"Happy New Year" finds the 12th in a happy mood, with Liz Miller showing up to celebrate with her husband over a bottle of champagne (her second and final appearance this season). Fish finds himself dealing with a potential suicide who swears he'll jump unless there's peace in the Middle East (good luck on THAT one). A regular pickpocket (John Dullaghan, first of ten) is caught early on his busiest night, his inebriated victim (Joseph Bova) too stewed to sign a formal complaint. As midnight approaches, a very pregnant shoplifter (Edith Diaz) goes into labor in Barney's office, Wojo and Liz making the delivery two minutes after 12; a proud Harris boasts to the local newspaper about the first baby of the new year ("what do you mean, third?"). Nick's New Year's resolution is to have no more jokes about his coffee- "hey'd you wash your socks in the coffee?" or "hey Nick, you might be a cop but your coffee is a crime!" The drunk asks what's in it, to which Fish replies, "don't we wish we knew!" An unbilled Johnny La Motta makes his second of three series appearances, this time unbilled as a paramedic. Barbara Barrie's Liz Miller would not be seen again until the fourth season's "Quo Vadis?" (credited for the first 37 episodes, she only appeared 11 times).
