Friday and Gannon try to track down the driver who hit and run with a pedestrian.Friday and Gannon try to track down the driver who hit and run with a pedestrian.Friday and Gannon try to track down the driver who hit and run with a pedestrian.
- Ray Murray
- (as Olan Soulé)
- Main Title Announcer
- (voice)
- (uncredited)
- Clerk
- (uncredited)
- Narrator
- (voice)
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Featured reviews
The old couple being killed is bad enough, but the callous attitude of the reckless driver, Clayton Fillmore (Webb regular Robert Clarke) is what really sets Friday off in this episode. He asks Joe how old they were, and Joe tells him that the man was 73 and the lady was 67...and Fillmore actually says that they probably wouldn't have lived much longer!
At that point, I wouldn't have blamed Friday if he'd put this jerk-ass through the nearest wall. Instead, he reams him like no one else can, giving him a lesson about how the traffic division works and just how much damage he'd done to his victims...but did this moron get the point?
The short answer is 'no', but at the end of the episode, we learn that, thanks to his latest escapades behind the wheel, he will never be able to get behind the wheel again...or for that matter, walk. Sadly, a couple more lives were also lost. He'll be taking all that to lunch with him, not only that day, but for the rest of his life as well.
Later in the day, Friday and Gannon get called out to a scene in which two elderly people were run down by a dark blue Lincoln. The two cops interview everyone they can to get an accurate description of the car and, perhaps, the driver.
Most of Friday's and Gannon's assignments involve a lot of routine stuff, which this program shows every week. It is not an action program, not like something you'd see today. It's more of a behind-the-scenes procedural program.
Another thing: boy, when Joe Friday (Jack Webb) bawls you out, you get a tough lecture. I've heard Friday do it to a few guys but in this episode, he really lays out a guy who killed two elderly people. The perpetrator, who was going about 60 mph in a 30-miles per hour zone and ran over two people, killing them, and then fleeing, says "So what? It's not like they had a lot of years to live anyway."
Whoa!
That sets off Friday big-time who gives a very powerful speech about drunk drivers and shallow people who have no respect for human life, much less driving laws.
That's really the subject of this episode, drunk driving, an act that still causes a lot of problems to this day.
Did you know
- TriviaThe actress portraying Marjorie, Robert Clarke's secretary, is not listed in the credits for this episode. However, she appears to be one of the fur models in another Dragnet Season 1 episode, The Fur Job (1967)
- GoofsFriday talks about LAPD enforcement on the Freeways. Although the LAPD travels on the Freeways, they are the jurisdiction of the California Highway Patrol for traffic enforcement.
- Quotes
Sergeant Joe Friday: [Friday is explaining what happens in the first second of a head-on collision at 55 MPH] There are people who've taken that first second of impact and they've broken it down into tenths. Now you're driving 55 miles an hour, and you have a head-on; this is what happens. In the first tenth of that fatal second, the front bumper and grill collapses. During the second tenth your hood rises and strikes the windshield, fenders begin wrapping themselves around the object of collision, you slam on your brakes, but your body is still moving at 55 miles an hour. You stiffen your legs for the jolt, but they both snap at the knee joint. During the third tenth of a second, your body catapults from the seat, broken knees ram into the dashboard. The steering wheel begins to collapse, the steering column drives toward your chest. In the fourth tenth, two feet of the car's front end are totally demolished, but the rear end is still travelling at 35 miles an hour; your body is moving forward at 55. In the fifth tenth, your body's impaled on the steering column, blood rushes into your lungs. During the sixth tenth, the force of impact has built up so that your feet are ripped out of their shoes, the brake pedal shears off, the car frame buckles in the middle, your head slams into the windshield. In the seventh tenth of a second, the entire car body is distorted, hinges rip off, doors spring open, the seat flails from striking from behind... but it really doesn't matter. You're dead. You aren't around to experience the final three-tenths of this one second. Neither are your passengers. It doesn't take long to die.
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Language
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime
- 30m
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1