One of my five favorite episodes. Dragnet often featured troubled teenagers and the difficulties these teenagers presented to their parents, to neighbors, to teachers and to the police. On most episodes these troubled teens were involved with drugs, but in the two "troubled teens" episodes I'd rate highest, this one and the third season episode "The Joy Riders", drugs were never mentioned or even hinted at.
The two episodes were similar: in each, the teen villains sprouted from fairly good homes; both had parents who at least seemed to be trying to keep them in line. In each case, the parents were out of their depth—one boy had a wishy-washy Momma who didn't want to face facts and a step father who didn't want to push his authority too hard, and the other had a single mom when he needed a tough father who'd give him an occasional shot upside the snoot. In this one, Gerald was a psycho; in the other, Harold was a punk. The Dragnet show featured a lot of bad acting from teen aged or young adult actors, but what made these two episodes stand out from the other "troubled teen" episodes, is that the acting from the young actors playing the "troubled teens" was actually very good.
In this one, the kid playing Gerald, a Jack Webb favorite named Mickey Sholdar, was almost perfect. In his early scenes, he played nice and polite with his parents & with Friday and Gannon, and managed a neat trick by being convincingly unconvincing. What I mean is that in his interview with the cops, he seems perfectly contrite about the consequences of his acid attack on a fellow teen. He's saying things like "Gee whiz, officer, I didn't mean to hurt him. I just threw acid at him. I didn't think that could do any harm,", and offering to make nice to the kid he threw acid at by paying for his damaged clothes. While he's making his excuses and his promises to be a good boy from now on, you get a neat little bit of acting from Friday & Gannon as they give each other the knowing eye, as if saying, without words, "this kid's full of sh-t."
Later on, Gerald crashes a party being held by kids from his school, and threatens the gang with a grenade. He yells, scream, rants and goes into apoplectic hysterics. We see this in other Dragnet episodes and it comes off hokey (especially with younger actors), but in this scene it's completely convincing. There's no ham in it at all. If there had been, it would have ruined the show and turned it into "camp". There are a lot of scenes in these old Dragnets, you watch them now and you get a laugh, even when it's not intended. This isn't one of them
An interesting sidelight, why I gave the title I did to this review. Jack Webb did NOT like the name "Gerald" or "Jerry". I've watched a lot of the older shows (from the 50s) and listened to all the available Dragnet radio shows. There was an episode, I can't remember if it was an early TV or a radio show (might have been both, as Webb wasn't shy about reusing scripts) in which Friday & Frank Smith were tracking a criminal whose first name was Gerald. When a lady they're interviewing says, "Gerald. I hate the name Gerald. What kind of name is that for a man?", it's obvious that she's not merely reading a script, but she's speaking for Jack Webb. And I find that in Dragnet, like this episode, or in a later episode, from the fourth season, when Friday, taking a college class, arrests a wise guy pot head named "Jerry", Geralds or Jerrys on Dragnet are bad news. Jack Webb didn't like the name, so he tagged in onto unsavory characters on his show.
The two episodes were similar: in each, the teen villains sprouted from fairly good homes; both had parents who at least seemed to be trying to keep them in line. In each case, the parents were out of their depth—one boy had a wishy-washy Momma who didn't want to face facts and a step father who didn't want to push his authority too hard, and the other had a single mom when he needed a tough father who'd give him an occasional shot upside the snoot. In this one, Gerald was a psycho; in the other, Harold was a punk. The Dragnet show featured a lot of bad acting from teen aged or young adult actors, but what made these two episodes stand out from the other "troubled teen" episodes, is that the acting from the young actors playing the "troubled teens" was actually very good.
In this one, the kid playing Gerald, a Jack Webb favorite named Mickey Sholdar, was almost perfect. In his early scenes, he played nice and polite with his parents & with Friday and Gannon, and managed a neat trick by being convincingly unconvincing. What I mean is that in his interview with the cops, he seems perfectly contrite about the consequences of his acid attack on a fellow teen. He's saying things like "Gee whiz, officer, I didn't mean to hurt him. I just threw acid at him. I didn't think that could do any harm,", and offering to make nice to the kid he threw acid at by paying for his damaged clothes. While he's making his excuses and his promises to be a good boy from now on, you get a neat little bit of acting from Friday & Gannon as they give each other the knowing eye, as if saying, without words, "this kid's full of sh-t."
Later on, Gerald crashes a party being held by kids from his school, and threatens the gang with a grenade. He yells, scream, rants and goes into apoplectic hysterics. We see this in other Dragnet episodes and it comes off hokey (especially with younger actors), but in this scene it's completely convincing. There's no ham in it at all. If there had been, it would have ruined the show and turned it into "camp". There are a lot of scenes in these old Dragnets, you watch them now and you get a laugh, even when it's not intended. This isn't one of them
An interesting sidelight, why I gave the title I did to this review. Jack Webb did NOT like the name "Gerald" or "Jerry". I've watched a lot of the older shows (from the 50s) and listened to all the available Dragnet radio shows. There was an episode, I can't remember if it was an early TV or a radio show (might have been both, as Webb wasn't shy about reusing scripts) in which Friday & Frank Smith were tracking a criminal whose first name was Gerald. When a lady they're interviewing says, "Gerald. I hate the name Gerald. What kind of name is that for a man?", it's obvious that she's not merely reading a script, but she's speaking for Jack Webb. And I find that in Dragnet, like this episode, or in a later episode, from the fourth season, when Friday, taking a college class, arrests a wise guy pot head named "Jerry", Geralds or Jerrys on Dragnet are bad news. Jack Webb didn't like the name, so he tagged in onto unsavory characters on his show.