My Favorite 1960s Dragnet #15: The Big Kids
This episode has a lot to commend it as Joe Friday deals with young shoplifters. The show has some fascinating (including some that could be considered breeches of 21st Century political correctness.)
The show, however features Friday facing a very unusual juvenile foe. Friday delivers a decent “Jesus” speech but it fails to impress the young delinquent, who is a real smart mouth. In this episode, Friday and the juvenile are fairly equally matched. The ending of the show is classic, it’s completely unexpected and surprising, and counter to the usual Dragnet youth show formula.
The episode addressed a meme of the counterculture to disenchanted youth. The cops “don’t understand you.” This episode told disenchanted teenagers that it was possible for despised authority figures to understand them and what can drive them to the point of frustration, and even crime.
