seen from United Arab Emirates
seen from Singapore
seen from United States
seen from Iraq
seen from Netherlands
seen from Indonesia
seen from Ukraine
seen from Germany
seen from United States
seen from Uzbekistan
seen from Australia
seen from Malaysia
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
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seen from Kazakhstan
seen from China
seen from Germany
So I made this like five years ago, but I thought of it today and, having seen a few more Barney Miller fans lurking around lately, thought it might finally be the time to post it.
There's barely any audience for this show but who cares! I love it anyways!
Barney Miller (1975-1983) ♥
Here's to 48 years of being the resident encyclopedia, the thinker, the reader, and the only one who always understands-- of becoming part of something and learning to love and be loved. Happy force anniversary, Sgt. Dietrich!
Barney Miller: Making Sure Everyone's Okay Since 1975
I know there’s not many Barney Miller fans around here, but for those who are, hear me out-- the relationship between Dietrich and Levitt is criminally underrated.
For starters, Dietrich is the only one who consistently calls Levitt by his first name, Carl. He never complains about working with Levitt and never calls him “Little Levitt.”
For Levitt’s part, he actually listens when Dietrich starts explaining something complicated and seems genuinely interested in what he has to say. He sometimes even seems really eager to have those conversations (like when their conversation about phobias is interrupted and they agree to come back to it later), and doesn’t tend to get as annoyed with Dietrich as the others often do (he just gets confused sometimes!).
Dietrich invites Levitt to his party in “Middle Age,” and Levitt seems so flattered and excited to be invited, even offering to help set up chairs and dip, whereas Harris avoided Dietrich all day and Barney didn’t end up going.
Whenever Barney asks Dietrich to grab a uniformed officer to help them, he invariably returns with Levitt (I realize this is mostly for show purposes, but still). Levitt is there when Dietrich is forced to shoot someone and calls Barney from the hospital for him to explain the situation while he consults with the doctors. Levitt is there when Dietrich gets arrested, and (on top of being the only cop who didn’t overreact) he makes sure to bring him upstairs so he gets booked by people who care about him.
On the flip side, Dietrich is the one who takes Levitt to the hospital after he falls from the scaffold at the apartment building in “The Car,” and then brings him back to the Squad Room to see everyone, carrying his coat for him. Dietrich also makes sure that Barney knows the over-eager Levitt is absolutely not allowed to work until he’s healed, and subsequently takes him home.
Dietrich appreciates Levitt’s work as well-- in “Goodbye Mr. Fish Part 1,″ when everyone else is ignoring Levitt’s mail call, Dietrich comes right up to him and asks if there’s anything for him, to which Levitt responds “Nothing, but thanks for coming over anyway.”
Dietrich often does this for people (and it also goes unappreciated, I think!), but when he notices in “The Sighting” that Levitt is uncomfortable in the Squad Room and just trying to fit in, Dietrich makes a point to go up to him and tell him he knows how it feels to be the new guy and understands how terrible it is, but that he shouldn’t let it get to him. He finishes saying this, of course, with a little prank or joke as he always does, but I think it was still a genuine sentiment.
Also, behind the scenes Steve Landesberg and Ron Carey were the only two stand-up comics in the show, and as is clear from these pictures, they seemed to be really good friends.
Anyway, sorry this is so long-- I just think they’re really great and they give each other the respect they both don’t tend to get from other people.
Don’t even get me started on Barney and Wojo, though!
With Love From the 12th Precinct, Part 8
(one of my absolute favourites)
