Affiliation NYPD Nationality American | Spouse(s) Bernice Occupation Detective | |
 | ||
Similar Nick Yemana, Salvatore Tessio, Arthur Dietrich, Shepherd Book, Tom Hagen | ||
Detective Phil Fish is a fictional NYPD detective in the TV series Barney Miller and later in the spin off series Fish. He was played by Abe Vigoda.
Fish was an odd character for a television detective: aged, grumpy, and suffering from a variety of maladies for which he constantly needed medication. The most recurring malady was inflamed hemorrhoids where he would bring a donut cushion to his desk chair. The detectives' bathroom was as important to him as his desk.
Fish's wife was Bernice, played by Florence Stanley, who made occasional visits to the squad room and whose name the aging Fish once forgot during breakfast.
After retiring from the 12th precinct, the character of Fish became the center of his own series, Fish, in which he and his wife served as foster parents for a number of troubled children, referred to euphemistically as PINS, or "persons in need of supervision".
His successor at the precinct was Det. Arthur P. Dietrich. Fish visited the 12th precinct once more after his retirement from the force and the end of the series Fish (in the episode "Lady and the Bomb"), but it proved to be a bit of a let-down for him.