Aired 46 years ago today, the season opener of Dragnet shuffles us through a seemingly implausible, though supposedly true tale.
I confess my fondness for one Blue Boy declaration I always dig:
MY HAIR IS GREEN.
I'M A TREE.
Come on back to the station.
We have some sugar cubes to examine.
And the twerp even tore Gannon's sleeve.
Nice repair with safety pins.
MY HAIR IS A FILE FOLDER.
I'M A FILE.
OK, let's check out the rest of the episode.
This is the city.
This is the city.
The zoom diptych of the golf course gets recycled many times:
Driving by the bars triptrych - Boss, The Scene, & Strip Combers - we'll see this sequence again in future episodes.
And - college:
Move your arm, Joe, we want to see that old fire extinguisher:
Thanks!
Off to pick up Blue Boy along the 1200 Block of Loma Linda Avenue.
They get him, and take him to Central Receiving Hospital.
It was located at 6th and Loma, and was built in 1957.
It was closed to the public in 1970.
It was torn it down the first week of October in 2005.
HEY GUYS WELCOME TO THE POLICE ADMINISTRATION BUILDING
Our first view of the LA Police Administration Building.
American high modern by Welton Becket.
Ray Murray tells us the story of the invention of LSD-25.
(He is my favorite character from the first season.)
Click on the photos and you can see them all at once in your browser window.
Left and right arrow keys make for easy navigation.
Driving sequences - These are more about the surroundings of LA, documenting the scale of the city.
Texaco!
BENJIE WOULD NEVER!
That is one shiny, modern Juvenile Courts Building.
Driving back to Georgia Street Juvenile.
Acid makes these teenage girls throw up.
The camera pans along the eaves.
Georgia Street Station was deactivated & No. 15 was assigned to North Hollywood.
BOOM
ACID IS ILLEGAL NOW
Driving up to blue boy's mother's house.
OK, now off to the Sunset Strip.
Friday describes the Strip as going from Doheny to Laurel Canyon along Sunset Boulevard:
(Image sourced from Google Maps in 2012, red areas indicate the Sunset Strip as described in the show.)
Stock footage?
The Onion's A.V. Club also gives us a rock & roll celebration of the Sunset Strip.
Extras blending the stock footage?
Pandora's Box - We'll see this one three or four more times.
They use the snaps and mug of Benjie Carver to ascertain where he might be.
Hey girls, thanks for the tip about the acid party in the Hollywood hills.
We'll see this facade again, it's a set!
They will repaint it when it becomes The Temple of the Expanded Mind.
Right now, it's masquerading as a house in the Hollywood Hills.
OK ACID PARTY TIME
This set is meant to represent a house that has seen better days.
Multicolored light bulbs seem to represent shady dealings in the series.
Acid makes this girl snap her fingers.
Oh no! The fuzz is here to ruin our acid party!
Acid makes this girl climb the walls.
Acid makes this guy eat paint right off his brush!
Hold the phone!
Acid makes this girl sit on a stool and lean against the wall.
Her handbag is pretty classic, though.
Druggist's where Blue Boy got his number five capsules.
After waking up Blue Boy's landlady, Joe comes on in.
This set is meant to represent an apartment east of downtown along West Beverly Boulevard.
Once inside, this guy recants how Blue boy ate tons of pills on a quest to get extremely far out.
Neat modern painting behind Joe's shoulder.
The recessed ceiling is neat, too.
Benjamin John Carver - - Deceased.
Jack Webb as Sergeant Joe Friday
Harry Morgan as Officer Bill Gannon
Michael Burns as Benjie "Blue Boy" Carver
Art Balinger as Captain Lou Richey
Olan Soule as Ray Murray
Robert Knapp as Mr. Eugene Carver
Eve Brent as Mrs. Carver
Jerry Douglas as Sergeant Eugene Zappey
Alfred Shelly as Sergeant Dominic Carr
Johnny Aladdin as The Painter
Shari Lee Bernath as Sandra Quillan
Heather Menzies as Edna Mae Dixon
Art Direction - Russell Kimball
Set Decor - John McCarthy & Ralph Sylos
Written by Jack Webb as John Randolph
Aired 12 January 1967
