Fish

First of all, this wasn't a bad series and it had potential. It wasn't "Ethnic Mismatch #644" as one review said, but it proves that people of different races can live together under the same roof. Abe Vigoda is an excellent actor and sadly, he hasn't had nearly enough exposure.

Fish 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 kids were kind of annoying, and it was so hard to actually like them. They could have been written better as characters on the show. The show needed more time to develop. It was certainly better than "Different Strokes", which for me is unwatchable. I have the one season of Fish on DVD and love watching the show, which is amazing in itself. I am quite sure the series would have been a classic it it had a few series under it's belt. It deserved more than just one year. I am not quite sure why it was cancelled in the first year. It just needed a chance to grow.

I thought this was a great show, and one of the few comedies that has successfully crossed the Atlantic to the UK. Good casting.

Sure it's a lot of kids doing mildly bad things, but the difference is having a cop for a foster parent. He could have got rid of them at any time, but the kids opened his eyes, and he put morals across in a mild way. Abe's performance was superb.

His reactions every time there was a new problem were truly great, his expressions, and mannerisms. Perhaps a little moralistic, but it gave a good account of accommodating differences, and seeing things from a different point of view.

Ok, I hated "Barney Miller" back in the 70's (though it does have nostalgic value today). And the character Fish was a nasty grumpy old man, played by Abe Vigoda. But this spin-off may be the BEST SITCOM EVER! Imagine a 70's era sitcom with great 70's clothing, funny jokes, and just add in five extremely talented charming kids: you'll love this show. If you ever do see it on TV (Nick at Nite or TV Land is bound to give this show a run) you are sure to be amazed that this show didn't run forever.

This was a pretty decent spin off from "Barney Miller". This show pretty much gave Abe Vigoda a chance to expand his character of Fish from more of a "sad sack" to being more of a grouch with a heart of gold. Also, his interaction with Todd Bridges character of Loomis really made this show very enjoyable.

Also, Abe Vigoda had to be one of the hardest working men in show business. This was due to the fact that for the first few months that this show was on he was still working on "Barney Miller". Kudos to Vigoda for his hard work on both shows and not missing a beat.