The Bullet

Who killed the man - the wife or her mother?

That's the question here as "Joe Friday" and "Bill Gannon" discover an apparent suicide is just that: apparent, not fact. The medical examiner discovers the bullet that was in the dead man's body did not come from the gun lying next to the man. Earlier in the day, Friday and Gannon had gone to the house and questioned both the man's wife and mother. Neither had a kind word to say about the deceased. The wife was separated from the husband and said he was a no-good drunk and her mother agreed. Gannon and Friday bought it, until the ME made them re-think the case.

Now, they had to find out who killed the man and how it was done. Since the door was locked from the inside and the windows were locked, how did the killer get out of the room? (Earlier, Friday had the break the window glass to get into the room.)

This "whodunnit" ended the brief first season, sorry to say. I'm hoping a second season will available on DVD sometime soon.

Jack Webb only mentioned the Los Angeles Dodgers in the introduction because by 1967 the Los Angeles Angels had moved to Anaheim and became the California Angels.

Jack Webb was a stickler for details. Technically Los Angeles only has one baseball team, the Dodgers. Dodger Stadium is near downtown LA and Chinatown. The Angels have their stadium in Anaheim, roughly 30 miles to the south in Orange County, not Los Angeles County.

The famous episode where Bill suggests to Joe Friday to come over to his house for a sandwich; baloney and head cheese on garlic bread with mustard,horse radish,mayo and pickle !!!

Must be before they created CSI, even though it's been around since the early 1900s.

Assuming it's a suicide, even after finding different caliber shell casings. EMT's only check for vital signs, declared him DOA. Everyone is walking all over the crime scene, touching everything.

Once they figured out it's a homicide and investigate the wife and her mother, there should have been a search warrant issued and the entire house searched. Instead, they bring in a CSI who's clueless about the crime other than the 2 bullet casings.

Dragnet is half cop show, half documentary, the way Friday goes on his "let me educate you" rants. And Friday and Gannon are the only 2 people I've seen that walk like stiff boards. Too much starch in the underwear. Talk so fast, closed captioning can't keep up (Oh, that wasn't invented yet).

Still, I love the show cause I love being grossed out by Gannon's liverwurst and onion with mustard, pickles, peanut butter on garlic bread..... Friday, you don't know what you are missing....(yes, he does.)