Juvenile: DR-05

Friday and Gannon are on Watch Commander duty in the juvenile division. This means that they stay at the office to answer calls and deal with problems as they come into the building. Like many of the "Dragnet" episodes, this one is nothing like what you'd see in other cop shows. That's because Jack Webb made a conscious decision to try to show all facets of police work--not just capturing murders and kidnappers--the sort of stuff you see on a typical police show. Already, the show had done episodes where Friday and Gannon worked with community affairs, helping to interview candidates for the academy, and a wide variety of other non-"exciting" but necessary jobs for the department. By the way, in real life, cops do NOT switch from division to division like this--remember this is just a TV show!

During their evening-overnight shift, a wide variety of problems come up--and it's apparently a light night compared to some. Some of the cases they deal with are a young hippie wannabe who is experimenting with drugs (his father's reaction is priceless--and very much the way John Wayne would have handled it), a sad little 12 year-old who is a runaway (this one will possibly make you tear up a bit), an abandoned baby (he's soooo cute), a shoplifter and the like. The operative word is 'variety' and the show is trying to inform the viewer just how varied such an administrative job can be.

Overall, a good episode but not one that will stick in your mind over time. It achieves its purpose of informing the public.