It’s Only Monday, but I’ve got Friday on my Mind

Joe Friday, he carries a badge. (Go ahead, hum the theme if you want to)

I digitized an episode of “Nightbeat” followed by an episode of “Dragnet.” While both are investigation dramas, I was struck by how bad “Dragnet” was.

Randy Stone, who has the night beat for a newspaper in Chicago, has flair. He’s like a character out of an old noir film. Stone has great one-liners, sarcastic comebacks, and is just cool. In the episode I did today, Stone met a secretary at a bar, and then convinced him to tell her what was wrong, and why she kept using a pay phone to call someone. I won’t go into a detailed plot summary, because I have papers I should be working on, but to give you a quick idea of how cool the show is, the episode had a love triangle, and a suicide attempt, which he tried to stop. I was on the edge of my seat.

And now for something completely different.

Sgt. Joe Friday is so boring. He’s monotone and about as exciting as dry toast. “Dragnet” as a show is mind-numbingly slow. “Just the Facts” is one of the most quoted lines for a reason-that’s all the show is. It’s about as exciting as reading a police file. The actors sound like they are reading off of a script. I cannot believe it made the leap from radio to television, and stayed on as long as it did.