‘Barney Miller’ Reunion: What Is the One Question Hal Linden Won’t Answer?

Hal Linden from Hollywood Show Barney Miller collage — Remind Staff; Everett Collection

When Hal Linden, 94, took the stage at the Hollywood Show alongside his friend and fellow Barney Miller costar Max Gail, 82, it gave fans goosebumps. The two TV legends reuniting again onstage was moving for all. Over seven unforgettable seasons (1975-82), Linden sat in the eye of the storm as Captain Barney Miller in the New York Police Department’s 12th precinct, which was filled with madness, mayhem and a few midlife crises (most of the aforementioned coming from his own staff). Gail was by his side as Officer Stan “Wojo” Wojciehowicz.

The crowd roared to see the two sitcom icons take the stage and chat vibrantly for almost an hour, never skipping a beat as they reflected on the series and shared behind-the-scenes memories of making the multi-Emmy-winning series, 40+ years later.

**Was Barney Miller canceled?**

When a fan asked why the series was canceled, both Linden and Gail were quick to correct them: the series was never canceled. Rather, series creator Danny Arnold ended it on his own accord after trying to find new writers proved unsuccessful.

“The last year, Danny called us all together and said ‘Listen, we’re having writing problems, finding new writers [good writers did not want to join for the eighth year … there’s hardly any way up.] So, he said, ‘I’m going to solicit scripts from everywhere — colleges, anywhere, anybody who thinks they’re a writer.’ And he went away for a month and that’s what he did. He solicited scripts from any writing source to see if he could find writers. And a month later he came back and said, ‘Guys, there’s no reason to do this show unless we can do it right. And I cannot find writers.’”

What’s the one question Hal Linden refuses to answer?

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After fielding plenty of fan questions, Linden finally got one he didn’t want to answer.

“I’ve always said when they ask me a question, the one question I will not answer is, ‘What was Abe Vigoda really like?'” Linden shared. “Abe was a character. I knew Abe before from New York. We had, believe it or not, done a television commercial together years before. He came up, interestingly, to audition for a different part, originally. There was a part of an Italian where Jack Soo [who played Nick Yemana on Barney Miller] ended up sitting. [Abe] was just coming off The Godfather, so I guess they set him up for the Italian part. But Danny took one look at him and said, ‘Nooooo, I think I got a better idea.’ And that became it.”

Gail was quick to smile, since Abe Vigoda as Phil Fish was one of TV’s most unforgettable fellas, with his exaggerated facial expressions and awkward mannerisms.

“I heard Danny say ‘Do you have hemorrhoids? You look like you have hemorrhoids.’” Gail recalled. “And then Abe said, ‘What are you, a doctor or a producer?”’

Vigoda, clearly, had his own unique way of working, the men admitted.

BARNEY MILLER, standing from left: Ron Glass, Jack Soo, Gregory Sierra, sitting from left: Max Gail, Hal Linden, Abe Vigoda, 1975-82.

Everett Collection

“During our breaks, Abe would often just stay seated right at Fish’s chair and twirl his pencil or something. He had a way of doing things. It wasn’t the obvious,” Gail shared.

Trying to give some context to Vigoda’s personality, they reminisced about an episode (Season 1, Episode 3: “Snow Job”) where they had a very tall actor playing a flasher who had been locked up, and was scheduled to get transferred to a mental health hospital. The flasher goes to the bathroom and attempts suicide. Barney explains to Fish that the man put one finger in the light socket and his foot in the toilet bowl. And Vigoda delivers the line, “You’re kidding, I didn’t realize he was that tall.”

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“Hal asked, ‘How are we going to play this?” Gail explained, as they never had anyone die on an episode (they did resuscitate the character). After a certain amount of time thinking about it, Vigoda threw out his own crazy idea on how to play it. “I remember Hal and Danny looking at each other going, ‘What in the !@#$’ is he thinking.”