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Dragnet 1968
"The Grenade"
Originally aired September 14, 1967 (season premiere)
Xfinity said:
When Friday and Gannon trace a teenage suspect to his home, he runs away carrying a live grenade.
Sgt. Joe Friday said:
This is the city: Los Angeles, California. A lot of it has always been here: the mountains...the deserts...the ocean. Some of it had to be developed, like oil...and water...and the land. The rest was built from scratch. A human mind conceived this [Los Angeles County Museum of Art?]...and this [abstract sculpture outside]. Man has an instinct to create...or to build...or to improve. But the human mind can go other ways, too. Sometimes it gets lost; then it needs guidance. Reading signs and obeying them can sometimes help a confused mind. They tell you which way to turn; when not to turn; where not to drive; where not to park. In my business, this sign [STOP] means something whether you drive or not. Sometimes, if you don't heed it, you'll see this sign [POLICE DEPARTMENT: CITY OF LOS ANGELES]. I work here. I carry a badge.
Friday, October 6 (1967): Friday and Gannon are working the night watch out of Juvenile Division when they get a radio call to go to a theater (that's playing
Doctor Zhivago) to investigate an incident involving a youth named Rick Schneiderman (a fair-haired and shirtless Jan-Michael Vincent, credited as Michael Vincent) who had sulfuric acid spilled on his back by the young man sitting behind him, whom he identifies as Gerald Paulson (Mickey Sholdar). The burns aren't too serious because Rick was wearing a jacket. Back at the station, Paulson has been rounded up and they read him his rights--adding an "or any juvenile court proceedings". He seems like an ordinary, mild-mannered kid, and confesses to what he did, explaining that Rick and his girlfriend were making a lot of noise, and that he didn't think the acid--which he happened to be carrying because chemistry is his hobby--would hurt Rick, just damage his jacket.
Friday said:
Suppose you'd have gotten that acid in his eyes, boy....Would you have bought him some new ones?
Paulson is released to his parents (the Kirsops, his mother and step-father) pending a hearing.
Back on Juvenile Patrol, Gannon is giving Friday a talk about how society is making kids grow up too fast when they get a call to the Kirsop home. Mr. Kirsop (Robert Brubaker) reports that Gerald has run away, and shows them the things that the boy has been collecting in his room: a .45 automatic, an M1 carbine, and a pair of hand grenades...one of which is missing from the box. Friday examines the remaining grenade and reports that, contrary to what Gerald had told his stepfather, it isn't a dud.
Contacting the vice-principal of Paulson's school, the detectives learn that the boy is known to have social issues and has one friend. Visiting the friend, they learn that Paulson plans to do something before midnight, and that there's a record party being thrown by a girl that Paulson's interested in. Arriving at the girl's home, the detectives are directed to the back patio where they can hear groovy music playing...it's an instrumental, but not the
Adam-12 one that will be so popular a year later. Opening the gate, they see all of the partiers on one end of the patio, standing perfectly still, looking toward the other end, where Paulson is holding the grenade with a finger in the pin. In control of the record player, he insists that everyone will stay and listen to the music until he says otherwise. Unable to talk the boy down, Friday notices that he's standing right over an extension cord connection to the record player, and slowly, surreptitiously unplugs it with his feet. The unexpected stopping of the record player offers a moment of distraction in which Friday lunges at the boy and struggles for control of the grenade. He manages to wrest it from Paulson, but the pin is still attached to the boy's finger, so Gannon has to struggle with Paulson over that, and then replaces it while Friday stands perfectly still, clutching the grenade with both hands.
The Announcer said:
On October 23, a hearing was held in Juvenile Court, Superior Court of the State of California, for the County of Los Angeles....As a result of the hearing, the subject was placed under the supervision of the State Department of Mental Hygiene, for treatment as a mentally ill person.
This one kind of reminded me of a combination of the first two episodes of last season...a kid with an acid problem, and a ticking clock involving a disturbed person threatening to use explosives.
During the scene at the record party held hostage, there was this high-pitched screeching whenever Paulson stopped the record player. I think it was supposed to be a suspenseful bit of soundtrack, but it just sounded annoying to me, like there was something wrong with my set.
"The Shooting Board"
Originally aired September 21, 1967
Xfinity said:
Friday finds himself in trouble after he kills a man in self-defense and can't find the suspect's spent bullet.
Sgt. Joe Friday said:
This is the city: Los Angeles, California. It sprawls over 467 square miles, and three million people call it home. It's the biggest police beat in the world, and it has fewer policemen per thousand population than any major city in the United States. On paper, one policeman must protect and serve more than six hundred citizens. It's a big job...and a big responsibility. Every police officer carries a gun. Once a month on the pistol range he has to prove he knows how to use it. Someday he may have to. When that day comes, I go to work. I carry a badge.
Wednesday, September 17 (last occurred in 1958; I have to wonder if some of these dates are leftovers from having redone stories from the previous iteration of the series): Friday and Gannon have been working very late on the day watch out of Homicide. It's after 2 a.m. when Friday, looking to get a marginal night's sleep, walks to an all-night laundromat near his apartment for cigarettes and sees a man there trying to break into the change machine. His hand on his holstered gun, Friday announces that he's a police officer and the man spins around pulling his own pistol. Shots are exchanged while the suspect manages to make it to the door with the help of some hurled trash bins, getting away with a young female accomplice. The bright trail of fake blood on the floor indicates that the suspect was hit pretty bad. Joe immediately calls it in and two detectives come out, Lts. Bowser (Leonard Stone) and Brooks (future Sgt. MacDonald actor William Boyett). Friday describes the incident to them in detail, but they can't find any trace of a bullet in the wall that the suspect's shot should have hit.
