NOTE: Episode Guides will just be a short text summary and slide show of screenshots from the episode. Videos only done up on the Pilot/First Episode. (Videos are way TOOOO much work LOL!)
Dragnet 1966 - Pilot Movie
This movie was filmed in 1966, but not actually broadcast until 1969. It is also a bonus feature on the Dragnet 1968 Season Two DVD set (Shout Factory release).
Sergeant Joe Friday should have known better than to stop into work to pick up his mail during his vacation. The department is shorthanded due to a visiting Russian Deputy Premier and his vacation is cut short. Instead of working security detail for the visiting Russians, he’s pulled to work a missing person’s case with his partner Officer Bill Gannon. Three young women have gone missing and foul play is suspected. The department will be retiring Officer Gannon within 24 hours due to him not being able to pass his physical. Each woman were last seen with a man named J. Johnson. After interviewing the brother of the third missing woman they learn that she belonged to a lonely hearts club name Adam and Eve Unlimited. Note that all members of this club are referred to as 'Adam' or 'Eve.' They end up with two very different descriptions of their suspect; one from the third victim's brother and the other from 'Eve' Kruger the owner of Adam and Eve Unlimited. A body turns up in an area called 'dogtown' matching one of the descriptions of the suspect. The body turns out not to be the mysterious J. Johnson after a fourth woman disappears.
Tidbits The movie was based on serial killer Harvey Glatman. Pierce Brooks, the technical adviser on this film, was the LAPD homicide detective who originally solved the actual case on which this film was based. The original ending was re-worked before it was aired. It originally ended with Officer Gannon retiring. The ending was changed so that Officer Gannon's aliments were cured by Pismo Beach clams allowing him to be healthy enough to get his old job back. Art Balinger played Capt. Hugh Brown in the series, but in the pilot movie he plays Inspector Ed Walker. Bill Gannon has a nephew, Melvin Gannon a dental student at SC, who keeps popping up here and there in the movie. He just can’t seem to mold a dental bridge right. A VERY young Kent McCord plays a desk clerk named Brewster.
Screencap Videos of Dragnet 1966 - Pilot Movie Part One