This episode takes place on the Universal Studios sound stage of the Police Administration Building.
The musicians were on strike, so the score is all percussion, modern and brutal.
This episode is nice because it shows us establishing shots at night. Dusk is a lovely time for high modernity.
Welcome to the most sparse episode of Dragnet ever produced.
This is the city.
It's dark, but we have fountains.
Still needs a low hedge or some flowers!
Having a Parker Center party all night long.
The familiar parking kiosk out front.
DING DING FIFTH FLOOR
We were working the night watch out of Internal Affairs Division.
This corridor is super scary.
The corridor is best suited for dolly shots that follow the characters up and down.
I'm so good looking. I should have my own cop show.
Hmm.
OK KENT WE ARE CALLING MARK VII TO GET YOU YOUR OWN SHOW
Check out that crazy polygraph machine.
This polygraph footage will get recycled in future instances of polygraph use in the series.
1. Are you at present a Police Officer with the Los Angeles Police Department?
2. What Division are you with in the L.A.P.D.?
3. Do you know your Blood Type?
4. How old are you?
5. Do you have a middle name?
6. Is your first name Paul?
7. Is your true last name Culver?
8. Concerning the robbery of Herbie's Liquor Store -- do you intend to answer my questions truthfully?
9. Since you have been on the Police Force, have you committed any act for which you should be disciplined?
10. Did you wrongfully take any money from Herbie's Liquor Store on Hollywood Boulevard?
11. Since you've been on the Police Force, have you accepted any gratuities?
12. Are you nervous taking this Lie Detector test?
13. In your heart do you feel you have been telling the truth?
They made a pretty good fake Los Angeles At Night backdrop beyond the window, there, complete with blinking lights. The blinks are not randomized, which doesn't surprise me.
I AM SITTING AT A TABLE
GUESS WHAT!
WHAT?
YOU'RE EXONERATED!
Yep. We were running out of camera angles in this tiny room, anyway.
Exoneration makes me put my jacket on and go back down the scary corridor.
Come on, Joe!
Bye Guys.
I GET MY OWN TV SHOW CALLED ADAM-12.
Unfortunately, Suzy Dragnet is not obsessed with it, although she was impressed by the pilot episode.
It has something for everyone!
Officer Paul R. Culver
Now working Central Division patrol duty.
Starred
Jack Webb as Sgt. Joe Friday
Harry Morgan as Officer Bill Gannon
Kent McCord as Officer Paul R. Culver
Art Direction - Russell Kimball
Set Decor - John McCarthy & Ralph Sylos
Writer - Preston Wood
Aired 9 February 1967
Visit next Saturday for coverage of season one, episode 5: The Masked Bandits.
A sartorial nit: How come you never comment on the fact that Joe Friday doesn't wear a tee shirt under his dress shirt?
ReplyDeleteHi Brigham,
DeleteThank you for all the comments! I suppose it's because it's just a conceit of the show. Like how he and Gannon always wear the same neckties.
I miss working on the blog. I hope to get back to it very soon!!
Thanks again for spending some time with me.
Suzy Dragnet
Awww I love Adam-12, love all 3 shows actually.
ReplyDeleteWatch the epilogue in this one. At one point McCord looks right into the camera, catches himself, blinks and then goes back to glancing around the "room."
ReplyDeleteI was disappointed that final summation was of the hero cop and not of his 'ringer' who knocked over all those liquor stores. It would have been fun to see McCord in sleaze mode.
ReplyDeleteThis one has a great Joe Friday monologue. “Hit-and-run kids, broken-arm kids, broken-leg kids, broken-head kids, sick kids, dying kids, dead kids...”
ReplyDeleteThe episode where we're expected to believe there's another man in LA as good looking as Kent McCord.
ReplyDeleteCrap, we're back to the tympani concerto.
With the right haircut, I've always felt Kent McCord looks like a taller, hunkier Tom Cruise. -ANMouse