jokes came back to me when you mentioned them. When the show aired, I was 9, 10, 11 years old. The fact that it stuck with me all these years shows the impact it had. The quarantine episode may have been the one with my favorite line by Jack Soo, whose character Detective Yemana was constantly ribbed for how bad his coffee was. When a man collapses in the precinct and everyone stares in silent shock, Yemana declares, "It was a fresh pot!"

Great episode. Barney Miller was cutting edge in a lot of ways, including Marty's character. One thing that character introduced, along with others shown over the show's course, was that those arrested for crimes weren't necessarily, or even usually, evil. They were people who made mistakes, and whose mistakes were a product of their place and circumstances. They could change, and reform their ways, but their circumstances had to change. For Marty to reform, the change involved his relationship with Darryl.

I figure that Elanor was being bigoted at first and then changed her tunes so much because she figured that laying the bigotry on thick would be something that could convince the cops in her case against Darryl (not necessarily her real opinions), because the idea of her being overshadowed by him in their son's eyes wouldn't hold a lot of weight.

It’s weird to me that my prudish grandfather made me turn the channel whenever he caught me watching Bosom Buddies, but he loved his Barney Miller. 😏

I watched every episode as they aired. Most other television shows of the time were visual bubblegum. The cast of Barney Miller were not only populated with great actors, but depicted real people in the writing.

I think maybe when you said the episode loses steam, you are missing a crucial point. Even now, it is not unusual in a custody fight for one parent to seize upon something that they think will give them an advantage over the other parent even if they don't personally care about it. Since Eleanor knew the courts were hostile to gay people, it is not unusual for her to use it to her advantage in court. When she sees that instead of making her more sympathetic to the cops, it makes her less sympathetic, it would make sense for her to quickly drop it and pretend she was more like the cops she wanted sympathy from. The insight makes her not so much homophobic , but manipulative and shows a dynamic that we see today: some people are truly bigots and others use bigotry to move forward some other end. Both are despicable, but they are not quite the same thing.

I think your channel is one of the most important lgbt content on you tube. It shows that the media can easily revoke support of the LGBT if they are pressured by powerful groups.

One of the best written, acted, and cast shows ever. They don't make them like this anymore. I like when Barney took Mr. Driscoll around the squad room to try to see if one if his detectives was the cop shaking people down for money. They walk up to Nick Yemana, and Barney asks Driscoll, "Is this the man?" Driscoll responds, "No he wasn't Chinese." Yemanan(a Japanese-American) responds, "Neither am I." That is so real and so funny!

I grew from 14 years old to 21 in the years Barney Miller was on. I'm not sure I had even heard the term 'gay' before that show. It was and remains one of my favorite shows, and this was a fantastic look at it. Thanks! I really like your combination of giving insight but showing enough of the actual show to let the viewer see what you're talking about.

Matt, what a great post. As an 18 year old Gay kid in 1975, these shows were very significant to me at the time. Thanks for the back stories and history bits that I wouldn't have known, and the reminder of why Det. Wojciehowicz was important to me then. Beautifully produced episode, Thanks.

I don't know why, but I loved this show as a 5 year old. It was so strange seeing cops do something besides shoot people and get in car chases.

Omgosh, I keep cackling out loud just from the one liners you've included from the clips in the episodes, they're so good! I need to watch this show!

Ahhh yes...Barney Miller...talking about a classic comedy... this show is one of my all-time favorites. Marty was one of my favorites so adorable and funny as hell...he was always on point with his one-liners.

One reason the show worked so well is that it's also the invention of the "workplace comedy." Think Taxi, Night Court, Wings, Cheers, News Radio, and a ton of others that don't come to my mind right now. The general format of seeing the same repertory group set in their workplace, along with regular "customers" has been a basis of a ton of successful sitcoms to follow.

Partly in thanks to Barney Miller, I grew up with diversity in our small all-white town. Even though my father was of a racist era, as a family we watched Barney Miller, Sanford & Son, Chico & The Man, The Flip Wilson Show, The Jeffersons, All in the Family, Maude. Nowhere else would I have been exposed to gay, black, Asian or even someone outwardly proud of being Polish. Thanks dad. Even though your occasionally bigoted comments were upsetting, I guess it wasn't all that often and maybe exposing us to all types of people on tv, who you never spoke ill of iirc, shows you weren't so bad after all. Too bad my brothers didn't get the message.

I was hoping you'd cover Barney Miller some day! I had never seen the show until a couple of years ago while visiting my mom, who doesn't have cable but gets this on one of those digital channels. I was amazed at how a show from the 70s seemed to actually deal with topics that are still relevant (albeit in a very 70s way).

Loved and still love Barney Miller, hasn't lost any of its relevance, and its humor is still spot on decades later, the 70s really was a golden era for the TV sitcom, and then the 80s came along.

Barney Miller was a good show, smartly written, and well cast. I always appreciated their depiction of the gay community.

