The news today of the passing of Abe Vigoda, who played the role of "Fish" in the old "Barney Miller" series, just loosened an avalanche of memories for me today. While I never met Abe Vigoda, he and his crew at the old NYPD 12th Precinct Detective Bureau always reminded me of my days as a detective at the 10th Precinct [[Livernois) D.B. My god, the "Barney Miller" series was dead on to what went on in a precinct Detective Bureau every day. We, of the D.B., roared every week at the show, and all of us in the years to follow in re-runs. Back about 1978, we invited Hal Linden [[Barney Miller) to visit us in Detroit, and he and his wife accepted and made the rounds in the various precincts of the DPD. The fact that Max Gail [[Wojo) was a native Detroiter made it even more believable!

That said, God rest you, Abe Vigoda. You were a little bit of each and every one of us was who ever carried the badge of a DPD detective.

Bottom photo is Hal Linden and me, 1978.