Dragnet 1967 - Season 1
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Movie Reviews of Dragnet 1967 - Season 1
Movie Review: Just the (campy) facts, ma'am
Summary: 4 Stars
The review you are about to read is true. No names have been changed.
I've been waiting for the 60's Dragnet to reach DVD, and now I got my wish. Definitely the adage "be careful what you wish for" cannot apply here! I watched it endlessly in syndication on regular (read free) TV in the 70s and on Nick at Nite and TV Land in the 90s and taped a marathon the last time Nick at Nite aired it, but I misplaced the tape. Thank Heaven for the DVD.
And the episodes are still a hoot as I remember them, but one has to keep in mind the time period they were produced -- the 60s, when drugs in suburbia was new and people over 35 were not to be trusted. (But women's hair was still big and nearly everyone smoked.) The 60s episodes still have the same attention to authenticity that the 50s series had, but the 60s show is campier -- unintentionally -- because of producer/director/star Jack Webb's strict law-and-order mindset, the sometimes stiff acting, the way characters went off on tangents in their discourse (see "The Big Subscription Racket" for a good example), and the clipped dialogue. Yet it does inject some intentional humor with Officer Gannon's crazy stuffed sandwiches and comments about getting Sgt. Friday to lose his single status. I particularly found the episode where Gannon poses as a furrier a scream! Check out the "hair stylist" in the "Big Hammer" episode! And of course, Blue Boy! How do you spell c-a-m-p?
A few other well-remembered 60s episodes I look forward to seeing on DVD is the Christmas 1969 one where a baby Jesus statuette was stolen from a church Nativity scene; one where a Vietnam vet with a prosthetic leg flies contraband into Los Angeles and gets his "combat pay" near a rock inscribed with "Jesus Saves"; and one where Friday and Gannon bust a lady running a multilevel marketing company which is really a pyramid scheme.
I didn't like how Universal truncated its fanfare and logo from the end credits after the "Mark VII"; I like to see my classic TV in its commercial-free, uncut glory. Still, it was worth the money. Hope Universal comes out with the rest of the seasons, maybe adding a few extras like the original 1966 TV movie, the Johnny Carson Tonight Show "Copper Capers" sketch, and A&E's Biography on Jack Webb.
Just the facts. ;-)
Movie Review: Dragnet 1967: Missed Opportunities for a Great DVD
Summary: 4 Stars
"Dragnet 1967" is an essential purchase for anyone who considers themselves a fan of classic police dramas on television, as Dragnet was one of the pioneering series of the genre in both its 1950s and 1960s incarnations. Jack Webb's second version of the series still holds up well nearly 40 years after it was produced, and the visual quality of the episodes looks mostly great for a series filmed in the 1960s with vivid colors, as well as a solid mono audio track. In this regard, viewers will probably not be disappointed. However, I'm taking away one star from this release, not so much because of the series itself (which rates *****), but because of the DVD releasing company's seemingly bizarre presentation of the show on two discs. The releasing company, Universal, has placed 14 episodes on one double sided disc (7 per side), and the remaining 3 episodes are on side one of a double sided disc; however, side two of this disc is simply left blank! What a missed opportunity by Universal to use this empty space on the DVD for the inclusion of some extras. I really would have liked to have seen the excellent made-for-TV pilot movie "Dragnet 1966" included in this set or even some of the non-public domain episodes from the 1950s series, perhaps as a way to potentially build interest in releasing some of the copyrighted episodes from the original series on DVD. To their credit, Universal does include a separate audio CD with a radio broadcast from 1954, a nod to Dragnet's radio origins dating back to 1949, but the other extras would have been preferred. That said, you do get all 17 episodes from the first season, complete and uncut, save for the ending Universal logo/theme music that was used at the time of the original production in the late 1960s, but the famous Mark VII "hammer" logo at the end of each episode is included in all of its sweaty glory.
In summary, "Dragnet 1967" is a must for fans of the series and police dramas in general, but Universal really could have made a good release a great one by reaching a little deeper within their film vaults.
