This episode detailed two aspects of how the LAPD hires (or at least did in the 60s) new policemen. It's almost like two separate episodes in that the first part is not connected to the second.
We begin with the humorous bit with Bill telling Joe about how he's using a thesaurus to improve his mind by improving his vocabulary, adding unorthodox words to his police reports. Joe gets him by having him look up "obfuscate," which subtly got Joe's point across to Bill.
The first part of the main show was Joe being "drafted" to serve, again, on a board of 3 people interviewing applicants to the police academy. We learn that the panels conducting each interview consisted of one sergeant and two civilians who are volunteers for this role. One of the men who worked with Joe was Herb Anderson, best known to TV fans as Dennis the Menace's long-suffering father.
As Dragnet 1968 did often, it gave them a chance to feature a black man in a positive light, as the candidate the three men interviewed. The issue here was his behavior as he was pressed to tell about a job where he got fired for "a disagreement with his boss" which concerned a hold-up at the service station where he worked. The boss wanted him to confront the armed bandits, instead of hiding in the back and only getting a description of the men and their license plate number-which led to their arrests. Joe convinced his partners that what he did was fine for a civilian, that any cop would tell people not to confront robbers because money can be replaced, but you only get one life. We did learn that the candidate was passed, as he stepped back into the room after they scored him and thanked the men.
The second part of the show dealt with our heroes on a week-long driving trip to northern California, checking on personal history files of 37 applicants. We learn they fill out complete personal history and while most information is checked by mail, some work is done in person, and that they can check on many people in one combined trip.
Before they left, we saw an interview Bill and Joe did with one of the applicants, Harry Lanham. He seemed to have the right answers, but there seemed to be a gap in what he did with his time for 6 months of the previous year. Bill and Joe had to go to the area near Reno, Nevada to check out his story. From his ex-wife, he left his job in July, but from his paperwork, he was there until December. Joe and Bill dealt with a woman in a hurry, a former boss of Lanham's who really didn't want to cooperate at all, and a search to find someone else who might know what the man was doing.
Good detective work combined with a lucky guess on what town to look in got the answer, and that part I'll leave you to see on your own.
In a sense, this was a dull Dragnet with no crimes being committed and no suspect being hunted down, but because it was so different from all the other episodes, even on my repeat viewing this morning, I found it rather interesting. 8 out of 10 from me.
We begin with the humorous bit with Bill telling Joe about how he's using a thesaurus to improve his mind by improving his vocabulary, adding unorthodox words to his police reports. Joe gets him by having him look up "obfuscate," which subtly got Joe's point across to Bill.
The first part of the main show was Joe being "drafted" to serve, again, on a board of 3 people interviewing applicants to the police academy. We learn that the panels conducting each interview consisted of one sergeant and two civilians who are volunteers for this role. One of the men who worked with Joe was Herb Anderson, best known to TV fans as Dennis the Menace's long-suffering father.
As Dragnet 1968 did often, it gave them a chance to feature a black man in a positive light, as the candidate the three men interviewed. The issue here was his behavior as he was pressed to tell about a job where he got fired for "a disagreement with his boss" which concerned a hold-up at the service station where he worked. The boss wanted him to confront the armed bandits, instead of hiding in the back and only getting a description of the men and their license plate number-which led to their arrests. Joe convinced his partners that what he did was fine for a civilian, that any cop would tell people not to confront robbers because money can be replaced, but you only get one life. We did learn that the candidate was passed, as he stepped back into the room after they scored him and thanked the men.
The second part of the show dealt with our heroes on a week-long driving trip to northern California, checking on personal history files of 37 applicants. We learn they fill out complete personal history and while most information is checked by mail, some work is done in person, and that they can check on many people in one combined trip.
Before they left, we saw an interview Bill and Joe did with one of the applicants, Harry Lanham. He seemed to have the right answers, but there seemed to be a gap in what he did with his time for 6 months of the previous year. Bill and Joe had to go to the area near Reno, Nevada to check out his story. From his ex-wife, he left his job in July, but from his paperwork, he was there until December. Joe and Bill dealt with a woman in a hurry, a former boss of Lanham's who really didn't want to cooperate at all, and a search to find someone else who might know what the man was doing.
Good detective work combined with a lucky guess on what town to look in got the answer, and that part I'll leave you to see on your own.
In a sense, this was a dull Dragnet with no crimes being committed and no suspect being hunted down, but because it was so different from all the other episodes, even on my repeat viewing this morning, I found it rather interesting. 8 out of 10 from me.
