The Old Time Dragnet Show With Adam Graham

This episode introduces us to Daniel Loomis, Mr. Daniel Loomis. The Story begins with Mr. Loomis walking off with everything his wife’s blind grandmother owned. And from there, we learn to really hate the guy as we learn that he stole the money for his own mother’s funeral and has another wife.

This episode was noted for marking a falling out between Jack Webb and Burt Prelutsky, who wrote seven episodes for season three, but only this one episode for Season Four.  Pretulsky wrote:

In the script, the perp had a fondness for bowling. For him, it was a pastime that approached a compulsion. The way I had it, he committed a couple of crimes involving bowling alleys, was arrested while trying to pick up a 7-10 spare, and in between there was a lot of Friday-Gannon banter that revolved around bowling.

Webb wanted to change the compulsion to butterflies, partly because someone he’d grown up around somone that had that compulsion, and mostly because it would avoid a trip off the studio lot. Pretulsky had a solution for the problem:

Through the use of sound effects and a glass counter full of bowling shoes and score sheets, I advised, we could easily indicate the venue in the earlier scenes. And instead of arresting the perp on the lanes, Friday and Gannon could cuff him at the coke machine.

However, all was not well between the two:

For in Jack Webb’s world, I had committed the unpardonable sin. The problem wasn’t that I’d come up with the solution to his problem. It was that just prior to solving it, I had told him that I’d done all the work on the script that I was contracted to do, work that he’d already accepted and approved of, and that if he insisted on my turning our villain into a butterfly collector, it would entail a page-one rewrite. In other words, I would expect to be paid to write that brand-new script he had in mind.

Watching the episode as shot, only two scenes actually involved bowling. The core of the story was about the incredible Mr. Loomis’ career in crime not his career in bowling. I can sympathize with why Webb felt like Prelutsky was trying to shake him down for more money when a page 1 rewrite really doesn’t seem necessary. As a writer, I can also understand Prelutsky fighting for his vision.  He just may have chosen the wrong tactic to use with Webb.

One beef on Dragnet and Jack Webb is that the bad cop is never portrayed. Webb responded to this in a 1972 interview with TV Guide:

We’ve admitted many times that the police make mistakes, both on Dragnet and Adam-12. People tend to forget that; nobody can possibly see or remember all the shows we’ve made.

Regarding not being able to see all the shows, Webb hadn’t met me. 🙂 However, one show that contained the baddest cop in the history of Dragnet is this Season 3 episode, “Administrative Vice: DR29” where Friday finds himself partner to a seasoned vice cop gone bad by the name of Drucker, perhaps the worst cop gone bad in all of Dragnet history. Friday really has to walk a careful line and do everything just right to protect his own career and integrity. This is a sensational highlight of the lackluster Season 3 as Lt. Drucker proves a worthy opponent for Sgt. Friday.

The episode also illustrates Webb’s view of how bad cops should be portrayed:

If I do a story of a crooked or a disturbed policeman, either he’ll be eliminated from the department or he’ll be straightened out and remain on. But I won’t just leave it raw. I think it’s improper reporting not to tell the other side of the story. Of course, you sacrifice something in the area of sensationalism when you do that. Dragnet and Adam-12 aren’t as exciting as the Wambaugh books or “Dirty Harry” in that respect; we don’t have the heavies inside the department itself. We’re not doing stories about the guys we know will eventually be weeded out. We’re doing stories about everyday working policemen.

Webb understood the power of television. He chose to tell it the way it usually happened, rather than finding an aberration and emphasizing it as many TV and movie producers have done in the search for higher ratings. Webb, however held the firm moral high ground in portraying honest police department that rooted out the bad apples.

Recall back to our #37 episode, the Season 1 episode , The Kidnapping. The episode ends with Officer Gannon trying and failing to leave Joe Friday to take the heat for what seems to be a minor bureaucratic oops. When borrowing some money from a bank to payoff the kidnapper to lure him out, Friday and Gannon had forgotten to get a receipt from the Bank President. However, everything turned out well, but the Captain wanted a few words with the boys.

We find out why in AID: The Receipt. In this episode, Friday and Gannon are working out of internal affairs and investigate the case of two police officers who are accused of stealing $800, and their long time careers are put on the line because of a missing receipt.

In some ways, this was a definitive explanation of Dragnet’s approach to policework. Dragnet often worried about small details that wouldn’t matter on any other show, little processes and procedures. But these processes and procedure are vital to keeping officers on the job and safe. If you don’t like details, policework simply isn’t career for you, because failing to follow the details has serious consequences.

