Happy 92nd Birthday Hal Linden!

Seems like a nice guy

Barron Trump also celebrates his birthday today.

It's time for another Hal Linden Special!

OMG, R3. What a find.

John Neretti forever.

Aww. They were adorable in real life too.

Good call, OP. For a man in his late 40s in the 1970s, Mr. Linden was in great shape.

Did anyone actually see him play Billy Crocker in the 1960 production of “Anything Goes?” The one with Eileen Rogers playing Reno Sweeney? I ask because I grew up on that album - I played it so often I practically wore it out. I couldn’t put it together that I was listening to Barney Miller! To this day when I here “De Lovely” and “Your the Top” I hear his voice in my head.

You’re the Top - not YOUR - cringe - sorry!!

Why is Linda Carter’s bathing suit so see-through? They let that on national television?

^ We’re you alive in the seventies???

John Noretti!

Stealth sexy, like Dabney Coleman.

This all reminds me that DL has been surprisingly Max Gail free for some time now.

Great tits!

Linda, more so than Hal

I saw him as Herr Schultz in "Cabaret" at Studio 54 back in 2010/2011 or so. He was quite good.

So sexy. And you can make out his junk in that Speedo.

He’s a wonderful singer.

[quote]This all reminds me that DL has been surprisingly Max Gail free for some time now.

I’m about to bump one of his threads.

[quote]This all reminds me that DL has been surprisingly Max Gail free for some time now.

I think OP should be ashamed of himself that the picture he chose wasn't of Hal Linden with Max Gail.

I saw him in the mid-1970s Broadway revival of PAJAMA GAME, which was cast very liberally and with no overt political statement with Black and white actors. Beautiful Barbara McNair played opposite him and Cab Calloway was also one of the stars. It was a fun production and when Hal came out for the curtain call bare chested, in just his pajama bottoms, the audience (especially little gayling me) went wild.

There are photos of this online if anyone cares to search. Sorry, I'm now an old and lazy eldergay.

Was he into guys?

Shirtless in The Pajama Game

Hal Linden had/has a beautiful voice. Saw him in the earlier revival of "Cabaret" as Herr Schultz. One of his first significant gigs on Broadway was as lead Sydney Chaplin's understudy in "Bells Are Ringing" opposite Judy Holliday. Linden got to go on, and later took over the role from Chaplin. He said Judy was terrific; first time he went on, he was singing a duet with her, and she gently positioned him to stand singing out more towards the audience than to her during his solo lines so he'd be seen and heard better. He said she was a very generous and wonderful performer and colleague.

I'm so glad someone posted those photos of "Pajama Game". Hal was out the performance I went to. His understudy was good and looked good shirtless, but I always wanted to see Linden in that, especially in the topless pajama scene. He had already won a Tony for "The Rothschilds" by then, but I think the "Pajama Game" production helped get him the gig for "Barney Miller" making him a star nationally on tv. Thanks for those swimsuit photos from "Battle of the Network Stars" too. Networks apparently didn't care what folks could see from wet bathing suits back then, I guess.

That was a very good production of the "Pajama Game" btw. The Carol Haney role (which Shirley MacLaine famously understudied) was done by Sharron Miller, who was really good. McNair and Calloway were quite good, too. Ladies near me were thrilled saying "Ooh, it's Steam Heat... wow, Hernando's Hideawy!" So those were famous numbers from the original, and I believe it was all the original Bob Fosse choregraphy.

R26 I think you can see Hal's pubes in those trunks if you enlarge the photo! Yum!

Nice nipples, but I thought he’d be hairier.

He was hairier on Broadway than on tv. By then maybe they had people shave for network tv.

[quote]Was he into guys?

Years ago somebody here claimed to have hooked up with him. Supposedly he gave amazing head.

Hal Linden (minus moustache) is also in the movie version of "Bells Are Ringing" playing the singer in the nightclub singing "The Midas Touch"; he hasn't many closeups, but the DVD with extras has an extended version of the song with better views of Hal, as well as the cut song from the show for Judy "Is It a Crime?".

I saw him in the LA staging (I guess it was part of the national tour, if there was one) of "The Scottsboro Boys" around ten years ago. Still in good voice, especially for being in his early 80s by then.

Damn, can you imagine (un)dressing rooms with Hal Linden and Max Gail?

