Title: Strip Joint
Directed by: Noam Pitlik
Written by: Jaie Brashar, Frank Dungan, and Jeff Stein
Air Date: November 1, 1979
Previous: The Slave
Next: The Bird
Guest Starring: James Cromwell, Rosanna DeSoto, Diane Canova, Todd Susman
"Strip Joint" is the sixth episode of the sixth season of Barney Miller.
Winter has come to New York City, which is why it's surprising when Wojo brings in one Edward Yakel for diving into a public fountain. Mr. Yakel insists that he is a "combustible", namely, a person liable to go into Spontaneous Human Combustion at any moment. He keeps getting evicted because his apartments catch on fire, and he regularly spends his days at a spa, bathing in mud. Dietrich irritates Barney by talking about spontaneous combustion as if it were a real thing.
Wacky case #2 involves the eponymous strip joint. The owner of a bookstore, Mr. Kessler, has filed a citizen's complaint against a strip club next door. Harris and Levitt have brought in two strippers, Ms. Tasco and Ms. Wolf. Ms. Tasco gets into some spirited back-and-forth with Levitt, while Dietrich finds himself strongly attracted to the lovely Ms. Wolf and starts hitting on her. Levitt looks up the club's liquor license and finds some surprising news: it's owned by the federal government.
Meanwhile, the heating system for the 12th Precinct has failed. The detectives aren't happy about working in the freezing cold, and they're even less so when they find out there's a space heater in Barney's office.
Tropes:
- Beleaguered Bureaucrat: Mr. Spencer of the Department of Energy (played by future movie star James Cromwell). He explains that the feds own a strip club because an embezzling employee bought one. Mr. Spencer is trying to bring the club into the black so it can be sold, but he is not happy about having to run a strip club. He's particularly outraged about having to call people and order beer nuts.
- "El Niño" Is Spanish for "The Niño": Ms. Tasco calls Officer Levitt (who is quite short) "poco". He finally asks her what it means and she says, "It means macho," and leaves.Levitt: I thought "macho" meant macho!
- Hypocrite: Barney gives the men a typical Barney speech about how they'll just have to power through the freezing cold and do their jobs. This is immediately undercut when Levitt reveals that Barney has a space heater in his office.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Mr. Yakel insists that he is overheating in the cell and needs ice just before the wastebasket across the room catches fire. Barney's response? "Get him some ice."
- The Reveal: Who owns the sleazy strip club? The federal government, that's who!
- Spicy Latina: Ms. Tasco, the sassy stripper who is also a sort of supervisor at the club. She is turned on by Mr. Yakel, finding the whole idea of spontaneous combustion sexy.
- Spontaneous Human Combustion: The 12th arrests Mr. Yakel, a man who says he is prone to spontaneous human combusion and is a danger to burst into flames at any moment. They finally get him some ice after a trash can across the room bursts into flame.
- Stealing from the Till: The explanation for how the U.S. government came to run a strip club. It seems a bureaucrat at the Dept. of Energy was embezzling, and he bought a strip club with his dirty money.
- You Can Leave Your Hat On: The 12th busts a strip club. Dietrich finds himself attracted to Ms. Wolf, one of the strippers, who turns out to be a geek like him (she's an anthropology student).
