Barney Miller

Old cop said:
Someone mentioned cops copying things they see on TV & I saw this too. When Hill Street was running our young uniformed officers wanted to look like the actors on that show, wearing all sorts of unauthorized stuff. I was the midnight shift commander at the time and we’d watch a few minutes of the show after roll call, but had to make sure our charges followed the uniform rules.
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In either the first or second episode Sgt. Esterhouse orders the shift to deposit any unauthorized weapons on the table during roll call. Everything from razors to nunchucks to any gun you can imagine comes out of coat pockets, boots and ditty bags. Just after "be careful out there" he tells them to "get all this junk out of my muster room" and it all goes back whence it came.
 
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my favorite episode was called “The Harris Incident” that was about a racial issue and had a great “Wojo” speech at the end that brought the guys all together after a tense situation. A touchy subject well done and realistically.
Sometimes Barney’s Det. Special wears black pearl plastic grips. And Harris with white grips and maybe nickel plated. “Deitrich” would be a formidable Trivial Persuit opponent. The stuff he comes up with is some of my favorite parts about the show.
 
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crazyphil said:
Some of the places we see them wearing their guns makes me
think they would have to be contortionists to get hold of their
guns.
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In a Detective squad room there was always a small group of "house mouse's" who seldom if ever hit the street, the desk men, the unit secretaries, those on limited duty that manned the phones.

It wouldn't be unusual to see them carrying a five shot chief in the most comfortable manner they could, not really ready to use it, and in most cases not even carrying extra ammo.
 
gman51 said:
Peak I don't believe I have ever seen an episode that a gun was actually shot. I did see an episode recently where all were being held at gun point but even then no gun was fired.

From articles I read Andy Griffith was anti gun which might have been why he seldom had a gun on himself in the shows. Even Barney had his one bullet in his pocket.
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There was an episode where Andy does shoot his pistol in the line of duty. One of the later seasons where Barney has moved on. There was a printing shop opened in Mayberry where counterfeiting was going on and when the criminals were fleeing Andy shoots at the car to stop them from escaping.

Barney Miller a wonderful show and favorite for both of us here. My favorite scene from the show was the one with Jeff Corey(the original Tom Chaney from True Grit) as a mugged Amish man:

"Some scalawags mocked my garb and stole my purse."

Harris: "Scalawags? I will look through the records of the local ne'er do wells.".
 
crazyphil said:
I was watching an old re-run of Barney Miller this morning.
Noticed that Nick was wearing his revolver in a cross-draw
that looked like a Hunter Combat Action holster. The model
with the spring and opening at the rear of the holster. As I
watched I observed what some of the other detectives were
wearing. Good old show for holster watchers.

PS I know, I know, I have to get a life.
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What better life could thee be than binge watching Barney Miller?
 
I'm another fan of the show. I think with the re-runs I've finally seen all the episodes. Not to throw water on this but there is only one thing I didn't like and that was his stance on gun control.
 
Pretty hard to find an image of that character showing gun and holster. Back then, in real life, holsters used would have come from Jay-Pee or one of the other makers of authorized holsters.
 
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