Jack Webb's deadpan delivery versus the Manson era — square cop meets swinging sixties.
Also known as "Dragnet 1966," this TV movie was originally the pilot for the 1967 relaunch of the original 1950s "Dragnet" radio show and TV show (which also had its own movie in 1954, from the same creative team). However, the pilot wasn't actually aired until 1969. In this feature-length entry, Sgt. Joe Friday is called back from vacation to work with his partner, Officer Bill Gannon, on a missing persons case. Two amateur female models and a young war widow have vanished, having been last seen with one J. Johnson. In the course of tracking down Johnson and the young ladies, the detectives wind up with two different descriptions of the suspect, one of which closely resembles a dead body found in a vacant lot. But the dead man, later identified as Charles LeBorg of France, proves not to be J. Johnson, when a third young model disappears.
Acting
Jack Webb's monotone as performance art.
Production
Authentic L.A. locations frozen in amber 1966.
Writing
Ridiculously specific police jargon, delivered with straight faces.
Director
Jack Webb
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This pilot was shelved for three years because NBC thought audiences wanted color, not black-and-white police shows. They were wrong.
Webb's Friday was deliberately reactionary — a moral counterweight to the Summer of Love chaos happening outside soundstages.
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