FINALLY, THE ENTIRE SERIES IN A 25-DVD BOX SET
FEATURING ALL 168 EPISODES FROM THE ENTIRE 8 SEASONS,
NEW INTERVIEWS, A COMMEMORATIVE BOOKLET AND MUCH MORE!
OWN IT ON DVD OCTOBER 25
FROM SHOUT! FACTORY
Shout! Factory has announced the October 25, 2011 home entertainment release of Barney Miller: The Complete Series, featuring all 8 seasons of the much-loved show. The grand 25-DVD collection includes a 40 page booklet, new cast interviews, commentaries, as well as season one of the spin-off Fish, starring Abe Vigoda, which has never before been released on DVD.
Fans can rejoice as Shout! Factory presents the first-ever comprehensive Barney Miller experience with the release of Barney Miller: The Complete Series. This richly detailed 25-DVD collector’s box set edition contains all eight seasons of the iconic series, plus a wealth of exclusive bonus features. These extras include new interviews with Linden, Vigoda and Gail; the series’ original pilot, which was called The Life and Times of Barney Miller; commentaries and interviews by series writers Tony Sheehan (TV’s King of Queens), Jeff Stein (TV’s Mr. Belvedere) and Frank Dungan (TV’s Mr. Belvedere); a collectible commemorative booklet filled with vintage photos and featuring an essay by former TV Critic Howard Rosenberg; and season one of the show’s spinoff, Fish, starring Vigoda of course. This collector’s edition set, priced to own at $159.99, offers all 168 episodes of this long-awaited show, which aired on ABC from 1974-82, and captured a Peabody Award, three Emmy® Awards and two Golden Globes®. The set also includes the standout retrospective episode that pays tribute to Jack Soo, whose passing in Season 5 led the cast, both in and out of character, to salute their beloved colleague.
It was a cop show unlike any other, with a grimy Greenwich Village squad room and low-tech law enforcement, embellished by a laugh track. Officers wearing wide ties in wild patterns talked on rotary dial phones, their street-smart dialogue peppered with witty observations on law and order. It’s no surprise that long after Barney Miller ended its 8-season run, real-life law officers still insist that the clever series was the only program that “got it right,” offering the most realistic depiction of cops on TV. Detectives at the 12th Precinct didn’t chase crime while jockeying cruisers through New York’s streets at top speed, sirens screaming and guns drawn: they tapped out paperwork on rattly typewriters, drank lousy coffee, and booked petty crooks more comic than criminal. The show’s signature theme song played over a shot of New York’s graceful skyline, a feel-good image for a different era.
Featuring Tony® Award-winner Hal Linden as Captain Barney Miller, the show’s all-star ensemble cast portrayed unforgettable, eclectic characters, including Abe Vigoda as the inimitable, prune-eating Fish; charmingly boyish Wojo, played by Max Gail; Gregory Sierra as fiery Chano; Jack Soo as coffee-challenged Yemana, whose brew was truly awful; Ron Glass as the always-hip Harris, and Steve Landsberg playing the deadpan Dietrich.
A police procedural with a timeless style, Barney Miller offered a witty close-up on how cops really do their jobs, minus forensics, gory crime scenes or sleek computers. Created by Danny Arnold and Theodore J. Flicker, the show’s humor, delivered with a deadpan touch, still resonates with devotees today.
Packaged to resemble the Squad Room Detectives gritty office door, Shout! Factory’s Barney Miller: The Complete Series celebrates the diversely personable, mostly-male 12th Precinct. But women took their share of the spotlight in memorable roles too: stage veteran Barbara Barrie portrayed Liz Miller, Barney’s sardonic, long-suffering spouse. Florence Stanley played Fish’s ever-nagging wife, Bernice. And Linda Lavin (TV’s Alice) was the brash Janice Wentworth, a temporary transfer who stayed and stayed, a by-the-book cop with an over-the-top New York accent.
Brilliantly written, with classic comic pacing and vintage storylines, the series’ action all swirled within that cramped squad room, where wisecracks outnumbered cracked cases. For TV fans fond of those golden 1970s sit-coms, Barney Miller: The Complete Series, is a treasure trove of nostalgia, and a must for every home viewing library.
Barney Miller is a production of Sony Pictures Television Inc. It has been sublicensed for home video distribution to Shout! Factory.
Emmy® is the trademark property of the Academy for Television Arts & Sciences/ The National Academy for Television Arts & Sciences. Golden Globe® is a registered trademark of Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Grammy® is the registered trademark of the national Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, Inc. Tony® is a registered trademark of The American Theatre Wing.