I'm from a tiny, rural farming community in southern Illinois; my parents and grandparents grew up there, too (It's what is now know as "Trump country"). I was 5 when Barney Miller debuted, but my mom and I watched this show every single week. Even being so young, I loved it. It was a look into a city and a life I would never have normally seen, and was funny instead of melodramatic like most cop shows. In one episode there was a character who was arrested for escaping Bellevue mental hospital. He thought he was from the future. I seem to recall Marty being in the "cage" with him and asking if there were gays in the future. The guy said not only were there gays but due to extreme overpopulation, homosexuality was encouraged in the future. I haven't seen the show except for clips here and there since I was very young, but for some reason I've always remembered that specific plot point. This show truly helped form my world view and I'm thankful for it.

I legit yelped when the cop came out to the mother! That was NOT how I was expecting that scene to go! This was really good, thank you for what you do!

The "...I need someone who's known me for two years." was *hilarious*.

Love Barney Miller for everything. Love that I can view it at primetime every night at 8pm on ANTTV. Thank you

So interesting to learn about these shows. I was a gay kid and most these characters went right over my head. I rewatch them now and can appreciate them for all the hard work they did…..and the laughs.

I’m so deeply grateful to the creators of Barney Miller, and other shows back then with positive gay portrayals.

I'm currently watching Barney Miller. I've always loved the show growing up in da 70's. I love Marty's character from start to finish. By at least initially going with the stereotype. It was a good starting point. Then growing the character/s so that we can see beyond the stereotype and focus more on the storyline. I think the reason for the success of Barney Miller. Is that it told a story without trying to be all things to all people. The characters felt real; their attitudes; their interactions with one another. The show addressed some of the current things going on at the time. It also showed us how we as a society can do better at trying to view people with compassion and kindness. No matter who they are: rich or poor, gay or straight, young or old, etc.

Nice job bringing this important piece of pop culture history to KZfaq. I loved Barney Miller back in the day, but never realized that it pushed the envelope this way.

I only remember bits and pieces of the show, but Darryl's line about perpetuating a stereotype has been stuck in my mind since I first heard it. I also had a thing for Max Gail. He was so hunky, and I loved his chest in those tight shirts.

Have you covered "Are You Being Served?" And Mister Humphries/John Inman?

“I know I’ve seen that view myself” will never not make me cry.

One of the greatest sitcoms of all time. Amazing cast, hilarious lines that my family still quotes to this day.

Bravo Matt! Ever since I discovered your channel I was hoping you'd do a Marty and Daryl episode and you did not disappoint. Barney Miller is one of my favorite shows, so much so that when I took bass guitar lessons years ago, the first song I wanted to learn was the Barney Miller theme song.

Great episode, Matt! I always love hearing the stories of how shows got around the TV censors of their time. They had SO much power over what we saw & therefore 'normalized' in our society - thank goodness for creative showrunners!

This is the most awesome thing I've seen in a long time. My family used to watch Barney Miller every week, and I felt like I was watching it all for the first time. Thanks for leading such an enjoyable journey through the connections. I've subscribed and am looking forward to future videos. I was born in Hollywood, raised in L.A., and have been a film and video buff all my life. Barney Miller started just shortly before I graduated from high school, in January 1976, and while I loved the show, I had enough gay people around me in my daily life that I had seriously not realized how groundbreaking a show it really was. Now I want to see the whole series again. Thanks for that. 💞😁💞

I was so lucky to live in a time when homosexuality was becoming increasingly acceptable, and these episodes of Barney Miller, one of my favorite shows of all time, were being broadcast while I was in my teens, developing my idea of what is normal. While I was brought up with a liberal attitude, I have no doubt that Barney Miller helped cement my open-mindedness. Shortly after, I lived in a cooperative household where homosexuality was not only acceptable, but bisexuality was even fashionable. There was a gay man who frequented the household, and his behavior was very much like Marty’s. He was quite the celebrity among us. I feel so much of our society is declining, but at least acceptance of alternative lifestyles has been growing. In that regard, I am lucky to be living in this era.

Excellent episode. I was a teenager during Barney Miller’s run on ABC, and I had an immediate connection to its gay characters and storylines. I appreciated learning more about how this series, its cast, and crew pushed the envelope.

This video was so well-researched and so fun to watch! I literally have _no idea_ what path I took to get it in my recommendations, but I'm really glad. Thanks so much for posting this!

Barney Miller was such an amazing show… honestly, the 70’s and 80’s had many awesome shows. Sadly, TV cheeped out because they didn’t like the fact that writers could strike whenever they wanted, as the WGAw has a strike fund, and they decided to create “Reality TV” so they could eliminate the writers threat. As someone who worked in TV for years I haven’t bothered to turn on the TV in years. Not worth wasting my time.

Barney Miller was one of my favorite shows, I still watch it today !!! It was and is a great funny show and it’s even better when you really get to know the characters !!! Great chemistry between them all !!! 👍👍👍

Thank you for this episode! This was my favorite sitcom when I was 12 years old. It was already in re-runs (I was born in 1978), but I recorded as many as I could on VHS and watched them over and over. I loved learning everything in this video about it.

