The Big Explosion

This is one of the better episodes of the series, partly because it was so tense and entertaining and partly because it had one of the very best "Joe-isms" in DRAGNET history. A Joe-ism is a term I've coined for one of Joe Friday's terrific one-liners. Many episodes had them and these are the sort of comments you wish you could make--they are that perfect! The Joe-ism that ends this episode is probably the second best of the series and it really helps the show to end on a great note. For a square, Joe sure knew exactly what to say!!

The show begins with a robbery at a construction site. Some psycho has apparently stolen 400 pounds of high explosives and blasting caps and it's up to Friday and Gannon to try to figure out who did it. Much of the show consists of showing a police investigation from start to finish and it is both informative and tense--as they must find the stolen stuff as soon as possible.

The interesting twist is WHO took the dynamite. It seems that a crazed racist and self-styled Nazi has stolen it. When they find the cache, the cops notice that four cases are missing and the nut refuses to say what he's done with it. It's sick to see the he actually seems happy--excited at the prospect of it going off SOMEWHERE....but where?! Overall, a great episode and one not to be missed. The series sure got off to a great start, as the first episode (involving Blue Boy) and this one (the second show) are among the best of the series.

By the way, in an interesting note, Bobby Troup co-stars as a bartender. Troup was the husband of Jack Webb's ex-wife (Julie London) and it seems that Webb bore Troup no malice for marrying his ex. In fact, Troup was later a regular in Webb's series EMERGENCY.

Also, there was one minor inconsistency in the show. The Nazi nut's favorite hangout was a local Chinese restaurant and I have a hard time imagining a white supremacist going to an ethnic restaurant.

Overall, a very powerful episode that hasn't dimmed with the passage of time. Great stuff.

In its second episode following its return to television after an eight-year hiatus, "Dragnet," which explored LSD and the drug culture in its premiere episode, continues to scope the then-contemporary social scene for "The Big Explosion," a superficial, narrowly focused suspenser about domestic terrorism from the right side of the political spectrum that vaguely echoes opposition to the civil rights movement while steering clear of any larger social involvement, instead concentrating on a (primarily) lone bomber who has stolen a substantial amount of dynamite from a construction company with the clear intent to use it very soon.

With a montage accompanying Jack Webb's opening voiceover narration that ends on a Nazi swastika, "The Big Explosion" suggests political fireworks to come as Sergeant Joe Friday and Officer Bill Gannon, working out of the burglary division, investigate the theft of 400 pounds of dynamite from the Connelly Construction Company by two culprits who tossed a hand grenade at the night watchman (Ralph Moody) that, fortunately, failed to explode. Bomb-squad expert Ray Murray (Olan Soule) compounds the problem by noting that the blasting caps also stolen detonate electrically, and even "extraneous" electricity, such as radio or television signals, can trigger an explosion of that stolen dynamite that could level two city blocks.

Working from the license plate number the night watchman was able to provide, Friday and Gannon begin tracking down the car, initially put up for sale by a married couple through a used-car dealership to a bartender (Bobby Troup), who had lent it to a patron known only as "Siggy." A stakeout of his bar yields another patron (John Nolan) who knows Siggy as Donald Chapman (Don Dubbins), and Friday and Gannon's visit to his residence holds quite a surprise indeed.

Turns out Siggy AKA Chapman is a Nazi, his small apartment displaying Nazi memorabilia along with a cache of firearms--and, in the closet, the stolen dynamite and blasting caps. Murray again compounds the problem by noting that some of the dynamite is missing, inferring that Chapman and possibly his accomplice are out deploying it. Friday and Gannon await the return of the Nazi.

Appropriately, Chapman is clad in light brown shirt and trousers, suggesting the "Brownshirt" (Sturmabteilung, or Stormtroopers) uniform of the German Nazi Party, and throughout the all-night interrogation to elicit what he had done with the dynamite, Chapman regales Friday and Gannon with fascist propaganda. Rather, viewers are simply told this in Webb's voiceover as "Dragnet" plays it safe, merely suggesting hate speech without actually delivering any. Given the environment of 1960s television, this is not surprising, even if Nazi propaganda was hardly unknown during this time.

Although extremely small in number, an American Nazi Party did exist at the time, and it even continues, after a fashion, to this day. Founded in 1959 by George Lincoln Rockwell, the ANP was a fount for white supremacist views that have become more prevalent and more notorious in recent years, long outlasting its founder Rockwell, who would be assassinated by a disgruntled former ANP member seven months after "The Big Explosion" first aired. Rockwell had raised the profile of American Nazism in the years before his death, possibly influencing Webb to make an episode spotlighting right-wing extremism.

