Dragnet 1967

This was a great show. Unfortunately, it does appear a little dated today--almost 40 years later. Also, too many people have discounted this show because they have been warped by seeing crap like the DRAGNET movie starring Dan Aykroyd. For the time it was made, this was one of the very best cop shows on TV--if not the very best.

Unlike the earlier incarnation of the TV show that Jack Webb produced and starred in from the 1950s, this version is less violent and more subdued--showing a lot of the more mundane aspects of police work. And, the show was meant to be more entertainment AND public service work to build support for our cops. The earlier show was more important just for entertainment. Plus, in this series, Detective Smith has been replaced by Detective Gannon (played by Harry Morgan).

So why did I like it so much? Well, aside from its realism, I think that Jack Webb's interpretation of Joe Friday was probably the coolest square guy I have ever seen. Yes, he was rigid and by-the-book, but he had the absolute best lines in TV history. For every scumbag he had the greatest snappy comebacks--sometimes making the entire episode worth while.

While not every episode clicked (some were too preachy or dull), there were so many great episodes. For example, the several episodes starring Burt Mustin, the Blue Boy episode, the white supremacist (with perhaps the greatest Friday one-liner), the guy who stole superhero memorabilia and thought HE was a superhero, etc. are all wonderful examples of fantastic TV. If you see one episode and it doesn't win you over, try a few more--I can guarantee if you give it a fair try you'll be hooked.

By the way, the best of the four seasons is the first. Part-way through season 2 and continuing into the series the shows often were more desk-bound and often concerned more mundane things like public relations and the like. While not bad, these later episodes were a bit claustrophobic and lacked the zip of the earlier ones.

PS--while the style is VERY different, try to find a copy of the DRAGNET movie Jack Webb made in the 1950s. It's one of the best Film Noir movies and is a very tough and gritty film--and VERY different from DRAGNET 1967.

*****Five out of Ten Stars*****

Producer Jack Webb was known as an extremely economical TV producer: His Mark VII productions routinely used minimal sets, even more minimal wardrobes (Friday and Gannon seem to wear the same suits over entire seasons, which minimized continuity issues) and maintained a relatively tight-knit stock company that consisted of scale-paid regulars who routinely appeared as irate crime victims, policewomen, miscreants and clueless parents of misguided youth. Which is pretty evident if you follow the show consistently. In fact I find it comical, in an annoying way, that some actors clearly play good characters in some episodes and criminals in other episodes.

In real life Jack Webb was a hard worker that had a great sense of humor, loved to drink, and smoke cigarettes. That being said, "Dragnet" is over-rated. PLEASE let me explain: Webb's decision to have actors read off cue cards and read their lines monotone isn't my idea of a method in making a TV show more realistic; which was Webb's reasoning behind this production decision. Also, the whole idea of these stories being real life depictions of actual events is somewhat misleading. These stories were BASED on real cases. Liberties were clearly taken in the writing department in an effort to make the stories more palatable to Webb's goals and the main TV viewing audience.

So, don't' get me wrong; I like watching Dragnet. Webb's introductory history lessons about Los Angeles are really quite enjoyable at the beginning of each episode. It's also great to see the location shots filmed in the Los Angeles area at that time in the late 60s: It's classic America before LA turned into the sess-pit it is now. Putting it into perspective, "Dragnet" has some endearing qualities, but Jack Webb's cue card production style gets an F from me.

... and Dragnet shows how much they are changing. This show takes the same format as the original 1950s TV show. Two deadpan LA police detectives - Jack Webb's Joe Friday and Harry Morgan's Bill Gannon - investigate one crime per show. Friday is single and Gannon is married. With four kids. On a police detective's salary. Those were the days, just before The Great Inflation drove women into the workforce and the birthrate downward. But I digress.

When this show begins - 1967- women who work for the police department wear frilly clothes and are all secretaries and various office personnel. They are asked to get coffee for the detectives and it does not wind up in the lap of said detective. And for some reason any time a pretty woman appears, even if she is a suspect that va va va voom music plays on a nearby saxophone. By 1969 that music disappears and women become police officers and are addressed as peers. Oh, and suddenly there are black people in LA and on the force! Wherever did they come from? In the 1967 world of Dragnet's LA, the City of Angels is portrayed as white as rice.

So Dragnet becoming so socially conscious is part of what is killing the show by the end of the 60s. It spends way too much time talking about police/community relations and the issues of the day. Issues that are over 50 years old and have really dated the show. But there are good episodes even in the last season. Another thing - To listen to Joe Friday marijuana is as dangerous as heroin. That was a prevailing attitude at the time. Elizabeth Taylor was almost run out of town on a rail in 1969 for comparing weed (that's not what she called it) to alcohol.

I also want to commend the acting skills of Harry Morgan. Whatever role he was asked to play he became that person. In the 40s and early 50s he played vindictive hoods and whiney weaklings. He was the tolerant suburban husband Pete Porter in the 50s and 60s. He was that old horse soldier on MASH, and he is the loyal partner of Joe Friday here. I think he is very much underrated because his presence is so subtle.

This series is worth your time. Also go back and watch the original 50s Dragnet if you have the chance.

Visionary television Renaissance Man, Jack Webb, succeeded in bringing to the small screen a police drama of unprecedented power and stunning realism. Webb broke new ground continually with his use of cameras and his scripts were both timely and cutting edge. During the incredibly turbulent and chaotic years of revolt, immorality, and rampant drug use, Dragnet served as an anchor, a cultural bulwark for a society under siege. A society threatened by lawlessness and vulgarity was centered by what Jack Webb offered in the format of a half-hour of sanity during insane times. With this production, the 1960's can now be viewed with a solid perspective that brings viewers the viewpoint of that Silent Majority who trusted the police to protect their way of life from drug crazed criminals masquerading as cultural revolutionaries. Dragnet and Adam-12 are more than television shows. They were important contributions to the American republic and moral compasses for a populace teetering on the edge of madness.

Dragnet is a classic, one of the last times when not only were the patrol cars black and white, the issues were, too. That may be what makes it so enjoyable to watch...no question of who the bad guys are here! Gannon and Friday--the Odd Couple on the job, and a perfect working combination. And where else could you see the guy who was Crimson Crusader one week be a stoned hippy student the next, then a worried bigamist the week after? Or the gun runner who becomes a doctor or a shop owner? And just how many times was Virginia Gregg on that program anyway? And hey, when was the last time anyone could drive from downtown L.A. to Toluca Lake in 6 minutes?