The Terrible Catsafterme

SEASON 1 – NBC

Created by Jack Webb

This series is the second version of the show of the same name, which originally aired between 1951-1959, itself a spin-off of the radio program of the same name that broadcast between 1949-1957

Theme song: “Dragnet” (aka “Badge 714”) by Walter Schumann

• 001. The LSD Story – 1/12/1967
  • Detectives Joe Friday (Jack Webb) and his partner Bill Gannon (Harry Morgan) work for the Los Angeles Police Department and are on the trail of a new hallucinogenic drug known as LSD that is gaining popularity, particularly among juveniles. They respond to a call reporting a juvenile in MacArthur Park who has painted his face and is chewing the bark off of a tree. When they arrive, they find his head buried in the ground. He is Benjie Carver (Michael Burns), but he goes by the name of “Blue Boy.” His parents (Robert Knapp, Eve Brent) rush to his aid and demand that he is released, but they hold him under a generic law for minors. Of concern is the fact that there are no laws against LSD on the books yet. But once the law passes, Friday and Gannon are able to get information from two girls, Sandra (Sheri Lee Bernath) and Edna Mae (Heather Menzies), to lead them to an acid party in the Hollywood Hills. They arrest all parties for being under the interest, but it is a pharmacist who has sold empty pill capsules that leads them to the location of Blue Boy, who is found dead from an overdose at the scene of his apartment. Art Balinger is Captain Lou Richey, Alfred Shelly is Sgt. Dominic Carr, Olan Soule is Ray Murray, George Fenneman is the main title announcer, and John Stephenson is the narrator. 9/15/14

• 002. The Big Explosion – 1/19/1967
  • Friday and Gannon are sent by Captain Mack (Harlan Warde) to investigate the theft of some explosives from Donnelly Construction. The nightwatchman Matt Kemper (Ralph Moody) and chief engineer Gene Ellis (Ralph Manza) are interviewed and it is determined that the high velocity gelatin explosives are enough to blow up two city blocks. Furthermore Ray Murray with the Scientific Investigation Division tells them that an electrical charge could easily detonate them accidentally. Friday and Gannon track the car that was spotted to a dealer (Bert Holland), who sold the call to a bartender named Al Amory (Bobby Troup). Amory says that he loaned the car to a customer nicknamed “Ciggy,” whom they wait for at the Jade Pagoda in Chinatown where Amory works. Ciggy doesn’t show up, but a man named Nelson Grove (John Noland) identifies Ciggy as Donald Chapman (Don Dubbins) from North Hollywood. The detectives find Amory’s car at Chapman’s residence and when they bust into the house they find the place empty, draped in Nazi propaganda and stocked with weapons including the stolen explosives…minus four cases. Chapman is picked up and question, but refuses to reveal where he has planted the dynamite. Friday fools him into thinking it is later than it is, so he thinks that the newly-integrated school where he planted it has already blown up, and he reveals the location. The school is evacuated and the dynamite is located before any harm is done. Chapman promises that there will be more neo-Nazi attacks no matter what happens to him. Kent McCord appears a police officer (under the name Kent McWhirter). 9/16/14
• 003. The Kidnapping – 1/26/1967
  • Friday and Gannon are called to the Bank of America in Universal City where they encounter a woman named Janet Ohrmund (Peggy Webbster) who is in from New York on business, visiting her boss cosmetics heir Adele Vincent. A man named Donald Joseph Albers (Ronnie Rondell) had invaded Vincent’s home demanding $75,000 and sent Janet to retrieve it. Bank manager Ray Righetti (Harry Bartell) sent for the police and then helped them gather the funds, which Janet takes back to Albers. The police follow Albers and stage an accident on the freeway on-ramp, and are able to overpower him when he is forced to stop. Both women are un-injured. Friday and Gannon are chastised by their boss, Captain Hugh Brown (Art Balinger) for not signing for the money that they got from the bank. 9/21/14
• 004. The Interrogation – 2/9/1967
  • Friday and Gannon question Officer Paul Culver (Kent McCord) who has only been on the force for about four months. He is picked up for robbing Herbie’s Liquor Store while working undercover for the narcotics division. He is fingered by the store owner Graubowski, and his story seems to have holes and inconsistencies…but he passes the lie detector test. Culver admits that his fiancee has left him because she doesn’t want to marry a cop. Friday expounds for nearly five minutes on the hardships of being an officer, but states how proud he is to carry a badge. Another perpetrator is fingered in a stick-up, who happens to be a virtual double for Culver, who is then released, who wants to make an immediate call to his fiancee to repeat Friday’s speech. 9/21/14
• 005. The Masked Bandits – 2/16/1967
  • Friday and Gannon investigate a gang of four robbers who are driving a red Cadillac and wearing red masks and holding up cocktail lounges. They are lead to Georgia Juvenile where a boy named Fred Tillar (Dirk Rambo) reports that he spotted the Cadillac at a drive-in. A waitress there named Angie (Tani Seitz/Guthrie) remembers that one of the guys in the car was named Larry and he mentioned having an older wife. An officer at the juvenile division Jack Edwards (David Carlile) is able to deduce that this boy was Larry Hubbert (Ron Russell), and when Friday and Gannon pay him a visit, they find a stolen gun and one of the red masks. Hubbert’s wife Edna (Virginia Vincent) is desperate to keep him out of trouble, and his lawyer Stanley Auerbach (S. John Launer) convinces Larry to confess and cooperates, naming Donald Jones (Tom Baker) and the two other accomplices. Jones is arrested with stolen guns, and at the urging of his parole officer Al Tucker (Robert Brubaker) who offers to get him a metalwork detail in prison, he too cooperates. Friday finds out that the Hubberts are expecting a baby. Gannon eats a hideous sandwich. Sam Edwards is Bernard Ashton. 10/26/14
• 006. The Bank Examiner Swindle – 2/23/1967
  • Friday and Gannon are working a case in which two con men pose as bank examiners and are asking elderly citizens to withdraw a large sum of money that they will mark and put in a bank vault in order to catch a dishonest teller. They interview several old folks who have fell for the scam: Mary Burnside (Nydia Westman), an aging actress named Flobelle Mirada (Harriet MacGibbon), and a man who was saving for his own burial named Fred Gregory (Bert Mustin). The cops get a tip from Seattle police with a photo of two men who had been involved with the same racket. After they blow up the photos, all of the victims are able to identify one of the two men, Frank Albert Thomas (Howard Culver). In order to make the charges stick, Friday and Gannon want to catch them in the act, so they put the information in the paper and wait for someone to get approached. Mrs. Gray (Lillian Powell) understands the scam and calls the police. Bill poses as her son and insists on seeing his partner James Fremont (Donald Barry) before he turns over the money. Once they both sign for the money and show their fake identification, they are arrested by Friday who is hiding in the other room. Robert Knapp is Captain Lambert. Don Ross is the cameraman. 10/27/14
• 007. The Hammer – 3/2/1967
  • Friday and Gannon are sent to the scene of the murder of apartment building manager Alexander Troy, who had been beaten with a hammer. They find a card scorecard with Troy’s name along with a man named “Fred.” The officers talk to neighbors Lou Adams (Ralph Moody) and Mrs. Ridges (Natalie Masters), who mentions that her son Terry (Brian Avery) had played cards with Adams the night of his murder. They also find one of Terry’s shirts with bloodstains. It turns out that the stains were from a nosebleed of Terry’s friend Chesney “Chick” Guthrie (Chet Stratton). Chick reports that the other guy playing cards lived in apartment 302. The officers visit it but it has been abandoned. They also run into building owner Marcus Denner (Richard Simmons), who tries to retrieve Fred’s full name from a receipt book, but his rent receipt had been torn out. Adams also tries to retrieve Troy’s wife’s wedding ring, but it too has been stolen. Back in Fred’s apartment, they find a Western Union receipt revealing that Fred’s last name is Tosca (James Oliver), who has now stolen Mrs. Ridges’ car and fled with his girlfriend Camille Gearheart (Jill Banner). They are picked up for speeding in Cottonwood, Arizona, and held until Friday and Gannon get there with extradition papers. neither will answer questions, but their fate is sealed when the missing receipt is found in the stolen car…and Camille is wearing the stolen wedding ring. Both are found guilty and Tosca is sentenced to death. Ben Chandler is Chief Snoddy in Cottonwood. Merry Anders is policewoman Dorothy Miller. 11/22/14
• 008. The Candy Store Robberies – 3/9/1967
  • Friday and Gannon have been working on a catching an armed robber that has hit a chain of Rachelle Candies stores 10 times in two weeks. They interview the clerk Jean Hardy (Virginia Gregg) from the latest hit, and talk her into not quitting, citing the fact that the robber never has hit the same place twice. They set up stakeouts at the five remaining Rachelles in Los Angeles. One store is robbed earlier in the day before police get there, but it turned out to be a different robber who is shot and killed. The next night the stakeout resumes, but the robber hits the store where Hardy works again. An officer shoots the perpetrator in the face and Friday and Gannon follow his blood to his apartment where he is identified as Claude Thibodeau (Austin Green) and goes willingly with the police. Hardy is brought in for a line-up ID, but she is reluctant to identify anyone. Friday is given a report that another Rachelle robber has been picked up. It turns out that Thibodeau and his friend George Watson (David Bond) have been alternating robbing the stores. Both are sentenced to jail in San Quentin. Bill worries about Joe being alone so he arranges for Dorothy to take him home. Art Gilmore is Captain Mert Howe. 11/22/14
• 009. The Fur Burglary – 3/16/1967
  • Friday and Gannon respond to a robbery of expensive furs from furrier Emile Hartman (Henry Corden), where the perpetrators took the high end merchandise and a transport van. They have no clues or prints to go on, but soon are contacted by insurance man Roger Brucker (Robert Cleaves), who thinks he has been approached by the robbers looking for a buyer. Gannon gets a less on from Hartman on how to behave like a furrier and goes undercover. Friday meets with one of the robbers, Floyd Sinclair (John Nolan), at the Bel-Air Hotel and he and Gannon follow him to a house in East L.A., where they encounter four men, each of whom will split the take. Gannon offers $40,000, and as soon as the offer is accepted, they are arrested. Friday finds a tag indicating Emile Hartman furs in the fireplace, incriminating them beyond question. Clark Howat takes over the role of Captain Mack. Herb Ellis is Norm Landon. Frank Gerstle is Albert Marks. 1/4/15
• 010. The Jade Story – 3/23/1967
  • Friday and Gannon respond to a robbery of $200,000 of Imperial Jade from the home of a wealthy Bel-Air widow named Francine Graham (Virginia Gregg). After an investigation, they find that the point of intrusion through a window screen has been cut from the inside and that only someone who knew the combination could have opened the safe. It appears that it may be a fraudulent claim and Joe and Bill discuss it with insurance adjuster John Benjamin (Harry Hickox)  Bill Walmsley (Don Ross) from the Scientific Investigation Division reports that there were prints found in the house from small-time crook Ben Martin (Eddie Firestone), but when he gets picked up, he admits to other robberies in the area, and to breaking into the Graham house…but leaving empty handed. When Friday and Gannon confront Mrs. Graham with the evidence, she finally admits that she had sold the Jade already and used the break-in as a way to report it stolen. The insurance company decides to drop the charges when she drops the claim. William Boyett is Ed Barr, safe expert (his first of nine different roles in the series). Key Luke is Jade expert Lin Fong. 1/4/15
• 011. The Big Shooting – 3/30/1967
  • While working a wife-beating case, Friday and Gannon get a call that Officer Dave Roberts (Don Marshall) has been shot by two men who just held up a liquor store. All they have to gone on is their abandoned green Sedan, which a drug store clerk Dick Whittinghill) witnesses them swap for another car. Six months later, they discover another liquor store robbery in Pasadena by two men who fit the description of the man who shot Roberts, who is still in the hospital and suffering partial amnesia. This liquor store clerk Carl Wilson (Bert Holland) describes the robbers to a sketch artist. The first liquor store clerk Pete Stuart (Howard Culver) can’t identify them from drawings and Roberts still doesn’t remember their faces. Another three months pass and Friday’s informant Virgil Hicks (David Bond) reports two men that match the perpetrators’ descriptions, Roger Kensington (Hal Baylor) and Harry Johnson (Dick Miller). They are arrested, but will not confess… until they see Roberts alive and well. They confess to the crime, although Roberts still can’t remember them. Alfred Shelly is Sgt. Al Vietti. Harry Bartell is Dr. Anderson. 2/27/15
• 012. The Hit and Run Driver – 4/6/1967
  • Friday and Gannon talk to reporter Norman Jacoby (Dennis McCarthy) from the Herald Examiner and give him the grisly details about car accidents in Los Angeles. Later they are summoned to a the site of a hit-and-run accident that claimed the lives of an elderly couple. They question witnesses Ed Neiman (Julian Burton) and Norton Bertrand (King Moody), as well as witness taxi driver Bob Dugan (Buddy Lester) who identifies the car as a dark blue Lincoln. After the paper prints the known information, informants start to come forward, including a Alice Bronson (Rhoda Williams) who gives them a false lead. However mechanic Gus Archer (Stuart Nisbet) reports that the driver, Clayton Filmore (Robert Clarke) had brought the car to him for repairs after the accident. Friday and Gannon first visit his wife Patricia (Audrey Dalton), who is planning on filing for divorce from him, and then his place of business where an unremorseful Filmore has already engaged his lawyer Paul Bateman (James Seay). Filmore is arrested and three months later is brought to trial, but is given a fine and a suspended sentence. Five months after than Filmore is driving with his wife and crashes in the car of two teenaged girls and kills them. Mrs. Filmore had halted divorce proceedings because her husband and promised to straighten up. She reports he had been drinking and they were headed to a cocktail party. Because Filmore loses both legs, his sentence is suspended again, but he is not permitted to drive again for the rest of his life. Morgan Jones is Officer Bill Wheelock. Harlan Warde is Captain Tom Janes. 2/27/15
• 013. The Big Bookie – 4/13/1967
  • Captain Harry Nelson (Art Gilmore) assigns Friday to work with chaplain Sgt. William Riddle (William Reynolds) undercover at the Domino Bar & Grill to obtain probable cause from bartender Richard Clinger (Bobby Troup) for taking bets, while Gannon stakes out the office of Gordon Westerfeldt. Friday and Riddle go undercover as “Radford and Frazier,” but have difficulty getting info from Clinger, a single father with a 10-year old daughter with a heart condition who needs money for her operation, or from waitress Angie (Luana Patten), whom “Frazier” tries to date to get information. Eventually Clinger tells them about his daughter and asks them if they still want to place a horse-racing bet, giving them the contact number. This is enough for them to get a search warrant to search Westerfeldt’s office. The clerk tries to burn his notes on flash paper, but they are able to recover them and make the arrest. Clinger – aka Ross Clement – is also arrested, but the charges are later dropped. His daughter dies while he is in custody, and Riddle agrees to officiate the funeral service. Westerfeldt and four clerks are each fined and released. 4/9/15