Wow - that looks like it was a wonderful production of Pajama Game….. I saw Hal in a Law and Order SVU rerun the other night. he played an old boyfriend of Finola Flanagan. She was in assisted living and had Alzheimer’s and was raped. Hal looked good.

He got good reviews off-Broadway last year. From the "New Yorker":

THE THEATRE

Two Jews, Talking

An old Jew of Moses’ tribe shuffles onto a set that evokes “Godot”—some boulders and a scraggly tree—soon followed by a fellow-wanderer. Lou (Hal Linden), a cynic, and Bud (Bernie Kopell), patient, hopeful, and faithful, have been thirty years in the desert together. Bud trusts in Moses and believes in the promised land. Lou thinks Moses doesn’t have a clue, has been taking them in circles, and is, in fact, lost, “l-o-s-t in the desert,” as he likes to say. So begins a joke-filled debate on subjects theological and mundane, ranging from the Ten Commandments to dietary laws and beyond. After a pause, the rocks are replaced by a park bench, and the players return as Marty and Phil, strangers but basically the same guys, a few thousand years later. The talk turns to health, Heaven, family, and, again, faith. The writer, Ed. Weinberger, who’s been concocting quality comedy since the sixties, has modelled the script with a comfortable Borscht Belt rhythm. He and the director, Dan Wackerman, give deadpan Kopell (“Get Smart,” “The Love Boat”) some of the biggest laugh lines, but it’s Linden—whose theatre bona fides stretch back to 1957, on Broadway opposite Judy Holliday in “Bells Are Ringing”—who kills. Comic timing like you wouldn’t believe. The b-e-s-t.

— Ken Marks

Hal Linden has been dead for seven years.

Harold Lipshitz. I wonder why he changed his name?

It's funny because for years and years -- despite my mother and my sister both loving it and never missing it -- I'd never really paid much attention to "Barney Miller," not because I thought it was a bad show but it just never interested me for some reason. But for the past few months I've been catching the reruns on Antenna TV and it really was a very well-written, funny show. Hal Linden and the entire cast was fantastic (and yes, Max Gail had the best ass on TV, though Ron Glass was pretty attractive also). I think I read that Linda Lavin was the only female detective the show ever had but was only there for a few episodes in the first or second season before leaving to go do "Alice" on CBS.

Not sure if it’s wishful thinking on my part, but the pic @ R32 - the guy far right.

Is that major VPL I’m seeing?

R38 that’s so funny, my grandmother loved the show, & I didn’t get the appeal (back then).

Hal really is one hot dude. I mostly remember him from the FYI blurbs during afternoon shows on ABC.

Watching as I type.

Also making an appearance in OP’s photo is John Schuck, who will forever be remembered in for his breakthrough role as Gil Kessler, f/k/a Anna Maria Bonneducci.

Why do I remember there being a lot of negative gossip about Hal on the DL?

Maybe I’m conflating him with someone else but there was a very long thread that I could swear included a description of him being unpleasant to work with.

I remember Schuck from the short-lived Holmes & Yoyo on ABC. He played an android police detective. Tough time slot, Monday night against Little House & The Jeffersons. It was also really bad -- #33 on TV Guide's list of 50 Worst Shows of All-Time.

I would’ve ate his ass back in 1977.

He did the MC role introducing Gwen and Chita in the Keep It Hot number on Mike Douglas. I thought he would have made a great billy Flynn.

I agree about him making a fantastic Billy Flynn.

[quote]I would’ve ate his ass back in 1977.

You and me both. He was sexy as fuck in Barney Miller.

UK here. As a teenager Barney Miller was a furtive treat for me. I would wank myself silly over Hal Linden AND Max Gail. I also had a thing for Steve Landesberg.

There are very few actresses, or even models, today who could look beautiful in a swim cap with minimal makeup. It’s all hair and make up and filters today. I guess it’s nice that the playing field has been leveled and plain girls can be hot and that women north of their 20’s are still considered attractive. But when I see a photo of a young Brook Shields or this photo of Lynda Carter, I remember what beautiful is.

Disagree with me? Let’s imagine the Hadid sisters in swim caps without make up. Or even Heidi Klum.

Hal, Max and Ron Glass were hot as fish grease.

Lynda Carter was an absolute knockout.