Throughout the run of the series, there have been plenty of references to the backstories of the officers before we started following their careers in 2003. However, it wasn't until season 6 that we got a sustained look at the Reno Sheriff's Department of yesteryear.
In the episode "VHS Transfer Memory Lane," the officers are reviewing footage shot by the department in the late '80s. It reveals that Dangle (Thomas Lennon), Jones (Cedric Yarbrough), Williams (Niecy Nash), Junior (Robert Ben Garant), and Wiegel were all working there at the time. The tapes reveal a few interesting tidbits of information. Dangle is seen wearing a pair of floor-length jeans instead of his usual cutoffs, and it's revealed he had not yet come out of the closet, although he says he "had an inkling." We also get a first-hand look at his marriage to Deb (Rachael Harris), which was referenced earlier in the series, as well as his flirtations with a young Wiegel.
The footage of Wiegel in the '80s reveals that she hasn't always been the peculiar woman we know today. Instead of painfully out-of-sync with reality most of the time, '80s Wiegel was fun and vivacious. That all changed during a fateful call that turned out to have pretty serious ramifications for multiple people in the department.
During a raid on a drug house, multiple deputies are injured in the ensuing shootout and explosions. Dangle catches fire, which burns off the bottom of his jeans, giving him the idea to begin wearing cutoffs. Meanwhile, Wiegel is seriously injured and is even declared dead for 14 minutes. The deputies later attest that she was never the same.
