My Favorite 1960s Dragnet #21: The Prophet
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.
I agree this is on of my favorites also. The debate is what makes Dragnet of the 60’s so good.