Comedian Steve Landesberg’s passing is old news by now but the other day I had a little personal revelation about the well-loved character he played, Detective Sgt. Arthur Dietrich. I’m somewhat like him at work…in a good way. Hear me (or should it be read me) out first before you get ready to take your cheap shot.
If you’ve ever watched Barney Miller, Dietrich often had a little piece of trivial knowledge regarding a topic floating around the office. It’s a little bit of the opposite at my job, people sometimes seek me out about a movie, music or whatever, figuring I may know; it’s usually not related to work because we have search engines for that. Even when I was a kid watching the sitcom’s episodes during their initial run on ABC, I developed a fondness for Dietrich. I never thought policemen were stupid, I figured their expertise on law enforcement made them rather two dimensional. If you watch some of Barney‘s predecessors like Adam 12, the characters were so focused on being cops, you wouldn’t expect them to know much about philosophy, science (outside of forensics) or literature. I do have to grant an exception to Car 54, this comedy had cops appear to be well-meaning bumblers.
Today, the police genre has more depth and I think Mr. Landesberg’s deadpan, wise-ass Dietrich helped pave the way for Hill Street Blues along many successors.
The last thing I remember hearing his voice on was the funny but inconsistent Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law. Landesberg’s intonation and delivery was always easy to pick up so I was thrilled to hear him as the Bailiff, it meant he was still around because I never followed all the sitcoms and crappy movies he made cameos in.
I only wish I got to see more of his stand-up routines. One time I caught him on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson while I was in grade school and he was pretty funny. He was just a tad raunchy. Mom busted my chops for repeating a joke he told to Johnny on the couch; something about what the translators modified when LA Dodgers pitching phenom Fernando Valenzuela spoke.