Although the second season of NBC's revived Dragnet debuted in the fall of 1967, the series' official title was Dragnet: 1968, reflecting the strenuous (and for the most part successful) efforts by producer/director/star Jack Webb to give his venerable property a fresh, contemporary slant. Back on the job at the LAPD were Sgt. Joe Friday (Webb) and his partner, Sgt. Bill Gannon (Harry Morgan), along with scores of familiar character actors with whom Webb had worked in radio. The season opener, "The Grenade," is a nail-biting suspenser with marked generation-gap undertones. This is followed by "The Shooting Board," a memorable outing in which Friday faces charges of killing a suspect without just cause. Other worthwhile episodes this season include "The Senior Citizen," guest-starring octogenarian actor Burt Mustin as an unrepentant burglar; "The Big Amateur," a comic story in which Joe and Frank search for a well-meaning chap who poses as both a cop and fireman; and "The Big Problem," one of several latter-day Dragnet episodes to address the issue of racial hostility. Arguably the most enjoyable of the season's episodes are "The Christmas Story," a loving, line-for-line remake of the classic 1953 Dragnet offering "The Big Little Jesus"; and "The Big Prophet," a somewhat campy anti-drug screed featuring Liam Sullivan as a Dr. Timothy Leary-type LSD guru. This last episode is matched in its fervency only by the classic "The Big High," the one in which two pot-smoking parents inadvertently allow their baby to drown in the bathtub.
by Hal Erickson
synopsis