Movie Review: good, could've had more in content
Summary: 4 Stars
For the fan of the entire run and permutations of the Dragnet series, this is a must-have release: very clean transfer, with a few rough spots in the video and excellent audio. The stories are also engaging (though "The Big LSD" was pretty campy, Blue Boy's antics got so weird that I thought at any moment Friday was going to call on Batman for help!) and had the right amount of grimness and humour to balance everything out.I think though that Universal could've given us some more on this release, though - it's formatted on two double-sided DVDs, with one side of the second DVD having only three episodes and the other side blank! (The first DVD has seven episodes per side). There's no commentary, no essays or explanation on how and what Jack Webb's approach was in formulating the series and having to deal with things in re-launching the series for the 1960s (you'll notice, for instance, that Friday and Gannon now inform the perps their rights under the Miranda decision). Spacing out the DVDs better as single-sided ones with graphics would've been nice, and what would've been even cooler would have been to include the "Dragnet 1966" TV movie (that was never aired until a few years ago on a cable network in the US) that wound up being the thing that green-lighted the new series - among other things, it tied up some stuff from the 1950s series, and introduced Harry Morgan's Gannon properly.
The CD from Radio Spirits was a nice surprise, but "The Big Cut" wasn't one of the better episodes from the radio series. I would've picked something like Webb's personal favourite, "The Big Trio", or the chilling "Claude Jimmerson" (which actually came with a parental warning!) or "The Werewolf" or "The Big Break".
still, if you're a fan of the series, this is a must-have. (And if you're curious, snap this up along with the Brentwood two-fer of the 1950s episodes to get an interesting contrast between the two eras).
Movie Review: Dum-da-dum-dum formatting, but great shows
Summary: 4 Stars
I agree with the other reviewers that the format of these discs is just plain goofy, with one disc being double sided, the next having only three episodes, and the CD having one radio show only. Couldn't they have at least snuck a few more radio shows on there?
Content-wise, though, this is a must for the Dragnet junkie. Having watched all of these on Nick at Nite or TVland, it's nice to see that some of the scenes edited from those broadcasts are back on the DVD. For example, "The Big Bookie" episode has the complete drunk-from-Pismo Beach scene in all its glory (the funniest bit in the whole series.)
While season one starts with the classic LSD episode, there are other standouts. "The Big Gun" has Friday getting emotionally attached (yes it did happen!) with the case of a beautiful Japanese widow shot in cold blood. "The Big Bank Examiners" is the first bunco episode of the series, with two con men swindling the elderly out of their life savings and burial monies. "The Big Bookie" is one of my personal favorites, with Bobby Troup (the guy who wrote the song "Route 66") as a bartender who makes book to pay for his daughter's heart surgery. "The Big Hammer" is a compelling mystery that finds Friday and Gannon chasing a murder suspect and his wife to Arizona (and they still wear those darn suits even out of state!)
Of course, the acting can be stilted or overdone. Friday's preachings can be unintentionally hilarious (Dan Ackroyd did an right-on parody of those in Dragnet 1987.) But there is an innocence, a poigancy, that isn't found much on TV anymore. If anything, it's fun to watch just for the chemistry between Jack Webb and Harry Morgan (while the 1950's episodes were masterpieces, Frank Smith was no Bill Gannon.)
So overlook the flaws and just enjoy.
Movie Review: One of my all-time favorite shows
Summary: 4 Stars
I'm under 30 and became a fan of Dragnet while staying up late as a kid watching Nick at Night -- probably at the age of 10 or 11. Even at that age I realized this show was an insane oversimplification of real social issues, but historical accuracy isn't what makes this show great. The presentation of the stories are so tight, and despite Jack Webb's occasional attempts to paint police officers as unequivocal 'good guys,' he's awesome at playing his role -- just listen to his narratives, they're great, and not really even comparable to programs broadcasting today. The dialogue in "The Big Interrogation" is amazing.
It's one thing to watch a comedy from this era in amazement of the general populations' cultural naivety, but it's totally different to see a drama examining race relations, drugs, and youth designed to cater specifically to that naivety. In Dragnet the bad guy never wins, and injustice never prevails; a suspect is never manhandled. Just like the sitcoms of its era, Dragnet skates around 'dark' situations and always presents a rosy outcome.
With all that said, I was lucky enough to purchase this DVD set used for about $16-17, sans third disc and in a vanilla black DVD case (I wasn't interested in the audio CD anyway). I've played the discs in two different DVD players and haven't had any issues yet, though I have to agree with others that this set is likely not worth its full retail price due to its awkward compilation. Why does disc one have so many episodes and the last disc only three? More annoying to me is the presence of the universal logo at the beginning of each episode, as other have mentioned. To be honest though, I would have easily paid $20 just to watch Blue Boy again :)