• 014. The Subscription Racket – 4/20/1967
  • Joe goes onto the Jerry Dexter Show to explain to Dexter (Jerry Dexter) and the audience about the petty bunco men who are conning citizens out of money. The TV studio sound man Cliff Tate (Doodles Weaver) mentions that his wife is being swindled for magazines by a man claiming to be an ex-marine. This corresponds to a case they’ve been working so they interview Tate’s wife Marilyn (Sarah Selby) and find out that the man is ex-Marine Glen Procustan (Brian Avery), who is using his father’s Medal of Honor to help sell his product, claiming to be benefiting Vietnam soldiers. Friday and Gannon also question Procustan’s former employer Pete Benson (Larry D. Mann) whom Procustan had worked for in Yuma. Benson tracks down Procustan and the officers arrest both him and his fiancee Norma Bryant (Marianne Gordon). They claim that Benson had taught them how to stretch the truth, but it still constitutes as fraud. Norma additionally admits that she changed Marilyn Tate’s check from 50 to 500 dollars. Benson was also arrested, and all three serve time. Art Balinger is Captain Lambert in this episode. 4/12/15
• 015. The Big Gun – 4/27/1967
  • Friday and Gannon respond to the homicide of a young beautiful Japanese woman named Reiko Hashimoto, which had been reported by neighbor Sunshine Pound (Kathleen Freeman). Detective Charlie Higbie (Leonard Stone) and others scour the neighborhood looking for witnesses. Higbie talks to a girl named Lurlene Cordell who reports being attacked a gunpoint the night before. Friday and Gannon also interview a very religious and non-cooperative lady named Agatha Edney (Ann Loos). While staking out her house, they find a man named Ben Roy Yoder (Raymond Mayo), who fits the description of Lurlene’s attacker. He is arrested and Edney’s house is searched, and the murder weapon is located. Yoder is sentenced to death. Friday becomes emotionally involved in the case and in the end meets with Reiko’s mother Mrs. Watanabe (Lois Kiuchi) and daughter Miko (Sharann Hisamoto). Herbert Anderson is coroner Robert Blake.  Don Ross is Sgt. Dean Bergman. 6/30/15
• 016. The Big Kids – 5/4/1967
  • Amidst a wave of teenage crime, Friday and Gannon are assigned to the Juvenile Unit headed up by Sgt. John Pearson (Richard Crane). They respond to a shoplifting call at Summer’s department store where 15-year old Robert Lassin (Mickey Sholdar) has stolen an odd assortment of items. The officers release the boy to his angry mother Peggy (Peggy Webber) and find out from him that he had to steal $20 worth of merchandise to be admitted into a ‘club’ at school known as the Mod Squad. Friday and Gannon visit Millard High and vice principal David Carroll (Russell Arms), who allows them to talk to the Mod Squad, headed up by a smart-aleck kid named Audie Folton (Roger Mobley), who ignores their advice. Audie is later caught stealing at Summer’s, so Friday and Gannon bring in his socialite mother Lisa (Andrea King), who doesn’t want to be inconvenienced by Audie. Friday recognizes that Audie’s home life is lacking and driving him to steal, but he keeps him for prosecution. He is ultimately placed on probation for six months and released to the custody of his parents. Alan Dexter is Summer’s manager Hal Rosten. 7/5/15
• 017. The Bullet – 5/11/1967
  • Friday and Gannon are called to the home of Jessie Gaynor (Mabel Albertson), where her estranged son-in-law Carl Hamlin lies dead in her study with a gun in his hand and a bullet in his chest. Since he is in a locked room, all appearances indicate that Jessie and her daughter Nora (Carol Byron) are reporting the truth: that Hamlin barged into the house in a drunken rage, locked himself in the room, and shot himself. However Ray Murray’s investigation proves that the bullet in Hamlin could not have been fired from the gun he was holding. Further investigation in the house leads to a confession from Jessie that Hamlin had entered in a drunken rage and shot her Holy Bible. She was overcome with anger and shot him in the chest and he stumbled into the den, locked himself and in, and fell over dead. Jessie is arrested but is found to have been insane. 9/2/15

SEASON 2

• 018. The Grenade – 9/14/1967
  • Friday and Gannon are called to the scene of a movie theater where a juvenile named Gerald Paulson (Mickey Sholdar) has poured acid down the back of a juvenile bully named Rick Schneiderman (Jan-Michael Vincent). They pick up Paulson who is living with his mother and step-father Martin (Robert Brubaker) and Lois Kirsop (Cathleen Cordell). Paulson confesses to the crime and is released into the custody of his parents. Later the police get a call from the Kirsops that Gerald has run away, and they deduce that he has taken a live grenade with him. The cops warn Schneiderman to stay at home for the evening, and then track Paulson through his friend Paul Whidden (John Rubenstein) to the party of a classmate that Gerald hadn’t been invited to. When Friday and Gannon arrive, they find him holding a group of the teens hostage with his grenade. Friday distracts him by unplugging the music and manages to wrestle the grenade away from him. Paulson is arrested and held for observation for his mental instability. Heather Menzies is Rick’s girlfriend Lorean Harper. Barbara Luddy is the maid. 9/1/15
• 019. The Shooting Board – 9/21/1967
  • After working a case of a murdered liquor store clerk for eighteen hours straight, Friday and Gannon head home for the night at nearly three in the morning. Friday visits a launderette to buy come cigarettes and stumbles on thief Arthur Ashton (Ron Burke) who is using a slip wire on the coin changer. Friday identifies himself and Ashton shoots at him, causing Friday to return fire and hit him. Ashton escapes and later dies. The shooting investigator team of Pierce Brooks (William Boyett) and Danny Bowser (Leonard Stone) fail to find the bullet that Friday tells them that Ashton fired. This is coupled with the frantic accusations of murder from Ashton’s girlfriend Marianne Smith (Anita Eubank), and makes it look bad for Friday when he is brought before the Shooting Board of Inquiry consisting of Chief Robert Houghton (S. John Launer), Inspector John Powers (Dennis McCarthy), and Chief Roger Murdock (Harry Bartell). It looks as if Friday is going to lose his badge, when he is told to report to Brooks and Bowser at the Launderette, where they have finally located the bullet, which was lodged directly behind a shelf. Friday is returned to active duty. Jeff Malloy is Officer Vincent. Gary Brown is Officer Paul. 11/30/15
• 020. The Badge Racket – 9/26/1967
  • Internal Affairs Sergeant William Booth (Alfred Shelly) brings Friday and Gannon a case that involves a business man from Cedar Rapids named Willard Danhart (Tol Avery), who was conned by two men named Cress and Morlock, who were posing as officers and tracked a prostitute to his room. Danhart claims that he found the girl in his room at the Hotel Elsinore, and was then visited by the ‘policemen’ who recommended that Danhart post her bail so that she would flee and his name would never be mentioned in connection with her or the case. They even bring Danhart to the police station to take his money. Gannon ends up posing as businessman Fred W. Howie and stays at the Elsinore himself, hoping to be marked as a victim. As they wait, the hotel security officer Ainsworth (Don Ross) questions them about a poker game, and receiving information from bartender Ralph (Bert Holland), they are able to tip off Ainsworth to make that bust as well. Near the end of the assignment, the girl Patricia Lee Olney (Indus Arthur) comes to Gannon’s room claiming there is an intruder in her room. This is followed by the officers identifying themselves as Cress (Stacy Harris) and Morlock (Harry Lauter), who give Gannon the same spiel as they did to Danhart. Friday and Gannon arrest them at the police station. Cress, actually Walter Kinnett, and Morlock, actually Edward Larkin, in addition to Pat Olney, and room clerk Donald Joseph Carlson are all booked on conspiracy charges. Art Gilmore is Captain Lambert. 12/1/15
• 021. The Bank Jobs – 10/5/1967
  • Friday and Gannon respond to a bank robbery call at a branch of the Mercantile National Bank, where witness Dr. Phillip Lang (Herbert Anderson), an eye doctor, reports seeing a man and woman leave the bank in a getaway they later locate in a residential carport. The owner of the call is Jana Altman and she initially lies to the officers as to when her car was ‘stolen’. When the lie becomes apparent, Altman is arrested although she claims that she was forced at gunpoint to help rob the bank and only lied because she now works for a conservative company and is currently on parole for embezzlement in Oklahoma City. After Altman is released on bail a second robbery occurs at another Mercantile branch. This time it is a different woman named Angela Riplon (Marian Collier) who tells the same story about being forced to rob the bank at gunpoint. After a third incident with a lady named Carmen Willis (Sherry Boucher), Altman is finally cleared of her charges. The bank robber Richard Madden (Chris Alcaide) isn’t so lucky the fourth time, as the woman he abducts is Doris Colbert (Bee Tompkins), a Karate instructor who disarms him and knocks him down just as Friday and Gannon arrive from their rolling stakeout to arrest him. Kent McCord is Officer Whitman. Dave Carlisle is Sergeant Reed. 1/31/16
• 022. The Big Neighbor – 10/12/1967
  • After interviewing a sailor (Hal Lynch) who was swindled out of $43 by a man who invited him to a hotel party and convinced him to give his money to the phony desk clerk for safekeeping, Bill invites Joe over for dinner and a quiet evening watching a football game at his house. Joe insists that Bill tell his wife Eileen (Randy Stuart) before he’ll go over. After dinner they sit down to the game only to be interrupted first by Bill’s neighbor Marnie Prout (Ann Morgan Guilbert) who wants her husband Harry arrested for throwing an egg timer at her, and then by neighbor Art Bonham (John Nolan) who is protesting a parking ticket that his wife received. After the officers dispatch of the neighbors, Bill tries to convince Joe that he needs to get married. The game is interrupted once again by Ruth Walker (Rhoda Williams), the neighbor across the street, who has spotted a prowler. Bill and Joe arrest the prowler Frank Wilson. As the officers miss the end of the game since they have to head downtown to book the prowler, Bill notices that he has received a traffic ticket for parking illegally in front of his own driveway. 1/31/16
• 023. The Big Frustration – 10/19/1967
  • Friday and Gannon’s colleague Sgt. Carl Maxwell (John Lupton) storms out of the office when he gets upset that a liquor store robbery gets thrown out of court because the judge felt that Maxwell didn’t have probably cause when he made the arrest. When Maxwell doesn’t check in for his watch later, Captain Brown tells Friday and Gannon that he was going to come up for review by the board and will definitely lose his job if he doesn’t show up. With Internal Affairs officers Sgt. Taylor Searcy (Robert Patten) and Sgt. Frank Isbell (Alfred Shelly) on Maxwell’s trail Friday and Gannon take two days of leave to search for Maxwell on their own time. They check with a former boxer named Champ Ridgely (Lane Bradford) whom Maxwell used to box with, but it proves to be a dead end. They also visit Maxwell’s brother Al (Len Wayland) and his wife Mary (Grace Albertson), where Maxwell’s son Matt is now staying. Based on a tip from Mary that Maxwell had mentioned that the happiest time of his life was on his honeymoon with his late wife Ellen at a chalet in Big Bear, Friday and Gannon head there and discover that is where he is. They are able to talk some sense into Maxwell, who returns for his hearing. Maxwell is suspended for 60 days without pay, and eventually returns to his position. Bill Williams is Sgt. Bill Riddle. 4/12/16
• 024. The Senior Citizen – 10/26/1967
  • Friday and Gannon investigate a series of daytime burglaries, which are perpetrated by a pristine robber who leaves no traces… leading the Officer Louis J. Sale (Robert Patten) to suspect that a woman is committing the crime. Friday and Gannon visit former female thief Bonnie McKenzie (Eve McVeagh) to feel her out and come up blank. After another robbery, Friday realizes that this isn’t the first time that the victims were at a funeral, leading him to realize that all of the victims were at an even announced in the newspaper. Captain Mack agrees to give them Officers Sales, Heisdorf, Lansoni, and Guys to assist in staking out homes of the recently deceased. Friday observes the Pendyke house and spots an elderly laundry man sneaking around the house. They confront him and find out his name is Charles Williams (Bert Mustin) and that he has a bagful of money and jewels from the house. He denies his guilt, but is arrested regardless of the fact that he will give no information. Captain Mack discovers that Williams is actually Charles August William Smith, 85 years old, and had an arrest record in Florida. Friday gets Smith to confess to the crimes by telling him that the perpetrator was sloppy, causing Smith’s ego to show the officers all of the loot he collected in the burglaries. Natalie Masters is the busybody neighbor of the Pendykes. 4/13/16
• 025. The Big High – 11/2/1967
  • Friday and Gannon are working the narcotics division under Captain Trembly (Robert Knapp), when they receive a report from a man named Charles Porter (Ed Prentiss) that his daughter Jean Shipley (Brenda Scott) and her husband Paul (Timothy Donnelly) are smoking marijuana, and if they don’t stop, Porter plans to try to take away their child Robin. Friday and Gannon pay a visit to the snide couple, who stop short of admitting that they take drugs, but argue that marijuana should and will one day be legal. Friday offers his words of advice before they leave, but the couple will not listen. Later two officers arrest a stoned man named Fred Ludden (James Oliver), who is carrying joints on him that he claims to have just received at a party given by the Shipleys. Friday and Gannon rush over to the house and make an arrest of the Shipleys and several of their high friends. They also find that their baby Robin has drowned in the bathtub while the pot party was going on. Meanwhile Gannon tries to perfect the perfect barbecue sauce. 7/29/16
• 026. The Big Ad – 11/9/1967
  • Friday and Gannon, who is on a strict diet, are sent by Captain Brown to Venice to talk to a ex-con named Steve Deal (Don Dubbins), who has placed an ad in The L.A. Happening newspaper saying he would do anything for $1000, and gets a response that may or may no indicate that someone wants Deal to make a hit for the money. Brown has Friday pose as Deal and put a second ad to lure the solicitor. They receive a response from a man (Anthony Eisley), and Friday, posing as Deal, sets up a place to meet with him. The man tells him that he wants his alcoholic wife murdered and the locket around her neck stolen. Friday doesn’t get the suspect’s name or location, but is told that if he can get his alibi set up, he will engage him for the murder later. The man sends Friday on a series of test runs to locations circled on a phone book page and planted in Deal’s car. During the second run, the man is identified as Harvey Forrester, who then gives Friday his own address and tells him to commit the murder. Upon Friday’s arrival, Gannon informs him that Forrester is inside the house and not arranging his alibi. Friday deduces that Forrester plans to kill him and make is look as if Friday was a burglar. Friday simulates killing the unconscious wife, which draws Forrester out, gun drawn and ready to kill Friday, who informs him that he is an officer and the house is surrounded. Forrester is arrested and found guilty of solicitation of murder. 7/29/16
