Dragnet (1967 series) (season 2)

Dragnet 1968
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	28
Release
Original network	NBC
Original release	September 14, 1967 – March 28, 1968

This is a list of episodes from the second season of the 1967 Dragnet series. The season was directed by Jack Webb.

Broadcast history

The season originally aired Thursday at 9:30-10:00 pm (EST).

DVD release

The DVD was released by Shout! Factory.

Episodes

Nº	Ep	Title	Written by	Original air date
18	1	"The Grenade"	Robert C. Dennis	September 14, 1967
A surly and emotionally unstable teenager throws acid on the back of another student (played by a teenaged Jan-Michael Vincent), then crashes a party armed with a live hand grenade, leaving Friday and Gannon to try and defuse a potential tragedy without anyone getting killed.
19	2	"The Shooting Board"	David H. Vowell	September 21, 1967
Joe stops at an all-night laundromat to buy cigarettes and interrupts a burglar working the coin changer. When Joe shouts "Freeze," the criminal comes up shooting; Joe returns fire, hitting the man, who flees with the help of his girlfriend and is later found dead. When SID tries to find the bullet fired at Joe, they come up empty and Joe faces a shooting board with no proof the man ever fired at him. With the shooting board pondering a verdict, continued checking of the laundromat takes a stunning turn from a seemingly obscure mark thought to be a pencil mark. This episode was later remade on Quincy, M.E. episode "A Dead Man's Truth" 9/30/1977
20	3	"The Badge Racket"	Robert C. Dennis	September 28, 1967
Three con artists (Harry Lauter, Stacy Harris, Indus Arthur) have been swindling businessmen from out-of-town by posing as a prostitute and two policemen. The detectives set a trap as Gannon pretends to be a manufacturer from Lincoln, Nebraska.
21	4	"The Bank Jobs"	Robert C. Dennis	October 5, 1967
A nervy bank robber uses innocent women to help commit his crimes. Friday and Gannon are nearly sidetracked when one of the victims lies about her involvement and later proves to have a criminal record of her own. Kent McCord of later Adam-12 fame appears briefly as a unnamed police officer.
22	5	"The Big Neighbor"	Robert C. Dennis	October 12, 1967
In this lighthearted, well-written episode, Bill invites Joe to dinner and a football game at his home in Eagle Rock, California. The only problem: Gannon's neighbors keep interrupting the visit with petty, and not-so-petty, problems. Kent McCord makes another brief appearance as an unidentified uniformed officer.
23	6	"The Big Frustration"	Sidney Morse	October 19, 1967
Sgt. Carl Maxwell, a frustrated fellow detective, goes AWOL after a case he's worked on is dismissed; Friday and Gannon have three days to track him down before Maxwell loses his badge for good.
24	7	"The Senior Citizen"	Henry Irving	October 26, 1967
A series of daring daylight house burglaries are taking place, perpetrated by an octogenarian who uses the wedding and obituary notices in the paper to select his victims.
25	8	"The Big High"	David H. Vowell	November 2, 1967
An elderly businessman, concerned about the welfare of his grandchild, informs Friday and Gannon that his daughter and son-in-law are using marijuana regularly. The young couple make no apologies for their lifestyle, which inevitably leads to disaster.
26	9	"The Big Ad"	Charles McDaniel	November 9, 1967
An ex-con named Steve Deal contacts Friday and Gannon when a classified ad that he placed, offering to do "anything" for money, results in a cryptic offer to commit murder. Friday must go undercover as Deal where he meets a wealthy citizen who makes him go through a series of dead-end drives to prove his bonafides then sets up the murder — except he's ready to "shoot an intruder" in his house.
27	10	"The Missing Realtor"	Robert C. Dennis	November 16, 1967
A female real-estate agent is missing and turns up dead in a vacant home. The detectives' one suspect, the woman's ex-boyfriend, is cleared; then credit card bills for purchases made after the woman's death start appearing.
28	11	"The Big Dog"	Henry Irving	November 23, 1967
A purse-snatching dog? This is the case Friday and Gannon must solve. Making things more difficult, victims give different descriptions of the four-legged thief.
29	12	"The Pyramid Swindle"	Norman Lessing	November 30, 1967
A female con-artist (played by Virginia Gregg) uses an evangelistic approach to lure buyers into her pyramid scheme. The Bunco division can't charge her with false advertising, so they prosecute her for operating a lottery, and when it goes to trial the con-artist appears to have an air-tight defense until the prosecuting attorney (played by real-life lawyer Bert Fields) finds a fatal gap in the con's logic.
30	13	"The Phony Police Racket"	Henry Irving	December 7, 1967
