"Dragnet: The Sitcom"? As Sergeant Joe Friday and Officer Bill Gannon wind down a tough work week, relaxation is on both their minds, with family man Gannon inviting bachelor Friday over for dinner and a football game on television in "The Big Neighbor," but like any sitcom of the era, wackiness must ensue. For a police procedural whose humorlessness, excepting tight-lipped sardonicism, was itself almost a comic caricature, this consistently amusing, generally light-hearted episode, scripted with snappy delight by Robert Dennis, comes as a refreshing surprise amidst the series' unsmiling stock-in-trade.
The fun begins when, following Gannon's invitation, Friday has him check with his wife Eileen (Randy Stuart) if the sudden intrusion is all right with her. It is, but not without some sharp repartee that signals the most remarkable aspect to "The Big Neighbor": Harry Morgan plays the straight man to Jack Webb, who is consistently hilarious, all the more remarkable because Webb doesn't break character but rather, as Friday and Gannon shed their official personas and display something akin to friendship, Webb reveals a droll, quick-witted side to Friday that must remain suppressed in his professional capacity. (Webb demonstrated a facility for wry comedy early in his radio career with "Pat Novak for Hire," a crime drama that nevertheless sent up film noir convention and cliché with winking glee.)
Arriving at Gannon's home in the Eagle Rock neighborhood of Los Angeles, the two detectives try to settle down to dinner and the football game, but the Gannon household is soon beset by visiting neighbors who keep the pair from following the Los Angeles Rams-San Francisco 49ers game. (And, yes, NFL games are not played on Friday nights except on "Dragnet.") First up is Marnie Prout (Ann Morgan Guilbert), who wants Bill to arrest her husband for . . . Throwing an egg-timer at her that didn't even hit her. Then Art Bonham (John Nolan) tries to get Bill to fix the parking ticket his wife was issued on their very own street--and don't think that the two dollars it will cost to be resolved won't return to bite somebody later on.
Actual drama does occur when neighbor Ruth Walker (Rhoda Williams) calls to report a man breaking into her home, with Bill and Joe going over to investigate while uniformed backup is on its way--and Gannon, in the most football action either cop will see this evening, delivers a tackle worthy of at least a tryout with the Rams. Okay, maybe not.
But the best delivery has to be the paydirt Morgan and Webb strike by playing Bill and Joe as the LAPD's Bob and Ray, deadpan detectives riffing off each other in smooth, effortless, straight-faced hilarity although Webb cannot completely conceal the sheer delight he's having by getting to let his hair down for a change.
"The Big Neighbor" is indeed atypical "Dragnet" fare, but what amounts to a classic shaggy-dog tale also underscores a key point about "the story you are about to see is real" aspect to "Dragnet." While each of these vignettes most likely did occur, it is also most likely that they did not occur in the same night; "The Big Neighbor" is hardly likely to be verbatim, instead compositing various vignettes into "The Big Shaggy Dog," a thoroughly enjoyable departure from the norm.
REVIEWER'S NOTE: What makes a review "helpful"? Every reader of course decides that for themselves. For me, a review is helpful if it explains why the reviewer liked or disliked the work or why they thought it was good or not good. Whether I agree with the reviewer's conclusion is irrelevant. "Helpful" reviews tell me how and why the reviewer came to their conclusion, not what that conclusion may be. Differences of opinion are inevitable. I don't need "confirmation bias" for my own conclusions. Do you?
3 out of 4 found this helpful.
Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink