A Fish Story

The name Suspense conjures up images of radio of the 1940s. But there’s one Suspense broadcast of September 1949 that conjures up images of 1970s sitcom television.

On the TV version of the programme was the play “Lunch Box.” And one of the starring actors was a 28-year-old named Abe Vigoda.

It’s hard to think of Vigoda as 28. He reached real fame in his mid-50s, although he seemed older than that. Vigoda spent a good deal of his time on the stage on both coasts until he was named for Barney Miller, which became an ABC winter replacement series in 1975. By the start of the second, they were already talking about giving him his own show.

Here are a couple of pieces about Vigoda’s fame from the King Features Syndicate. The first appeared in papers around October 22, 1975.

Abe Vigoda's 'Fish' Is Caught in Spinoff on TV
By CHARLES WITBECK
TV Key, Inc.
HOLLYWOOD – (KFS) – One of the good things about "Barney Miller," ABC's Thursday night police comedy, is Detective Fish (played by Abe Vigoda).
Fish the worrier, the pessimist, the veteran detective among the young bucks in New York's Precinct 12, whose old bones ache for retirement, has struck a chord with fans.
Ever since the police comedy starring Hal Linden opened last winter, Fish caught the eye of critics and viewers who were charmed by Abe Vigoda's gentle, but tired old cop. Fish seems real to cops, kids and worn-out husbands. Currently his picture hangs in the Beverly Hills police department because local detectives say they can relate to the TV character, a first in their memory.
"I am being recognized frequently in my middle age," says Abe Vigoda. That's the status for a New York actor who has played straight man for Jimmy Durante and Ed Wynn, performed Shakespeare for Joe Papp, and portrayed Abe Lincoln for Carl Reiner over a 25-year period.
Now gentle Abe is about to vault into rarefied territory. His character Fish will have a show of his own. First comes the spinoff on "Barney Miller" this fall. Then, if all goes well, "Fish" will be on the air in January. Unlike other stars in spinoffs such as "Rhoda," "Phyllis," "Good Times," etc. Abe Vigoda will continue to portray Fish on "Barney Miller," and in the new series. Fans won't be gypped by Fish's leaving town to tape or film his own series. It's also possible "Fish" might follow "Miller" on the air, but that's a matter of conjecture at this stage.
The emergence of the New York character into a TV personality at age 54 is a pleasurable thing to watch, particularly because the soft-spoken Vigoda never expected a thing like this to happen.
True, Abe's career took a sudden leap when he landed the role of Mafia chief Tessio in "The Godfather" movie, his first Mafia role by the way. Though he was raised in New York's Little Italy, Abe felt ill at ease walking the streets following "The Godfather" run. "I actually feared for my life," he recounted recently. "People gave me the oddest looks. They thought I was a gangster."
"The Godfather" made Hollywood casting offices aware of Vigoda. But most only considered Abe to be another gangster actor. Eddie Foy III, however, learned that Abe had played comedy for Carl Reiner and asked him to come out to play a shyster in "The Sandy Duncan" series. Watching Vigoda steal comedy scenes as an accident victim in a neck brace, Foy realized Abe was just the man to play Fish in the "Barney Miller" pilot.
In Hollywood casting offices, the thinking is neat and categorized: comics play comedy, dramatic actors stick to the straight stuff, and nobody crosses over. It's ridiculous but people seemed amazed that Abe's Tessio could delight fans playing an old, worried cop. For a man who has performed Shakespeare and Strindberg, this is child's play.
But, oh, the attention is nice and so is the money.' "Fellini wants to see me," says Abe.
"And Fish has changed my position in New York. I can go back during hiatus and be a star on Broadway, and I can help people get work now. I never dreamed I could ever do that."

Fish was grumpy and so was Abe Vigoda. He wanted his spin-off; he didn’t really want Barney Miller any more. So Fish debuted and Vigoda hung around on Miller toward the end of 1977 and walked away.

Fish lasted two seasons on ABC. Vigoda explained his hopes for the show in this story published February 3, 1977.

