Jack Soo

Something a little different on Caricaturama Showdown this week. Instead of a single celebrity as the subject, it was decided to allow the members to draw anybody famous of Japanese heritage as a small tribute to the people of Japan in this time of great catastrophe. I figured there'd be some caricatures drawn of actor Toshiro Mifune and animation director Miyazaki, so I was looking for somebody that I didn't think would be as obvious a choice by other members. I decided to go with the comic actor, Jack Soo, a Japanese American who was most well-known for portraying Detective Nick Yemana on the 1970's cop sitcom, Barney Miller. As fans of that great show will recall, Yemana was renowned for brewing up his awful coffee that nobody else particularly wanted to drink.

Here's a selection of quick scenes from various Barney Miller episodes. I actually remembered that second clip involving the coffee made from rainwater from when it first aired! Yemana and Wojo were my favourite characters on the show, although the entire ensemble cast was quite brilliant.