Customer Reviews

AMC TV - Dragnet

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought this DVD set and was very impressed with the quality of the picture and sound. On disk #2, "The Big September Man" there are cigarette commercials included in the episode! Watch for guest appearances by Carolyn Jones and a very young Leonard Nimoy. I'm a big fan of Jack Webb and I highly recommend this to fans of his work. Even if you don't like Jack's work. This is a rare look at televisions earliest offerings. I sincerely hope that AMC can release more of these.

I had never seen the original, 1951 version of Dragnet before, so I was happy to see it was available in DVD. However, I was annoyed to find that the original title and credits music had been excised and some dopey, synthesized knockoff music inserted. I'm guessing there were copyright issues or maybe the original music had been replaced when the shows were re-aired as "Badge 714," but it would have been better to take a more archival approach, and leave the soundtrack as it was found. I had hoped to see Barton Yarborough as Friday's original partner, Ben Romero, but I have since learned that he only did one or two episodes before his untimely death, and only the very first episode is available for purchase anywhere, and not on DVD. All in all, a good sampling of one of the greatest shows in TV history, but no extras and you have to go some to get over that stupid music. (I just press MUTE and hum the Dragnet theme to myself.)

I was looking forward to seeing the series I recall watching as a young teenager.
It is false advertising because in all the episodes I ever saw, Henry Morgan was Jack Webb's partner, playing the character Frank Gannon to Webb's Sgt. Friday.

But NONE Of the episodes on this disc have Henry Morgan in them, EVEN THOUGH THEY HAVE HIS PHOTO ON THE BOX.

I only paid a few bucks for this, so it's not worth returning. And in any case, it still is fun to watch the old black and white programs, and with the Chesterfield and Fatima cigarette commercials. In some of the Chesterfield cigarette commercials, they hold a report signed by a doctor and say that recent tests show NO negative health consequences from cigarettes and recommend smoking a "normal" amount of 10-40 cigarettes per day! Great stuff!

The opening episode is about a band of teenagers who allegedly smoked some marijuana and then went beserk and tore up a movie theater and caused one young boy to fall through a glass window and damage his eyes. Then they make the jump that the kids are now taking heroin, but they track down the dealer first, who died of a heroin overdose.

Overall, for the price this isn't bad, even though the audio on some segments is very low and the prints are far less than "high quality".

It just makes me mad that these are NOT the episodes with Henry Morgan as Webb's partner, and yet amazon.com does not tell us that in the description.