User Reviews

Warning do not read unless seen episode.

This episode is an honorable mention, here it deals with the issue of DUI (Driving Under the Influence). The episode isn't afraid of painting an ugly picture of the dire consequences of DUI, from the very beginning when Friday shows the photos and tells all the facts on what happens in certain car accidents. I'll admit his speech really put me off driving anywhere for a while and thankful I didn't eat. That part I felt was a hard education because sadly it's all true.

The suspect Clay you just plain hate, you never really know what brought on his alcoholism but there are no excuses as he committed a heinous felony, so whatever troubled him before is nothing compared to that. One thing the guy said about running the elderly couple just really turn the coolant in my system to magma hot and want to punch the guy, the way he just says this it's as if he's lost nothing.

That comment also makes Friday steamed and he really lays it on the guy hard, when he does that, I thought "good one Friday". Knowing the casualties in the case, I couldn't help but think whose Parents or Grandparients they could have been and how awful they must be feeling; it really makes me grateful and thank God nothing like this has ever happened to my family.

And the picture of this guy gets uglier when Friday and Gannon visit and interview Bob's wife, and you really feel bad for her from the way she talks you get a feeling she's had it really bad which just goes to show more of the hazardous effects' alcoholism, not just to the alcoholic but everyone around. She then asks one question about the usual time when a marriage ends, and Friday and Gannon give her no answer because there really isn't one; all I can says is when things like that happen it a sign that love is gone.

The final minutes get sad when we see unfortunately the drunk gets too lenient of a sentence and goes back to bad habits. This time the results are even more dire as two more lives are lost ironically near the same spot. But also, that the wife foolishly stayed with him foolishly thinking that she can get their love back but she was wrong and we see from the physical damage she suffered it shows their relationship has truly reached a dead end.

The episode I feel is an important message on not just the deadly consequences of DUI but also why we shouldn't be lenient on the issue and anyone that commits this felony should be punished more adequately. One thing with Clay is certain he'll never drive anywhere in life ever again; drinking and driving really is a one-way street to a fast nowhere.

Rating: 3 and a half stars.

Wow. This is one of the harder episodes of "Dragnet" to watch. It's all about drinking and driving as well as traffic deaths.

The episode begins with Friday and Gannon having breakfast with a reporter and talking about the serious problem of car crashes. While this part of the show was a bit preachy and not as interesting as the rest, Joe's step-by-step explanation of the 1-second process from collision to death was sobering...and yet another example that Jack Webb could really deliver the emotional goods.

Then, the style of the show abruptly changes. The men are now investigating a hit-and-run in which two elderly people were killed. The guy responsible was a real cold piece of work who was mostly concerned with whether being booked for the crime would take him away from the office too long! Plus, he reasoned, the folks were old--it wasn't like they had a lot more life to live!! At this point, Joe unleashes a whithering speech. Unlike some of Joe Friday's speeches that were funny, this one was intense, angry and cut right to the point. Once again, this is Jack Webb as an actor at his very best.

Later, surprise, surprise, the same man is responsible for two more road deaths. Despite all the horror he inflicted on others, you are left amazed at how lenient the courts in California were back in the 1960s.

Overall, this episode has no humor, is dead-pan serious like none other and yet packs an emotional wallop. Dark and sad, this one hits a bullseye.

