Barney Miller – Through the Shattered Lens

The Amazing Race (Wednesday Night, CBS)

I watched quite a few episodes on Monday and Tuesday, in between watching horror films and writing reviews. They make for very nice background noise. There’s something very relaxing about listening to John Taffer yell at a bad bar owner.

Barney Miller (Weeknights, FETV)

I watched two episodes of this classic 70s sitcom on Tuesday. In the first episode, Detective Harris (Ron Glass) lost a court case and got extremely drunk as a result. James Cronwell guest starred as a not unsympathetic lawyer. The episode ended with a prison singing High Hopes in an attempt to cheer up Harris and a still drunk Harris looking for his gun. (Luckily, Captain Miller had taken the gun away from him earlier.) The second episode featured one the detectives getting hit with a paternity suit. Captain Miller (Hal Linden) remained calm even while everyone else was losing their head. It was actually a pretty funny show. The humor was pretty much entirely character-based.

Diff’rent Strokes (Tubi)

Mr. Drummond caught Arnold and Dudley smoking! An important lesson was learned. Unfortunately, it was a bit too late for Dudley’s father, who was so addicted that even the prospect of lung surgery couldn’t make him stop.

In Search Of…. (YouTube)

I’ve been sharing episodes of this Leonard Nimoy-hosted docuseries all week. What are you In Search Of?

Night Flight (Night Flight+)

I watched two episodes on Friday. One was about 80s street music. A more recent episode was about a less-than-impressive heavy metal band from Oklahoma.

Survivor (Wednesday Night, CBS)

I wrote about Survivor here.

Thriller (YouTube)

I’ve been sharing episodes of the Boris Karloff-hosted Thriller all week. I especially liked the Jack the Ripper episode.

abevigoda4

Mark Twain famously said, “The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”

Actor Abe Vigoda could have said the same thing. One reason why Abe Vigoda was such a popular figure was because he had a sense of humor about being so frequently mistaken for dead. Twice, in 1982 and 1987, his death was incorrectly announced. For many people, Abe Vigoda will always be best known for appearing on David Letterman and Conan O’Brien to let people know that he was not dead. There was even a website and a twitter account devoted to keeping people updated on whether Abe Vigoda was alive or dead. When it was announced, earlier today, that Vigoda had died at the age of 94, many media outlets pointed out that the story was for real this time.

Before he become an internet meme, Abe Vigoda was a great actor who stole scenes in both the best film and one of the best sitcoms of the 1970s. Before Abe Vigoda was a late night television guest, he was Detective Phil Fish on Barney Miller. Before he was Fish, he was Tessio in The Godfather. And before he was Tessio, he was Ezra Braithwraite on the original Dark Shadows.

Abe Vigoda as Ezra Braithwraite

For me, Vigoda will always be the quietly intimidating Sal Tessio. Who can forget his final scene in The Godfather, in which he asks Robert Duvall’s Tom Hagan if he can get him off the hook “for old times sake.” Watch the scene below. This is great acting.