The episode starts us off with a nice pan of L.A. complete with Parker Center (right), then Jack gives us some news about UCLA - click to enlarge the architecture.
This building may have been the newest on shooting day.
Looks cool to me!
We've got some students chilling down there in the courtyard, enjoying their revolutionarily modern campus where everybody still can smoke cigarettes anywhere they like.
The next clip is a recycle:
Oh! Here is the one that can tell us pretty much exactly when shooting day was:
Any takers on finding that date?
The Mecklenburg County Courthouse is another Beaux-Arts example for an East Coast / West Coast architectural comparison. This campus is more "flavorful" while the Mecklenburg is more stoic.
Architecture reflects the attitudes of the times.
Students, architecture, growth, hope, something, Senator McCarthy?
Knowledge is power, you guys!
DAMMIT THEY STILL ARE DECORATING
THE SET WITH RIGID LOUVERS AND NO VIEW
I'M GOING TO BREAK THIS CHAIR IN RAGE
FRIDAY
CONTROL YOUR PARTNER
Here's some more footage from the day we first saw this location:
You'll know it - Bully Boy's old address.
TRICK OR TREAT
Now we are dropping in on another of the building's lessees - She likes her walls pink and her carpet gold. She's got matching drum lampshades and rectangular furniture.
They've even managed a ceramic bird for the coffee table.
THEY ALSO GAVE ME A WINDOW
YES
AND WALL ART
AREN'T YOU A LUCKY ONE?
Here's her "devout" roomie!
Wait! What are you doing?! This isn't The Gong Show!
A nice driving sequence to cleanse the palate and then a visit to the Beatific Boutique at Universal.
Wonder if we can spot any dresses Vincent Dee would have put on the ladies of Dragnet?
PROBABLY SO
That is an insanely short skirt! Jeepers!
I appreciate that they fogged out the mirror, there. No production reflections on this sound stage!
JOE CAN YOU BELIEVE HOW SHORT THAT SKIRT WAS
OH MY LORD
"Nobody loves us - Half Price"
Blink and you miss it.
So many details!
The jewelry store set reminds me of Henry Corden's fur salon set:
Let's visit our intricate and so cool investigators at the PAB sound stage!
Don Ross!!
Lots of visual noise.
HOLD THE PHONE
Dang! How about a rendezvous at a faux mausoleum? OK!
That is one clean set.
Leon N. Clad, Sam L. Karl, Alvin E. Platt.
Wait, is that… Gary Crosby?!
IT SURE IS, MAN
Jack Webb loves this guy so much that we'll see him again on Adam-12 fighting crimes with Reed and Malloy. Right now, he's married to Jill Banner. Don't worry - he'll get over her and join The Force!
Vincent and the makeup gang did a really great job pulling one over on us, by my estimation.
Also, this character has something in common with Officer Wells - They both enjoy coffee.
Let's go check out his digs-
Ignore the horrible painting - our eyes are on that yellow light bulb! It's been a minute since we've seen some "sketchy" colored bulbs on the show. There were oodles when we busted Brother William and crashed that acid party.
This place has shades of Don Dubbins' pad when he wrote greeting cards.
Textiles, textures, every color that will translate to a cathode ray tube…
And a furry home companion!
Those pants are fire engine red. Go Vincent Dee!
This is a separate shanty from the soundstage where Gary Crosby resides.
"No Smoking!"
"Caution! Your Friendly Neighborhood NARK
IS OUT TO BUST YOU!"
"I'd rather get high
than cancer!"
"PICK A PACK OF POT HERE"
IT WOULD HAVE BEEN NICE OF SUZY TO STITCH THE PAN TOGETHER
MAYBE SHE WILL
LATER
ME AND YOU GO WAY BACK
James Oliver is always in trouble on Dragnet. He's been executed or sent to Q, like, five times.
ANOTHER MONEY SHOT
WHAT IS THIS BLOG COMING TO
Jill's outfit is Dyn-o-mite!
That vinyl is still in production, somehow.
Gary's striped shirt is just fantastic.
There is an old song sung to the tune of "Down in the Boondocks" called "Cat in the Icebox"
That is 100% real and not at all made up.
*Doot doot doot paperwork paperwork la la la*
"Jaaaaaaack…. do you think that I could maybe be a recurring character and possibly a helicopter pilot in the other show?"
"Well, I don't see why not!"
WELCOME TO THE FORCE
Wait. Gary. Did you wear a tie like mine on purpose to suck up to Jack?
I think Vincent Dee was trying to foreshadow for us.
Let's all look square and smile at each other!
Nothing even really terribly awful happens to Jill Banner in this one.
Except possibly for that dress.
Yellow? Orange? Whatevs!
Sondra Kay Thompson
Placed on
three years probation
Ralph Morris Harmon
and
Dixie May Lester
Now serving their terms in
The Los Angeles County Jail.
Starred
Jack Webb as Sergeant Joe Friday
Harry Morgan as Officer Bill Gannon
Gary Crosby as Blake Thompson
Angel Tompkins as Sarah Phillips
Julie Bennett as Angela Tigley
Don Ross as Officer Roy Kiser
Jill Banner as Sondra Thompson
Clark Howat as Captain Frankel
Milila Saint Duval as Lisa Anderson
James Oliver as Ralph Harmon
Maxine Greene as Dixie Lester
Additional Cast
Additional Notes
Stylistically, this episode is a standout. Lots of color and familiar Dragnet faces.
The baddies are bad, the good guys are good, and everything is very black and white.
Our art director is really pulling out all of the stops for the Gary Crosby episode.
Art Direction - John E. Chilberg, II
Set Decor - John McCarthy and John Sturtevant
Costumes - Vincent Dee
Written by Burt Prelutsky
Aired 20 March 1969
Best in town,
Suzy Dragnet
