The hell. I thought he was dead 20 years ago? Barney Miller was one of my favorite shows ever. Taxi, MASH, All in the family. Fish sticks on Friday. Good Times. Not the show, just good times.
Cops in the 70's considered Barney Miller one of the most realistic cop shows ever (according to imdb.com). Abe was great on that show. Interesting in The GF that Coppola decided Tessio's whacking should happen off camera. Should we assume he was such a sympathetic character that the audience would not want to see him get whacked?
Couple of reasons. In the book, his whacking is only referenced, not really discussed. Beyond that, he was the Corleone capo at one time and was the one called to take out Bruno Tattaglia. Remember, Bruno took out Luca Brasi who was a Corleone hit man, and it was the Tattaglias who tried to hit Vito. That's why Sonny asked Tessio to kill Bruno. Vito was sort of an emotional pussy though because he never went after Tessio and he agreed to a non-revenge pact with the other bosses. It was Michael who went apeshit on the revenge note. Killing Tessio off-screen is a matter of.....respect.