• 027. The Missing Realtor – 11/16/1967
  • Friday and Gannon respond to a call put in by Ida Walters (Ena Hartman), secretary for salesman Dave Richmond (Scatman Crothers) with the Birnam Realty Company, concerning a missing realtor Lillie Birnman, who went missing several days earlier. The officers visit her boyfriend Terry Williams (Gene Boland), who also claims to be looking for her. When Lillie’s abandoned car turns up, they use her appointment book to visit the last several houses she was attempting to sell, and find her strangled body in an abandoned one. When they visit Williams again, they arrest him after discovering beads that matched the ones on her body’s broken necklace, but he is let go with the polygraph test administered by Lieutenant W.L. Clingon (Dennis McCarthy) points toward Williams telling the truth. When they discover that Lillie’s credit cards had been stolen and used by a woman, they put out a bulletin to a real estate journal for more information, and find out that a man named William Simpson aka Carl Keegan (Jeff Burton) had stolen credit cards from realtors in Phoenix, and then learned from Sgt. Jack Williams (William Boyett) that he had struck locally. When a man fitting Simpson’s description makes an appointment with realtor Esther Jenkins (Juanita Moore), they visit the home she is showing and catch him red-handed with her credit cards. Keegan receives the death penalty, while his female accomplice Elizabeth Cook receives a prison sentence forgery. 10/5/16
• 028. The Big Dog – 11/23/1967
  • Captain Howe assigns Friday and Gannon, who is suffering from a feather allergy, to investigate a series of purse-snatchings that are being committed by a dog. They start with a hippie flower shop owner named Noradelle De Leone (Luana Anders), who is the latest victim, then move on to Wanda Kravitz (Jean Inness), who claims a wolf stole her purse. A couple named Lars (Doodles Weaver) and Cynthia Lowell (Monty Margetts) can’t agree on the type of dog who robbed her. The officers realize that the descriptions of the dog vary from victim to victim. They check with pet act promoter Bert Silver (Phil Arnold) and get a list of known animal trainers, but it lead them nowhere. A new victim named Dee Staley (Bonnie Hughes) captures a photo of the German Shephered who stole her purse, but it doesn’t help either. Friday and Gannon go on stakeout with officer Dorothy Miller, and although she isn’t robbed, they witness another woman get robbed. They follow the dog and the car it gets in, and arrested the driver Ingo Burry (Bart Burns), and also discover that he has multiple army dogs he’d stolen and had been using for the robberies. Four of the dogs are reclaimed by the Army Canine Corps, while Bill and Dorothy each take one of the others. Burry is sentenced for grand theft. Maidie Norman is Mrs. Holmes. 10/5/16
• 029. The Pyramid Swindle – 11/30/1967
  • While working bunco under Captain Lambert, Friday and Gannon are assigned to check out an ad in the paper promising $800 per month with unlimited potential. They attend the sales pitch given in the Brookfield Hotel by Mrs. Horton Bonnie Bates (Virginia Gregg) and her assistant Everett Tottle (Chet Stratton), in which she describes her Dollar Wise Market Service and how  to buy into her business for $199.99, purchase products at just over wholesale, and then recruit others to join for which she would pay out $30 a head for them, and then $4 a head for their recruits. The officers recognize it as a pyramid scheme, and place her under arrest. The prosecuting attorney is Hal Davies (Bert Fields) and he attempts to prove that Bates is conducting a lottery and fraud. Bates’ defense attorney Palmer Forrest (Byron Morrow) attempt to discredit the prosecution as neither Friday nor the police expert on mathematics Nick Gowers (Byron Keith) are experts on statistics or geometrical progressions. However when Davies questions the defense’s witness Edgar Sundstrom (Robert Cornthwaite), an authority on the laws of probability, he is forced to admit that although the pyramid structure is theoretically possible, the 12th level of the pyramid would have more 160 million more people in it than the current United States population. Bates is given a $500 fine and sentenced to six months probation for operating a lottery and false advertising. Vinton Hayworth is the judge. Sam Edwards is Mr. Black. Alma Platt is the little old lady. Sidney Clute is the salesman. 1/3/17
• 030. The Phony Police Racket – 12/7/1967
  • Captain Lambert sends Friday and Gannon to answer a call from irate bar owner Ethel Gower (Eddra Gale) who has been swindled by a phony police officer selling ad space in their publication NALE Notes, which comes with a NALE – National Association for Law Enforcement – card offering police courtesy and special privileges. This is corroborated with Axel Varney (Stuart Nisbet), the shoemaker next door to her. Another victim named Wesley Hundorn (Del Moore) turns over his copy of the publication, so the officers check with its publisher Salvador Cabo (Victor Millan), but the check he had gotten from the fake officers had bounced and the address they had given was an empty lot. When Officer Reed (Kent McCord) brings in a man named Bart Emerson (Don Ross) who believed he could tear up his traffic tickets thanks to being a NALE member, and Emerson tells the officers that phony Sgt. Preston Densmore (G.D. Spradlin) is going to be meeting with him to collect another ad payment. Friday and Gannon pose as potential marks, then arrest Densmore, who is eager to give up the whole operation if the officers will give the judge a note stating his cooperation. Densmore takes them to the home of the racket, where they arrest the man posing as Captain Paul Fremont (Ben Hammer), as well as the men posing as police officers and calling potential victims. Nydia Westman is elderly victim Jennifer Salt. 1/3/17
• 031. The Trial Board – 12/14/1967
  • Officer Phil Waverly (Steve Carlson) is brought up for an internal affairs trial board when he is accused of consorting with bookmaker Ted Clover (Peter Duryea), accepting a bribe to take the heat off of him, and failing to identify himself as an officer when confronted by vice officers. Waverly chooses Friday to defend him before the board, so he gets the lowdown from department advocate Lt. Roger Mairs (Clark Howat) and then visits Waverly to get his side of the story: that Clover was an old military buddy who he didn’t know was a bookmaker when he ran into him. He claims that Clover has it in for him because he refused to be bribed. In front of the board, Clover mentions that he kept track of the money he gave Waverly in his pocket ledger, but it is in a code he refuses to reveal. With the help of Sgt. Binyon (Alfred Shelly), he is able to crack the code with reveals the phrase “RPD/LN”, meaning that the 50 dollar ‘bribe’ was a actually a repaid loan. Department Chief Simon (Art Balinger) instructs that the information be forwarded to the D.A. to prosecute Clover for perjury. Waverly faces an unpaid suspension for 45 days for failure to identify himself as an officer, which he plead guilty to. 4/12/17
• 032. The Christmas Story – 12/21/1967
  • On Christmas Eve, Friday and Gannon are called by Father Xavier Rojas (Harry Bartell) to the San Fernando Mission when the baby Jesus from the Nativity set is stolen, which although it has little financial value, has tremendous spiritual value to the parishioners. The officers put out feelers at the local pawn shops and interview altar boys James Cornene (Craig Huxley) and John Heffernan (Barry Williams), as well as Mr. Flavin (Ralph Moody), proprietor of religious art. Heffernan reports a parishioner who carried a bundle out from the church, whom they identify as Claude Stroup (Bobby Troup). The officers search for him at his residence, The Golden Dream Hotel, and interview the desk clerk (Herb Vigran), who indicates that Stroup was a former robber who is down on his luck. Captain Mack (Byron Morrow) assigns them to head to Bakersfield for a case, but the officers insist they stay on the Baby Jesus case so they can get the statue back for Christmas mass. They bring Stroup in but he refuses to talk at first, and then admits that he had bumped a parked car… but denies taking the statue. They send him home feeling they have hit a dead end. After visiting Father Rojas to tell him the bad news, they notice a poor little boy named Paquito Mendoza (Fernando Vasquez) bringing the statue back to the church in his red wagon, a gift he had prayed for and promised that if he received it, he would take the Baby Jesus for the first ride in it. 4/13/17
• 033. The Big Shipment – 12/28/1967
  • Friday and Gannon are working a stakeout for the narcotics division, when they are assigned by Captain Al Trembly (Clark Howat) to visit the sign of a plane crash, where they take possession of marijuana and heroin, with instructions on where to make the delivery. The press is onsite, but Friday talks one of the reporters to holding the story until they can try to deliver the drugs. The pilot is missing and the police determine that the plane was a rental. The officers visit the Fairview Aircraft Company where the plane was rented and met with the manager Fred Robertson (Stephen Dunne) who tells them that the pilot was Frank T. Jerome (Fred Vincent), and the description of Jerome matches that of a witness’s in that he limps. They stop at the address that Jerome had given, but only encounter a crotchety resident named George Donaldson (Bert Holland). They continue their search by looking at apartments near the area that a witness says he dropped off a man with a limp. The come across a Jerry Frank on an apartment directory and questions his wife (Lorraine Gary), who believes that Jerry has been smuggling contraband birds into the country – just for the thrill – and she sends them to Jerry’s girlfriend Pat Wingate’s (Elaine Devry) apartment. Fearing for his life, Jerry tells Friday where the pickup of the drugs is supposed to take place, and they leave the drugs there and stakeout the area with some other narcotics officers. The arrest Peter Witmer (John Sebastian) and Wallace Shanklin (Julian Burton), a supposed deaf-mute. When Friday finds a receipt for phonograph records in Shanklin’s wallet, he knows he can really hear. After some pressure, Shanklin gives them the name of Sal Romero as the recipient of the drugs. William Boyett is Sgt. Robert Forsen. 11/30/17
• 034. The Search – 1/4/1968
  • Friday and Gannon are working in the Juvenile Division when two girls named Virginia “Ginny” and Diane, ages three and five, are reported missing by their mother Marian Stanley (Peggy Webber). She claims that the children would never roam off or talk to strangers, but reports that her ex-husband Bert (Robert Clarke) is an alcoholic whom she has a restraining order against and cannot see the girls. While other officers search for the girls, Friday and Gannon head to Stanley’s apartment house to interview him, but claims he hasn’t seen the girls in a year and is now nearly a year sober. The search continues and the officers encounter George Selfridge (Sidney Clute), who has a dangerous refrigerator in his garage, and Vernon Hale (Vic Perrin), a drifter who had once beaten a young girl. With the girls still missing after four hours, Marian begins to lose hope. When Marian tells the officers about a neighbor named Edna Felton (Jean Howell) whom the kids used to like, so they go to visit her at the bar where she works on a long shot. Edna tells the officers that her dog had gotten out that morning, so the officers go to her apartment to check it out and find the girls, who had found the dog and followed it home and fallen asleep in Edna’s apartment. Marian softens on her ex-husband Bert, who later received visitation rights to the girls. Gail Bonney is Grace Bonney. Rick Warick is Officer Stedman. 11/30/17
• 035. The Prophet – 1/11/1968
  • The Captain advises Friday and Gannon to visit a man named William Bentley – aka Brother William (Liam Sullivan)  at a place called the Temple of the Expanded Mind, who is suspected of selling marijuana and LSD to juveniles. Brother William is confrontational and informs the officers that he is a man of God and that he has a charter in the Church of the Universal God. He gives his ‘Bibles’ away for free, which basically teach how to cultivate drugs, but asks for a donation to his church. Brother William debates Friday and Gannon about the dangers drugs vs. alcohol, violations of personal freedoms, possible mutations and brain damage caused by drugs, tribalism, addiction, and how the youth will rise up and overtake the old way of thinking. Friday and Gannon leave remarking that they won’t lose Brother Wiliams’ address. Bentley later went on to be apprehended for selling narcotics to a minor and was sentenced to prison. 8/6/18
• 036. The Big Amateur – 1/25/1968
  • Captain Lambert (Craig Howat) calls Friday and Gannon into his office while they are discussing Gannon’s new approach to budgeting, to listen to a man named Tyler Finch (Del Moore), president of the southwest businessmen’s association, who is hellbent on giving an award and trophy to an officer named Gideon C. Dengle (Stuart Nisbet). The only problem is that there is no Dengle on the force. Finch sings the praises of Dengle, as do the various people in the district whom they visit: George Lum (Keye Luke), the operator of the Rice Bowl bar, Ardith Roach (Carol Byron), the owner of the Sunshine Academy nursery school, and Harry Wilson, the assistant manager of the United Bank of Los Angeles. The officers cannot figure out his angle, as it doesn’t seem as if he is pulling any con, only helping and benefiting all with whom he comes in contact. Detective Larson (Alfred Shelly) even brings in two teenagers, Bob Greene (Ron Wilder) and Lola Randolph, who want to turn themselves in for a curfew violation at the suggestion of Officer Dengle. Once Dengle gets wind that the trophy will bring him unwanted attention, he quits the job… but shows up at a fire posing as a Battalion Chief, but is recognized as an impostor by Captain Dan Packard (David Carlile). Friday and Gannon arrest Dengle and he is found guilty of impersonating a peace officer and fireman and placed on probation. 8/6/18
• 037. The Starlet – 2/1/1968
  • While working the juvenile division, Friday and Gannon are visited by Thelma Wade (Amzie Strickland) from Medford, Oregon, who was in search of her niece Patty Lee Bundy, a 16-year old runaway whose parents didn’t seem to want her around. She had been spotted in L.A. by one of her former Medford neighbors at the Flower Pot espresso bar with her friend Jo-Elle Murphy (Jo Ann Harris). The officers interview Jo-Elle and she leads them to a struggling actress Eva Graham (Susan Seaforth) who admits that Patty Lee lived there, but had moved out. When they find out that Eva had been booked for obscenity, it leads them her arresting officers Sgt. Lester Zabel (Robert Patten) and Officer Don Shaidell (Leonard Stone) from the pornographic unit. Joe and Bill get the scoop on smut peddlers, and then later identify Patty Lee as someone they spotted in one of the films. They are able to determine by the filming style that it was shot by William Joseph Cornelius (Lyle Talbot) and they interview him, but he won’t give up any information on Patty Lee, instead directing them back to Eva. They find out from Eva that Patty had made the film, but it made her sick after she saw it. She gives them her address, but when they arrive, they find her dead with a bottle of pills next to her and a note attached to her that only said “To who it may concern.” Cornelius is booked on knowingly producing obscene matter, and was fined $500. 3/8/19
• 038. The Big Clan – 2/8/1968