The show features a good performance by Virginia Gregg, some good dramatic tensions with Gannon and Friday being friends with the officers involved, and an ending that will be appreciated by those of us who tend to lose things.

Another heartbreaking/controversial episode of Dragnet. This one bears some similarity to the radio episode, “The Big Lay Out.” In both episodes, a father reports his child as a drug user. This episode is different because unlike in “The Big Lay Out”, the father doesn’t have evidence to share with the police that could lead to an arrest and we’re not dealing with a minor, but with what by all appearances are two competent adults. Perhaps, the most important difference is that an innocent child is being raised by two drug users.

This episode has some elements of the “iThe Big Prophet” with a debate on the dangers of drugs, but this one also has an actual plot that really adds power to the arguments. We get to see not only the debate, but the consequences of the positions taken. Plus, this episode went contrary to stereotypes of drug users being universally poor in its portrayal of middle class respectable looking people using drugs, it

Those who view drugs as harmless chalk this episode up as “Reefer Madness” hysteria. Yet, Dragnet is based on actual police files, and in the police files across America, you’ll find many cases just like this. Dragnet’s take was powerful and well-done.

“Well, whatddaya know? The immortal sergeant.”

Dragnet 1966 (aka World Premiere) was intended to air in 1966, but instead network executives were so impressed with the new film, they decided give Dragnet a second life as a thirty minute series. The movie ended up airing in 1969. Since then, while the remade series it spawned has been syndicated multiple times, the movie that restarted Dragnet has laid mostly forgotten. No home video releases and rarely playing on television channels.

Taking over future Dragnet releases after Universal’s miserly release of Dragnet 1967, Shout Factory made Dragnet 1968 special with its inclusion of the rarely-seen movie that started it all, as well as a Jack Webb featurette. Seeing the film for the first time last week, I saw what NBC was excited about.

There’s a strong case to be made that Dragnet 1966 is the greatest Dragnet adventure ever. However, there’s an even stronger case to be made that it’s the most complete Dragnet story ever. When people think of the Dragnet series, there are a variety of things that come to mind: 1) solid mysteries, 2) quality human drama, 3) a solid rhetorical blast from Sergeant Friday, 4) police realism, 5) great performances by some of the great characters actors of TV’s golden age, , and 7) Just the right touch of comic relief.

Most thirty minute episodes of Dragnet will leave one of these elements out. There’s just not time to portray everything in thirty minutes, and the Dragnet 1954 movie couldn’t quite put it all together, missing the comic thrust and the solid mystery.

Dragnet 1966 was the total package. It had everything you could hope from Dragnet.

The movie begins with Joe Friday being called back early from vacation and put on a murder case that’s been perplexing the police. Three women have disappeared with foul play suspected. The third victim, a model, offers greater clues to the perpetrator as the police conclude she met the perpetrator through a lonely hearts club and with the help of composite artist, the brother is able to provide a description.

However, Friday and Gannon’s job is complicated by the President of the lonely hearts club (played brilliantly by Virginia Gregg) who provides an entirely different description from the brother, apparently to avoid hurting the club’s reputation. A red herring leads to an unrelated murder investigation. All the while, the man their hunting is looking for his next victim.

Dragnet 1966 is smartly written by Oscar winning screenwriter Richard Breen, who seemed to have a better grasp of what Dragnet should look and sound like than when he penned the 1954 movie and the 1953 Christmas episode.

The cast was made up of the same folks who Webb had relied upon to make the Dragnet radio and TV shows a success. It featured three of the men who had taken turns playing Webb’s partner between the death of Barton Yarborough in December, 1951 and Ben Alexander taking over the role of Frank Smith in September, 1952: Herb Ellis, Harry Bartell, and Vic Perrin. Throw in Virginia Gregg and Olan Soule and Webb and the gang was truly all back together.

As would be the case in the TV series, Harry Morgan (Bill Gannon) brought the comic relief. Gannon is being forced to retire due to health, but wants to see his last murder case to a conclusion, which will require staying one step of the personnel officer, who wants to be sure that no matter what happens, Gannon turns in his badge and signs his retirement papers no later than 4:30 P.M. Gannon also has a nephew in dentistry school that keeps trying (and failing) to fit him Gannon with bridgework.

