The Grenade

This episode is about a kid who is seriously disturbed. However, despite tons of warning signs, his parents are morons and live in a constant state of denial. At first, his behaviors are dangerous but he always seems to have an excuse that the parents buy quickly. Even when Friday and Gannon get involved, the parents continue to insist that their little angel is just 'misunderstood'. Eventually, this culminates in much more serious behaviors such as pouring acid on Jan-Michael Vincent's clothes as well as his threatening a group of kids with a live hand grenade--and Friday and Gannon jump into action to save everyone. Finally, the parents realize they have a problem on their hands!! While it's way too easy to blame parents for all a kid's problems, this show is a wonderful example of a mentally disturbed kid whose parents are just incompetent boobs. Very, very informative, entertaining and tense. One of the better episodes.

This is one of Dragnet 1967's more ambitious episodes. It's notable for the casting of future 70's TV/movie stars John Rubinstein and (the "Jan" not yet credited) Michael Vincent. While Rubinstein shows more talent (I saw him do a dead-on Darryl F. Zanuck once: excellent actor!), Webb managed to save a few wardrobe bucks by keeping hunk Vincent shirtless. Mickey Sholdar plays misunderstood acid-wielding loner/psychopath Gerald Paulson. A bit on the melodramatic side here, Sholdar's acting career spanned primarily his teens & twenties, with his most notable gig being a series regular on real-life uber-disturbed Inger Stevens' The Farmer's Daughter (where he once appeared with this episode's Heather Menzies; Hollywood was a small planet in the 60's). "The Grenade" contains less right wing proselytizing than many of Webb's '67 entries but does sport the usual idiotic generic "rock" music heard when a 60's TV producer was either too cheap or oblivious to the real thing. I think Sherwood Schwartz shared his '45 collection with Jack Webb (I'm sure that same dance number was used in an episode where Gilligan dances with a monkey). This episode does have me wondering if it really was that easy for a disturbed, Brylcreamed 18-year old to get his mits on WW2-era explosive ordinance in 1967. I was only 10 then and don't remember these babies being sold in the Army-Navy stores I wandered into. Sidebar: What the hell ever happened to Jan-Michael Vincent?! He was a big deal in the 70's-early 80's but he's seemed to have blazed a trail for Mickey Rourke, without the late game comeback. Back on topic: For all my criticism about how chea.. errh ---economical--- Webb-the-Producer was, the series has a weird, undeniable appeal and this is one of the better installments. 9+/10 for the season, likely the Citizen Kane of Dragnet 1967.

This episode includes a scene where Friday and Gannon discuss whether some kids are born sour or not. Then they discuss how parents are giving their kids too much - too soon.

All true - all too true.

Once again Dragnet predicts the future of what was to become of the spoiled "Baby Boomers" - and now we understand why today's teenagers are lost to the world.

Why - we as a society paid attention to Sociologists instead of the Police who had to deal with all the day to day problems in real time - not in some long terms study where you never actually meet the people who have taken the wrong turns in life - is beyond me.

Well, the opening episode of the second season certainly had a dramatic ending For me, for some reason, the highlight of the half-hour show was one of those cop-to-cop talks "Friday" (Jack Webb) and "Gannon" (Harry Morgan) had in the car, the discussion being why some kids turn out bad. Morgan is more in favor of the environment causing kids to go bad while Webb just thinks some kids are born bad. It's a very interesting talk and would be a conversation piece for anyone.

Anyway, the story is about a teen - "Gerald Paulson" (Mickey Sholdar) who is an outcast and seems to be one of these "troubled" kids. While in the a movie theater another teen gets acid thrown on the back of his jacket by "Paulson." That kid (the acid victim) by the way, turned out to be a fairly famous actor: Jan Michael Vincent.

What happens after that, I'll let you watch as this "Paulson," who sounds like "Eddie Haskell" when he's first confronted by Friday and Gannon, begins to cause far worse problems.

Just wondering why Natalie Masters was not credited as Jan-Michael Vincent's mother in this episode? I suspect her part wasn't big enough, but I'd appreciate a mention for her. But as long it allowed her to keep her SAG card, that's all that matters. Jack Webb was known for allowing a lot of former radio performers and character actors parts to keep their cards current. BTW, I loved her in the radio series, "Candy Matson." She was one of the few female leads as a private detective. And just as groundbreaking, her sidekick in the late '40s-early '50s West Coast NBC series (from San Francisco) was Rembrandt Watson, likely the first gay character in radio.