Later high-profile ANP members included William Pierce, whose infamous novel "The Turner Diaries," which advocated a white nationalist revolution, inspired Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, and David Duke, also a former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, who served in the Louisiana state legislature, thus helping to mainstream right-wing extremism. And if the idea of American Nazis sounds far-fetched, the German-American Bund, a pro-Hitler group active until America entered World War Two, hosted 20,000 members at a February 1939 rally held in New York City's Madison Square Garden.

Of course, "The Big Explosion" does not explore this as even Chapman's personal prejudices and extreme political views are kept to a minimum. But since we view these episodes retrospectively, the context of the time is not only clearer to us now but also offers insight into the show's approach and development. Jack Webb was an avowed conservative, but he seemed concerned enough to caution against extremism of any stripe, and by avoiding obvious caricature, "The Big Explosion" maintains credibility that is accented by Lyn Murray's ominous, percussive incidental music. However, given the portentous opening with its potential for a climactic explosion, whether literal or figurative, what could have been a big bang becomes only a whimper instead.

REVIEWER'S NOTE: What makes a review "helpful"? Every reader of course decides that for themselves. For me, a review is helpful if it explains why the reviewer liked or disliked the work or why they thought it was good or not good. Whether I agree with the reviewer's conclusion is irrelevant. "Helpful" reviews tell me how and why the reviewer came to their conclusion, not what that conclusion may be. Differences of opinion are inevitable. I don't need "confirmation bias" for my own conclusions. Do you?

"Joe Friday" (Jack Webb) and "Bill Gannon" (Harry Morgan) get to work early and it's a good thing they did. Immediately, they are told of a dangerous burglary followed by a report that someone reportedly threw a hand grenade at a car in the same area.

They discover a large quantity of high-velocity gelatin dynamite had been stolen from a consumer storage magazine at the Donnelly Construction Company. "We had to find it before somebody used it," says Joe Friday, very dramatically

One of the thieves threw a hand grenade at the night watchman, who had chased the car in his vehicle, but the grenade didn't go off. The bomb squad is sent to diffuse it.

Talking to the night watchman and a demolitions expert, Friday and Gannon learn that the amount of dynamite stolen would level two city blocks. What's more, the caps the crooks stole don't really go with them and are very dangerous. If the thieves don't know how to handle them, there could be a huge accidental explosion. Either way, this is serious business.

You can always tell things are getting tense when the drum beats and we see Joe pause, purse his lips, and stare at his partner and vice versa. It's pretty funny! This program always uses drum beats to signify a tense moment. It's tough to laugh at the stories, though, when you know are based on real-life crimes that were committed in Los Angeles. However, the overly dramatic way they are portrayed by Jack Webb and Harry Morgan are very entertaining to watch and do make you laugh at times.

This turns out to be a suspenseful show all the way through, even though very little happens. The music is eerie, and that helped with the atmosphere. The suspect, a Nazi supporter nicknamed "Siggie," was a cool-and-collected but scary-looking dude. Don Dubbins played him.

Notes: It the beginning, Friday comments about there being "three million people in L.A. at this time, 1,000 new citizens every day,"......Quote of the program: "You keep harping about minorities. Well, mister, you're a psycho, and they're a minority, too!"

Friday and Gannon are detailed to track down a missing cache of dynamite, burglarized from a construction site earlier. After sleuthing, they discover the explosives are in the possession of a hate-filled neo-Nazi planning to blow up an elementary school because it has been recently racially integrated. The fascist creep in their custody won't talk. Will the detectives be able to prevent the miniature Holocaust this scum has planned?

The episode followed immediately on the heels of the "Dragnet" reboot the previous week, when after an eight-year hiatus the series returned to the air with the legendary "Blue Boy" episode (official title: "The LSD Story"), exploring the burgeoning '60s counterculture and its signature drug of choice. It was clear that Jack Webb wasn't going to shy away from hot-topic themes in the new version of "Dragnet."

Given that one U. S. political party has now mainstreamed far-right-wing hatred, lies, demagoguery, and the potential for large-scale violence as acceptable political expression, this episode is as relevant as ever.

Sometimes Dragnet focuses cases with smaller stakes, like drugs and robbery. In "The Big Explosion", the stage is much larger as is the resulting drama. With the clock ticking and lives at risk, there's more tension here watching Friday and Gannon try and crack the case than if they were simply busting some dirty hippie on a pot charge.

As usual, the episode is peppered with colorful witnesses, informants and perps who all stand out that much more against the rigid, black and white do-goodery of our heroes. The perp here is a racist plotting a large scale hate crime. Pretty heady stuff for 1967.