Barney Miller

[bobquasit]

This may sound weird, but I've been watching a lot of Barney Miller lately. I'd forgotten how incredibly funny and well-written it was. I'm constantly being amazed at how good the show is.

But the televised episodes have been terribly cut. In season three, there was an episode with Mr. Lukather, who was blind. He was chatting with Harris and Yemana, and someone mentioned that when you lose your sight, your other senses become keener to compensate (which is actually not exactly true, I think; you probably just become more aware of them).

Mr. Lukather agreed, and said that for example he could tell that Harris was over six feet tall, nervous, and a chain smoker. Yemana was amazed, and asked Lukather what he could tell about him. Lukather answered something like "You're very cool and collected, with great self-control; a natural leader. Either that, or you're Japanese."

It was an incredibly funny moment, but the entire interchange with Yemana was simply cut from the show. Annoying! Maybe I'll see if I can buy that season on DVD, if it's not too expensive.

Comments

[oldwolf.livejournal.com]

It was prolly cut due to racial stereotyping. A lot of reruns are "edited for content" nowadays.

[unquietsoul5.livejournal.com]

It may be a matter of racial sensitivity (a lot of shows are dated in that way if you go back & watch them, especially those before the Barney Miller era; or were racially provocative on purpose ala Archie Bunker to get people to think, a concept now forgotten in tv sitcoms).

The other reason may be length. The actual length of shows have become shorter, with more time for commercials, and that means they need to cut somewhere to make things fit when playing material thats more than 5 to 10 years old.

[bobquasit.livejournal.com]

If it was a cut for time, it was one of the clumsiest cuts I've ever seen. If it was a matter of racial sensitivity, I'm having a hard time seeing the justification. It wasn't an offensive line!