  • While working in Bunco division. Friday and Gannon are approached by a gypsy woman named Dallas Andrews (Virginia Gregg) with a bribe to protect their business while driving out their competitors. The officers play along with her for the time being. Meanwhile an elderly lady named Fay Sager (Lillian Bronson), who had been swindled for $15,ooo when a gypsy woman named Mother Maria (Lillian Adams) convinced her that her insurance money was cursed, and while un-cursing it, swapped it for newspaper. She is able to identify her by mug shot as Fatima Goldring, aka Madame Zora. Friday meets with Dallas and her partner Billy Catcher (Don Dubbins) with additional money to free Mother Maria, who has moved to a different location. Friday and Gannon are paired of with lady police officers to investigate the list of gypsies that Dallas had provided him. Friday and policewoman Dorothy Miller visit Madame Mona (Margaret Rich) and Dorothy gets her fortune told. Friday arrests her, and also finds Mother Maria there. When he attempts to arrest her, she is sure that it has been ‘arranged’ by an officer named Friday to clear her charges. A naive Dallas and Billy are also arrested and booked for offering a bribe. Mother Maria is booked for grand theft. Alma Platt is Katy Wilson, another victim of Mother Maria. 3/8/19 
• 039. The Little Victim – 2/15/1968
  • Friday delivers a luncheon speech on child abuse to the Pacific Women’s Club, asking for their assistance to be aware of any signs of such abuse. The chairwoman Mrs. Newton (Cathleen Cordell) ask for questions and he gets one from Mrs. Walter (Louise Lorimer) asking how to handle the fear of making false accusations. By the time he answers, Bill has already a received a message that Green Pines Children’s Hospital just received an infant patient named William Marshall who appears to have been beaten. They speak to Mrs. Bradley (Elizabeth Rogers) from Social Services and she reports that the mother Louise (Brooke Bundy) had brought in the baby at the advice of his doctor Wingate (S. John Launer). Louise claims that the baby had fallen down the stairs but the attending doctor Frederick Martin (Gavin Mooney) claims that even if the baby had fallen down the stairs, there were indications that the child had suffered previous trauma. The officers speak to Wingate to get his opinion as well. When the officers speak to Louise, she become angry that the child has been placed in protective custody, but finally admits that she wasn’t there when the baby had fallen, but that is what her husband Walter (Kiel Martin) had told her. They also question the Marshalls’ apartment neighbor Ruth Fowler (Jean Howell), who doesn’t want to get involved and lets it slip that Walter and his temper scare her. When they go on to visit the Marshalls at home, it becomes clear that he is abusive toward her and she turns a blind eye to it because he takes care of her. Walter is arrested and booked for child beating and serves a year in jail. Louise is put on probation and files for divorce. A year and five months later, Friday and Gannon receive a call stating that Ruth Fowler had reported potential abuse at the Marshalls, but when they arrive William is dead. Louise explains that she got lonely and let Walter back into her life. She is shocked and saddened when she finds out that her son is dead, but then relieved to start over with Walter since he never wanted the baby. Walter Marshall is found guilty of murder and sentenced to San Quentin. Louise was not held. 1/21/20
• 040. The Squeeze – 2/22/1968
  • An electrical engineer named Tom Tracy (voice of Dan Ross) with a multi-million dollar business reports an extortion scam from known syndicate felon George Fox (John Sebastian). Friday and Gannon are ready to put out a warrant for his arrest when Fox agrees to come in for an interview voluntarily. The officers confront him about his dealings and Fox claims that he is legitimate and works for a vending machine company. He claims that since he’s been in trouble before, customers assume he is crooked and will lean on them if they refuse his business, but that he is the ‘new’ George Fox. Friday tells him that a man named Paul Carter (voice of Sam Edwards) has been attempting to extort 2% of Tracy’s business for a sum of $5000, and that he is claiming that members of the syndicate will kill them both if Tracy doesn’t come through. Carter is now missing, and Fox maintains he doesn’t know him or anything about the scheme. Friday produces a photo of Carter with Fox that he claims he took a week earlier, but Fox maintains that it is an old photo and he remembers him now… but they haven’t spoke in a year.  The officers play a tape of in which Carter claims that the syndicate is putting muscle on both of them, and also play a tape of Tracy’s bugged phone in which Fox – or a man who sound like him – personally calls and vows to kill Tracy if he doesn’t sign over the percentage of the business. Still Fox maintains that he’s not involved. Lastly they play a tape of another man saying that he is bypassing Fox, and delivering one final warning. The officers speculate that this man is Fox’s boss Jack Rock. Fox will admit to nothing, until Friday shows him that his voice print that was recorded during a previous interview with the police matches exactly with the voice on the phone. Fox eventually confesses to Carter’s murder and is sentenced to life in prison. 1/22/20
• 041. The Suicide Attempt – 2/29/1968
  • Captain Brown receives a call from woman named Pauline Harmon in New York, who tells him that her son Ralph has called her to say goodbye because he plans to commit suicide. Officers Friday and Gannon head to his place of residence but find only his estranged wife Anna Marie (Luana Anders), who says that he has moved in with his sister Nina Draper (Jill Donohue). They track her place of residence through her employer, and arrive at her apartment before she gets home. When she arrives, they deliver the news, but she believes she can talk him out of an attempt. They wait for him to call her and attempt to trace it. When he calls, he has already taken a number of sleeping pills, and although she tries to stall him on the phone, Friday has to step in and demand he tell him where he’s at but he hangs up. The call is traced to the lobby of the Elsinore Hotel. The desk clerk Eugene Dixon (Don Ross) is a friend of the officers and is fully cooperative, but since there was no room registered to Ralph Harmon, they do not know if he there or where he is. The officers check the bar and speak to the bartender John Hagen (Herb Vigran), who says that Harmon had been in there and chatted with a girl who may or may not be named Tami and a go-go dancer. The officers are able to confirm a go-go dancer named Tami Avalon (Quinn O’Hara) and they question her. Although she has little information to give, she does reveal that he has a room at the Elsinore that overlooks a movie theater and was near a room that had a wild party the night before. Based on this information, they check three potential rooms and find him in the last one… still alive. Gannon calls an ambulance and they are able to save Harmon. His sister has him committed to the psychiatric ward for recover. Dee Carroll is Nina’s neighbor Jean Wagnell. 5/6/20
• 042. The Big Departure – 3/7/1968
  • Gannon and Friday respond to a robbery at Nat’s Groceries and are filled in by Officer Jim Edwards (Ed Deemer). They also meet the owner Nathan Vollmer (Howard Culver), who says he had returned to grab some steaks and was jumped by 8-10 youths, but was barely able to see them after his glasses were knocked off him and broken. He does say that he heard them argue among themselves, take a vote, and use a list to pick out what they were taking. They find out from officers in the burglary division that there have been similar robberies in hardware stores and record stores. Officer Wilson (Lindon Crow) informs them that they have arrested three youth who were caught after robbing a sporting goods store. The teenage suspects Paul Seever (Kevin Coughlin), Charles L. Vail (Roger Mobley), and Dennis J. Meldon (Lou Wagner) are brought in and questions by Friday and Gannon. They admit to the robbery but won’t reveal the other perpetrators, nor reveal why they are stealing the mass quantities of items that they are. Eventually Friday and Gannon break them down and they admit that they plan to form their own utopian country on an island with the intention of getting away form all of the materialistic evils of the world. Friday delivers a lengthy speech about how comfortable the world is now that so many advancements have been made, and cautions them about all that can go wrong in their ‘perfect society.’ In the end, they are ready to give up their lofty notion and they provide the names of the others in their group. They are given rehabilitative probation. 5/6/20
• 043. The Investigation – 3/14/1968
  • Friday is rotated into his turn to sit on a Civil Service Board along with two civilians in order to adminster an oral survey to select candidates to enter into the Police Academy. After an introduction to their duties by Sgt. Gene Markley (Robert Patten) Friday is grouped with civilians Leonard Robbins (Dennis McCarthy) and Carl Shumley (Herbert Anderson), and they interview a 22-year old black prospect named Howad Digby (Gene Boland). The civilians are leary about him because he relates the story of a time a service station where he worked, and when two robbers came in he hid in a grease pit, but then got the license off the robbers’ car and they were subsequently caught. Friday insists that he acted approrpriately for a civilian. After the oral questioning is completed, Friday and Gannon go through Personal History Forms, which is the next stop for those who pass the oral exams. The two then interview another applicant named Harry Lanham (Don Stewart), who is on his second marriage. Friday and Gannon then go on a road trip to make calls on different folks to check on statements made on Academy applicants. They first stop in Mintville to see the Chief (Stuart Nisbet) to check on an applicant named William Greenleaf. After several more stops, they move into Compass, Nevada and visit with Harry Lanham’s ex-wife Virna (Susan Seaforth Hayes), who calls him a liar, a cheat, and a bully, and although Lanham had said he remained in Compass until December, she claims he left in June. They move on to Turnbull’s Ready-Mix Concrete’s owner Art Turnbull (Roy Engel) to verify his employment, who tells them not to believe anything from Virna, but he accidentally lets it slip that Lanham had in fact left in June. They check on the one Compass reference that Turnbull provided, a friend named Fred Hiller (Mercer Harris) who told the officers that he had been receiving payments from Lanham to give to Virna during the lost six months, which were coming form Carson City where Lanham was living at the time. He had sent letters to Lanham in care of Brownie’s Pool Room, so the officers head there next. They meet the manager Ed Swift (Bert Holland), who is no help, and since Brownie is now dead, this proves to be a dead end. Surmising that Lanham lived on the outskirts of town and could possibly have been working on a ranch, they stop in the town Wiley to speak to police Chief Oxley (Ed Deemer), who says that Lanham had been working there during those six months, but they let him go because he was too rough on people and they got a lot of complaints. Oxley compliments the officers on doing such a thorough background check as it would saved them a lot of hassle if they had done one on Lanham before hiring him. Harry Lanham was rejected for training at the Los Angele Police Academy. 8/19/20
• 044. The Big Gambler – 3/21/1968
  • Business owner Edward Loring (Robert Brubaker) with the Sunray Electrical Supply Company reports that after an audit, his is missing $100,000 which he suspects is being embezzled. Friday and Gannon are assigned the case, and narrow down the search down to three possible suspects within the company by whom nothing should get past. Friday and Gannon interview the three suspects, starting with Sally Fisher (Virginia Vincent), who has possible motive because she is taking care of an invalid mother and the bills are piling up. The next speak to Henry Pendleton (Vic Perrin), who is quick to rush to the defense of Sally and declares her an honest person. Finally they speak to warehouse manager George Barnes (Julian Burton), who seems rough around the edges and admits to occasional gambling and had an arrest record for disturbing the peace at the Green Gym bar. The officers visit the bar and speak to bartender Nick Gerber (Buddy Lester), who mentions that he’s always broke due to paying alimony to his ex-wife and pampering his latest flame Delores Grove (Sharon Harvey). They then visit the Pendleton’s wife Norma (Virginia Gregg), who tells the officers that her husband is moonlighting at a service station to make ends meet, but who also often lavishes her with expensive gifts. When they stop by the service station, the attendant tells them that he’s never head of Pendleton. They stake out Pendleton and follow him to the Clover Club in the city of Clover, which allows Draw Poker legally. They speak to the security guard Jim Barlow (Don Ross), who tells them that Pendleton comes in quite often and mostly loses. The officers meet him outside and take him to the station and interrogate him, where he finally admits to his gambling addiction and to the embezzlement of Sunray money. He had also been lying to his wife about his extra job, and was gambling when he was supposed to be at work. He is found guilty and sentenced to prison in Chino. 8/19/20
• 045. The Big Problem – 3/21/1968
  • Friday and Gannon meet group of citizens as part of their assignment to the community relations office, and the prevalent topic is police misconduct. One young black man named Billy Jones (Georg Stanford Brown) is agitated by the discussion, feeling that he will never follow the white man’s rules, and storms out of the meeting. An older black couple John (Roy Glenn) and Elsa Erickson (Madie Norman) are much calmer and more receptive. Other citizens taking part in the conversation include Latino Sam Gonsalvez (Victor Millan), and the elderly Rita Goldstein (Celia Lovsky). The next day the Ericksons come in to see Friday and tell him that after leaving the meeting, they were pulled over and harassed by officers Nick Jeffries (John McCook) and Ron Braven (Charles Brewer). The acknowledge that the officers were not abusive, but that they pulled them over for no reason and rudely asked them question. Friday look up the log, and informs the Jeffries that there had been robberies in their neighborhood, and that the perpetrator has a car like theirs. The Ericksons are appeased and leave with a little more confidence in the police force, but Friday also acknowledges that the officers should have told them the reason they had pulled them over. Friday joins Officers Jeffries and Braven at lunch and discusses how they might better serve the community by offering explanations. Officer Braven seem less receptive and feels that a few ruffled feathers are necessary in maintaining law and order, and Friday tells him that with that attitude his future with the police department might be short-lived. Captain Shannon (Clark Howat) then asks Friday and Gannon to continue to spread community training, so they hit up the day watch roll call to solicit help from the officers. Despite some joking around from Officer Martin (Richard Van Fleet), he gets his message across and several officers – including Jeffries and Braven – agree to do some off-duty community outreach. Later Friday and Gannon get a call regarding a man who fled the scene of a traffic violation and has locked himself in his apartment. It turns out that the man is Billy Jones, and he firmly stands behind his distrust of the police. Friday is able to convince him to come out peacefully and he is taken in without incident, much to the surprise of his neighbors. The charges of resisting arrest are dropped by the officers and he is faced with nothing more than a small fine. The real life mayor of Los Angeles Tom Reddin (himself) addresses the audience and encourages mutual understanding and tolerance between the police department and citizens. Ed Deemer is Sgt. Charles Park. 12/3/20

