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Some Fun Dragnet Facts

posted 12 years ago by mdudnikov
13 replies | jump to latest

The episode called D H Q: Night School is a story about Joe Friday attending an evening class to study sociology and human behavior to help him with his police work. It is the only episode in which Joe is seen out of his plainclothes uniform, or at least a sports jacket and tie. In this episode Joe wears a sport shirt under a long sleeved orange sweater.

Because this was seen as a very personal episode for Joe, largely unrelated to police work, another special touch was added. Each show began with a date, description of the weather and listing of what division Joe was assigned to. Here for the only time the date of APRIL 2 was used. Why that date? Well that is Jack Webb's actual birth date. Jack was born in 1920, and if alive would be 93 now. His partner Harry Morgan passed on a few years ago, but had Webb had Harry's longevity Jack would still be around. Morgan was 96 when he passed on in 2011.

[–] 12 years ago

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[–] lorenzb-2 11 years ago

Interesting facts. In that episode I thought Friday was a jerk. He was off duty and it wasn't necessary to arrest that guy for possession of a small bag of pot. Although it was also stupid on his part to display it like that. But he wasn't selling it and it was obviously for his own use. And I'm no fan of pot or any other chemicals like it. Ironicly the reason Jack passed away at the untimely age of 62 of heart disease was that he himself was a heavy drug abuser. The legal drugs of alcohol and tobacco. His heart was certainly in the right place, but he was somewhat hypocritical. Like we all are.

[–] 11 years ago

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[–] lorenzb-2 11 years ago

I agree he was breaking the law, but I doubt he was hurting anyone but himself. I think a lot of cops would indeed look the other way. He was off duty plus there are a lot worse things than that, that people get away with every day. But obviously Friday wouldn't overlook it. I was a personal call I would have handled differently. Perhaps just telling the guy to cool it and leave it at home? You're going to give the guy a police record that could ruin his life for that?

[–] 11 years ago

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[–] lorenzb-2 11 years ago

Where did I blame Friday for giving him a record? Of course it was his own fault. It was very stupid of him to carry it the way he did. But if I were a cop in that position I would have handled it another way. I don't agree with smoking pot, cigarettes and breaking into homes certainly. During prohibition look how many people were arrested and locked up for something that was legal before and after? I just see extreme iniquities and inconsistencies in the way laws are enforced, and little people get hung out to dry for things that are a fraction as destructive as the upper 1%. This was an example of that. Lot's of wealthy and powerful people routinely break the law and abuse the rights of others, and face no "risk" or "consequences" at all. Now tell me that's not true.

[–] 11 years ago

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[–] lorenzb-2 11 years ago

"Raise the bar for the 1%" as far as accountability? If it hasn't happened in 6,000 years don't expect it to anytime soon. If fact it's going in the wrong direction.

[–] 11 years ago

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[–] angry_hatter 10 years ago

He could have been a dealer as well as a user

In fact Joe makes a point of mentioning, several times, that Jerry was in fact a pusher. They found nearly a kilo of grass at his place and he was selling on campus.

Joe's also a bit bewildered as to why the professor objects to having "secret police" in class but not secret pushers.

[–] dhmason6155 10 years ago

In that episode Friday says every time they find pot, they find hard drugs along with it, which leads to one of his classic lines: "I judge marijuana by the company it keeps".

We got a job.
What kind?
...The Forever Kind.

[–] montgomerydou55 10 years ago

I liked the speech made by the lawyer (Vic Perrin, with an eye patch) to the class ("well, I just took a post-graduate course with this ridiculous display!") and spelling things out clearly for Professor Grant and the class. The issue wasn't marijuana--it was Friday doing his job doing something the Professor didn't like.
What irritated me was Professor Grant's brushing off of Friday's mention of "secret drug pushers."

[–] bradford-1 10 years ago

Er, getting back to "fun facts":
has anyone ever come up with a count of the appearances made on DRAGNET (50s and 60s versions) by the "regulars"? I don't mean Harry Morgan, I mean the likes of:
Vic Perrin
Virginia Gregg
Peggy Webber
Don Ross
Don Dubbins
Harry Bartell
Herb Ellis
Merry Anders
Jack Kruschen
Sam Edwards
Stacy Harris
Clark Howat
Keye Luke
Kent McCord (ADAM-12 doesn't count)

May I bone your kipper, Mademoiselle?