Dragnet - Season 5 - Episode 6 - The Big Gap

[@blunderbuss999]

Significantly better than most of the late 60''s Dragnet episodes.

[@TennesseeT]

I like both TV series about equally well. They are enough different that comparing them seems about like apples and oranges to me.
Didn't the bartender where Peggy Webber was questioned play one of the doctors who gave Edmond O'Brian bad news in D. O. A.?

[@Joe_Okey]

@@TennesseeT Frank Gerstle, and yes, he was in D.O.A.

[@bigdog4273]

"This is the city, Los Angles California," well Jack Webb and the rest would be spinning in their graves if they could only see it now!

[@heyoldman2003]

Amen !!! Yes they would be so sad , just like the rest of us

[@andrewp.schubert2417]

We need to bring back the 3 strikes law. Criminals rarely reform.

[@largemember]

"This is the SCHYTTEHOLE, Los Angles California,"

[@benniebarrow348]

He would have been let go by the wokeians who run that mess of a city now . He’d be cancelled and lucky if not charged with toxic masculinity, white privilege and habitual offending of snowflakes. Amazing how far a once beautiful city can fall.

[@bigdog4273]

@@benniebarrow348 Bennie, very good!

[@gailfisher1350]

Always a good show. Truth is better and more interesting than fiction.

[@largemember]

Truth?...this show was/is total bullschytte!!!!.....

[@winonamassingill7895]

If you Google if the series was a lot of bs you will find out that it really was based loosely on the findings of a forensic science man named Pinker. 😊😊😊

[@stevethomas2285]

Frank can fold a blanket with the best of them.

[@starguy2718]

It was a required course, at the police academy.
😄😄😄

[@johncox2865]

I noticed that too. He’s quick!

[@winonamassingill7895]

Poor little guy. That was so sad. 😢😢😢😢

[@Horse237]

Peggy Webber played the woman in the bar. The daughter of a wildcat oil driller, Peggy Webber commenced her career at age two and a half, performing during intermissions in silent movie theaters. She started working in radio at age 11; by 18, she was writing, producing and directing early television shows; at 21, she won the award that was later known as the Emmy for her drama anthology series Treasures of Literature. Among her many thousands of radio credits, workhorse Webber appeared in over 100 Dragnet programs, playing Ma Friday and many other characters.
The first Colgate Comedy Hour on film was directed and written by Webber when she was about 22 years old. Rosemary DeCamp, Dick Foran and Hans Conreid played the leads. Talks about her starring role in the horror movie "The Screaming Skull" (1958) in the book "A Sci-Fi Swarm and Horror Horde" (McFarland, 2010) by Tom Weaver.
Peggy Webber is the founder and director of C.A.R.T., the California Artists Radio Theatre. For over thirty years the California Artists Radio Theatre has presented the best in dramas, comedies and musicals, featuring renowned actors from Hollywood, Broadway, Great Britain and Ireland, performing award-winning scripts adapted from modern and classic stories, books and plays. Ms. Webber has provided performances herself, including her portrayal of Jim Hawkins in an audio version of Treasure Island.
In an interview with Peggy about the life of Jack Webb and working as a regular cast members in the Color TV series Dragnet, was going through a messy divorce from her first husband. Creator, director and her boss of the Dragnet series Jack Webb was a huge help to Peggy in handling her divorce with financial and personal advice.

[@jacquelynscott3354]

Thanks for the complementary.

[@laurencelance586]

Great background. Thanks!

[@MrMenefrego1]

Thank you for the inside info.

[@largemember]

She wore out several casting couches......

[@Jackinbarr]

@@largemember I guess you think you're hilarious with that comment.

[@timmcquerry6068]

Thanks to "The film Detective "! 🕵️‍♂️
I always ♥️ my Dragnet. I've watched all the episodes on the streaming channels, but you guy's have found the "missing shows"&the condition of these are nearly pristine! So many of the one's on TV are just worn out. Good Job, Thanks 😊

[@fredbruyns8356]

The acting in these episodes is so good, as are the lines the actors are given! Peggy Webber stands out as usual, but all of the acting is believable. There are no throw-away roles.

[@michaelmorgan7893]

Peggy Webber was beautiful. She had a "Loretta Young" look to her.

