When the series premiered as a mid-season replacement (January 23, 1975), the action focused on the work environment. Earlier series such as The Dick Van Dyke Show (CBS, 1961–66) and The Mary Tyler Moore Show (CBS, 1970–77) depicted the workplace “family” in addition to the characters’ home lives, but Barney Miller was the first domestic comedy to focus on the workplace and the activities taking place in the dingy 12th precinct station house in New York’s Greenwich Village. Barney’s family life was relegated to a much smaller role and, although Barbara Barrie succeeded Dalton as wife Elizabeth, the children were soon written out completely.

Few series before or since have achieved the ethnic and racial diversity featured in Barney Miller. The title character was a middle-aged Jewish man (played by Broadway veteran Hal Linden) with a paternal concern for the detectives serving under him. The detectives included the fiery Puerto Rican Chano Amenguale (Gregory Sierra), Nick Yemana (Jack Soo), a contemplative middle-aged Asian-American with a weakness for gambling and an inability to make a decent pot of coffee, Ron Harris (Ron Glass), a stylish African-American with grand ambitions to publish his detective novel (Blood on the Badge), Stanley Wojciehowicz (Max Gail), a Polish Catholic with a passion for fighting injustices, and sexagenarian Phil Fish (Abe Vigoda). The squad room also had its token female officer in the outspoken Janice Wentworth (Linda Lavin). Rounding out the cast were Fish’s wife Bernice (Florence Stanley), the tough yet sentimental Frank Luger (James Gregory), and Scan-lon of Internal Affairs (George Murdock). And, parading through each episode, were the “crazies, crooks, con men, hookers, juvenile muggers, and other street denizens” of the precinct, including one of television’s first recurring gay characters, Marty (Jack DeLeon).

Sierra and Lavin both left after the first season, and Vigoda’s character was “retired” after the second to star in his own spinoff, Fish (ABC, 1977–78). Amenguale and Wentworth were replaced by the droll intellectual Arthur Dietrich (Steve Landesberg) and Carl Levitt (Ron Carey), a diminutive beat officer with aspirations to plainclothes duty. June Gable briefly joined the cast in the second season as Maria Baptista.

The use of the nontraditional extended family as the basis for this comedy is exemplified in the show’s opening credits. In the style of many domestic comedies (e.g., The Donna Reed Show), each “family member” is introduced in the credits, acting in a way that reflects their individual personalities, for example, Barney stopping to listen to an officer, Harris working at his writing. The sense of family and ensemble extended to the actors themselves, and audiences felt that special bond. When actor Jack Soo died in January 1979, a special episode was aired the following May and featured the late actor in clips from past shows and included reminiscences from the other cast members. At the end of the episode, the entire cast raised their coffee cups in heartfelt salute.

Unlike many comedy series, each episode featured two or three storylines, allowing the action to shift from one story to the other, similar to a one-act play. But the key to the success of the series was its low-key dialogue and underplayed reactions to the mayhem occurring around them. There are no car chases, no shoot-outs. The characters react like real police detectives. They take their time, they listen to the people who come in to file a complaint, and they deal with the mounds of paperwork. More importantly, the officers always exhibit their affection and understanding for human beings in trouble.

At a time when most comedy series emphasized being filmed in front of a live audience, Barney Miller was one of the few comedy series that was not, due mainly to long filming hours that often lasted well into the night (and very early into the following morning). According to the actors, writer/producer Arnold was a perfectionist and constantly honed lines of dialogue. Linden said Arnold “did not want to put anything on the screen that wasn’t as perfect as he could make it, and it kept us up until six o’clock in the morning very often.”

After a dispute with the network, the series came to an end in 1982. Like The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Barney Miller’s ending three-part episode dealt with the break-up of the familial unit. It is discovered that the station house was once Theodore Roosevelt’s headquarters, when he served as New York Police Board president in the 1890s. Thus the building is declared a historic landmark, forcing the precinct to vacate the premises. And, even though Barney is finally promoted to Deputy Inspector and Officer Levitt finally achieves the rank of sergeant, the detectives of the “ole One-Two” are all reassigned to other precincts throughout the city.

Throughout its eight seasons on the air, the series never made the top ten in the Nielsen ratings, but it garnered multiple honors, including a total of 32 Emmy nominations, seven Golden Globe nominations, and an award from the Directors Guild of America.

The series continues in syndication and remains a cultural icon. Eleven pieces from the series are now part of the popular culture collection at the Smithsonian’s Museum of American History: the squad room assignment board, the cell door and key, as well as the police badges of Miller, Luger, Harris, Wojciehowicz, Dietrich, Levitt, and Yemana, along with the latter’s name plate and coffee cup.