To top it all off was Jack Webb delivering a career performance. Webb’s portrayal of Friday was a little different from years past. Friday was no longer the trim young police officer in his 20s and finding his way on the force, but rather a veteran who’d seen it all. Friday is still played as being professional, but with a quiet intensity that’s played for great effect during the ”Quirk in the Law” speech and when Friday and Gannon catch up with a couple murder suspects. There’s also a very moving scene with Friday and the son of a murder victim.

Dragnet 1966 holds the viewer’s attention right to the very end with a climax that puts Joe Friday in one of the most dangerous and exciting situations of his career.

I was expecting a lot from Dragnet 1966 and it exceeded even my expectation. Fans owe Shout Factory a debt of thanks for bringing this unheralded classic to home video.

I’ll also that they did a very good job on the 24 minute Jack Webb featurette that included interviews and insight on Webb from veteran Wenb hands Peggy Webber and Herb Ellis, who shared their personal and professional memories of Webb going back to the days of radio, as well as the very funny Tom Williams (who did a great Harry Morgan imitation) and Webb’s third wife, Jackie Loughery. It was very well-put together piece that’s a must-see for Dragnet fans.

While Season 3 was associated with a lot (too many) community relations shows, this episode was a stand out. It shows the power of using true police cases.

A little girl is bitten by a dog and the dog can’t be found. Under the law, the girl must be given a rabies vaccination if it’s not known whether the dog was rabid. The problem? The girl is allergic to the rabies vaccine, so a rabies shot could kill her. If the dog has rabies, the rabies could kill her. Friday and Gannon have a limited amount of time to track down the dog and save a child from a potentially lethal injection.

A fascinating and thrilling episode of Dragnet.

Marijuana is the flame, heroin’s the fuse, LSD is the bomb.

This episode is one of Dragnet’s 1960s runs most meorable as Joe Friday enters a druggie guru’s lair and takes him on in a war of words, which translates into an extended 2 on 1 debate on drugs and democracy.

There’s one big reason to not like this episode and this is that this lacks the look and feel of an episode of Dragnet: the story of police investigation. Instead, we’re given the story of an afternoon debate between our hero and a criminal. 

However, this episode is a favorite of mine for two reasons.  First of all, the debate is a classic, with many fine rhetorical jabs, and great eloquence. I view a good debate as good entertainment. Many people disagree, but I’m not arguing the show is one of the best. Only one of my favorites.

First of all, it’s the ultimate counterculture v. mainstream culture debate. Joe Friday v. a Timothy Leary stand-in. In the 1950s, Joe Friday was at the vanguard of an era when entertainment honored the law and the values most Americans held dear. In the 1960s, Friday stood as a bulwark in an entertainment world that had returned to portraying police as corrupt, incompetent, and worse, and seemed to be deconstructing America.

Dragnet was counter-counter culture, and the audience that was drawn to the show would have found it refreshing for someone to speak for what they believe and actually come out on top in the entertainment media. 

The episode itself was uncharacteristically unrealistic. A police officer would not spend thirty minutes debating democracy with a suspected drug dealer. The episode with its surreal groovy setting takes the show and makes into a police fantasy, rather than a police procedural. While, there are many officers who would like to do what Friday did, most police officers couldn’t. However, Sergeant Friday could, and the LAPD had no problem with him doing it.  And for many police officers, as well as the audience at home, Friday was doing something they’d love to, but couldn’t.

For better or for worse, this episode has an iconic place in the 1960s run and it explains why Dragnet is so discounted by modern day critics.

Hollywood is a place that for ever person who “makes it” countless more fall prey to various conmen wanting to exploit stary-eyed youths, particularly young women.

Dragnet dealt with this problem before.  (See the radio episode, The Big Picture.)  However, the story told in the 1960s Dragnet is even more heart-breaking, and serves as a cautionary tale from Hollywood for those who are trying to make it big in Hollywood.

Jack Webb always had an impeccable sense of timing. The real world of police can often be one full of heartbreak and sorrow. In the midst of this, a lighter episode can mean an uplift to the audience and provide a change of pace. The Big Amateur came right after “The Big Search” the week before and right before a powerful episode we’ll profile soon, called “The Starlet.”

As has happened in several episodes, a phony police officer is on the loose. However, unlike in the Badge Racket, he’s not out for money. Unlike in the 1949 radio episode, “The Red Light Bandit,” or the 1959 TV episode, “The Big Counterfeit” he doesn’t appear to be doing a shakedown. In fact, other than the fact that he’s not really a policeman, he appears to be a model officer. The payoff is surprising, and worthwhile.

