I got the first season with the BM complete series and this show is horrible. I remember watching as a kid and I did not realize how bad this was. Besides the adult actors... Abe Vigoda, Barry Gordon and Florence Stanley, the acting was non existent. These kids all had the worst NYC accents ever. Talk about overacting. The fat kid was the worst of all.
shareIt was bad. They didn't need to soon off fish. Bad idea.
shareIt was Abe Vigoda himself who wanted a show of his own. He wanted equal billing with Hal Linden on "Barney Miller" based on his character's popularity, but the producers were not willing to create problems on the show so they offered to star him in his own show. He was still pretty funny but the rest of the show was dreadful, especially the obnoxious children. When "Fish" was cancelled, he apparently made outrageous salary demands to return to "Barney Miller", so the producers passed on his return.
shareFish was not perfect, but two of the characters: Fish, who had comical mannerisms and hilarious facial expressions that made me laugh out loud, and his lovely and sweet mannered wife made the show watchable. The show just needed a chance to grow.
shareIf the show were just about Mr. and Mrs. Fish, I think it would have been a lot better than had they included all the kids and their annoying guardian. Abe Vigoda and Florence Stanley worked well together, but the cast was too large and the writing very weak in my opinion. "Barney Miller" had a very strong ensemble cast and excellent writers; "Fish" had a lot of obnoxious kids and forced conflicts.
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