
The series focuses on life in Greenwich Village's 12th Precinct station house. Initially, it looks at Capt. Barney Miller and his work and home life, but it gradually becomes about the officers of the precinct, including always-on-the-verge-of-retirement Detective Fish.

The detectives try to track down a counterfeiter who produces bogus one-dollar bills to supplement his army pension.

A psychiatrist refuses to divulge the name of a known arsonist in his care; and the Twelfth Precinct holds an open house that attracts only vagrants.

The detectives capture a prison-escape artist for the FBI. A self-declared bird-man drops in. Harris decides to write a novel.

Barney and the squad are skeptical about the precinct's unkempt new detective; Bernice discovers that Fish spent the afternoon in a massage parlor.