In the wake of the Los Angeles riots the LAPD decided it needed to refurbish its image. So what better way than to revive the show that gave the Los Angeles Police Department its image of the Fifties. This time it was even in color.
With a few more wrinkles on his face Jack Webb returned to the police beat as the no nonsense staccato speaking Sergeant Joe Friday LAPD's roving detective. Every week Friday and his new partner were assigned to a different squad be it robbery, bunco, homicide, juvenile, narcotics. In that way Dragnet 1967 could have several different kinds of stories showing the efficiency of the LAPD in all departments.
Webb's partner from the first Dragnet in the Fifties Ben Alexander was in another TV series at the time, Felony Squad. So Harry Morgan became his new partner Bill Gannon who occasionally said some funny things.
In both shows I always liked the scenes of alone time in the squad car with Friday and Gannon. Morgan was always talking about his wife and family and various domestic concerns he had. Webb was a good listener but in two incarnations of Dragnet we never got a clue about Joe Friday's personal life.
Fans who liked the show in the Fifties still liked the Sixties versions. But as one wise philosopher of the times put it "the times they are a changing". Patented nostrums of the Eisenhower era just did not fly well in a lot of the episodes.
Still it was the Dragnet that the fans knew and loved.
With a few more wrinkles on his face Jack Webb returned to the police beat as the no nonsense staccato speaking Sergeant Joe Friday LAPD's roving detective. Every week Friday and his new partner were assigned to a different squad be it robbery, bunco, homicide, juvenile, narcotics. In that way Dragnet 1967 could have several different kinds of stories showing the efficiency of the LAPD in all departments.
Webb's partner from the first Dragnet in the Fifties Ben Alexander was in another TV series at the time, Felony Squad. So Harry Morgan became his new partner Bill Gannon who occasionally said some funny things.
In both shows I always liked the scenes of alone time in the squad car with Friday and Gannon. Morgan was always talking about his wife and family and various domestic concerns he had. Webb was a good listener but in two incarnations of Dragnet we never got a clue about Joe Friday's personal life.
Fans who liked the show in the Fifties still liked the Sixties versions. But as one wise philosopher of the times put it "the times they are a changing". Patented nostrums of the Eisenhower era just did not fly well in a lot of the episodes.
Still it was the Dragnet that the fans knew and loved.