[@curtismoon5316]

I looked her up and she is still alive.

[@billhowes7937]

She was a very talented woman. And I agree also quite attractive.

[@itsallinthehead]

Ms. Webber also played Friday’s doting mother in several “Dragnet” radio episodes.

[@macmcleod1188]

She's beautiful with minimal makeup.

[@ursulapainter992]

It's amazing how, with less technology, cases were administered within the courts in roughly six months from initial police work to final sentencing.

[@straytarnish9443]

The population was considerably less as well just as the technology was

[@largemember]

Do YOU actually think this BS is/was reality?....BWAHAHAQHAHAHA!!!

[@frankkolton1780]

As someone else said, the population was less, we didn't have the terrible backlog of cases in LA, six months was about average for Superior Court back then. They were good times, housing and real estate was affordable, Mayor Norris Poulson stole the Dodgers away from Brooklyn, and crime wasn't so bad. Much of LA is trashed now, my wife and I moved away to Northern California in the 80s.

[@macmcleod1188]

​@straytarnish9443 I did some research a couple months ago on that exact question in relation to Dragnet and when these episodes were made the police force and the courts were a third larger in relation to the population.
Also trials were faster and some innocent people went to jail.
There could be other factors too.

[@Bill23799]

$1,500.00 in 1950 is worth about $17,000.00 in 2021 dollars.

[@wandahall4435]

Jack Webb is A Savage!!!

[@beakt]

I love how if you had a crime to report, you could just walk into the police, right into the detectives' offices, and have a seat and tell them about it.

[@jasonrfoss248]

They had a desk sergeant who told people where to go when they came into the office.

[@beakt]

@@jasonrfoss248 The point is, today you give the report at the front desk in the lobby to the desk officer, and the detective calls you later.

[@largemember]

...thats Hollywood for you...total BS in reality....:>)

[@mick7even]

And not get your rights violated?

[@macmcleod1188]

And notice the way they wanted missing people reported right away while today it's a 24 or 48 hour wait.

[@joelee662]

Good movie I watched them back then and now I find myself watching them again thank you for saving the tape I will be watching them until I see them all thanks again 👍🇺🇸

[@kennethwalker4551]

I've seen them all many times and I still watch again.

[@beakt]

16:37 LOL, she slides over and they both sit across from her.

[@yer_old_pal_Jerky]

How many episodes of Dragnet has Peggy Webber appeared in? I just watched an episode where she was a rich doctor's wife who shoplifted!

[@D45VR]

she was a regular, as well as several other actors

[@STP43FAN1]

She was in five episodes (one uncredited) of the 1950s series and eight of the 1967 series.

[@sylviaroberts8103]

@@STP43FAN1 Thank you Michael. 👍

[@largemember]

Depends upon how many times she lay on the casting couch....thats what these women did to get roles.....

[@BuddyNovinski]

Wednesday, 18 May would be in 1955, but the calendar in the background is 1956. The calendar shows 30th red, which was Memorial Day until they changed it in 1971.

[@jujujupiter]

Wow. You have a sharp eye.

[@shirtless6934]

The copyright date is MCMLV which is 1955. $1,500 then would be $15,000 today.

[@TheLochs]

Back when criminals wore suits and ties.

[@marcosmith2501]

Now, orange jump-suits.

[@liviia305]

Pawnbrokers, too. Heh.

[@McIntyreBible]

13:17, the man's story about being swindled, etc is a sad one!

[@irenemccown9157]

Love watching these episodes, thank you

[@eldersprig]

i just listened to the radio version of this.

[@empirical43]

I like this Frank Smith , Friday's partner more so then the newer newer guy who played on Mash later-so did Jack Webb who wanted him back for the show in the early and late 60's but he wasn't available. Webb said he would even wait and put off shooting but the actor was on contract and could not get out of it.

[@bigdog4273]

@Fred Jamison "This is the city, Los Angles California," well Jack Webb and the rest would be spinning in their graves if they could only see it now!

[@wandahall4435]

Ben Romero was My favorite!!!

[@floydtinsley1108]

energine cleaned everything.

[@gumby2412]

Well this brought back some fine memories..I remember watching Dragnet in the late 60s..I must have been 8 or 9..Thanks For This! (by the way..i saw no ads..at all)

[@MrMenefrego1]

I too was 8 in 1968 when this series was originally aired on TV; I watched it with my father, who was a decorated WWII vet. BTW., Gumby was the best!