SEASON 3

• 046. Public Affairs: DR-07 – 9/19/1968
  • Friday and Gannon are summoned to the Public Affairs office where Sgt. Dan Cooke (Dennis McCarthy) assigns them to go on the forum talk show Speak Your Mind, hosted by Chuck Bligh (Anthony Eisley), who is notorious for taking shots at the police. They arrive at the studio on the day of the taping, and after Bill is forced to go through makeup for his eyebrows, the show producer Monty Warren (Don Ross) tells them that they will be debating against professor ad political activist Tom Higgins (Stacy Harris) and underground newspaper editor Jesse Chaplin (Don Sturdy aka Howard Hesseman) both taking the anti-police side in the topic “The Police: Who Needs Them?” The two don’t completely agree on the philosophy of getting rid of the police,with Higgins being completely anti-establishment, and Higgins believing that the police only serve the rich. Friday and Gannon defend the police, and point out that there are many human factors that go into those times where the police make mistakes. They then take questions from the audience that address topics ranging from gun registration laws from business owner Harry Wilson (Sidney Clute), to the legality of marijuana from hippie John Dietz (Lou Wagner), to supporting ‘bad laws’ from citizen Charlie Varco (Charles Brewer), to prejudice against black citizens from the president of the Black Widow party Mondo Mabamba (Dick Anthony Williams), to the height requirements to be a police officer from a short Mexican American named Jay Herrera (Speedy Zapata) who was turned down from joining the force. They also get a compliment from a wife named Diane Newcombe (Penny Gaston) who is grateful that the police foiled two robberies at the supermarket where her husband works. Friday and Gannon answer the questions to the best of their ability, but during the summation, Tom Higgins notes that the system is indefensible despite the good points they made. Friday simply asks that citizens remember that they are human beings and should be afforded the same respect as soldiers fighting in a war. Chaplins responds by tossing a button to Friday that says “Make Love Not War,” to which Friday responds that it would be nice if that were in fact the alternative. Chuck Bowman is the announcer. 12/5/20
• 047. Juvenile: DR-05 – 9/26/1968
  • Despite the fact that Los Angeles faces frequent droughts, Friday and Gannon are expecting rain, which is more important to Gannon as he is planning a day of yardwork the next day. One Tuesday in March, the officers are working the night watch out of Juvenile Division. During their shift, which is mostly advisory, they deal with numerous cases. Policewoman Dorothy Miller brings them information about a 13-year old New York runaway named Danny Meriton (Stefan Arngrim) heading for Los Angeles. Upon arrival, Officers Beck (Ed Deemer) and Howard (Don Ross) bring him in, and Friday is able to get him on the phone with his mother and get him prepared for departure back home. Officer Henderson (Clifford Sales) brings in an abandoned baby. After a while, he is sent to Social Services, and when the mother Mariana Brenner (Jenny Sullivan), finally comes in, her baby Christopher has already left. She claims that she basically fell down a metaphoric hole after the baby’s father left her. She is later given a psychic evaluation determining that the baby will wind up in foster care. Officers Gurowski (Alfred Shelly) and Ryan (David Carlile) bring in a juvenile named ‘Prince’ George Fuller (Gary Tigerman), who is high on drugs. His parents (Robert Clarke, Eve Brent) initially angry that he was arrested, but when his father finds out he is on drugs, he tries to disown him. Friday calms him down and tells him that he, as the boy’s father, needs to enter a partnership of responsibility with his son to help turn him around. Officer Rowley (Jeff Malloy) brings in a teenage girl named Sharon Malden (Joy Ellison), who is accused of stealing money out of a woman’s purse in a lingerie section of a department store. She doesn’t have any money on her, but when she is searched by Officer Miller, it is found that she has stolen merchandise from the store. Miller agrees to talk to her mother, whom Sharon claims doesn’t understand her and still buys her kids clothes. The rain keeps Gannon from his yardwork. Clark Howat is Lt. Bongard. 3/29/21
• 048. Community Relations: DR-10 – 10/3/1968
  • Friday and Gannon are working out of Community Relations as recruiting officers at the East Los Angeles Graduates Union, trying to convince the men to consider become police officers. Many of them are resistant, especially the minorities, but Lieutenant Ed Henry (Rafer Johnson) implores the officers to concentrate especially hard on recruiting minority groups. They hold a follow-up meeting with many of the potential black recruits, and bring along a police officer named Officer Dave Evans (Don Marshall), who was once a football player for the Pittsburgh Steelers, and has earned the men’s respect. Most of the potential recruits ask tough but fair questions, with just one named Alec Harper (William Elliot) really trying to throw Evans, even referring to him as an ‘Uncle Tom’. As Gannon becomes obsessed with how accurate horoscopes are, the officers visit one of the potential recruits, George Lower (Don Newsome), and find out that he was originally interested, but informs the officers that Dave Evans has recently put in his resignation, so he and others have backed off. Friday and Gannon go to see Evans at home and find out from his wife Elinor (Mittie Lawrence) that some kids have thrown rocks through their windows. Evans says he is sick of being resented by the whites and being accused of being a traitor by the blacks. He asks for one good example of anything he’s done to help any one or any situation. Later the officers respond to a disturbance call at a flower shop where an officer needs assistance. When they arrive, they find that it is Evans who is breaking up a fight between Alec Harper and a white man. Harper claims that the man had rudely told him to get out of the way, but Harper’s girlfriend Betty-Jewell (Reveta Bowers) says that Alec is lying, and that he became jealous when she said hi to him. She storms out, and Alec accepts a stern warning from Dave. The flower store owner Carl Rogers (Bert Holland) and the owner of the shop next door, Tom Foster (Joel Fluellen) can’t do enough to commend Evans for the job he did. Friday and Gannon who have stood by watching note that here are good examples of men who appreciated the job he did. Gannon attributes Friday’s wise choice to let Evans handle the situation to his horoscope. John C. Johnson is Dick Roberts. O.J. Simpson appears uncredited as one of the potential recruits. 3/29/21
• 049. Management Services: DR-11 – 10/10/1968
  • Friday and Gannon are called into the office when news reaches Los Angeles of the Martin Luther King assassination in Memphis. They, along with Officer Earl McNevin (Marc Hannibal) are asked to get the Emergency Control Center in the building up and running, so they can monitor calls from all over the city and look for any patterns that may result in riots or domestic terror. Sgt. Andy Blakely (Ed Deemer) from Intelligence reports quite a symptoms of potential riots taking place in the Eastern States. Bill works in Press Relations and to contend with members of the press (Vince Williams, Bill Baldwin). The fire department liaison Bob (Dale Johnson) reports that conditions are dangerous for fires, Lt. Robert Ward (Alfred Shelly) from Personnel, the procurement officer, and radio operator (Lew Brown) give their reports as well. Two of the officers, Art Cragnotti (Jeff Malloy) and Jim Kenady (Clifford Sales) in the control room are extra anxious because they are expectant fathers Frida. makes it clear to all that the Chief Houghton wants no excessive show of force, and not to base any decisions on rumors. Over the course of the night, a high number of rumors, false alarms, or exaggerated cases are reported. One case involves a car full of guns and ammo, which ends up being a car full of trap shooters. Another report is on a group of kids with baseball bats, but they are coming from baseball practice. The most serious case involves several anonymous reports of a bomb planted in the Coliseum where there will be a Memorial service for Dr. King. All units are put on high alert, but the service comes and goes without incident. Officer McNevin ask Friday why he thinks Los Angeles was rather quiet, while there were more serious riots and vandalism happening all over the country. Friday speculates that he hopes it is because their city was paying tribute to the peace that Martin Luther King always preached for. The next day is the King funeral on Monday, April 8, and the city remained quiet, while riots continued in many other cities. Art Balinger returns to the role of Captain Brown. Clark Howat is Inspector Hagan. Robert Patten is Sgt. Gunn. Yvonne Lime is Policewoman Gloria Harbor. 7/25/21
• 050. Police Commission: DR-13 – 10/17/1968
  • The department assigns Friday and Gannon to a task force to investigate tow truck wildcatters, who are operating with unethical business standards. The city is authorizing reliable garages to wear an OPG – Official Garage Unit – badge, so that citizens will recognize tow truck companies authorized by the city. Captain George Milemore (Art Gilmore) gives Friday and Gannon six complaints made by citizens against JKA, managed by a man named John Anzo (Larry Pennell). Friday and Gannon begin visiting these victims, starting with Phoebe Kensington (Nydia Westman), who claims the tow company garage made additional repairs and then charged her more. The police are unable to do much, since Kensington has signed a contract. They then visit Margaret Chance (Eve McVeagh) whose husband Perry “Fats” (John Dennis) was also overcharged when the company towed his car that he had wrapped around the tree while he was drunk driving, Because of the circumstances, he refuses to testify. A third victim is Maria Arruba (Pilar Del Rey) who speaks little English, and is tricked into signing a blank contract. Her nephew Danny Galindo (Marco Lopez) tries to intervene, but under risk of losing the car, he pays the extra money JKA attempts to charge them.  The also visit John Anzo, and meet one of his garage workers Eddie Jones (John Sebastian), but Anzo turns over his paperwork, which all seems in order, except for the fact that Anzo started his business with $2000, when Eddie had claimed that Anzo had started with nothing. Interviews with subsequent complainant yielded nothing they could prove. Friday and Gannon then speak to local journalist Gary Houston (Vince Williams) to provide the public with information they can use to avoid being swindled. The officers then learn that Eddie Jones threw a punch at an OPG driver when they arrived on the scene at the same time. Jones claimed that it was rightfully his tow because one of the crash victims had Jones’ business on him when he died at the scene. When they interview Jones, he tells them that the victim has nodded at him to indicate he wanted Jones to tow his car. Evidence from the coroner however indicates that the victim was unconscious from the point of impact, and that he died on the way to the hospital. Furthermore, Friday learns that it was Jones who had given Anzo the startup money, and that Jones had a criminal record. When they verify this, they are able to prove that Jones is in fact a partner. JKA has their license suspended for their unethical practices, with further charges awaiting them. 7/26/21
• 051. Homicide: DR-06 – 10/24/1968
  • Friday and Gannon are working the day watch out of Homicide and are wrapping up their day after reporting on a male victim who was murdered with no identification, no witnesses, and no lead. They plan to continue the job on Monday, and are hoping to have an enjoyable evening with Joe hosting a dinner party for Bill and his wife Eileen. She hopes that the evening will be successful, especially when she finds out that Joe is inviting a lady friend of his own named Charlotte Page. The plans are nearly nixed when Captain Brown notifies that they might need a shooting team for a warehouse robbery, but it proves to be a false alarm and Joe heads home, while Bill picks up Eileen. As Joe attempts to cook up some steaks, he is faced with several interruptions: his neighbor Edie Augburn (Virginia Vincent) complaining about a party upstairs, and a police junkie named Walter Scovel, who likes to call and  give police tips to Joe. Although Joe tells Edie he can’t do much about the noise ordinance until 8pm advises to call tenants Roy (Del Moore) and Virna Sellick (Dee Carroll) and ask them to be quiet. When she calls, they just cuss her out and get louder. Joe leaves Bill in charge of the steaks, and head upstairs to confront the Sellicks. Friday tries to plead with them on behalf of Edie, but also advises that they should try the old trick of inviting the complainer to the party. Another neighbor named George Haller (Sam Edwards) stops by to solicit advice for his day in small claims court. Joe starts to feel bad that the Gannons are doing all of the work, and also that Charlotte hasn’t shown up. Walter Sovel calls Joe and warns him that two suspicious guys just entered the apartment laundry room. Since there have been recent robberies, both Joe and Bill enter the laundry room with guns out and arrest the two perpetrators Frank Wheeler (Julian Burton) and Charles Lofkin (Stuart Nisbet). When they return upstairs, Eileen tells Joe that Charlotte had called and told her that she had car trouble and the dessert she was bringing had melted, so they agree to all four meet again later. Edie has now joined the party, and she most of the party come down to visit Joe. It is a matter of minutes before he is getting a call complaining at all of his noise. Wheeler and Lofkin are found guilty and sentenced to prison. 1/23/22
• 052. Robbery: DR-15 – 11/7/1968
  • Friday and Gannon are working in the Robbery division and they have a series of cases cross their desk throughout the day, starting with a truck driver (King Moody) who claims to have had his truck highjacked by two men. He identifies the head man from a book of mug shots, and it happens to be a man who has been identified before and now has a stakeout near his apartment with the hopes he will return there. A lonely woman (Lillian Bronson) visits the station to report on a the birds that she considers to be thieves. They get a call from a bank janitor who tells them that a woman is on the phone demanding $5000 or she will fire on the bank manager through the bank’s window. Joe sends Sgt. Dick Reed (Don Ross) and Sgt. Bill Paling (William Boyett) to put one dollar in a bag and leave it in the bank alley. A patrolman (Don Stewart) brings in a hippy stick-up guy (Jon Shank), who wants to plead guilty right away so that he can start his sentence right away, but Friday educates him that he cannot plead guilty since he’s been accused of a felony and will be handled by a public defender. Friday gets a report on a bank robbery that ended in a customer fatality, so he sends Sgt. Jack Williams (Robert Patten) and Sgt. Hank Seret (Alfred Shelly) to investigate. Joe observes the fishing tackle box that Bill uses as a lunch box that contains every item imaginable. Sgt. Mac Johnson (Jeff Burton) and Officer Bill Bray (Kenneth Washington) bring in a guy named Juan (Carlos Romero) who rolled a sailor and got beaten up, and they find a medal on him that belonged to the roommate of a murder victim, so Friday instructs them to book him. The stakeout men spot the suspect and have him trailed, waiting to see if he returns to the apartment, as Friday and Gannon struggle to communicate through the radio static. As they wait, the deal with a woman named Irene Gorman (Elaine Devry) who thinks her wallet has been stolen, but winds up being found in her pocket, and a man named Clarence Beach (Chet Stratton), who has come to claim his firearm… until the officers get it out of him that he plans to use it to scare his neighbor, who he claims is x-raying him through the floor of the apartment above. Friday meets the teenaged boy (David Crawford) who had tripped over the trash can that held the bank ransom money while jogging. Friday and Gannon bet a lunch over whether the suspects are going to head back to the apartment of if the car is actually a decoy. Sgt. Seret  brings in a Mr. Rogers (John Nolan), who was a teller at the robbed bank. The customer who was shot was standing by his cage, and another witness heard Rogers call the killer by name, leading the officers to suspect collusion. They arrest Rogers once they learn that he leaved near the robber. As their relief, Ray (John Bryant) and his partner shows up. they get a message from the stakeout that the men showed up and all four suspects are in custody. Bill pays off the bet with a jar of quail eggs. Marco Antonio is Sgt. Al Fuentes. 1/24/22
