Barney Miller (TV Series) Examination Day (1982) User Reviews

Jack Kruschen and Lyman Ward

[kevinolzak · 8/10 · 21 August 2014]

"Examination Day" finds the squad room detectives ready to walk the beat in uniform, in place of the officers downstairs, 70% of whom will be taking the sergeant's exam that Wojo himself flunked three times. This naturally delights Levitt, who wonders what he can do with all the free time he'll have after he's finished (Wojo: "it's only a test...the worst thing that can happen is you fail it and take it again!" Levitt: "like you!"). Inspector Luger assigns himself to the 12th, not having donned his uniform in 25 years, shaking down a purse snatcher (Louis Giambalvo, second of two) in an overtly rough manner, which doesn't sit well with an understandably irate Captain Miller. Meanwhile, Jewish butcher Benjamin Diamond (Jack Kruschen, last of three) is ambushed on camera by smarmy TV reporter Harv Jetter (Lyman Ward, second of two), whose telecast threatens Diamond's business, an expose of where the unsuspecting proprietor purchases his kosher meats.

Carmen Miranda Warning

[mazzella-62377 · 5/10 · 20 July 2021]

I think that this show's supposedly expert comedy writers missed their chance at a joke with Inspector Luger--what they should've done here, instead, was have him say something to the suspect like, "Oh, a Miranda warning--you have the right to wear fruit in your hat".

Robert Mazzella.