Saturday, July 20, 2013

"The Big Dog" or "A thing in a bag"

Bill and Joe have a couple of 'Bert and Ernie' sort of exchanges.

"This is the city-- Los Angeles, California.

It's made up of industry, education, commerce, agriculture, research, and recreation.


And it's a living testimonial to the imagination of twentieth-century man.
Imagination also turns solid citizens into strange characters.



It's been said that Los Angeles is the strange character capital of the country.
When their imagination leads them beyond the law, I move in. I carry a badge."



We are having several of my personal "top ten" favorite episodes of Dragnet this season.
That's because the second season of Dragnet is pretty much golden.

This episode has the longest "Pandora's Box clip" of any episode.


The Pandora clip is a giveaway that THIS EPISODE'S GONNA HAVE HIPPIES!!


This episode has one of our more beloved hippy stereotype characters.


She makes no sense whatsoever, but I suspect she's got a trust fund.


Well, let's get down to brass tacks.


WHAT'S UP ART GILMORE?


Smokin' Joe, pretty early in the episode. Jeepers.


HELLO I AM POINTING AT A MAP

Ok, everybody! Hippie time!

A flower shop called The Cry of Sweet Pleasures and Stems of Dear Love.


It's a feather flower!! Second sighting in the second season.


Once I knew that op art wallpaper existed, I wanted it SO BAD. You have no idea.


A prop/wardrobe note: 
Her glasses appear to be faceted crystals from a chandelier. Sometimes people would actually wear glasses fashioned out of faceted glass/crystals while tripping on the acid. 

It's a GREAT detail.


"Ah, the powers of flowers draw you here."

"Noradella DeLeone was my given name, my family name, but I changed it about an hour ago.
It's so contrived, so out of it. Just call me Agnes Hickey."

"I'm not like some. I dig the fuzz. After all, you're like the flowers yourselves. You have to live, too."


"Did you report your purse stolen?" asks Joe.

"No. The friendly fuzz in the lovely black and off-white wheels said he would make a report. That's his thing."

"Thing?" asks Gannon.

"Well, we all have a bag, and in every bag, we have a thing. My bag is flowers. My thing is to find homes for them. He said it was a dog. I didn't say that."

"Who said that?" Joe inquires.

"The friendly fuzz."  

"If you didn't say it was a dog, why would the police report that it was?" asks Joe.

"Who steals my purse steals my heart, for he is obviously in more need than I. And my heart goes out to those who need, for I have no needs save to be needed."

"Now, that's a nice, gentle philosophy, lady, and if it's what you feel, why did you report the theft of your purse?" Joe presses.

"But I didn't, love. You see, when the creature made off with it, I had no bread to pay the bus driver. And he didn't want to let me ride. See, collecting fares is his thing. Well, I felt I should ride now and pay later, so he called the man to put me off the bus. And that's when I explained to the friendly fuzz."

"Then you didn't register a complaint?" Gannon inquires.

"I never complain. I love."



Joe says, "There are women who have complained that a dog snatched their purses."

"Just like all creatures, there are guide dogs and misguided dogs."

"Maybe you can help us find this misguided one," offers Joe.

"No, love. I must stay here in The Cry of Sweet Pleasures and Stems of Dear Love." 

"All we want is a description of the dog," says Joe.

"Well, it had a tail. But so do ponies and cows and alligators, so that's really no help, is it, love?"

Gannon tries, "What about color?"

"How drab this world would be without color. Yes, it did have color. Brown, black, and yellow."

Gannon tries again, "How large would you say it was, Miss DeLeone?"

"Agnes Hickey."

"Miss Hickey."

"Oh, a size two."

"Size two what?" asks Gannon as further into the rabbit hole he falls.

"My daughter's a size two. She's about that high."


WHAT FUCKING PARALLEL UNIVERSE IS THIS SHIT


Whelp, back to Parker Center to talk to more crazies.


Welcome to the show, Jean Inness.


HOLD THE PHONE

Uncredited extra:


Doodles Weaver is back:


Yeah, I know. This set is just last week's bartender-boyfriend's apartment made over.


It's a nice set. I'm sure we'll see it may times more.