[@Vps-eb7ej]

The story you have just seen is twoo. It's twoo I tell ya.

[@timmcquerry6068]

Madeline Kahn, Blazing Saddles😊

[@QPRTokyo]

Thank you 😊

[@sidforbrains6552]

the badge number is what was then, the area code for LA and Orange counties

[@sfbfriend]

Webb had a thing for the number 7, Mark 7 films...badge 714...7 plus 7+7= 14..714 badge number..

[@Vps-eb7ej]

I work here. I carry a badge. I'm a COPP-ERRR☺

[@polemius01]

The opening shots always manage to make LA look dreary.

[@QuadMochaMatti]

I'm pretty sure that's always been the case for a place built on lies.

[@harrymills2770]

Smog. It was already kind of dreary.

[@starguy2718]

12:08 Quincy Jones?
Probably a different Quincy Jones.

[@bobstewart8032]

So, Quincy Jones was a thief back then. Lolol

[@chuckrawlings9518]

And a guy named "Cleaver"

[@howardberlin2349]

Joe bought a drink for his mother, Peggy Webber did the voice of his mother in the radio show. She is stll alive and apparently doing well in 2024.

[@fritzbasset8645]

Mr. Hunt saved money by never going to the dentist.

[@donkeyslayer4661]

If Joe Friday were around today, he would move to Texas, like any other Californian with a lick of sense.

[@starguy2718]

Gavin Newsom was named U-Haul's "Salesman of the Year".

[@jamesmisener3006]

Still funny. Haha.

[@timj3590]

And working on changing it to what they ran away from

[@frankcabanski9409]

Pawn Broker: "I was taking all the risk. I offered him $5."
Joe: "Yawssir."
Pawn Broker: "Guy went to pieces. The ring was only glass. Guy threw it. I caught the glass."
Joe: "Did'ja get a name?"
Broker: "He had initials. W...Y...that was it...YA Tiddle."

[@jameswolf133]

Y A Tittle was a famous quarterback.

[@markgarin6355]

Ha.....told the police a guy wants to pawn something he just bought, then wanted a gun. Pawn shop owner didn't say if he sold him one.

[@harrymills2770]

The implication was that he had.
Edit: Really should watch the video before commenting.

[@teresas8173]

@@harrymills2770…YOU should watch the episode more carefully. The old man said the pawnbroker would NOT sell him a gun.

[@myweightloss11928]

Wasnt the girl in the bar also in some of the 70's Dragnets? Voice is familiar.

[@jasonrfoss248]

Peggy Webber. She was in dozens of Dragnet episodes

[@richrol58]

3:26--Hey, she didn't say: "I haven't done anything!!"

[@mickeybitsko1676]

DA refused to charge. One of those progressive DAs

[@mickaelwilliams6129]

time machine.

[@edwardebel1847]

Dick Wolf of "Law & Order" looked to this series when he created his series. The theme music has similarities and the big take-away is that both are based on actual criminal activity. But the big realization just hit me: the double strike on the "Mark VII" stamp at the end of each Dragnet episode is probably what Dick Wolf based his double tap sound (gavel?) for his between scenes transition sound...could this be right?

[@deepdrag8131]

I just thought of that a little more than two hours ago. Haha. I thought i was so clever!

[@dariowiter3078]

Geez! These Dragnet videos have far too many pop-up ads for my tastes! 😐😐😐😐😐

[@left-handedtexan2658]

I only gotten one per video lately. Might be worth another look.

[@berean65]

He should have kept the ring. Possibly could have gotten prints off of it.

[@james-p]

16:28 - A Tragic Babe! Every good Noir's gotta have a Tragic Babe.

[@rael5469]

Greeley is the county seat of Weld County, Colorado.

[@richrol58]

6:39--Whoopie cushion!

[@Robbi496]

Actress playing the drunk lady was a regular person, I have seen her in many episodes

[@BigTrain175]

Peggy Webber, still alive at age 97.

[@msvirginia1799]

if it sounds to good to be true....

[@gerberjoanne266]

I guess that poor guy never got his $1,500 back.

