The Interrogation

This episode is interesting in that it starts with a different introduction--without the usual "Dragnet" theme music and a kettle drum instead. You also will soon notice that the guest star for the episode is Kent McCord--who later became famous on Jack Webb's show "Adam-12". Webb tended to re-use actors and McCord plays a cop but not the same guy from "Adam-12"--confusing but typical for this show. In other words, Jack Webb often used a stock group of actors and they played multiple characters on the show--good guys, bad guys and regular citizens.

This episode finds McCord playing an officer who is being held on the suspicion that he might have committed an armed robbery while on a stakeout! While this seems like a remote possibility, the facts keep stacking up against the young officer and it looks bad for him. As the Internal Affairs process proceeds (with Gannon and Friday playing IAD officers), the officer being investigated begins to crack under the strain and feels sorry for himself. Ultimately, this leads to one of the single best moments of the series, as Friday delivers an amazing monologue about how tough it is to be a cop. Surprisingly, it showed Jack Webb was an amazing actor. Perhaps it wasn't done in one take (though it appeared to be) it was a fine piece of acting and must be seen by fans of the series.

Overall, an average episode despite the great speech. Worth seeing but not among the very best of the shows.

Kent McCord is excellent in this episode and proves he can really act. He played a similar role in the "Adam 12" episode, "Log 33: It All Happened So Fast," in which Officer Jim Reed goes through the same kind of questioning after he kills a man in self-defense.

I wish Jack Webb had allowed McCord more opportunities to actually act in "Adam 12." If not for these two episodes I would have gone on thinking McCord's acting range was no better than Martin Milner's, who had no personality. Milner always played the same type of character and could not act in my opinion.

I don't know what became of McCord after "Adam 12."

Your typical Dragnet episode revolves around Friday and Gannon dealing with the unsavory denizens of Los Angeles, often supported in some small way by various members of the LAPD. But here, it's only Friday, Gannon and the suspect; a young undercover officer pegged for a robbery.

The bulk of the episode is standard Dragnet stuff, with Friday's dry, staccato questioning and the suspect twisting in the wind, with the audience unsure whether they are guilty or innocent. What sets this episode apart and helps it to rise above your typical Dragnet outing, is Friday's several minute long monologue on the less than glamorous life of being a cop. It's a powerful sermon, and a great showcase for Webb's underrated skill as an actor and his absolute stranglehold on his iconic character.

Kent McCord is a GOD. He shows what an incredible actor he is in this episode.

A sign this may be a different type of "Dragnet" ep is that the theme song is only played with a percussion drum. Then the only characters appearing is Friday, Gannon, and a rookie cop played by Kent McCord. McCord is in the interrogation room with Joe and Bill because he's been ID'd as the suspect of a liquor store robbery. Kent keeps denying he was the one who did it but the constant questions of especially Friday wear him down. Then he gets questioned about his off-duty life and that has Joe doing a speech about how unglamorous being a cop is but despite that, he's very proud to be one, that's for sure! I'll just now say this was a most excellent ep of this revived version of this classic cop show. And yes, this was the same Kent McCord who went on to star in Jack Webb's later series as producer, "Adam-12".