Abe 'Fish' Vigoda Nets a New Series, Airing Saturdays
By CHARLES WITBECK
TV Key, Inc.
HOLLYWOOD (KFS) – "Barney Miller's" glum old-timer, detective Fish, is finally retiring — into a show of his own, simply titled "Fish," airing now for ABC on Saturday nights.
Saddled with aching feet and the creeping despairs of longevity, Fish has been yammering about retiring ever since "Barney Miller" went on the air two years ago. Abe Vigoda's sour yet gentle detective finally makes his move because Miller fans — cops, kids, grownups — dig the old geezer, realizing his is a bona-fide character, not the usual phony Hollywood concoction.
Fish became so popular last year that series producer Danny Arnold whipped up a husband-and-wife pilot for Abe. Character actor Vigoda went through with the project, but knew at first glance the setup was all wrong — playing an Archie Bunker hardly fit his low-keyed, understated style.
Producer Arnold, who personally directs Vigoda in "Miller," has rectified his error with a second format in which the retired detective and wife Bernice (Florence Stanley)] supplement pension checks by becoming house-parents for juvenile delinquents.
At present, the State of New York provides a house, a resident psychologist and funds for the care of delinquents. In the new comedy, Fish and wife qualify as house-parents and move out of their apartment with their furniture into a battered town house to supervise a batch of young troublemakers. Anything to escape being a night-watchman sounded good to Fish, who dreaded the prospect of becoming a mere watchdog pounding a beat to get by.
Though the detective is an innocent about his new occupation (it may be mentioned that Fish has two grownup daughters, so the man qualifies for the job), the wise old detective firmly believes that "deep down children are not born bad." A good home life, stability and care are the keys in his mind.
"Fish works best in ridiculous situations," says Abe Vigoda. "This is a comedy. Out of reality comes humor. Fish won't change one whit as he attempts to cope with the kids. He will go to the bathroom in the middle of the night to find a boy in his favorite spot. He will be harassed and provoked. Asked to kill a rat in the house, he will demur, saying the light is too poor for a shot."
Appearing in 16 out of 22 "Barney Miller" shows this season, Abe Vigoda began taping the new series in mid-January, and will return to the 12th Precinct for the closing Miller show to air in March. If the new project is a success, Fish will be retiring for good on "Barney Miller."
Born and raised in New York, Abe Vigoda claims he knows all about street life and kids growing up in the big city. On his own, Abe went back to New York recently, took a subway up to Harlem to query the current crop of teen-agers hanging around on street corners.
The kids recognized Abe from the show, wanted to see his gun, and wanted to get an acting job. They were smoking, and weren't about to stop just because Abe Vigoda said it was bad for them. But they also answered questions. Most of them came from broken homes, few had eaten lunch, or had a dollar in their pocket. "They seem to lie a lot, yet they were basically good kids," said Abe. "Now our cast of kids come from New York. They know the sounds and the rules of street life. They're real."
As for Fish, well he won't change for Saturday night. Abe describes his detective as "a hypochondriac, always complaining, but when faced with a situation he takes over. He's a pessimist because of too many disappointments, too many hopes never realized. 'Who wants to bother?' is his dictum. Yet he's always in the thick of things."
The detective turns out to be a composite of several people in Abe Vigoda's life. Fish's humor comes from Abe's mother. A police officer Vigoda played handball with in Brooklyn continually complained about his feet, so that went into the role.
Judging from the enthusiastic response by the visiting press to a 10-minute presentation clip on the show, "Fish" may be a midwinter hit. Better tune in and watch gentle Abe, a one-footed tap dancer, become a TV star at 61.

After Fish got cancelled, it was expected Vigoda would return to Barney Miller. Money took care of that. The show’s producers wouldn’t give him enough of it, so Detective Fish stayed retired.

Vigoda spent the rest of his life being undead. “People” magazine wrote a story in 1982 about “the late Abe Vigoda” and it became a joke for years that Vigoda was still alive. He kept death-watchers in Suspense for a while. He died in 2016.