We adored the show and all the characters because they seemed so real. Love your channel!! It's wonderful to find out the fascinating backstory🙌🌈

LOVED LOVED LOVED Barry Miller....since I lived IN the village and it was so natural watching this !!! I also watch any/all re-runs.... Also Taxi, Alice..and SOAP !!!!!

Barney Miller is such an amazing show. Looove it. Have all the seasons

YAY!!!! When I encountered your channel awhile back, I immediately looked to see if Barney Miller was covered. So stoked to see it finally make an episode! Also, my mom LOVED Barney Miller and would have really enjoyed learning this history.

Barney Miller was my favorite show was when I was a way little kid. It was just just funny! I need to revisit this, definitely!

I used to watch Barney Miller frequently, but I didn't really recall the arc of the gay characters. So thanks for bringing it back up, and thanks to Danny Arnold!

Thanks for highlighting the back story of this iconic program that holds up well 30 years after its final show.

It tells me that, with a little inexplicable luck (the pre 'digging up the dirt' version), fighting for your ideals can be rewarding.

All this unfortunately tends to get overshadowed these days by the show's rather less enlightened views toward spousal abuse. Luckily, the worst of that is all just in one episode you can easily skip.

I was born in 1968, in Los Angeles. Barney Miller was one of my dad's favorite TV shows, and it became one of mine, because it was police stuff (we lived down the street from a fire station), set in New York City (where my dad was from), and while I might not have understood the nuances of what was being portrayed, it did help shape who I am today. I will admit that, even at age 9, I rolled my eyes at Marty, because he wasn't ANYTHING like my Uncle Bob or his partner Ben. Uncle Bob and Ben were just regular people.

Thank you for covering this show. I've been watching this with my parents for the past year, it runs consistently, it has such good writing, and in my opinion a pretty good show overall. Not a perfect show, it's a show from the 70s not everything ages perfectly, but it's still a pretty good, funny, and surprisingly dramatic show. This video also game me insight about the production, I had no idea that gay or just LGBT representation was THAT heavily censored, I knew that there wasn't too much rep, or even good rep, cause you know the 70s, but dear god wow. Also, this show has interesting cop rep too. It really is the only cop show I can think of that really shows the paperwork, criminal processing, and like most of what cops actually do. Hell, like 90% of this show is just set at the precinct, it's like a weekly theater play really. Now, that's another bag of worms with cops, the whole de-fund police situation, but I think this show shows us what cops should be, level headed, compassionate, good relations with the community, flawed in each their own way, but not ready to trigger happy. Granted, this show isn't perfect with what these guys do, but like most of the time they resort to talking rather than pulling a gun. Hell, they even did an episode where Chano killed two bank robbers and was just mentally destroyed that he had to do that. I don't claim to know exactly what goes on in a real precinct or with real cops, but with what has been happening for the past few years, I like to think/hope that most cops are like Barney Miller, call it wishful thinking I guess.

“Gang of killer lesbians” omg that’s so amazing and so wrong I gotta see that ep. lol

Barney Miller was one of the funniest shows running at that time and we never missed one if we could help it. I loved all the different characters especially the gay couple, never thought any of the jokes are were written in a degraded way.

I found your channel from Be Kind Rewind Non-Christmas video and I am thrilled. This video was fantastic, smart, and well presented. I learned so much about one of the best sitcoms. Thank you.

Wow, really loved learning all of this! Old enough to remember these shows existed, but wasn't quite old enough to have watched the reruns in my youth. Great coverage!

Thanks Matt! Appreciate you :) One of my favorite shows ever! I watch my box set over and over and often something I have on as "comfort food" for my head when trying to fall asleep! Being a sound tech, I know a truly cool bass player when they sound check with the shows fantastic bass lines! Chris Pelletier ~ Philly USA

I must say, this was probably one of the better videos I’ve seen on KZfaq in a long time. Barney Miller has always been a favorite of mine since I was a kid. Those characters all changed and morphed. As have I. Good job 👍🏻

The episodes with Marty and then Marty & Darryl were my FAVORITE episodes, even as a kid. I didn't understand that they were gay, back then, but it was obvious later in life and hilarious! They MADE those episodes! Also: This video NEEDS a

I actually liked watching Marty on Barney Miller. He had me dying in laughter 🤣

I can't say this definitively, but I think that Barney Miller made 10-year-old me more willing to accept that gay people were just people with different preferences, and that I didn't need to be offended or threatened by them.

Barney Miller did it with class and laughter. These were great characters on a hit show. It was this show that made the breakthrough.

This is a great episode. Put together really well. Nice job. That's my cousin Ray playing Darryl!

That Ziltelli coming out is absolutely bonkers ground breaking. Holy shit. I literally put my hand over my mouth in gay shock.