The WORST episodes of Dragnet
Every episode ever - ranked by fan votes!
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 Prophet
Season 2 - Episode 18 - Aired 1/11/1968
Friday and Gannon are convinced that "Brother" William Bentley's Temple of the Expanded Mind is just a sham - a front for Bentley to sell LSD to the students of a nearby elementary school.
#2 - Narcotics - DR-16
Season 3 - Episode 11 - Aired 12/5/1968
Someone is selling LSD to teens. Joe and Bill are asked to speak to a local High School group that want to form an anti drug club "Smart Teens". They plan to create posters and Joe gets a Disney artist to draw them. But will the kids follow through?
#3 - The Christmas Story
Season 2 - Episode 15 - Aired 12/21/1967
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. Briefly appearing in this episode is Barry Williams, best known as Greg Brady on the 1970s sitcom THE BRADY BUNCH.
#8 - 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.
#9 - 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.
#10 - Burglary - The Dognappers
Season 4 - Episode 19 - Aired 2/26/1970
Dogs are disappearing from cars parked at the El Centro shopping center. Joe and Bill suspect that the dogs are being stolen to get a reward for the dogs return.
#15 - The Big Neighbor
Season 2 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/12/1967
In this lighthearted, well-written episode, Bill invites Joe to dinner and a football game at his home in Eagle Rock. The only problem: Gannon's neighbors keep interrupting the visit with petty, and not-so-petty, problems.
#17 - 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.
#19 - 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).
#20 - 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.
#21 - Bunco - $9,000
Season 4 - Episode 12 - Aired 12/11/1969
Charlie Feeney, a wino police informant, calls Joe and claims he was swindled out of $9,000. The problem is the money wasn't his. Feeney turns the money over to someone claiming to be a private detective whose client is a big Las Vegas gambler. Joe and Bill track down the phony detective and start looking for the rightful owner of the money.
#22 - 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.
#24 - Homicide - Cigarette Butt
Season 4 - Episode 7 - Aired 10/30/1969
Joe and Bill investigate a dead body found in a rundown apartment building. A half eaten peanut butter sandwich and a knife are found at the scene of the crime. A neighbor says that he saw a man and woman running out of the apartment. The man and woman come back and tell Joe and Bill that it was self defense. Joe looks for evidence that will prove or disproves the alibi.
