This TV movie was to serve as the pilot episode of Dragnet 1967 (1967). However, it didn't air as originally planned, as Jack Webb decided to change the pace and tone of the series from this film. Webb finally decided to allow the pilot to air during the series 3rd year, in 1969.
Pierce Brooks, the technical advisor on this film, was the Los Angeles Police Department homicide detective who originally solved the actual case on which this film was based.
Jack Webb (I) and Julie London had been married from 1947-53, when they divorced, but the two remained close friends up to Webb's death in 1982. His friendship with his former wife even extended to her next husband, Bobby Troup, who, in addition to later co-starring with Julie on the Webb-produced series Emergency! (1972), is cast here as George Freeman, the brother of one of the case's victims. Troup also often appeared in roles on another Webb series, "Dragnet 1967" (1967).
Near the film's end, Officer Bill Gannon is forced to retire from the LAPD for health reasons; according to the book "Crime Television" by Douglas Snauffer, the film originally would have ended with Sgt. Joe Friday interviewing a new partner immediately after Gannon takes his leave. But to reflect the fact that Friday and Gannon ended up being partnered in the series that resulted from this movie pilot, Jack Webb (i) revised the ending so that Gannon, his health improved after eight months in retirement, ends up returning to the force.
Filmed in 1966 but not broadcast until 1969.