Dragnet: '51 to '59 series or '67 to '70?

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by Ophelia, Jan 10, 2017.

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  1. Ophelia

    Ophelia Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    New York, New York
    Which should I start with? Which was better?
     
  2. Dr. Pepper

    Dr. Pepper What, me worry?

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  3. PaulKTF

    PaulKTF Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    I really prefer '67 to '70 but that's mostly because it's what I grew up watching on Nick At Nite. :)

    Plus you can buy that whole series on DVD whereas the black and white series is not very easy to track down and not all episodes circulate.
     
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  4. clhboa

    clhboa Forum Resident

    I like both but am more familiar with the later series. I love when Jack Webb starts telling off the hippies.
     
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  5. PaulKTF

    PaulKTF Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    Friday: You're pretty high and far out. What kind of kick are you on, son?
     
  6. PaulKTF

    PaulKTF Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    There's a great Dragnet site here with tons of information:

    Badge714 »
     
  7. Grand_Ennui

    Grand_Ennui Forum Resident

    Location:
    WI
    I can't swear to it, but I "think" I might have seen a few different (budget) DVD releases featuring public domain episodes of some of the B&W episodes... I don't recall ever seeing any of the B&W episodes myself, but I'd like to...

    As mentioned by others in this thread, I'm really only familiar with the color episodes from their airings on "Nick at Night"...
     
  8. Daniel Plainview

    Daniel Plainview God's Lonely Man

    I like color. And I like Bill Gannon. And I like seeing hippies getting busted. I vote for 67-70.

    "Flinch and you'll be chasing your head down Fifth Street."
     
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  9. PaulKTF

    PaulKTF Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    Yeah, there are quite a few public domain collections of the black and white episodes available, but unfortunately nothing official yet.
     
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  10. PaulKTF

    PaulKTF Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    This is what everyone looked like after their first viewing of Magical Mystery Tour.

    :)
     
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  11. The Panda

    The Panda Forum Mutant

    Location:
    Marple, PA, USA
    "No! Listen to me, Man! I had, like, this dream, that there were all these guys playing drums and they were ALL BLUE! And it was so perfect, man!"

    "you've smoked your last reefer, hippie. Bill, put him in a holding cell."
     
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  12. Jason Pumphrey

    Jason Pumphrey Forum Resident

    That guy became a professor in real life!
    Micheal Burns.
     
  13. quicksilverbudie

    quicksilverbudie quicksilverbudie

    Location:
    Ontario
    '67 to '70 more Psychedelic :cool:


    sean
     
  14. PaulKTF

    PaulKTF Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    Bill Gannon's Garlic Nutbutter Sandwich recipe:

    Spread cream cheese on one slice of pumpernickel. Spread peanut butter on another slice of pumpernickel. Crush a clove of garlic and let the juices drip onto the cream cheese. Place the pumpernickel slice with peanut butter on top of the slice with cream cheese and serve.

    I have yet to try this but I'm tempted. :)
     
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  15. JozefK

    JozefK Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dixie
    Depends on your mood. If you feel noir, go '50s. If you feel high and far out, go '60s.

    Webb's true metier (am I using that word right?) was radio. As a previous poster suggested, if you really want to explore Dragnet check out some of the radio shows. And then maybe some of his other radio series like Pat Novak For Hire or my favorite Webb series in any medium, Pete Kelly's Blues.

    The '60s series is notable for this speech, one of the great monologues in TV history. In fact I think I'll go post it in the monologue thread...



    It's awkward having a policeman around the house. Friends drop in, a man with a badge answers the door, the temperature drops 20 degrees.

    You throw a party and that badge gets in the way. All of a sudden there isn't a straight man in the crowd. Everybody's a comedian. 'Don't drink too much,' somebody says, 'or the man with a badge'll run you in.' Or 'How's it going, Dick Tracy? How many jaywalkers did you pinch today?' And then there's always the one who wants to know how many apples you stole.

    All at once you lost your first name. You're a cop, a flatfoot, a bull, a dick, John Law. You're the fuzz, the heat; you're poison, you're trouble, you're bad news. They call you everything, but never a policeman.

    It's not much of a life, unless you don't mind missing a Dodger game because the hotshot phone rings. Unless you like working Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays, at a job that doesn't pay overtime. Oh, the pay's adequate-- if you count pennies you can put your kid through college, but you better plan on seeing Europe on your television set.

