Barney Miller (TV Series) Jack Soo, a Retrospective (1979) User Reviews

The cast and crew pay their respects to the late Jack Soo

[kevinolzak · 10/10 · 25 May 2014]

At the conclusion of the fifth season, BARNEY MILLER creator/writer/producer Danny Arnold decided not to trade on the untimely death of Jack Soo, whose iconic Nick Yemana was a major reason for the show's popularity. Instead, he gathered together regular cast members Hal Linden, James Gregory, Max Gail, Ron Glass, Steve Landesberg, and Ron Carey, to reminisce about working with Jack, none of which was scripted, with most of the half hour show dedicated to the funniest bits performed by Yemana, especially the episode "Hash," where all but Barney devoured brownies laced with hashish. Uncertain how to behave stoned, Jack decided to start singing, which brought a concerned Barney out from his office (Barney: "how many of these have you had?" Yemana: "mushy mushy!"). From the episode "Ms. Cop," Nick uses a pencil for a chopstick as he listens to a caller reporting a stolen Studebaker. From "Horse Thief" comes his classic phone conversation with the victim of a pickpocket: "you'd better dig up some more money, or you're gonna get picked up for vagrancy!" In "Quarantine," Nick doesn't recognize the cups after Ray Stewart's Darryl Driscoll has scrubbed them: "I thought it was a pattern!" The famous "Werewolf" depicts a rare occasion where he loses his cool ("down Mr. Koepeknie!"), and we get to hear much of his whimsical Oriental philosophy ("many things look bleak at the moment of occurrence, but at least we ain't got locusts!"). From "Evacuation" comes his famous confrontation with maintenance man Paul Lichtman: "this isn't a squint...this is a squint!" The retrospective concludes with everyone raising their coffee mugs in honor of their fallen comrade. In actual fact, Jack Soo's last words to Hal Linden as he was being wheeled into the operating room: "it must have been the coffee!"

This episode was really done with class

[gw333 · 10/10 · 13 February 2019]

This episode always gets to me. Never before or since have I seen a series handle the loss of an actor/character with such honor and dignity. You can tell they all loved Jack. As stated above, there are many of his best bits from different episodes. I think Nick was the first Iron Chef. In one of the scenes, Nick is making his lunch. Wojo says it smells like garbage and Nick says it's a delicacy - fish heads, cabbage leaves, carrot tops and cucumber rinds. He thinks a minute, then says, "It IS garbage."

Of course, it was always about his coffee. Everyone had comments about the coffee. According to Wikipedia, his last words were about it:

>On the show there was a running joke that Soo's character made bad coffee. Therefore, his last known words were when he was being wheeled into an operating room and he joked to Hal Linden, referring to his cancer - 'it must have been the coffee'.<

Classy is right

[El Cine · 28 February 2023]

What a wonderful tribute to Jack Soo, who died of cancer during Barney Miller's run.

Even though this was mostly repeated footage, the episode just flew by, it was so enjoyable, thoughtful, and compelling. In between some of Nick Yemana's greatest hits, the cast breaks character to discuss Soo's presence on the show, speaking from the heart and giving us some unique perspective about who he was.

Jack Soo was a rare talent, and you couldn't ask for a more fitting tribute from the Barney Miller team.

The above isn't long enough for this site's length requirement, so here are fun facts about Jack:

==Discovered by Gene Kelly while working at a nightclub; Gene cast him in Flower Drum Song on Broadway

==Birth name: Goro Suzuki

==Subject of "You Don't Know Jack", a documentary directed by San Francisco's Public Defender, who moonlighted as a filmmaker

==Performed as Joey Bishop's comedy partner

==Was born on a boat halfway to Japan.