My Favorites Dragnets (1960s) #40: DHQ: The Victims
We kick off my countdown off my 40 favorite Dragnets.
#40 on my lis actually the last episode of Dragnet. Dragnet left the air on a bit of a sour note as Joe and Bill work a night of Burglary and Homicide cases.
While not quite the dramatic quality of the Dragnet radio installment, “The Big Trio,” “The Victims” packs a punch as it tells the story of people victimized by criminals who are given rights, while the victims and their families are left to pick up the pieces. This episode helps you understand the feelings of citizens under siege from criminals. It is the stories portrayed here that caused Americans in the 1970s to relate and gravitate to anti-hero vigilantes like Dirty Harry and the Punisher.
The episode was also notable for a scene in which Sergeant Friday chewed out a young police officer who considered his job “boring” because it wasn’t as exciting as life in the detective bureau. Friday, played by a 50 year-old Jack Webb gave the young gun a well-deserved chewing out that emphasized the importance of the job of the work by officers in the Black and White units. True words as Webb would continue to tell the story of Officers Jim Reed and Pete Malloy on Adam-12 five years after Dragnet went off the air.