    And then there's your first night on the beat. When you try to arrest a drunken prostitute in a Main St. bar and she rips your new uniform to shreds. You'll buy another one-- out of your own pocket.

    And you're going to rub elbows with the elite-- pimps, addicts, thieves, bums, winos, girls who can't keep an address and men who don't care. Liars, cheats, con men-- the class of Skid Row.

    And the heartbreak-- underfed kids, beaten kids, molested kids, lost kids, crying kids, homeless kids, hit-and-run kids, broken-arm kids, broken-leg kids, broken-head kids, sick kids, dying kids, dead kids. The old people nobody wants-- the reliefers, the pensioners, t he ones who walk the street cold, and those who tried to keep warm and died in a $3 room with an unventilated gas heater. You'll walk your beat and try to pick up the pieces.

    Do you have real adventure in your soul? You better have, because you're gonna do time in a prowl car. Oh, it's going to be a thrill a minute when you get an unknown-trouble call and hit a backyard at two in the morning, never knowing who you'll meet-- a kid with a knife, a pill-head with a gun, or two ex-cons with nothing to lose.

    And you're going to have plenty of time to think. You'll draw duty in a lonely car, with nobody to talk to but your radio.

    Four years in uniform and you'll have the ability, the experience and maybe the desire to be a detective. If you like to fly by the seat of your pants, this is where you belong. For every crime that's committed, you've got three million suspects to choose from. And most of the time, you'll have few facts and a lot of hunches. You'll run down leads that dead-end on you. You'll work all-night stakeouts that could last a week. You'll do leg work until you're sure you've talked to everybody in the state of California.

    People who saw it happen - but really didn't. People who insist they did it - but really didn't. People who don't remember - those who try to forget. Those who tell the truth - those who lie. You'll run the files until your eyes ache.

    And paperwork? Oh, you'll fill out a report when you're right, you'll fill out a report when you're wrong, you'll fill one out when you're not sure, you'll fill one out listing your leads, you'll fill one out when you have no leads, you'll fill out a report on the reports you've made! You'll write enough words in your lifetime to stock a library.

    You'll learn to live with doubt, anxiety, frustration. Court decisions that tend to hinder rather than help you. Dorado, Morse, Escobedo, Cahan. You'll learn to live with the District Attorney, testifying in court, defense attorneys, prosecuting attorneys, judges, juries, witnesses. And sometimes you're not going to be happy with the outcome.

    But there's also this: there are over 5,000 men in this city, who know that being a policeman is an endless, glamourless, thankless job that's gotta be done. I know it, too, and I'm damn glad to be one of them.
     
  16. Jason Pumphrey

    Jason Pumphrey Forum Resident

    Actor Kent McCord got a great reward for enduring that speech, he got his own show with Adam-12!
     
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  17. shokhead

    shokhead Head shok and you still don't what it is. HA!

    Location:
    SoCal, Long Beach
    I liked them ad watched them all.
     
  18. shokhead

    shokhead Head shok and you still don't what it is. HA!

    Location:
    SoCal, Long Beach
  19. JozefK

    JozefK Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dixie
  20. Jamey K

    Jamey K Internet Sensation

    Location:
    Amarillo,Texas
    LOL....Me too, and I was one at the time. And, yes, I thought Dan Aykroyd was hilarious.
     
  21. PaulKTF

    PaulKTF Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
  22. Carl Swanson

    Carl Swanson Senior Member

    I'll watch either or both, but the way Harry Morgan's character was played as kind of a buffoon was off-putting.
     
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  23. JFS3

    JFS3 Senior Member

    Location:
    Hooterville
    The 67-70 version hands down.

    Not only is it the version I grew up with, but it captures a moment in time when the American cultural landscape was undergoing a massive upheaval and reordering of which we are still dealing with the consequences of to this very day.

    In addition, there is the camp sensibility as well, what with the 60's fashions, psychedelic imagery, and all. Most famous, of course, is the outright (and too oftentimes, ham-handed) dersion and dismissal of the counterculture by Webb, who was acting as proxy for an entire generation of disgusted middle-aged Americans. As corny and over the top as much of his spiel was at the time, when looking back at it now, sometimes I think he hit the nail on the head better than many of us today would like to admit.
     
    Last edited: Jan 11, 2017
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  24. milankey

    milankey Forum Resident

    Location:
    Kent, Ohio, USA
    Born in 1954. All I remember about the 1951-1959 series was my Dad saying he was gonna watch "Dragbutt".
     
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