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The producers of NYPD and the ABC network evidently decided to pull no punches when it came to introducing the series to the public. When this episode first aired in 1967, a lot of people were outraged by its content, including the TV columnist for one of the major daily tabloids. But what made the episode so "shocking" in 1967 allows it to hold up remarkably well 55 years later. The detectives go after a blackmail ring specializing in gay men, whose activities have already resulted in one suicide. But before they can break the case, they have to get past the prejudices of some of the would-be witnesses, and the fear of exposure haunting the one man most likely to help them. The dialogue and mindset is amazingly frank for its time, and the result is an episode even more engrossing today, as a snapshot of edgy, honest programming, than it was five decades ago.

The plot is kind of incidental here -- Jed and Granny decide to throw a "wing-ding" for the young-uns, and the band they recruit is none other than the Enemies, led by future Three Dog Night co-founder Cory Wells. They're doing a garage band take on a Muddy Waters standard which, if you know what CBS's standards-and-practices policies were like in 1965, was downright subversive. But boy does it make for great viewing six decades later.