Dragnet 1967 (TV Series) The Big Problem (1968) User Reviews

It's a black thing....

[UNOhwen · 6 December 2011]

When Jack Webb was getting divorced from the GORGEOUS Julie London, he asked for ONE thing; his jazz records.

I LOVE Jack Webb, and, the starkness of the 60's episodes.

Every problem is black & white, and Jack's always ready - in a dead-pan monotone to explain EVERYTHING.

This episode , THE BIG PROBLEM (there are a LOT of episodes with the word 'big' in them) is about the racial issues.

Jack 'gets down' with the brothers, and explains that policing isn't a racial thing, but, is strictly driven by protecting people of every colour.

If you're a fan of Mr. Webb - and, I am - then, the simplistic script, the cue-card reading (and the ever-present angry Mr. Webb) will be no stranger to you, and, as always, you'll just groove along.

Compared to the legendary 'BLUE BOY,' and the 'Im sure you're mother had a loud bark' episodes - and the parents smoking pot, while their kid drowns in the tup, THE BIG PROBLEM doesn't equal the hysteria of those brilliant episodes, but, for sheer all-out Webb-isms, Incan NEVER argue with badge 714.

Season 2 Finale!

[championbc-99-5005 · 10/10 · 6 May 2015]

I came to this knowing that there would be a lot "left in the air" since season finales always have cliffhangers. I was certainly not disappointed. A few are most subtle. What is that "presentation" that Gannon is working on? It's only mentioned in passing, but it left a nagging question in my mind. I can only hope that Season 3 will clear it up in the first few episodes.

I could taste the tension in the opening scene as Friday and Gannon worked in community relations to try to ease some of the pressure of police brutality. I knew we would see the one character, Billy Jones, again. Though he came to the meeting all decked out in a suit and tie, he vowed that he would not submit to "white man's" customs and laws. He tried to incite a riot right there, and left angrily when no one would follow him. He appeared again at the end of the show, and seems to have made his peace with the police. I am thinking that Billy (Georg Sanford Brown) is even thinking about police work now, and it would not surprise me if he is soon a rookie cop himself.

The other couple, the Ericksons (they were not Swedish, by the way), apologize to the officers for the young man's outburst. But only a few hours later, they are also angry. They have been stopped in a suspicious Mustang with a color TV in their back seat. I held my breath for them, and breathed a sigh of relief as they were cleared of any wrong doing by an understanding Gannon.

The two officers who pulled them over frightened me a little, and Friday had to get a little rough with one, even singling him out at roll call the next day. I am afraid that we have not yet seen the end of this, and expect at least one episode devoted to this next season.

What will become of this area of LA where crime and brutality are running rampant? Why did Chief Tom Reddin of the real LAPD have to make a sudden appearance at the end of the show? Why did the officers ask Friday about money at the end of roll call? Are their lives in danger? And what about that secret presentation Gannon is working on? I'm so glad this is on streaming TV and I don't have to wait until next fall to find the answers. Hold on to your seats for season 3!

A bit preachy--but still good.

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 21 November 2009]

One of the purposes of the show "Dragnet" was to show the full range of types of jobs that police detectives do. That's why Friday and Gannon do something no real police would ever do--bounce from department to department within the L.A. Police Department. In other words, in one show they work homicide, in another they work community affairs and another they work juvenile. In addition, some of the shows seem pretty mundane--again, to show the real work police do--something you'll rarely see on other police shows, if at all. Some odd examples they talked about in various shows are working for Internal Affiars, doing an interrogation, undergoing an examination of a shooting board, attending lectures being given by pyramid scheme cons, the trial board and here, working with the police to interview and investigate the background on candidates for the police academy.

Here, the team are working community relations. It's Friday and Gannon's job to act an an intermediary with the community--building and improving the working relation between the cops and their public. The show begins with Friday chairing a meeting with a citizen's group--answering questions and encouraging anyone to feel free to contact him if they have any problems with a policeman.

A short time later, a coupe who seemed to love Friday and the police the night before arrive at the office. Now, instead of being in partnership with the police, the couple is angry--angry about how they were treated when they were stopped the night before by a squad car. Friday is able to show the couple how, in part, they COULD understand the problem from the police officer's point of view--they did have a rash of robberies in the area AND they people were driving a vehicle matching the description of the most wanted car in the town AND they had a TV in their back seat. However, instead of just sweeping it under the rug, Friday acknowledged that they DID have a valid complaint--the police officers who stopped them SHOULD have identified WHY they stopped them in the first place--and thus help the public to understand that they are working together.

When Friday talks to the same two officers later, one is receptive but the other has an attitude. He doesn't think he owed the couple an explanation and he seemed angry. As a result, Friday went to the next watch meeting and addressed the need to be in partnership with the public. He also asked for volunteers who give some of their spare time to help in various community relations activities.

At the end, the only angry man at the meeting that began the episode (Georg Sanford Brown) is barricaded in his room. Officers are trying to serve him with a simple summons, but he truly is afraid of the police. So, Friday and Gannon talk him down and avoid a major altercation--after all, that's their job.

Overall, this seemed like a rather preachy episode and some of the conflicts seemed to resolve themselves a little too well and too quickly. However, despite these complaints, not too bad an episode--even though there were no explosions or shootings!

police brutality: A coined word that's been worked to death.

[sol1218 · 6/10 · 7 December 2011]

***SPOILERS*** By the numbers "Dragnet" episode with the more hen usual dead pan Sgt. Joe Friday, Jack Webb, and what looks like his barley awake partner Officer Bill Gannon, Harry Morgan,giving a speech to a group of concerned citizens about what a great job the LAPD does and should be supported, almost blindly, at all cost! It hot headed and proud young black man Billy Jones, Georg Stanford Brown, who before Friday ends his speech,that just about put everyone listening to sleep, bolted out of the room totally disgusted of what he was hearing.

Sgt. Friday trying to put on a good face on a bad situation later gets involved with this black couple John & Elas Ericson,Roy Glenn & Maidie Norman, who incidentally were present at his speech to the mostly black L.A community. The Ericson's claimed that they were stopped while driving home for no reason at all by two L.A cops who treated them like common criminals. As it turns out the two policeman-looking like clean cut and straight A collage students-Jeffries & Braven,John McCook & Charles Braver, only stopped the Ericsons because they or their car, a green 1966 mustang,that had a TV set in the back seat fit the description of two crooks who've been heisting TV's in the area!

The big payoff or theme in this utterly self serving "Dragnet" episode in that cops, or L.A cops, can do no wrong has to do with Billy Jones who went off the handle and locked himself into his apartment swearing he'll never be taken alive! The crime that Billy committed that he was ready to loses his life for was a warrant to appear in court for a $50.00 traffic violation! Obviously afraid for his life Billy feels that the cops will work him over at the police station and claim that his injuries,or even death, was the result of him falling down a flight of stairs! Both Sgt. Friday and his partner Officer Gannon Get Billy to give himself up and stop making a jerk of himself by not openly putting his life together with Friday Gannon's but also the lives of those in the apartment building in jeopardy. It takes a bit of convincing to get Billy to give himself up but in the end it finally proved to him that not all cops are his enemy. There just there to help him as well as his neighbors not there to treat him like a criminal or fugitive from the law. That's up to the L.A Court system and ,if he's indited, a jury of his peers!

P.S At the end of the "Dragnet" episode there L.A Police Commissinor Tom Reddin giving his input on the story that we just saw about how professional and fair minded the men and women under his command are. Something that's hard to believe in light of the LAPD's less then sterling record since that "Dragnet" episode was broadcast over 40 years ago.