[@random-jj7ix]

But the guy who posted this video probably did... with all those damned advertisements

[@genkatqltr8517]

Nor his wife! He said she worked too to help save up that money. Yet he threw it away without discussing it with her first.

[@harrymills2770]

@@genkatqltr8517 It's the Jack 'n' the Beanstalk archetype. Everyone sees themselves as Jack, and the miracle's going to happen for them, and they'll live happily ever after. In real life, Jack and his mother experience great deprivation.
I've always been a believer in restitution. I like the sound of "restorative justice," but the term was hijacked by racist, so-called leftists.

[@harrymills2770]

@@genkatqltr8517 I enjoyed the wife character and the implied closeness of the relationship. "First time he hasn't come home in 37 years." Slept on the couch by the phone. The bedding was the only bit of untidiness in a well-kept home. Just a wholesome family snap-shot, as understood and depicted by 1950s entertainment industry.

[@mick7even]

The cops on this show violate the constitution every episode. God bless the 50’s

[@mathewfullerton8577]

At the time their procedures had not been ruled unconstitutional. Especially in regards to the 4th Amendment. Was applied to states' actions through the 14th Amendment in a SCOTUS decision in the early 60's, after these programs aired. Too many "TV-trained lawyers" out there demonstrating their legal acumen. 😂

[@mick7even]

@@mathewfullerton8577 the constitution is the constitution?

[@Bigstooler0]

Man you sure have a lot of ads for a half hour show!

[@dariowiter3078]

Yup! Too many pop-up ads for my tastes. 😒

[@robertwoodpa6463]

Get the ad blocker TH-cam advertises Best $39 for a year I EVER spent!

[@fepeerreview3150]

Wondering why I'm getting advertisements in the Finnish language. I'm neither in Finland nor speak Finnish, and YT must know it since it has all my details.

[@DirtyHarryLarryDickman]

Karens in the comments: Oh my God it's a CIGARETTE! REEEEEEEEEEEE

[@ddburdette]

Is it just a coincidence that one of the characters in the Dragnet episode is named Quincy Jones? Was Jack Webb, something of a jazz aficionado, paying homage to an up and coming celebrated musician? Jones would have been around 22 years old when the episode was produced.

[@LesterMoore]

Uh huh! Paul Drake, Perry Mason's Private Eye resource, calls this bunco swindle scheme a variation of the "pidgeon drop" game. Not to be confused with a "badger game."

[@michaelcolfin8464]

They were found guilty for another crime? Awe come on.

[@richrol58]

I know, anticlimactic or what??

[@harrymills2770]

That's often the way it gets sorted in court. You know they're guilty of something else, but you can't prove it.

[@michaelcolfin8464]

@@harrymills2770 But who cares if they were convicted for a similar crime. As far as we know they didn't do the crime discussed in the story. Krist did it and he is dead. Maybe these guys killed Krist by staging an auto accident.
Besides, these stories are as true as the Elton John documentary is true. The facts get stretched out of shape to make a good story.

[@VictoriaAlfredSmythe]

6 ads in 30 minutes

[@zephyr2731]

What ads?

[@RogerRoddComedian]

There really are people that age who have the “street smarts” of a 3 year old.

[@fromthesidelines]

Originally telecast on October 6, 1955.

[@normanhill535]

Peggy Webber.

[@lesliesawyer4640]

I have made derogatory remarks about later Dragnet episodes especially compared to Highway Patrol. Jack Smith is much better than the supposedly modest fellow who later tries to surreptitiously steal the show. Smith is one of those mythical people in the crime drama--ask a witness, can you describe him? No, he has the virtue of being unnoticeable. Jack Webb with his vaguely Indian features and dry manner you will notice. Also you would notice Broderick Crawford's huge head and bullish body language. This episode finally has the malefactors convicted, but only after they had to be released on grounds of evidence but attempted to use their MO again. So the narrative was not pure bad guys lose out in the end, shows the ambiguity of everything. I take back my criticisms of this series, and now acknowledge Highway Patrol runs more to formula, but I still love seeing the cars and hearing Dan Matthews final remarks about the responsibility drivers have for the safety on the road of everyone.

[@Orville-dh3dl]

Old Joe friday always very serrious

[@cinerama62]

Today the intro would be, this is the shit hole that they call Los Angeles.

