My Favorite 1960s Dragnet #18: IAD: The Receipt
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.