Gannon notes the drum lampshade behind his right shoulder in his miranda-rights notebook.



Maidie Norman is dog-purse-snatched, as well:


Okay. Now it's Wednesday, June ninth. If that date isn't total baloney, this case would have taken place in 1965.

Bill and Joe meet an animal talent agent:



"I know every animal act in Cally-foinia. I cannot get that one for you."

"A good dog man can make a hundred bucks a day working the movie studios. Why bother to steal?"


A hundred bucks back then would be about seven hundred bucks now. Crazy.

All this travel around L.A. and only now do we get a driving sequence:



Okay, off to Magnolia Boulevard to meet Bonnie Hughes:


She has a very spare set of her own:








Policewoman Dorothy Miller is back AGAIN!



Ok: starting now, this episode becomes a piece of avant-garde cinema. Don't forget to mute the sound:















Cool. I hope you all enjoyed that. Even those that aren't fans of Maya Deren.






Get ready for the first snippet of Bill and Joe in the car actually driving, and not "driving" with reverse projection!


Lens distortion! 


Sun reflecting on the glass!


Oh my god! It's a mirage! I'm telling y'all it's a sabotage!



All of this action seems to be taking place here, curiously north of Universal Studios. *wink*


Thanks, Google Maps!



ALRIGHT EVIL BART BURNS
WE GOT YOU



Sup, dog?


Sup, dog?



Sup, dog? Sup, dog? Sup, dog?



Lucky dog.


Bart! Stop trying to look up Merry Anders' skirt! We see you!


Ingo Burry
Now serving his sentence at the state prison, Chino, California.


S2e11

Starred
Jack Webb as Sergeant Joe Friday
Harry Morgan as Officer Bill Gannon
Merry Anders as Policewoman Dorothy Miller
Art Gilmore as Captain Merton Howe
Luana Anders as Noradella De Leone/Agnes Hickey
Bart Burns as Ingo Burry
Phil Arnold as Burt Silver
Bonnie Hughes as Dee Staley
Jean Inness as Wanda Kravits
Doodles Weaver as Lars Lowell
Monty Margetts as Cynthia Lowell
Maidie Norman as Mrs. Holmes
______ as Mrs. Emory Downey

Art Direction - Russell Kimball 
Set Decor - John McCarthy & John Sturtevant
Costume Supervision - Vincent Dee

Written by Henry Irving

Aired 23 November 1967

10 comments:

  1. Is Agnes Hickey the mother of Dee from Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia? The resemblance is uncanny.

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  2. Assuming the two Vietnam war veteran dogs are the doberman and the German Shepherd, and Dorothy Miller took the yellow lab...does that mean no body wanted the poor collie?

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    Replies
    1. If I remember correctly, Gannon took the collie to replace his deceased dog, Fred, who he described in the episode.

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  3. In the shot of Friday in front of a telephone pole, there is a tag for the old Bell System from before the monopoly was broken up. I saw one just yesterday on a pole in North Hollywood. That seems to be a place where not much seems to change even in the midst of considerable gentrification.

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  4. 1.) Your screen capture of Ingo Burry makes me think of David Lynch for some reason.
    2.) Agnes Hickey looks like the blonde hippy chick who lived across the street from me when I was a boy. Smitten, I gave her my pre-1900 edition of "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" in a pathetic attempt to win her approval and interest. It would not be the last time I did such an ill-advised thing.

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  5. They messed up the Wirehaired Pointing Griffon...think this was it. Not a hound,not extinct.

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  6. That street where they stop the guy and his dogs was commonly used (and around that park) with Adam12 and Emergency. I have a bad habit of looking up areas while I am watching, Rockford Files was another great one to Google map.

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  7. 1) My family and I have been referring to “things” and “bags” for the past 30 years because of this.

    2) Black and off-white wheels

    3) “To you all dogs are collies” “to you all dogs are airedales”

    4) Whoa, I’m not the only one who thought of “Sabotage” when they were peeling out in that alley

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  8. Doodles Weaver describes the dog “so gross”(holding up his hand) wait, what?

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  9. I love the hippy florist. Her glasses, the feather flower, her delivery is great! She should of been a reoccurring character.

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