The body of the suspect, Arthur Ashton, is found, and his accomplice, Marianne Smith (Anita Eubank), is taken into custody. She claims that Ashton hadn't fired. His gun is found, but it's unloaded and has been immersed in a drum of used oil, leaving no evidence of it having been fired. Friday proceeds to face a board of inquiry consisting of three senior police officers. The testifying detectives have nothing negative to say about Friday's conduct in the aftermath, and offer that Smith's story sounds rehearsed. Nevertheless, the board questions the impact that Friday's long hours may have had on his judgment, as well as whether the gun might have been filled with blanks.
By this point things are looking bleak for Joe...he faces the possibility of a trial for manslaughter and being removed from the force. Capt. Brown gives him and Gannon a talk that he out-and-out lampshades as something they'd already know and don't need to hear, about how Friday's badge only means something because of accountability procedures like this. Then the investigating detectives call with a break in the case. Back at the laundromat, they show Friday and Gannon how the bullet had managed to graze the bottom of a wooden wall shelf, leaving a mark that was easily dismissed as one from a pencil while raising the board just enough that the bullet lodged itself in the wall immediately behind the shelf's normal resting place.
The Announcer said:
On Thursday, September 18, the Shooting Board of Inquiry of the Los Angeles Police Department held a final hearing on the shooting of Arthur Ashton....As a result of the finding of the bullet from Arthur Ashton's gun, the Board held that Sgt. Joe Friday had fired in the line of duty, and that the shooting was within departmental policy.
On September 23rd, a coroner's jury hearing the same case also brought in a verdict of justifiable homicide.
Marianne Smith was again made a ward of Juvenile Court, and later placed in a foster home.
Seriously, they're trying to pass her off as a minor?
This episode, of course, is basically the same premise as the later
Adam-12 installment in which Reed faces an investigation after a shooting. Continuity point: Friday says that he's "only ever dropped the hammer on a man twice." Given that this was a long-running series in the '50s and a radio show before that, I have to wonder if that assertion would hold up to scrutiny.
"The Badge Racket"
Originally aired September 28, 1967
Xfinity said:
Friday and Gannon bait the trap for a pair of shakedown artists who pose as vice officers.
Sgt. Joe Friday said:
This is the city: Los Angeles, California. Whether or not you'd wanna live here, it's a nice place to visit. And a few million people do it every year...they come for a lotta reasons. Either way, they don't like to be swindled. When they are, that's when I go to work. I carry a badge.
Friday, October 11 (1968--over a year in the future?): Friday and Gannon are working the day watch out of Frauds Division, Bunco Section, when an officer from Internal Affairs Division brings down a businessman from Iowa named Danhart (Tol Avery) who's been swindled by con men impersonating police detectives. The scam involved having a prostitute waiting for him in his hotel room; the money was ostensibly to post bail for her so that he'd be free to go home on schedule the next day and avoid scandal back home. The way Danhart describes the fake officers makes it sounds like their assumed roles are mirrors of Friday and Gannon--the tough, cynical one and the partner who's a friendlier type.
Friday and Gannon stake out the hotel as visitors in an attempt to lure in the suspects, as it would fit the M.O. established by matching crimes in other cities. They get a visit from a man identifying himself as a hotel detective who's looking into reported illegal gambling, who found Gannon suspicious because he was claiming to travel alone but had Friday staying in his room. Friday comes out from hiding, identifies himself and Gannon as police officers, and asks the detective to help maintain their cover. Afterwards, they consider that the detective might be the con men's inside man at the hotel, but decide to go through with their plan.
Back at the hotel, a bartender whom Gannon had been working lets him in on the room where the gambling is taking place, and Gannon heads to a phone booth to tip off the house detective. Afterwards, a woman in a nightie and fur coat comes to the door of his room claiming a prowler had been in her room, then acts as if she's going to faint. That's when two men knock on the door claiming to be police. Their M.O. exactly matches what Danhart described--which includes taking Gannon to the Police Administration Building for the fake posting of the bail by one "officer" as the other has coffee in another room with Gannon. Friday tails them to the building and manages to get on the same elevator. Near the coffee room, a couple of other detectives say hi to Friday and Gannon, forcing them to make their move. Friday pulls his gun and informs the impostors that they're under arrest.
Danny: I hope we didn't burn anything, Joe.
Gannon: No, this was the end of the line, Danny.
Danny: You and Gannon must have something the rest of us don't.
Gannon: How do you mean?
Danny: You make your cases right here in the building now?
Friday: No, these two just made a simple mistake.
Danny: What's that?
Friday: They thought they worked here.
The Announcer said:
The suspects were found guilty of conspiracy and conspiracy to commit grand theft. Conspiracy in punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for not more than ten years, or by imprisonment in the county jail for not more than one year; or by a fine, not exceeding $5,000; or both.
(Harry Lauter, Stacy Harris)
(Indus Arthur)
And this one reminded me a lot of "The Bank Examiner Swindle" from last season.
I'd been noticing Art Gilmore, who'll play the recurring role of Lt. Moore on
Adam-12, as one of Friday and Gannon's department captains. It turns out that he's already played three different department captains at this point, and will be playing more, in addition to two of the ones he's played already reappearing in future episodes...and he'll be putting in at least one
Dragnet appearance as Lt. Moore to boot!
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