The BEST episodes of Dragnet season 3
Every episode of Dragnet season 3, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Dragnet season 3!
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 - Narcotics - DR-21
Season 3 - Episode 16 - Aired 1/30/1969
The Captain ask Joe and Bill to investigate having dogs trained to sniff out narcotics. They contact a dog trainer to train dogs for the job. Joe and Bill do a demonstration for Judges to prove the effectiveness of using a dog to detect marijuana.
#2 - Homicide - DR-22
Season 3 - Episode 14 - Aired 1/9/1969
Joe and Bill are called to an apartment where the manager has found a young woman bound and dead. The 91 year old manager of the apartment building is a suspect until joe find out that the old man was chief of detectives in Chicago. Finger prints lead Joe and Bill to a couple.
#3 - Administrative Vice - DR-29
Season 3 - Episode 17 - Aired 2/6/1969
Joe has a new partner, Lt. Chris Drucker while Bill recovers from the flu. Joe and Chris are trying to catch bookies. Drucker is really working for the bookies and has been tipping them off when a raid is planned. Drucker tries to bribe Joe to help him.
#4 - Vice - DR-30
Season 3 - Episode 22 - Aired 3/13/1969
The Captain assigns Joe and Bill to find the location of a high stakes poker operation that has been preying on visitors. Bill and Joe pose as farmers and check into a hotel where an agricultural convention is occurring.
#5 - Management Services - DR-11
Season 3 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/10/1968
Joe and Bill are called back to work because of an emergency. It's April 4, 1968, and Dr Martin Luther King has been assassinated less than an hour ago. They are assigned to the police emergency control center to monitor potential unrest in the LA area
#6 - Juvenile - DR-35
Season 3 - Episode 25 - Aired 4/3/1969
An infant girl is found in a garbage can; Joe and Bill use the child's blanket to track down the mother.
#7 - Forgery - DR-33
Season 3 - Episode 23 - Aired 3/20/1969
An actress' pay checks have being stolen and someone have cashed them. Joe and Bill visit the actress' apartment and find her roommate the prime suspect. They try to track the roommate down, but are unsuccessful until her husband contacts them.
#8 - Frauds - DR-36
Season 3 - Episode 26 - Aired 4/10/1969
Someone is embezzling from Summers Department Store by opening up false credit card accounts at the store. Joe and Bill figure it is an inside job and question employees in the credit department.
#9 - Burglary - DR-31
Season 3 - Episode 21 - Aired 3/6/1969
A costumed thief calling himself "The Crimson Crusader" has been stealing comic books, movie posters and publicity photos of various superheroes.
#10 - Public Affairs - DR-12
Season 3 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/14/1968
Joe and Bill are assigned to help arrange a press conference for the President of the United States at LAX
#11 - The Joy Riders
Season 3 - Episode 18 - Aired 2/13/1969
A 15-year-old car thief is given a tour of the jail in an attempt to impress him of the consequences for choosing crime. Unfortunately, it doesn't work - the young man later kills someone with a shotgun.
#12 - Juvenile - DR-32
Season 3 - Episode 24 - Aired 3/27/1969
A child has been bitten by a dog and the child is allergic to the ant rabies shot. Joe and Bill have less than two hours to locate the dog.
#13 - Frauds - DR-28
Season 3 - Episode 19 - Aired 2/20/1969
Joe and Bill investigate someone who has fraudulently obtained disability checks. This person has been renting apartments and only using them as a mail drop. Joe and Bill meet with a group of apartment owners to ask for their help.
#14 - Training - DR-18
Season 3 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/21/1968
Joe and Bill are instructors at the Police Academy. They are teaching a class of women cadets. Joe is asked to assist a woman reporter who is writing a story about women in the police force. On of the cadets is being pressured to resign by her boy friend and Joe must convince her to stay.
#15 - Juvenile - DR-19
Season 3 - Episode 20 - Aired 2/27/1969
Joe and Bill are asked to investigate allegation of child abuse by his mother. The story deals with the difficulty of having a child removed from an abusive home.
#16 - Juvenile - DR-05
Season 3 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/26/1968
Joe and Bill are working the night watch of Juvenile division. They handle a run away boy from New York, an underage marriage, an abandoned baby, a boy on drugs, and a girl accused of stealing money.
#17 - Public Affairs - DR-14
Season 3 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/28/1968
Joe and Bill have been asked by a store owner to help him form a crime prevention group of neighborhood story owners. Most of the story owners are not convinced they need such a group until two robberies occur.
#18 - Homicide - DR-06
Season 3 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/24/1968
Joe and Bill review the progress report of a homicide (thus the name of the episode). Joe has invited Bill and his wife to his apartment for dinner. The dinner is constantly interrupted by neighbors asking for advice and complaining about a loud party. One neighbor calls to say that someone is breaking into the coin boxes in the laundry room. Joe and Bill grab their guns and investigate.
#19 - Community Relations - DR-17
Season 3 - Episode 13 - Aired 1/2/1969
Joe and Bill are sent to a Community Relations conference at Lake Arrowhead with other police officers. Their task is to discuss ways of improving community relations, and in the process find a few officers that have bigoted views.
#20 - Internal Affairs - DR-20
Season 3 - Episode 12 - Aired 12/12/1968
Joe and Bill investigate a charge of police brutallity against a patrolman. The patrolman was attempting to stop someone from driving drunk when things got out of hand and the drunk tears the patrolman's uniform. This is a crossover episode with Adam-12, taking place in Rampart Station and featuring appearances by Officers Pete Malloy and Jim Reed.
#21 - Robbery - DR-15
Season 3 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/7/1968
Joe and Bill are working the robbery desk. They handle a variety of complaints about a truck hijacking, a bank robbery and a robbery of a neighborhood market. A woman complains about "thieving birds" and another thinks her wallet had been stolen, but misplaced it in her coat.
#22 - Community Relations - DR-10
Season 3 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/3/1968
Joe and Bill attend a meeting of the East LA Graduates Union, attempting to recruit recent minority high school graduates into the police academy. A black patrol officer joins their efforts until his house in vandalized and he decides to resign from the force. Joe tries to change his mind.
#23 - Intelligence - DR-34
Season 3 - Episode 27 - Aired 4/17/1969
Joe is invited to a night school alumni party. Joe goes and is approached by one of the alumni to join the Fielder Militia, a right wing group. They want Joe to help one of the Militia’s members get a Federal firearms license. Joe works with the ATM to join the Militia to locate Militia’s cache of illegal automatic weapons.
#24 - B.O.D. - DR-27
Season 3 - Episode 15 - Aired 1/23/1969
Joe and Bill are assigned to the Business Office Division. A priest is in the division to observe its operation. Joe and Bill work a series of problems from a potential tidal wave, a wino, protesters, a suicide, and a lost boy.
#25 - Public Affairs - DR-07
Season 3 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/19/1968
Joe and Bill appear on the TV talk show "Speak Your Mind" debating the topic "The Police, Who Needs Them?" with a professor and a hippie (played by Howard Hessman, though listed in the credits as Don Sturdy).