This one takes place a lot in the Universal City branch of Bank of America.
Let's get to it!
This is the city.
No, it's a cloud.
This is the city.
It's a place where Joe Friday gives a monologue about cities, and not astronauts.
Technology. Computers, even!
A machine that sorts punch cards!
Buttons what light up!
Tape drives!
Earning a living. Not breaking the law.
So, that's framing for the opening monologue, talking about how many kinds of jobs there are and ways to make a living within the law.
I suppose they hadn't finished the seasonal landscaping when they took this establishing shot of the PD sign. It totally needs a low hedge in front. With no landscaping, it kinda looks like a headstone.
This is the Pink Lady shot of the PAB/Parker Center.
Hi Gannon.
Hi Friday.
ALL RIGHT! Let's go to a cool looking bank branch!
No exterior shot? Are you sure?
This couldn't be sound-staged. It looks too bank branchey.
Time plays an important element in this episode as a woman is kidnapped.
Hello. I am Peggy Webber and later, I'll pop out of a car trunk like magic!
Bye guys.
Thermostat on the wall.
They walk by this cool clock over and over.
Clocks that were manifested out of walls were so haute moderne.
Phoning from the end of the teller's counter.
So modern, tectonic.
Come on, guys! And Peggy!
OKAY I AM IN CHARGE OF THIS BANK
YOU BETTER BRING BACK ALL OF THE MONEY
What a cool looking clock.
They were everywhere in office buildings fifty years ago.
Now, time for lots of driving.
As usual, click on the picture to enlarge and use arrow keys to see the differences in the backgrounds.
ONE K EIGHTY
ONE K EIGHTY
There is a body of water in Toluca Lake.
It's private, though.
Post box with a tiny post box on the side! Adorbs!
Back on our tour of Every Liquor Store.
When they are driving, pay attention to the top quarter of the shot.
There, you will see signs for all of the Shell stations and liquor stores.
ANOTHER LIQUOR STORE
Can you buy anything else in Toluca Lake?
Another Shell.
Are they on a rolling stake-out of Richfield's?
There's another liquor store back there:
Dig the old Jack in the Box sign back there.
Some vintage advertising on the billboard back there.
Kittridge Street and St. Clair Avenue.
That's a real place.
The Bank of America up there looks just ordinary and boring, not at all like the one in the episode.
HEY GUYS LET'S MAKE A FAKE CAR WRECK BY JC PENNEY'S
AND FOIL THE BADDIES
Ford partially funded Dragnet somehow, so more Ford cars are seen in the series than other brands.
All right, got the ramp stoppered up.
Sorry, lady.
Sorry, dudes.
HA HA YOU ARE THE BAD GUY AND WE GOT YOU
Gannon got to cuff him this time.
And for my next trick, I mean "illusion", I'll make Peggy Webber appear from the trunk of this car!
Hey, Peggy. Get out of the trunk. You have to be in more episodes of Dragnet!
Joe gets to carry the bad guy's gun as well as the case of hard cash money.
That building housed the police department from the 1951 series.
The PAB/Parker Center was opened in 1955.
I'm charmed by that warp-y image outside of the window on this PAB soundstage:
There is a better view of the background:
Doesn't seem as hinky at that angle.
Pea green paint.
Gold drapes.
Smokin' Joe.
Donald Joseph Albers
Now serving a life term in the state penitentiary, San Quentin, California.
Starred
Jack Webb as Sergeant Joe Friday
Harry Morgan as Officer Bill Gannon
Peggy Webber as Janet Ohrmund
Harry Bartell as Ray Righetti
Art Balinger as Captain Hugh Brown
Ronnie Rondell as Donald Joseph Albers
Art Direction - Russell Kimball
Set Decor - John McCarthy & Ralph Sylos
Written by Preston Wood
Aired 26 January 1967
This episode is roughly concurrent with Season five, episode twelve of Mad Men.
