Dragnet The Big War (1951–1959) Online

Review - The Big War 4-1-58 Captain Glavas, Sgt. Dan Gardner, and Friday, Smith meet at the Juvenile Division office. Sgt. Dan from Juvenile Division, tells Friday, Smith about what is expected to come with teen gangs when they clash by showing a sample of weaponry. Friday, Smith listen to Dan, but Friday is disturbed at the parents apathetic position on the events about to take place. I like the Friday quip San Quentin is full of people that are hard to understand.

Friday, Smith are working the day-watch out of a Special Detail of Homicide Division. Friday, Smith are about to be involved with homicide when the fighting erupts, blood is spilt, arrests made. About half of the episode is spent with the parents of one of the gang leaders, and the deadlock in understanding is seen by the viewer. Not until the reality of the final conflict does a parent wake up, but she blames the police, despite the officers telling her again what was discussed when they were there prior to the death of her son. You, the parents did not want to discuss the possibility of your son not telling you the truth of his involvement. One punk is charged with manslaughter, six others with deadly weapon assault charges. All were placed in a facility of the State Youth Authority. One kid kills another with a knife and is sent to a Youth Facility! This is a worthy episode to watch for the viewer to witness the approach of the parent over their precious punk kid when he is as guilty as sin. Friday, Smith are doing the best they can to reason with the adults in the room, but to no avail.

***SPOILERS*** The word has come down to police headquarters in L.A that a major rumble or war is about to break out on the weekend involving scores of street gang member. With Sgt. Joe Friday, Jack Webb, and his partner Officer Frank Smith, Ben Alexander, trying to prevent the impending warfare they go to the teenager who's organizing this rumble "Bobby" Barson's, Dee Pollock, mom the very naive and reality challenged Edith Barson, Natalie Masters.

With Mrs. Barson insisting that her boy "Bobby" is a good boy and would have nothing to do with any kinds of violence especially gang violence as she's been told by Sgt. Friday & Officer Smith. With all the evidence showing that good boy "Bobby", street name "Bobby Bee", is the leader of a L.A street gang and is behind the upcoming rumble that's to take place all Mrs.Barson can think of is cooking up "Bobby's" dinner when he comes home from school. "Bobby" himself later drops in and when confronted by Friday & Smith about his gang activities he just fluffs them off as rumors made up by those in school who, in him being such a "good boy", are jealous of him.

***SPOILERS*** Sure enough as the L.A police suspected a major gang rumble broke out the next evening at the local cemetery and the "good boy" Bobby Barson ended up getting killed, with an icepick, during free for all. With the terrible news of her son's death Mrs. Barson takes it out on the police, like Sgt. Friday & Officer Smith, for allowing this all to have happened. Eevn though she did absolutely nothing to keep her son, who organized it, from joining in the rumble. In the end she'll have to live with the fact that she as well as her husband who threw both Friday & Alexander out of his office, when they came to talk to him about his boy "Bobby" and what he's in to, not the police who's responsible for "Bobby's" death. That's by her and her husband doing nothing to control him as well as straighten him out when he went, by being a street gang member, the wrong way.

In many ways, "The Big War" is much like an episode from the later 1960s version of "Dragnet". In "Blue Boy", a teen is strung out of hard-core drugs--yet his parents are convinced it's all harmless fun and that 'boys will be boys'! Ultimately, the teen overdosed and died in this show. Here in "The Big War", Detective Friday and his partner once again are dealing with an out of control teen and parents who simply won't believe anything negative about their little monster. In this case, Bob Barson is apparently the leader of a gang--and the detectives try an intervention with the parents and Bob but to no effect. Eventually, the boy ends up pretty much how you'd expect--and the boy's mother blames the detectives! However, being true professionals, they don't deck the woman or tell her it's all her fault, but much of it is! All in all, while the message might seem a little simplistic and obvious, it still is enjoyable and packs a nice emotional punch. Not the best of the series, but quite good.

By the way, if you see this on the Alpha Video DVD, of the four episodes on the disc, this one still has the original commercials for L&M Cigarettes and Post Cereals.

Emblematic episode of the 50's when suburbia's biggest youth worry was teen-age gangs. Judged by today's urban standards, the strife here seems mild even though one of the boys involved is predictably killed in a gang war. The message to parents is clear-- know where your kids are. Don't be like the foolishly indulgent parents of 17 year-old Dee Pollock, who, because they are shown as solidly middle-class, focus the warning onto Dragnet's mainstream viewers. Throughout all their thwarted efforts to help, Smith and Friday remain unfailingly polite and sympathetic-- a poster ad for the LAPD. This is a pretty didactic entry and seems to have aged rather badly at a time when white middle-class youth's main conflict is getting into the right college. Also-- Frank's humorous interlude makes him look even more foolish than usual. All in all, a curiously unaffecting episode given the subject matter.