Friday and Gannon investigate a scam involving a phony LAPD newsletter, which comes with a card for subscribers entitling the bearer to preferential treatment from the police. Officer Jim Reed from Adam-12 cameos.
31	14	"The Trial Board"	Sidney Morse	December 14, 1967
An officer accused of taking a bribe has chosen Sgt. Friday to represent him at his trial board hearing. Witnesses saw the officer accept the money, but he insists it was not a bribe. The man accusing the officer of the bribe is a professional bookie and it takes close examination of the man's book — and a snap interrogation of the officer — to determine what really happened.
32	15	"The Christmas Story"	Richard L. Breen	December 21, 1967
A statue of the child Jesus was stolen from a church. Joe and Bill have to get it back by Christmas. They have less than 48 hours. Barry Williams appears in this episode.
33	16	"The Big Shipment"	David H. Vowell	December 28, 1967
Drugs are found aboard a plane that has crashed in the San Fernando Valley. The pilot is quickly traced, but in order to force him to name his connection, Friday and Gannon ask the press to sit on the story for a few hours.
34	17	"The Big Search"	Preston Wood and Robert Soderberg	January 4, 1968
Two small girls, ages three and five, are missing. Their mother is certain that her ex-husband, an alcoholic, has kidnapped them. However, he is now in recovery and has no knowledge of the girls' whereabouts. The search seems hopeless until Friday and Gannon, acting on information from a former neighbor, follow a hunch.
35	18	"The Big Prophet"	David H. Vowell	January 11, 1968
Friday and Gannon are convinced that "Brother" William Bentley, a man convicted of defrauding elderly ladies of their pension checks, is operating a Temple of the Expanded Mind as a front for Bentley to sell LSD to the students of a nearby elementary school.
36	19	"The Big Amateur Cop"	Henry Irving	January 25, 1968
Citizens are full of praise for Officer Gideon C. Dengle; they want to bestow him with awards, honors and home-baked cookies. There's only one problem: there's no such officer in the LAPD.
37	20	"The Big Starlet"	Robert C. Dennis	February 1, 1968
A teenage runaway, intent on becoming a star, has instead wound up in pornographic films. Acting on behalf of the girl's aunt, Friday and Gannon try to find the young "starlet."
38	21	"The Big Clan"	Michael Donovan	February 8, 1968
Sgt. Friday is offered a bribe to assist a gypsy family trying to gain control of the gypsy community.
39	22	"The Little Victim"	Robert Soderberg	February 15, 1968
When a nine-month-old child is beaten, Friday and Gannon investigate the parents, who are more concerned about their failing relationship than their baby son. Features Brooke Bundy as the child's mother.
40	23	"The Squeeze"	Jerry D. Lewis	February 22, 1968
An ex-con accused of extortion is interrogated. He calmly and smugly insists that he is innocent, but Friday and Gannon have a surprise for him: taped conversations and a voice analysis device.
41	24	"The Suicide Attempt"	Robert C. Dennis	February 29, 1968
Friday and Gannon learn that a young man has called his mother from Hollywood "to say goodbye." With the help of the man's sister, the two detectives trace the impending suicide to a hotel with over 1,200 rooms.
42	25	"The Big Departure"	Preston Wood	March 7, 1968
Petty theft from drug and hardware stores leads to a group of four teens who are determined to start their own nation on a remote island off the California coast.
43	26	"The Big Investigation"	Robert C. Dennis	March 14, 1968
Friday and Gannon are screening applicants for the Police Academy. One seems to have all the right qualifications, except that six months are missing from his application.
44	27	"The Big Gambler"	Robert Soderberg	March 21, 1968
Over $100,000 has been embezzled from an industrial company. An investigation of the employees leads Friday and Gannon to a habitual gambler.
45	28	"The Big Problem"	Michael Donovan	March 28, 1968
Community relations is the theme, as Friday and Gannon try to narrow the gap between the Department and the citizens it is sworn "to protect and to serve." In one of two plot lines, an elderly African-American couple feel hurt and angry when they are stopped by policemen and interrogated like criminals; Friday and Gannon help the couple and officers bridge the gap. In the other plot line, a young African-American man barricades himself in his apartment rather than submit to a traffic warrant; Friday talks him down. The Rookies actor Georg Stanford Brown as an "angry young man" and Character actress Celia Lovsky guest star. At the end of the episode, real-life Police Chief Thomas Reddin makes a plea for a mutual understanding between the community, the viewer, and the police.