by Hal Erickson
synopsis
Dragnet switches to "living color" for its eighth season (though existing episodes are in black-in-white), and that's not the only big change: dedicated police detective Joe Friday (Jack Webb has been promoted to lieutenant, while his longtime partner Frank Smith (Ben Alexander) now wears a sergeant's badge. Lieutenant Friday and Sergeant Smith's first case is a nasty one indeed, involving a battered child, a terrified wife, and a viciously abusive husband. And this time around, not even Friday's obligatory "Jesus speech" is enough to make the brutish husband realize the error of his ways!