[@sylviaroberts8103]

cinerama62: I keep coming across this sort of comment where people are clearly suggesting L.A. has deteriorated over the years. Trouble is, nobody ever says how or why. As a Brit, I’m puzzled to know why people feel this way - what’s changed? If you have a moment, would you be kind enough to reply cinerama?

[@blunderbuss999]

@@sylviaroberts8103 Urban Dems = DRUGS, CRIME, HOMELESSNESS, GROSS IRRESPONSIBILITY, Delusional Tax Thievery... etc. etc. etc.

[@james-p]

@@sylviaroberts8103 Well, since I live in LA, I can give a few examples. More crime, worse crime (murders and armed robberies), more bums and drug addicts pitching tents and camping on the streets, and urinating and defecating on them, and in the parks, leaving their used fentanyl- and disease-contaminated needles all over the ground; bums and methamphetamine addicts sitting in the subways and buses all day because they're heated and air conditioned, and urinating and defecating in them too because nobody enforces the fares. And the police don't do anything about them because the Mayor and the City Council have said that arresting them for blocking the sidewalks with their open-air drug-shooting galleries or kicking them off the trains and buses violates their rights somehow unless we the Taxpayers give them a place to live. I could go on, but that's a start.

[@SEN0BRM]

And they still do this scam 75 years later...

[@MichaelKurse]

Quincy Jones, music producer...and scam artist.😆😆😆

[@largemember]

Dragnet was a great employer of actors....I'v seen this guy in about 100 episodes.....:>)

[@Richard-ur1uh]

Should they have bought her a drink,?

[@beakt]

$1,500 in 1955 is more than $14,000 now. Not a huge amount, really.

[@marcosmith2501]

That couple was pixx-poor.

[@johnstudd4245]

@Shivas Irons I think your figure might be a bit high. I did some digging on line and found that the average price of a new car in 1955 would have been about 2,000$. just using that a guideline and considering an average car today might be around 25k-30k. That would put 1,500$ inflation adjusted to about 20k-22k.

[@kathyflorcruz552]

14k is still a huge amount to people like me!

[@angelbulldog4934]

Quincey Jones 🙄

[@VictorSamuelson-nk5nw]

When they found those guys you should’ve taken them out back and put them in the hospital and say they fell

[@harrymills2770]

Happened many times.

[@tomfields3682]

Joe was a straight arrow.

[@blukmage19typeR]

So there's a "Christ" in this episode and the radio drama, as in "Chris".

[@JesseWright68]

What is Frank using to clean his tie with? I can't quite make out the lettering.

[@glendalewis5552]

Iv

[@thomasceurvorst1899]

Love these old dragnets! The acting is terrible! In the show they show no regard for the 4th amendment! It's amazing that people actually thought this is how the police work! I remember sitting and watching these episodes when I was a kid.🤣😅😂

[@shirtless6934]

The Warren Court changed criminal procedure forever.

[@sylviaroberts8103]

I don’t think the acting is terrible. The actors are clearly required to speak in that staccato way in short sentences - all part of the unique Dragnet style, including the iconic music. We used to love this show in the U.K. when I was a child. Just the sound of the opening bars of music would bring it all back three or four decades later. Joe Friday ….(sigh).

[@shirtless6934]

Actually, that is how the police worked in the 1950s. The United States Supreme Court held, in Wolf v. Colorado, 338 U.S. 25 (1949), that a state was free to admit illegally-seized evidence. California admitted illegally-seized evidence so long as it was relevant until 1955. See People v. Cahan, 44 Cal. 2d 434, 445, 282 P.2d 905, 911 (1955). It was not until 1961 that the United States Supreme Court held that the exclusionary rule was binding on all the states. Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643 (1961). By then, Dragnet was off the air. When it returned, in 1967, Jack Webb had to modify his methods.
A lot of people apparently think America was "great" in the 1950s, and they want to "Make America Great Again." Do we really want to go back to that time, with its methods of police enforcement and procedure?

[@starguy2718]

@@shirtless6934 FJB

[@VictorSamuelson-nk5nw]

Yes we do you liberal ahold

[@largemember]

I remember seeing an episode about mary-wanna......Joe said it couldnt be grown in the US.....BWAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!