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The Human Bomb

Episode aired Dec 16, 1951
TV-PG
30m

IMDb RATING

7.8/10

127

YOUR RATING

Crime Drama Mystery

An ex-con bears a grudge against the city of Los Angeles. He wants to blow up city hall unless his demands are met. He has a powerful bomb. The police find 28 sticks of dynamite in his apart... Read allAn ex-con bears a grudge against the city of Los Angeles. He wants to blow up city hall unless his demands are met. He has a powerful bomb. The police find 28 sticks of dynamite in his apartment. Only Sergeant Friday has the power to stop this 1950s terrorist attack.An ex-con bears a grudge against the city of Los Angeles. He wants to blow up city hall unless his demands are met. He has a powerful bomb. The police find 28 sticks of dynamite in his apartment. Only Sergeant Friday has the power to stop this 1950s terrorist attack.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.8/10

127

YOUR RATING

5User reviews

See production info at IMDbPro

Photos5

Top cast10

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Jack Webb

Sgt. Joe Friday

Barton Yarborough

Sgt. Ben Romero
(as Bart Yarborough)

Raymond Burr

Deputy Chief Thad Brown
(as Ray Burr)

Stacy Harris

Vernon Carney

Herb Butterfield

Lt. Lee Jones

Barney Phillips

Sam Erickson

Sam Edwards

Elwood Carney

Jack Kruschen

Elevator Operator

George Fenneman

Announcer (Opening)
(voice)
(uncredited)

Hal Gibney

Announcer (Closing)
(uncredited)

Director
- Jack Webb
Writers
- James E. Moser
- Jack Webb
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
Raymond Burr here is Deputy Chief Thad Brown; in the radio version he'd played Brown's predecessor as LAPD Chief Of Detectives, Ed Backstrand.

Goofs
In the introduction, Jack Webb (as Joe Friday) says, "This is the city. 450 square miles of it. 150,000 acres. A big place." It's bigger than he thinks: 450 miles is 288,000 acres. 150,000 acres is only 234.375 square miles.

User reviews5

Review

Featured review

10/10

"Dragnet: The Human Bomb" was a great start for the radio series' first adaptation to television

After a few years on radio, star Jack Webb made the move to bring "Dragnet" to television. The first filmed episode takes place in real time as a man named Vernon Carney (Stacy Harris) has a bomb at city hall and is threatening to use it after a certain amount of time unless his brother Elwood (Sam Edwards) is released. Sergeant Joe Friday and his partner Ben Romero (Barton Yarborough) huddle with their superior Thad Brown (Raymond Burr years before his "Perry Mason" fame) as well as the fire chief and the lab tech on how to quickly handle the situation. I'll stop there and just say what an excellently tension-filled episode this was! And while I'm sure the radio version written by James E. Moser was nail-bitingly suspenseful enough, the visual touches added by Webb made things even more exciting. So on that note, "The Human Bomb" is highly recommended especially to anyone interested in how Joe Friday was first handled on a visual medium.