• 053. Public Affairs: DR-12 – 11/14/1968
  • After an introduction about the California missions, Friday and his partner Gannon who are working in Public Affairs find out that the President of the United States for a press conference at the airport before giving a speech at his hotel for the Merchant’s Association. Secret Service agent Roger Franke (Lew Brown) is the liaison between his team and the L.A. police department. They all attend a briefing together to establish the President’s schedule, and the best ways to secure the airport, the makeshift pressroom in the lounge of an FAA hangar, and the Presidential Suite in his hotel. They go over how to secure the room, the floor, the banquet room, the hotel employees, and the press. One hotel guest (Robert Clarke) staying on the ninth floor where the president is staying refuses to leave since he’s paid up for the week, but when he finds out he won’t be able to leave once the president arrives. Another complication arrives when a decorative wall plaque seems to be emitting radiation, but once investigated by radiation investigator Ray Murray (Olan Soule), they determine it is in the clay that was built into the mold of the plaque, so there is no threat. They cover the route of the presidential route from the airport to the hotel. Friday and Franke take a ten minute break, and Friday asks Franke why he chose the job. Franke admits that he rarely sees his family and makes no significant money, then nearly falls asleep from exhaustion. Not long before Air Force One’s touchdown, Friday hosts the reporters as they wait for the the president’s arrival, and briefs them with all the information he knows or can divulge. Friday gets word that Air Force One is landing, so the reporters head out to take photos on the ramp. A vocal disclaimer lets the audience know that the show in no way covered all aspects of the Secret Service’s procedures for protecting the President, but instead just offered a glimpse into their efforts. Art Gilmore is Captain Colwell. Edward Faulkner is Agent Jim Shepheard. Douglas Kennedy is Inspector Mills. Byron Morrow is Inspector McAllister. Ed Deemer is Sgt. Sherman. Vince Williams is Harry. Bill Baldwin and Chuck Bowman are newsmen. Dale Johnson is Inspector Howe. 5/31/22
• 054. Training: DR-18 – 11/21/1968
  • After an introduction involving the growth of the road systems in Los Angeles, Friday and Gannon are assigned by Captain Vern Hoy (Clark Howat) to look after a reporter name Dorothy Lee (Virginia Gregg) from New York magazine who wants to do an article about a female officer going through the Police Academy. Although Lee is known for her scathing articles about her subjects, they are told to give her full access as they have nothing to hide. After briefly stopping in on a class being given by Gannon about searching and frisking, Lee requests one specific student cadet named Joyce Anderson (Susan Seaforth Hayes). Although somewhat reluctant, she agrees to let the reporter follow her around to get a sense of her life and training. Friday goes to see the supervisor of the policewoman training program, Sgt. Connie Speck (Eve Brent) to get the lowdown on Joyce. Speck believes that Dorothy has been having issues at home, as she’s gone from being a top student to one that seems distracted, and has alluded to quitting the force before she even graduates. Sure enough the next day, Friday and Gannon witness her having an argument with her fiancé Ross Landa (Don Stewart). Joyce finally confides in the officers that he is an alpha male type who seems to have a problem with her being in a position of authority, although he knows she needs the job since his work in construction is seasonal. Joyce winds up making the decision to quit the force when it comes down to either marrying Ross or becoming a cop. Captain Hoy talks to Friday to see if he will talk to Landa and convince him to change his position. While Landa is waiting to take Joyce home for the final time, Friday meets him in the cafeteria and gives him a spiel on how he can feel free to hate cops because of some bad experience he’s had in the past, but it may be a cop who saves his life at some point. Landa seems to soften a little but doesn’t reverse his position on Joyce becoming one. However, Joyce does in fact change her mind, postpones the wedding, and graduates the academy, receiving a commendation for having the best performance of the entire class. Judith Jordan is Cadet Carol Winters. 6/1/22
• 055. Public Affairs: DR-14 – 11/28/1968
  • With the escalation in burglaries in Los Angels, Lt. Bob Kearney (John Hudson) hands Friday and Gannon the assignment to visit local merchants and organize neighborhood action committees to prevent burglaries. Before they meet with the merchants, the officers take a stroll through the neighborhood experiencing a good number of the robberies. They point out areas of opportunity including high-dollar cuff links in the window display, an outdoor countertop cash register, a customer placing her purse in a barbershop’s front window, crates of glass bottle in front of a store, and a drainpipe leading up to a window. They meet Harold Wilson (Howard Culver), a businessman who is trying to arrange the committee in Ruby’s Tropica Restaurant. Ruby’s owner Lisa Ruby (Virginia Gregg) allows them to hold the meeting in her place and attends herself, but thinks she is doing all she can already. Friday and Gannon cover the infractions they saw from the outside to other business owners, Pete Gulka’s (Herb Vigran), owner of Pete’s Delicatessen, and Charles Dalton (Del Moore), owner of Dalton’s Clothing Store Clothing Store. The officers give advise on other measures that can be taken to prevent burglaries, including asking police officers to conduct security checks. The officers return to the station and Bill invites Joe to dinner, but when Joe says he’s making his own dinner, so Bill invites himself to have dinner with Bill. The officers continue their education sessions around town, and then reports back to Lt. Kearney. They find out from Kearney that some of Dalton’s valuable cuff links has been stolen. The committee asks for another meeting with the officers and they detail the ways crime can be prevented at work and home. After the meeting, Mr. Dalton requests a security check of his store, where Bill and Joe find a few items for him to fix. Mrs. Ruby again tells them that thieves won’t stand a chance with her, so they shouldn’t bother. The officers report back to Kearney that the store owners are now trying to recruit more business owners to join the committee. Later that morning, they respond to a call to Pete’s Delicatessen, since they spotted some suspicious characters who just went into Ruby’s. Two officers had already been on the scene to check them out, and interrupted a fight between the two men. However, they were just a diversion to take attention away from young lady who was robbing the front cash register. Ruby is appreciative and admits that she has been wrong about her attitude and resolves to get on board with the committee. She even offers free lunch to the officers, but they consider it a gratuity and have to turn her down. Bill buys a vest at Dalton’s, while Joe waits for him to eat at Ruby’s, where she promises extra large helpings. 9/25/22
• 056 – Narcotics: DR-16 – 12/5/1968
  • After a youth is found on a rooftop trying to kill snakes that aren’t there with a TV antenna, a businessman named Robert Squire (Howard Culver) offers his theories and services to Captain Trembly to find a solution for the drug problem with the youth of Los Angeles. He theorizes that kids always see authority figures who tell them to stay off drugs as the enemy, but if they could be advised the same message by their peers, whose opinion they respect, it might get them to turn away from drugs. He proposes getting a group of teens together to form a society to prevent drug usage. He manages to recruit six teens and starts by showing them an LSD. One kid named Stanley Sorrel (Russ Caldwell) points out that he was expecting a teen-run group, so another girl named Ann Flynn (Heather Menzies) volunteers to chair the group. A girl named Martha (Judy Jennsen) points out that everyone in the room is clean from drugs, but asks what can be done other than refraining from using. Bob (Wink Roberts), who was voted as a school treasurer, points out that he got elected by campaigning with slogans and jingles. They decide to come up with some of their own, and then Friday and Gannon visit a friend named Al Bertino (Thomas Bellin) who is an animator for Walt Disney in Burbank. Bertino uses some of the kids’ slogans and comes up with some rough sketches for the kids to choose from. The three adults return for the second meeting of the group, now calling themselves the Smarteens, ready to show off the new posters. No one shows up on time, but three of the members straggle in a little late. The adults all get a little panicked when no one further shows up and they are going on 45 minutes late, but then a group of more than thirty kids show up for the meeting, and begin getting down to the business at hand. They had all had a pre-meeting to establish the purpose of the club to make sure they all understood the focus of the group. With the club now on its way, Friday and Gannon decide to duck out, pleased about the success of the idea. The narrator says one year later, there are now thousands of members in Southern California. Drug addiction is easier to prevent than cure. Alex Wilson is the patrolman. 9/22/22
• 057. Internal Affairs: DR-20 – 12/12/1968
  • Friday and Gannon are assigned a case by Lt. Moore (Art Gilmore) in Internal Affairs to investigate a claim of police brutality made by a citizen named John Meadows (Peter Duryea) against officer Ed Hillier (John McCook). The officers get the story from Meadows first and find out that Meadows and five of his co-workers got together for drinks at his place, causing his neighbor to report them to the police for excessive noise. One of the men, Ted Nichols (Jack Sheldon) tried to leave before they go there and wound up clipping another car with his. Since Nichols was intoxicated, when Hillier and his partner arrived, they arrested him. Meadows thought this was excessive and began calling the officers names. He also grabbed Meadows’ badge and ripped his shirt, and then called him and his wife both pigs. This caused Meadows to hit him in the face. Friday and Gannon question the officers Jim Reed (Kent McCord) and Pete Malloy (Martin Milner) who showed up as backup, but they hadn’t witnessed the punch. They speak to Nichols, who is still hungover from the party in question, who doesn’t remember much, but says he’s inclined to believe Meadows as he has never been known to lie. When they finally talk to Hillier himself, he confesses to backhanding Meadows after being called a pig and having his badge grabbed. Friday gives him a speech about how he was a bad influence on his younger partner Tom Pollack (Cliff Sales), and made officers look bad in general when he lost his temper. Friday acknowledges the toll that it takes on a man when he is consistently badgered and unappreciated while protecting and serving the public, but he also reminds Hillier that Meadows is a member of the public he is supposed to protect and serve. Hillier’s wife Irene (Anne Whitfield) also comes to plead for her husband’s job and shows them Ed’s uniform which had been ripped when Meadows grabbed at it. Finally, the officers also talk to the other witnesses who had attended the party including Harry Burns (Hal England), Patsy Cronin (Penny Gaston), Mary Kay Morton (Tracy Vance), and Alice Jenkins (Linda Weeks). They are split down the middle as to whether Hillier had used too much force or whether Meadows deserved to be hit. In the end, Meadows is sentenced to 30 days in jail for interfering with a police officer. Ed Hillier is suspended for 30 days without pay for excessive use of force. NOTE: The characters Jim Reed and Pete Molloy are crossovers from the TV series Adam-12. 1/16/23
• 058. Community Relations: DR-17 – 1/2/1969
  • Friday and Gannon are working out of Community Relations division, and their boss Captain Larry Walton (Art Gilmore) assigns them to attend a conference at Lake Arrowhead, where Friday will be a group moderator and Gannon will be the group recorder. Their goal is to improve relations between the department and public, which will lead to less crime in the streets. Upon arrival, Friday and Gannon and other group leaders and recorders Lt. Jurgens (Robert Cleaves) and Sgt. Scott (Don Ross) get the details of their duties from the coordinator Sgt. Ron Nelson (Sid McCoy) to involve everyone in the conversation, and to reel in good ideas from conversations and even arguments. They learn that there are very few line officers at the conference since they are the ones who make the everyday interactions, and it will be their superior officers who come up with solutions to implement back at their departments. He tells the group moderators that they will be surprised what they learn about themselves. Friday and Gannon register for the conference and then unpack in their room, where they meet their other roommate Sgt. Keith Barrett (Leonard Stone). Gannon tries to overcome his hay fever by a home remedy. The three men have preliminary conversations before their meeting about Barrett’s perception that officers of the day bend over backwards to accommodate minority groups. After a keynote address, Friday organizes his group into a round table discussion. The men introduce themselves as Sgt. Tom Benson (Morris Erby), Lt. Phil Johnson (Marshall Reed) , Sgt. Tom Wallen (John Hudson), Lt. John Rule (Ray Montgomery), Sgt. Sam Hunter (William Boyett), Capt. Carl Fuller (Walter Brooke), and Sgt, Keith Barrett. Friday explains that the goal is to help get police participation in their aims and goals. Some of the officers are concerned about getting participation from the public as well. Barrett then brings up his theories about being too lax with minorities. Countering his point is Tom Benson, a bmlack officer. Benson gives examples where his fellow officers have been too lenient on black officers. Benson then states that he has seen the opposite occur and admits that he is often laxer with black suspects because he understands them more, chalking it up to human nature. After their dinner break, the men return with other ideas they believe will help with community relations. They discuss topics such as new uniforms, more opportunity for promotions, and getting rid of old-timers set in their ways, since they often negate community relations training with new recruits. Before the end of the conference, Friday expresses that both Barrett and Benson need to look at themselves to see if they aren’t behaving with prejudice when they deal with other races than their own. The next morning, the conferfence wraps up with the teams coming up with different ideas to implement. Both Benson and Barrett are nowhere to be found, but then Barrett returns as Friday and Gannon are leaving. He tells the officers that he has gone with a long walk and really looked inwardly and agrees that they had every right to come down on him. He had believed that he had no prejudice, but now realizes otherwise. The men express that they wonder if Benson feels the same way, and Barrett tells them he most assuredly does… as they were taking a walk together. As they leave, Gannon takes some pills that his doctor prescribed to him since he has an allergy to his hay fever home remedy. 1/19/23
