The Very Best Episode of Dragnet

Warning: Plot spoiler below

I don't know the title, but I always liked one where Friday and Gannon meet up with some phony cops who actually take their bunco victims to police headquarters to set up taking money from them. In an elevator, not knowing Friday and Gannon are undercover, two buddy cops greet them and our heroes make quick arrests of the bad guys.

Then one cop says "Sorry Joe. Did I make a mistake?"

Friday replies, "No, they did. They thought they worked here."

I have several favorites, no one of which is THE favorite, including just about all of them referred to in this thread. But one not so far mentioned is "Burglary-- Mister." [Spoilers:] It's about a case that starts with Friday and Gannon investigating an old blind woman's house which had been ransacked of everything while the woman's granddaughter's husband was there supposedly to attend her that day. The man's trail shows him to have been involved in bail-jumping, bigamy, stealing his mother's funeral fund, and skipping on a former friend's $5000 bond. When they finally get the lead that makes the arrest, it is because he has asked a not-so-beautiful young woman to marry him and she put money in a honeymoon fund he had already withdrawn for himself. And all this time everyone who had known him calls him MISTER Daniel Loomis because he "insisted on it as a matter of respect." Then he had a justification for everything he had done-- putting the old woman's furniture in storage meaning to sell it was for the family's 'gall' in asking him to "babysit the old witch"; his mother's funeral fund was "only $900" and he was under-compensated for many things he did for her; his stealing the honeymoon fund was "just compensation" for his phony promise to marry the woman, as she is too ugly to ever be asked again..... then finally, Gannon asks him "What is this thing about being called "Mister?" He replied that he was in the navy and it galled him to have to address "illiterates and others not as worthy as myself as 'Mister ___' just because they were born with the money or had the contacts to become officers. So I decided then that in civilian life I would ALWAYS be called Mr. Daniel Loomis." Friday closes the scene by saying "Where you're going, there aren't any misters-- just numbers."

One of my favorite ones is the one where dogs are stealing purses and at the one where the dog is holding the lady cop's purse in its' mouth. Funny. I also love the hippy flower child woman.

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The very best episodes of Dragnet are "The Big Little Jesus" & "The Christmas Story." The first was in "Draget 1951" when Friday's partner was Frank Smith. The second was in "Dragnet 1967" with Bill Gannon. There probably weren't more than 20 words changed in the scripts.

I believe this was the only episode that was ever duplicated at a later time. This, in itself, is a rather strong indication of how popular the episode was when it first aired.

"The Christmas Story" hands down. Both versions, but I'm partial to Dragnet 1967

"Christmas Story" is a great episode but for some reason I also enjoy the episode "The Search". There was an actual almost identical event that happened here in Northern Va though it was not involving a dog but two young girls who went to see a former neighbor of theirs who had moved about a mile away from her previous townhouse, and she worked in a local bar and the girls ended up at her new townhouse. Thank goodness the Alexandria Va police department found the girls late that night they were missing.


II Corr. 5:7

"For we walk by faith, not by sight. ..."

I like most of the episodes, but my favorites are:

1. The LSD Story. Best line: "My hair is green, I'm a tree!"

2. The Christmas Story. The story the little boy gives about giving Jesus the first ride in his wagon if he got one for Christmas gets me every time.

3. The Shooting Board. Good Friday episode.

4. Burglary: The Dognappers. I love dogs, especially Cocker Spaniels and thought it was sweet of the owner to build him a new doghouse for his birthday.

5. The Big Gun. It was good the see that the firm, straight-laced Friday could be human in this episode. I did want to slap the criminal's overly religious aunt for saying that it's God's will that the Asian girl got raped and murdered (or whatever she said).

If I have to shoot for my least favorite, I would have to say the one about the pyramid scheme. That one I usually give a pass on when it airs.