peter@taronga.hackercorp.com (Peter da Silva) (01/28/91)
I was just walking through the living room and noticed Dragnet on, on Nickelodeon. They were busting a con-man working out of a "boiler room" (actually, quite a nice office). Wouldn't it be nice... Friday: "Call the station..." Conman: "Not on my phone you don't. Those phones cost money." Friday: "Here's two bits..." (peter@taronga.uucp.ferranti.com) [Moderator's Note: As someone old enough to remember watching Dragnet when it was a new show on television, you brought back some fine memories! Sgt. Joe Friday of the Los Angeles Police was assigned to the 'bunko squad' in several of those old episodes. Those stories were based on real cases in California from the late 1940's ... do you remember how at the end of every show the gong would sound and a somber voice would announce that the subject had been found guilty under California law such-and-such and sentenced to so many years at San Quentin? Joe Friday worked in Violent Crimes, Narcotics, Sex-Homicide, Vice and other areas, but his stories about con-artists he arrested were among my favorites. He had two partners in the series. When the first one died (in real life), they wrote him out of the Dragnet series by having him killed in a gun battle in a hostage episode. If you like police drama, it was an excellent series although a period piece -- a bit outdated -- when seen forty years later. PAT]