• 059. Homicide: DR-22 – 1/9/1969
  • Gannon and Friday are called to an apartment in Central Los Angeles, the site of a homicide of a 25-year-old woman named Mary Jenkins, who had been hog-tied and hit over the head with a porcelain bank. The apartment manager Calvin Lampe (Burt Mustin) is a regular detective tale reader and has many theories and observations about the case. He also claims to have been very fond of Mary, and has been in the process of painting her apartment. Officer Dave Dorman (Len Wayland) oversees the crime scene as Officer Jack Swan (Alfred Shelly) dusts for prints and coroner Glen (Don Ross) establishes the time of death around 3:00pm on Saturday, the day before. Gannon interviews other tenants to look for eyewitnesses of anything out of the ordinary that might have happened. One witness saw a woman hanging out in a car in the parking lot, and another has seen a man in the parking lot, who later drove off in Mary’s car. They also find a note to her parents in her purse. It mentions that she has a feeling something is going to happen to her, and she mentions the manager Mr. Lampe… but the second page of the letter is missing. Dorman and the team take fingerprints of all of the tenants, leaving Lampe for last. While he is fingerprinted, Lampe puts forth some further theories concerning the open perfume bottles in the apartment. However, he has an explanation from the missing second page of the Mary’s note: she had asked him to add a note to her parents so that they know she has a friend in the city. He also has an alibi for the time of the murder and gives some further helpful information that it was a repo man who took Mary’s car. The next day, he is confronted with one additional fact: his handprint was found on Mary’s wall. He claims that he was checking the paint to see if it was dry so he could put on a second coat. He also recalls a jewelry case that is missing from the apartment, and states that if they find the case, they’ll find the killer. As Lampe further prods and instigates the officers, they decide to go downtown for a more formal questioning. The guys’ boss Hugh Brown recognizes Lampe as being a former detective from the Chicago police department, and for 44 years, one of the finest. Dorman calls them and reports a that one of the prints found on the piggybank belonged to a former acquaintance of Mary named Cletus Martin. When a photo comes in, Lampe recognizes it immediately. Another girl named Eve Wesson (Jill Banner), a heroin addict and prostitute, brings in the missing jewelry box. Her boyfriend is Cletus Martin, and the two of them, along with a girl named Beverly Long, had visited Mary to try and get money from her to bail out a friend from jail. When Cletus had hog-tied Mary when she wouldn’t give them any money, Eve wanted no part of the robbery, she left and went and sat in the car. Cletus later confessed to Eve that he had killed Mary. Cletus Martin was found guilty of muder in the first degree and was sentenced to death. Beverly Long was found guilty of murder in the second degree and was sentenced to five years to life. Eve Wesson was found guilty of robbery and assault and sentenced to one to five years in prison. 7/3/23
• 060. B.O.D.: DR 27 – 1/23/1969
  • Friday and Gannon are working at the Business Office Division when their boss Captain Stanley (Len Wayland) introduces them to Father Frank Barnes (Grant Williams), a former boxer, who is doing an secular article on law enforcements. One of the issues they are dealing with in the B.O.D. is a report from the Weather Bureau to Sgt. Jim Slagle (Ed Deemer) that an earthquake in the Sea of Japan has produced a sizable tidal wave that would hit Southern California beaches overnight. Over the course of the night, Father Barnes is witness to several very different visitors through the course of the night. The first is a diabetes victim and alcoholic named Henry (David Bond) who needs some food and diabetes treatment. Two hippy protestors (Judd Laurance, Pamela McMyler) come in to complain that his fifty fellow protestors have been denied entry into the building where they want to protest inside. Friday lays down the law about their intention to obstruct the traffic in and out of the building, which will interfere with their operations. A woman calls to report that her boyfriend shot her in Laurel Canyon and left her dead. They have to trace her number in order to send a squad car to her residence, where they find her dead upon their arrival. Through the night, they receive updates of the tidal wave and alert the beaches to the potential to have the areas evacuated. An elderly woman named Gertrude Morrison (Nydia Westman) comes in to apply for outdoor Christmas lights, thinking that they were supplied by the police. Even though this is well outside their scope, Father Barnes assures her that he will see that she gets them. A man named Mr. Diedrich (Robert Carricart) brings in his son Ray (Robert Carricart Jr.) to tour the jail in hopes of keeping him away from a life of crime. They lock him up for thirty minutes, which does in fact inspire him to go straight in order to avoid doing major time in jail. Gannon works with a bail bondsman named Mr. Farrell (Roy Glenn) who specializes in bookies, because overall they are honest men. Friday gets word of an injured cop named Officer Ryan and a dead suspect who were involved in a shootout and addresses a group of reporters about the situation. A married man named Mr. Morris (Tim Donnelly) who is living with his girlfriend wonders if he can be charged for bigamy due to the common-law marriage law. A little boy who can’t speak English roams into the station, and no one can communicate with him or find his parents. They decide to hang onto him for a bit to see if he is claimed before calling Juvenile division. A woman named Mrs. Maynard (Rhoda Williams) comes into the office to bail her husband out of jail. A man named John Franklin (Vic Perrin) comes into the office and threatens to shoot himself in the head if he doesn’t get the chief, since he wants to tell him that men from Venus are after him. He had escaped from Bellevue hospital in New York. Friday is able to convince him that his gunfire may hurt an innocent person in the office. By 10pm, Friday gets a report that the tidal wave had rolled ashore in Northern California, only damages a few small boats in the harbor. Juvenile is on their way to pick up the little boy, when his parents come in and identify him as Manuel Alvarez. His mother (Pilar Del Rey) explains that they were visiting Alvero Street when Manuel wandered away and ended up in the Business Office. Friday gets one final call and finds out that Officer Ryan has asked for the last rites. Father Barnes heads there to join another priest in administering them. Susan Seaforth is Policewoman Olson. Charles Brewer is Officer Iddings. 7/3/23
• 061. Narcotics: DR-21 – 1/30/1969
  • Friday and Gannon are working in Narcotics under Captain Trembly when they hear from fellow detectives Whitney (Marshall Reed) and Elinson (Don Stewart) how disappointed they are how that it is so difficult to make a narcotics bust at the airports when they know drugs are trafficking through there every day. When Friday and Gannon have to report to Trembly that a fluoroscope didn’t work in detecting marijuana, Bill makes a comment about not being a dog able to sniff it out, Friday gets the idea to see if a dog can be trained to locate a certain smell. They hook up with a company called Continental Canines where they meet with dog trainer Bob Buesing (Don Dubbins). Although he has never heard of a dog being trained to sniff out marijuana, he thinks it may be possible. Over the next few months, he works with numerous dogs and then arranges a demonstration. All three dogs he had been working with fail to find a bag of marijuana in a small area, However, when he brings in a German Shepherd named Ginger (Ray), the dog immediately finds the bag. He and his assistant Gene Jalbert (John Gilgreen) continue working with Ginger and finding various ways to hide the marijuana that make it more and more difficult to find. All the while, officers Mason (Lew Brown) and Young (Robert Platten) and some of the other guys poke fun at Friday and Gannon by giving them dog food and dog bones. Once everyone believes that Ginger’s performance is impeccable, they arrange a demonstration for a group of judges to see if her performance is flawless enough to hold up in court to prove a search warrant was issued based on a valid probably cause. Ginger not only find the five bags of marijuana wrapped and hidden within boxes throughout an airline warehouse but finds an extra bag of two grams of marijuana that had been planted by Chief Houghton (S. John Launer). When Captain Trembley hears that Mason and Young are out the apartment of known drug dealers Leon “Pork” Hardy (Jack Sheldon) and Charles Blake Anderson (Buddy Lester), he decides to have Friday and Gannon take Ginger to help them locate some marijuana they known has been hidden on the premises, but the officers have been unable to uncover. The suspects are cocky and don’t think they’ll be able to find anything, but when Ginger gets close to the light switch, they start to worry when Friday pulls out five bricks of marijuana. Mason tells Friday that he’s ready to eat the dog food and the bone that they gave them. Hardy and Anderson are convicted, and Ginger became the trailblazer for drug-sniffing canines all over the country. Vinton Hayworth is the judge at the demonstration. 11/1/23
• 062. Administrative Vice: DR-29 – 2/6/1969
  • With Bill Gannon out with a flu bug, Friday is assigned a temporary partner in Lt. Chris Drucker (Anthony Eisley) from Sentry Division. They are investigating a bookie operation for the Administrative Vice division under Captain Nelson (Clark Howat). They start by placing some bets with a bookie in order to smoke out an operation. Friday begins to notice some unsavory things about Drucker including excessive drinking, flashing around high sums of money, and his womanizing, including taking home a waitress named Maggie Hinton (Elaine Devry). When Friday wins one of the horse racing bets, a bookie agent (John Dennis) delivers his winnings. As they are waiting, Drucker confesses to Friday that he feels guilty about squeezing bookmakers, when people want to gamble. Friday reminds him that the earnings go overseas to buy narcotics. Drucker takes the money to log into evidence but leaves a $100 bill behind for Friday. After Friday leaves, he goes back to his apartment and notices that he is tailed. After he pretends to go to bed and sees the guy following him drive away, he calls Captain Nelson and they meet at a friend’s apartment so that Friday can show him the money he received. Nelson wants to bust Drucker if he has gone bad, so he has Friday hang onto the money for now. The next day, Friday goes to see Drucker and confronts him about the money. Drucker tells him that he was testing Friday to see if he would meet with Nelson when he got the money but is now convinced that Friday might be able to do business with him. Over the next week, Friday continues to work with Drucker and receives another $100 bribe. Captain Nelson continues to investigate and believes that Drucker is getting his crooked money by notifying bookie cells whenever the police are going to make a bust on their operation. He believes he took the opportunity to get into their division when Gannon came down sick. Nelson wants Friday to work on getting the list of protected bookies from Drucker. Friday asks to meet with Drucker and tells him that he is going to be shortly sent back to Sentry Division, and he is concerned about losing his weekly $100. Drucker tells him he thought he’d have more time to work him into the operation but decides to bring him fully into the loop since he is being transferred. He explains the entire setup and gives him a little black book with the phone numbers of protected bookies all over Los Angeles. Friday turns over the book to Captain Nelson and they plan raids on every bookie in the book. They also plan a dummy raid in order to trick him into make a tipoff of the phony raid. After Drucker is witnessed making the tipoff, they bring Drucker in and give him his Miranda Rights. Friday later stops by to visit with a sick, cranky Bill. Drucker and twenty-five other suspects arrested in the raids were found guilty of bribery, obstructing justice, and violating gambling laws. 11/1/23
• 063. The Joy Riders – 2/13/1969
  • Friday and Gannon are working in Georgia Juvenile overnight when they get a report from Officer Keefer (John McCook) that they caught a group of teenagers stripping cars, and one of them, Harold “Hal” F. Rustin (Michael Burns) was caught with a screwdriver in his pocket and has been picked up. Rustin won’t give them any information about what he was doing and who he was with, and after speaking with Harold’s mother Eunice (Peggy Webber), she agrees that they should give him a tour of the facility in order to encourage him to stay out of trouble. After the tour, Rustin seems to be willing to take their advice that trouble with the law can wreck his future, but when he leaves, he smugly asks for his screwdriver to be returned to him. Later, Friday and Gannon get a message from Sgt. Robert Parker (Don Ross) that Mrs. Rustin wants to meet with them again. She tells them that they seem to have scared him initially, but now he has gotten even worse than before when it comes to coming and going from the house without ever telling her where he is going. She asks that they pick him up and give him a scaring again. Before they have a chance to even consider it, they get word from Central Receiving Hospital that there has been a car crash involving youths, so they go and see a boy named Andy Raynor (Lou Wagner), who informs them that it has been Hal Rustin who had suggested that each member of their group steal a sports car and meet on the freeway for some drag racing. When Raynor crashed the Corvette that he stole, he was going 118 mph, a number of which he is proud and asks the officers to share with Rustin. When they go to see Rustin at home, his mother tells them that he has been home all night, which corroborates the fact that Raynor said that Hal never showed up. Based on all of the names that Andy Raynor gave them, the officers interrogate the students at Fletcher High in the office of Vice Principal Philip Geiger (Robert Clarke), but no one will give up any names or admit to any wrongdoing. Officer Lathrop (Charles Brewer) later sends Friday and Gannon to the home of Michael Chatterton (S. John Launer), where he and his wife (Dee Carroll) are throwing a party for their teenage daughter Nora (Heather Menzies). The party has been crashed by fourteen fellow students, all of whom Nora can identify, and they threw Nora in the pool, wrecked the house, and then drove a car through the neighbor’s front porch. They also realize that one of Mrs. Chatterton’s rifles is missing from his collection. A report comes in later that the kids had confronted a man on the sidewalk, and one of the kids blew the man’s head off. One of the boys, Vern Bayliss (Mickey Sholdar) identifies the shooter as Hal Rustin. The officers go to his house and arrest him, causing his mother to nearly faint. She asks why he would ever so such a thing when she has given him everything, but Friday notes that he doesn’t have an answer. Rustin is found guilty of the murder and remanded to the Preston School of Industry in Ione, California for rehabilitation. Ed Deemer is Sgt. Bailey. 3/5/24
• 064. Frauds: DR-28 – 2/20/1969
  • Friday and Gannon are working the Fraud Division when they get a call to report to the Department of Employment, where they meet with a manager named Harvey Peterson (Bert Holland). He shows them how their operation works when it comes to playing disability checks from the state, and how they have recently discovered by fluke that a man named Tom Mavis, who has been deceased, still has checks being issued with his social security number. The checks are now going to a man named Robert F. Rosen, indicating that an inside job has taken place and the computer wasn’t notified that the social security associated with this person now belongs to someone who is deceased. Friday and Gannon got the apartments where Rosen’s checks have been sent, but the apartment manager Mr. Ferguson (Herb Vigran) reports that Rosen has moved. He also tells them that Rosen never actually moved his things into the apartment and as far as he knows, Rosen only came to get his mail. He also tells them that a fellow apartment manager at the Green Palms named Howie Levin (Jack Sheldon) told him that he has a tenant who did the same thing. Friday and Gannon go to see Levin, where they learn about his tenant Arnold Cooper, who also never moved his things in. He too has since moved out. Friday and Gannon check back with the Department of Employment and find that Arnold Cooper also received checks after the owner of his social security number, Bernard L. Kramer, had passed away. The officers then address the North Hollywood Apartments Association to ask apartment managers to report any activity similar to what they’ve encountered. Two managers, Mr. Grange (Howard Culver) and Mr. Ferber (Sidney Clute) both report similar situation, and a third elderly female manager named Elvira Norton (Florence Lake) tells the officers she will be glad to comply if she sees anything. After checking on the names supplied by Grange and Ferber, Friday and Gannon get copies of disability checks issues to all names, and then confirm with the police department documents expert Frank Silver (Don Ross) that the signatures on all checks are written in the same hand, despite being different names. The guys then determine that since all of the tenants seem to have different contradictory appearances, that it is likely the work of one single person using a disguise for each apartment manager. Mrs. Norton then calls and leaves them a message that she has discovered a tenant named Clarence Fisher who only comes to check his mail. She tries to keep him at the apartment and tells the police that she has taken down his license plate number. By the time Friday and Gannon get there, Fisher is gone, but they are able to track the car’s plates as belonging to Peggy Sue Thompson, a five-year employee of the Department of Employment. Mrs. Norton identifies him as having a limp and a pair of muttonchop sideburns. Friday and Gannon go to her address where the find Paul Nichols (John Gilgreen), a man with one mutton chop sideburn. They also find a suitcase full of disguises and two disability checks issued by the state. He and Peggy Sue are arrested and serve sentences for embezzlement. Ray Montgomery is Mr. Hanks, the leader of the apartment managers meeting. 3/5/23
• 065. Juvenile: DR-19 – 2/27/1969
  • While working in the Juvenile division under Captain Morris (Len Wayland), Friday goes over a presentation that he intends to give to the ladies’ club of well-meaning citizen Mrs. Sadler (Cathleen Cordell). Friday shows her the books of the battered and abused children he will be discussing at the presentation, telling her how most of it was inflicted by their own parents. Gannon is called away to speak to the captain and returns with the news of a nine-year old boy who has gone missing. Mrs. Sadler decides to stay on alone and look through the book again, but as soon as she opens it, she breaks down in tears. Friday and Gannon report to the home of the little boy Chris Devon (Logan Harbough) to speak to the mother. There they meet up with Officer John McKee (Ron Pinkard), who found the boys books and a bloody handkerchief at the bus stop where he was last seen. They speak with Chris’s mother Marian (Elizabeth Knowles), who says there was nothing out of the ordinary when she sent him to school. They inquire about the boy’s father Lawrence (Edward Faulkner) and inquire whether he might have taken Chris. She claims he is a deadbeat, just trying to get out of paying her alimony, and that he is a complete slob. Friday and Gannon meet with the school principal, Mrs. Lewis, who has Chris’s friend Andy Fulkerson (Frankie Kabott) come to the office and tell them if Chris had said anything to him. Andy mentioned that Chris said he was going away but will not say anything further. Just then, an officer shows up at the school with Chris, who they found in a car shell at a vacant car lot. His back is bloody and beaten, and when they take him to see Dr. Manning (Stacy Harris), he tells them that Chris has been flogged by an electrical appliance cord. The doctor says he’s not worried about this beating but is worried about the next one. The officers tell Mrs. Devon that Chris has been found, but they are holding him for observation at this point. They go to see Chris’s father Lawrence, who is getting ready to leave town. He claims that Marian has obviously lost her temper with Chris again, and that he is leaving to get away from her. She has had him stripped of most of his visitation by the courts and keeps calling his employer to demand that he get raises so that he can pay her more, costing him several jobs. Mrs. Devon comes to the station to get Chris and blames some older boys for beating on him. She says if they don’t believe her, they can question Chris, who corroborates the same story, but says that they had hit him with a tree branch. Friday and Gannon know she is lying, and they get her to admit that she was indeed punishing him for making a mess in a room in the house. She said she coaxed him to lie so that he wouldn’t be embarrassed by the beating around his friends. Friday gets Captain Morris to agree to press charges for felonious assault, although Morris think that she will be cleared. Friday insists on being in the courtroom, even though Captain Morris assures him it will be futile. After the hearing, Judge Frederick Crosson (Vinton Hayworth) approaches Friday and tells him that he noted his presence in the court, making him believe that Friday simply got involved with caring about the boy. He tells him that he rendered the best decision that he could to return the boy to his mother, especially since the father is now out of the picture. However, Mrs. Devon has pled guilty to the assault charges and is on probation for three years and she must take psychiatric treatment. When she sees Friday at the courthouse, she has snide words for him for interfering in their lives, lamenting that she still has to pay his salary. He assures her that he will earn every penny doing his job and warns her that if he hears of any further abuse in her house, he will lean hard on her. As they walk away, Chris waves goodbye to him. 7/18/24
• 066. Burglary: DR-31 – 3/6/1969
  • While working in the burglary division and discussing Bill’s stiff neck due to his wife Eileen keeping the window open and the fact that Joe should make sure he finds out everything about woman before he marries her, Friday and Gannon are sent to investigate a robbery of the movie posters of the movie Captain Lightning Versus the Martian Devils at the Rex Theatre. They speak to the manager Dave Breslin (John Nolan) and find out that there have been other instances similar to this at neighboring theaters. The next victim is the Hollywood Arts Book Store, where additional Captain Lightning comic books and a movie poster are stolen, as reported by the manager George Gurvey (Stuart Nisbit). Later, a young man named Bob Snow (Mickey Sholdar), who was putting up the marquee at the Arcadia Theater, where a short, chubby guy wearing a cape stole the old posters from The Perils of Astroman and Captain Lightning Versus the Martian Devils that he was removing while he was atop the ladder. While talking with Snow, Lieutenant Murrow (Vince Williams) tells the guys that stills department at the Continental Studios had been broken into.  They speak to Mort Kelly (Robert Brubaker) and he tells them that a young man fitting the same description that Snow gave them had stopped out and inquired about buying stills of Captain Lightning and was almost moved to tears when he could buy them from the studio. Friday then gets a call that Captain Lightning superfan was collared at the Variety Theater. by the manager Mr. Webster (Don Ross) When Friday and Gannon first question him, the guy will only give his name as the Crimson Crusader. He tries to convince them that he is on their side as a crimefighter, but eventually they wear him down and find out his real name is Stanley Stover (Timothy Donnelly). He opens up to the officers and finally tells them that he was raised by his mother alone and had always been made fun of by the other kids for being chubby. He found his only solace in watching the superheroes like Captain Lightning on film, eventually creating his own crimefighting persona to escape reality. He willingly takes the officers to the room in his house where he lives with his mother in order to turn over all of the movie memorabilia that he had stolen over the years. He is mortified by the fact that his mother has to find out. He is sentenced to two years of supervision under the L.A. probation department while under the care of psychiatric help. Jeff Malloy is Stover’s arresting officer. 7/21/24
• 067. Vice: DR-30 – 3/13/1969
  • While working in the Administrative Vice division, Captain Nelson (Len Wayland) assigns Friday and Gannon to go undercover to bust up a gambling ring. The manager of a local hotel where they are hosting a farm equipment convention has reported that there have been many complaints from the guests of losing money in house of gambling, of which none of them can point to the exact location. They have all reported that ladies in the hotel bar have taken them there, so Friday and Gannon check into the hotel using the last names Frasier and Ryan and are given a crummy room next to the elevator shaft that frequently shakes. Bill meets a guy named Tom Arbyrd (G.D. Spradlin) who quickly recognizes that Bill isn’t really a farmer. They visit the bar and become friendly with the bartender Harry Mahan (Bobby Troup) and a lady named Dorothy “Dottie” Taylor (Chanin Hale). Although Friday and Gannon try to give them the bait, none of them offer to take them to the gambling house. However, after returning to their room late that night, Dottie calls up Joe and invites them to go the house. She takes them through the Hollywood Hills to get there, and when they enter, they find that it is set up like a casino, and both Harry the bartender and Tom Arbyrd are there. Gannon plays craps at the table, while Friday gets into the poker game with the dealer Nate Calvin (John Sebastian). Friday makes some statements to Dottie about making his big play the next night, and he notices that as soon as Nate realizes this, Friday starts to make some small wins, while most of the others are losing or staying even. Friday also notices that the cards are indeed marked. At daybreak, the games end, and the gamblers are sent home. Captain Nelson comes to see the guys in their shaky room, and they plan to arrange a bust that night when Friday flicks the porch lights outside the house. Bill reports that the dice in the craps game are shaved. That night, they return to the residence around midnight. It doesn’t take long before Friday has lost $1000 in poker, so he makes his way to the kitchen for coffee and begins flashing the porch lights. Nelson and his men enter and arrest everyone in the place, including Dottie who never knew that the game was crooked. She tells Friday that she had tries to get out of this lifestyle but couldn’t manage to. Friday shows her the marked cards so that she became aware that the games were crooked. Nick is found guilty of grand theft and possession, while Dottie and the other gamblers were found guilty of a misdemeanor that carried a $40 fine and probation. Ira Cook and John Gilgreen are card players. Bill Baldwin is the hotel desk clerk. 11/19/24
• 068. Forgery: DR-33 – 3/20/1969
  • Working in the Frauds department, Bill is practicing his isometrics exercises, when Captain Frankel (Clark Howat) brings the men a case involving a woman who is impersonating Sarah Phillips and is cashing stolen payroll checks from the Monument Movie Studios, where the real Sarah Phillips (Angel Tompkins) works. Friday and Gannon go to see Sarah to ask her for any information of who may have stolen the checks, along with Sarah’s ID and credit cards. The officers ask about Sarah’s absent roommate Mary Hargrave, but Sarah insists that she couldn’t be involved. The officers then start visiting the stores where the bad checks have been passed. They start at the Beatific Boutique and speak to the clerk Lisa Anderson (Malila Saint Duval) and the manager Angela Tigley (Julie Bennett), who describes the perpetrator’s appearance. They also visit Platt’s Jewelry Store, where the manager Sidney Platt gives a similar description. They then returns to Sarah to see if anyone she knew fit the description that they gathered, and she says the only person she knows is her roommate Mary. The officers take a photo of Mary along with a sample of her handwriting back to the victims, who both agree that the woman could have been her, but they aren’t certain from the picture. They then take the handwriting sample and have expert Officer Roy Kiser (Don Ross) to see if the handwriting matches. He concludes that not only do they not match, but the check writer is left-handed whereas Mary is right-handed. Friday and Gannon then receive a call from a man named Blake Thompson (Gary Grosby), and hippie hack movie writer, who agrees to meet with the men at a cemetery. He tells them that the lady forging the checks is his wife Sondra (Jill Banner), who has fallen in with some hippies named Ralph Harmon (James Oliver) and Dixie Lester (Maxine Greene), a pair of shiftless good-for-nothings who have brainwashed Sondra into stealing the checks to forge. Thompson hopes that by helping the police that they might put in a good word for her so that she has a chance to make good and return to him. The officers go to Thompson’s cabin where he used to live with Sondra, and he provides them with a photo of Sondra. They question the choices that Thompson has made in living in squalor as an artist and tell him that living this way might affect his wife. When Sondra returns to her nearby cabin where she is living with Ralph and Dixie. The officers go to meet Sondra, but they only find Ralph and Dixie, who are stoned out their minds. They find some of the forged checks in the house and are told that Sondra has left with her husband. After arresting Ralph and Dixie, they get a call from Blake who tells them that he brought Snodra home so that he could explain to her why he turned her in. The officers go to Thompson’s cabin, where they arrest Sondra. A month later, as they are preparing their testimony for the case, they are visited by Blake Thompson, who has cleaned up, both physically and with his personal life and choices, and is currently working on a movie script. Sondra is with him, and she too is cleaned up. They say hello to her and offer to walk with her over to the courthouse. Sondra is tried and convicted of forgery, but due to the extenuating circumstances, she is let off with a suspended sentence. However, Ralph and Dixie are convicted and are serving their sentences. 11/19/24

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