The BEST episodes of Dragnet season 2
Every episode of Dragnet season 2, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Dragnet season 2!
Dragnet 1967-1970 was the second run of the Dragnet series. It began in January of 1967, and ran to September of 1970. The lead character, Sgt. Joe Friday, was played by Jack Webb, who also directed and produced the series. The show's focus is on two detectives, Sgt. Joe Friday, and Officer Bill Gannon, played by Harry Morgan. The two track down criminals all throughout the city of Los Angeles, California. The original "Dragnet" was the grandfather of ALL of today's police drama shows. This was the first time a cancelled network TV series was successfully revived. In late 1965, Universal and NBC hired Webb to revive "Dragnet" as a made-for-TV movie. This was filmed in early 1966, but didn't air until January 1969. Titled "World Premiere: Dragnet," the well-made film has Friday and Gannon linking the slayings of photographer's models to the disappearance of a war widow, while Gannon prepares to retire.
#1 - The Big Dog
Season 2 - Episode 11 - Aired 11/23/1967
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.
#2 - The Big High
Season 2 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/2/1967
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.
#3 - The Investigation
Season 2 - Episode 26 - Aired 3/14/1968
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.
#4 - The Shooting Board
Season 2 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/21/1967
Joe stops at an all night launderette to buy cigarettes and interrupts a burglar working the coin changer. When he shouts "Freeze," the criminal comes up shooting. Joe returns fire, hitting the man, who flees with the help of his girlfriend. He's 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. A great surprise ending.
#5 - The Senior Citizen
Season 2 - Episode 7 - Aired 10/26/1967
A series of daring daylight house burglaries are taking place; perpetrated by an octegenarian who uses the wedding and obituary notices in the paper to select his victims.
#6 - The Bank Jobs
Season 2 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/5/1967
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.
#7 - The Trial Board
Season 2 - Episode 14 - Aired 12/14/1967
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 for the payback of a loan made years ago.
#8 - The Big Amateur
Season 2 - Episode 19 - Aired 1/25/1968
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.
#9 - The Badge Racket
Season 2 - Episode 3 - Aired 9/28/1967
Three con artists 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.
#10 - The Big Ad
Season 2 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/9/1967
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 an offer to commit murder. Friday goes undercover as Deal.
#11 - The Search
Season 2 - Episode 17 - Aired 1/4/1968
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.
#12 - The Squeeze
Season 2 - Episode 23 - Aired 2/22/1968
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.
#13 - The Phony Police Racket
Season 2 - Episode 13 - Aired 12/7/1967
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.
#14 - The Suicide Attempt
Season 2 - Episode 24 - Aired 2/29/1968
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.
#15 - The Missing Realtor
Season 2 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/16/1967
A woman 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.
#16 - The Big Clan
Season 2 - Episode 21 - Aired 2/8/1968
Sgt. Friday is offered a bribe to assist a gypsy family trying to gain control of the gypsy community.
#17 - The Big Problem
Season 2 - Episode 28 - Aired 3/28/1968
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." The gap is especially wide between African-Americans and the primarily Caucasian LAPD, as demonstrated when a young - and slightly militant - black man barracades himself in his apartment rather than submit to a traffic warrant.
#18 - The Gambler
Season 2 - Episode 27 - Aired 3/21/1968
Over $100,000 has been embezzled from an industrial company. An investigation of the employees leads Friday and Gannon to a habitual gambler.
#19 - The Grenade
Season 2 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/14/1967
A surly teenager throws acid on the back of another student (played by a teen-aged Jan Michael Vincent), then crashes a party armed with a live hand grenade.
#20 - The Big Shipment
Season 2 - Episode 16 - Aired 12/28/1967
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.
#21 - The Little Victim
Season 2 - Episode 22 - Aired 2/15/1968
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.
#22 - The Big Departure
Season 2 - Episode 25 - Aired 3/7/1968
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.
#23 - The Big Frustration
Season 2 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/19/1967
Sgt. Carl Maxwell, a frustrated fellow detective, goes AWOL; Friday and Gannon have three days to track him down before Maxwell loses his badge for good.
#24 - The Pyramid Swindle
Season 2 - Episode 12 - Aired 11/30/1967
A female con-artist 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.
#25 - The Starlet
Season 2 - Episode 20 - Aired 2/1/1968
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."