As the recent Casey Anthony trial proves all too well, the criminal justice system can be a bitter pill to swallow. All the police can do is conduct their investigation, produce the evidence at their disposal, arrest those responsible for the crimes committed, and let the law take over. As evident in this episode, "The Big Accident", sometimes criminals do not fully pay for the crimes they commit. The weapon in this episode is an automobile (dark blue Lincoln Sedan, to be exact), the driver, a real estate businessman who likes to guzzle alcohol, always in a hurry, commits a hit and run, striking two elderly people, the impact killing both almost instantly. He tries to replace the windshield, after the accident in a moment of hysteria, but it is only a manner of time before eyewitnesses will finger him at the scene of the crime. How he is able to make bail and get off with a puny sentence, paying a minuscule fine that puts a tiny price tag on the loss of two lives, is sure to infuriate many viewers—how could it not? But, it doesn't stop there because this man still has the freedom to get behind a wheel and the results of this prove fatal. Tragic conclusion heightens the power of this episode, even if many might consider it too preachy and overbearingly teaching us an awareness seminar on the dangers of the automobile, traffic, and speeding as it leads to non-stop accidents and fatalities. Webb has one of those great monologues after his criminal, in the fine-tailored suit, gazing at his watch, ready to get out on bail, unconcerned for those two lives his car killed, wonders why Friday carries such a "hound dog" look, where the cop tears apart the bastard's character. This episode includes a funny scene where Friday and Gannon have a conversation with a reporter as he is about to eat bacon and eggs losing his appetite after the cops explain a detailed account of an accident and how the car destroys a human driver behind the wheel (driving "under the speed limit" but too close to a car in front of him).

A reporter after a story is interviewing Friday and Gannon in a cafe. He want to know about traffic accidents in Los Angeles and the two officers give him all the figures off the top of their heads -- ninety three million miles of freeway, two feet of surface roads, one traffic death every ten seconds, and so forth. They show him picture. He gets up and walks away, leaving his breakfast untouched.

The rest of the story has Friday and Gannon tracking down a hit and run driver who killed two old people who were crossing the street. When they locate him they find a cold-blooded well-to-do man in a big office with his attorney already present. "They didn't have long to live anyway," he says cheerfully. Sentence: A year's probation and a two-hundred and fifty dollar fine. Disgusting.

But "Dragnet" is a world in which immanent justice prevails. Fate catches up to Clayton Fillmore (two streets in San Francisco) when he and his wife run a light and plow into a car full of teen agers. The wife survives but Fillmore loses both his legs.

The wife sobs, "He was always in a hurry." Friday: "He won't be any more." It's an informative episode without being exceptional in any way. And it's serious. Gannon doesn't get to make any square jokes. In its own small way it's a message movie.

"Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him, for what his hands have done shall be done to him."

(Some Spoilers) Working out of the LAPD's accident investigation division Sgt. Joe Friday and his partner Officer Joe Gannon, Harry Morgan, are called to investigate a hit and run where an elderly couple, the woman 67 and the man 73, were killed.

Checking out all the leads Friday & Gannon track down the car involved in the accident at a local, a few blocks away from the accident, car repair shop with evidence, hair blood and shoe leather, proving it to be the hit & run car. What's so shocking about all this is that the driver who was drunk behind the wheel Clayton Filmore, Robert Clark, has a history of drunken driving arrests dating back to his high school and collage days. It also turns out that Filmore and his old lady Patricia, Audrey Dalton, were on the outs and planning to divorce. The reason for all that is that Patrcia was sick and tired of Clayton's drinking that he promised her he'd stop or get, in going to AA, help for!

In fact when interviewed at his place of work-the Craig Building in Downtown L.A-Cayton acted as if he did those whom he ran over and killed a favor in that they had, being in their golden years, lived long enough anyway and he was only helping them by,in his sick way of reasoning, putting them out of their misery!

Having his high priced shyster lawyer Paul Bateman, James Seay,get him off on just a $250.00 fine, that's $125.00 for each person he killed, Filmore didn't waste any time in getting into another drunk driving accident. This time he ended up killing two teenage girls as well as losing both his legs and putting his wife, who came back to him on the promise he'll get help for his alcoholism, in the hospital with a brain conclusion and a number of broken bones!

***SPOILERS*** As for the now crippled Clayton Filmore his driving days are over not only because he can't put his feet on the gas peddle or brake, since he doesn't have any, but that his drivers license has been suspended for life! That for the good of everyone on the road or crossing the streets in and out of L.A county!