Dragnet told the story of a lot of bunco cons. For pure audacity, this one may have taken the cake, as it involves the cons impersonating policemen and taking their victims, out of town businessmen, to the police station and shaking them down for bail money. To solve the case, Bill Gannon goes undercover.

This is a fantastic episode with a great payoff at the end.

Joe Friday and Bill Gannon are investigating a series of movie memorabilia thefts. A pretty routine show until they catch up with the perpetrator and then a human drama is played out that is incredibly surprising, particularly if people take a stereotypical view of Dragnet.

One of Dragnet’s greatest attributes is its ability to find a place for real human emotions. It’s a realistic show, and in the real world people don’t act like they do on a typical mystery show.  On Dragnet, it’s not only the police that act like real life, it’s the people. This can be seen going back to the days of the Dragnet radio show and through each television incarnation. A person would come in view and from what they say we’d learn their hurts and their fears, and their anxiety. And because they come off as real human beings, they connect with us as people.

Dragnet did a great job portraying the hardened criminal, the arrogant murderer, and the stone cold evil sociopath. But it also brought us up close and personal to the pain of an old man whose old friend was just murdered, a childless woman who is deeply hurt when rumors spread that she’s behind a series of babies thefts, or to a family whose son had relapsed back onto drugs, or the lost soul driven to crime by deep-seated personal pain. This episode is a great example of that tradition, and one of the highlights of Season 3.

Christmas in June? It’d be tempting to artificially work things so that the Christmas episode ends up in the list around Christmas, but by Christmastime I’ll be done, so there’s no reason for facade.

This episode belongs where it is. It is quite an episode: a remarkable almost word for word reshooting of the 1953 version of the Story. The show was one of two entries in the 1960s show that had its basis in a 1950s episode.

The story is beautiful and surprising, a Christmas treasure that’s still memorable and heart-warming after all these years. It is a testament to the writing of Richard Breen. In his life, Breen won an Academy Award for Best Writing, Story, and Screenplay for the 1954 minor Classic, Titanic.

But as the years has faded, so has Breen from the public consciousness. However, this one episode of Dragnet he wrote in 1953 during the first year of the Eisenhower Administration could be retold with ease in the anger and rage of the late 1960s, when the whole world had changed. Two decades later, a version of the story would be used in an episode of Macgyver.   And if you were to tell the same story today, you could use almost the same script that Breen did.

What makes the story so timeless? I think it’s that element of the unexpected. We begin the episode with a sense of dismay at the idea of someone robbing a church on Christmas Eve, particuarly of a  religious statue, and we’er led to suspect a devout worshiper with a past of committing a crime. Yet, in the end, we found out things weren’t quite as they appeared.

What looks like a theft is not always a theft, and as Friday suggests, what looks like a poor person isn’t always a poor person. Through the tumult of the years, and the painful side of life that Dragnet portrays, this episode stands out for its hope. It was in the same vein as the famous Apollo 8 message that would come the next Christmas in providing hope and re-assurance to a troubled and turbulent world. More than 57 years after Breen produced the first version of this story, it still stands as a beacon that continues to connect with new generations.

Usually I post these on Tuesday, but posting this one on Memorial Day seemed appropriate. It’s an emotional story with Friday and Gannon working out of Personnel division and dealing with the shooting of two officers and the pain the officers’ wives go through. Virginia Gregg turns in a solid performance as the wife of the veteran officer.

This is the second of the TV episodes featuring elderly character actor Bust Martin to make my list as Friday and Gannon investigate a string of burglaries. The mystery is pretty clever and the captured perpetrator is surprising as well.

This episode is noteworthy for Friday and Gannon’s use of “Soft clothes.” Usually, they’re in stiff suits, but when they’re trying to catch the burglar and hiding about the neighborhood in suits that screamed, “Cops!,”  they dressed in what we would now call “business casual” so as not to be spotted and seeing Joe Friday in anything other than a suit is always different.

This is one of the more chilling episodes of Dragnet, a heart-rending story of child abuse and neglect. In the wake of Dragnet’s drug episodes, it’s popular to pretend that was all Webb talked about.

A more persistent theme throughout the 1960s Series, and even earlier shows was its willingness to speak of crimes against children. Often, it was a taboo topic that left children suffering in silence.

What makes this episode of Dragnet so poignant is that not only could it happen today, but that it still does.