"Dragnet 1967" The Bullet (TV Episode 1967) Poster

(TV Series)

(1967)

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8/10
A 'Whodunnit' Ends First Season
ccthemovieman-19 April 2008
Who killed the man - the wife or her mother?

That's the question here as "Joe Friday" and "Bill Gannon" discover an apparent suicide is just that: apparent, not fact. The medical examiner discovers the bullet that was in the dead man's body did not come from the gun lying next to the man. Earlier in the day, Friday and Gannon had gone to the house and questioned both the man's wife and mother. Neither had a kind word to say about the deceased. The wife was separated from the husband and said he was a no-good drunk and her mother agreed. Gannon and Friday bought it, until the ME made them re-think the case.

Now, they had to find out who killed the man and how it was done. Since the door was locked from the inside and the windows were locked, how did the killer get out of the room? (Earlier, Friday had the break the window glass to get into the room.)

This "whodunnit" ended the brief first season, sorry to say. I'm hoping a second season will available on DVD sometime soon.
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8/10
A good little mystery
planktonrules18 November 2009
Warning: Spoilers
This is an interesting episode and is quite a bit different from the normal "Dragnet" episode. Instead of trying to solve some crime in the typical way, the show begins with an apparent suicide and everything seems routine. However, the forensics man assigned to the assist Friday and Gannon comes up with something entirely unsuspected--the bullet lodged into the dead man is a DIFFERENT caliber than the one found with the body!! So, the team returns to the home to get to the bottom of the murder--and it's a doozy.

Mabel Albertson stars as the mother-in-law. If you were alive when I was young, you'd probably recognize this lady as she seemed to have appeared in every TV show made during the 1960s. Her character is quite interesting--proving that you should never mess with a mother-in-law! Overall, very interesting and with an odd little twist at the end.
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7/10
The Big Bullet
Scarecrow-8812 November 2011
Warning: Spoilers
What seems like an open-and-shut suicide for Sgt Joe Friday and partner Bill Gannon (Jack Webb and Harry Morgan) turns out to be anything but. The medical examiner discovers a slug from an automatic (not the gun found in the victim's hand) and presents his findings to Friday and Gannon changing the whole dynamic of their case. Maybe the testimony of the victim's mother-in-law isn't quite as truthful as first thought. This is one of those instances where Friday and Gannon see no evidence of a crime committed, with another member of the police force, forensics, helping them solve a case of murder, made out of a moment of absolute madness due to actions of the victim the night of his death. Nice little close to the first season of the 60s reprisal of Dragnet, with an ironic final frame consisting of a certain book, with a bullet in it, found in a fireplace, the camera pulling back to establish a sign that seems to indicate disruption of "God's happy home"…I found it amusing.
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Bill Gannon's sandwich
johnfox-820349 June 2022
The famous episode where Bill suggests to Joe Friday to come over to his house for a sandwich; baloney and head cheese on garlic bread with mustard,horse radish,mayo and pickle !!!
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10/10
Answer to intro
r_mastroianni27 November 2021
Jack Webb only mentioned the Los Angeles Dodgers in the introduction because by 1967 the Los Angeles Angels had moved to Anaheim and became the California Angels.
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9/10
NO ANGELS
muzixan4 May 2021
In the opening voice-over Jack Webb says that Los Angeles has a baseball team, & they play here (Dodger Stadium). Los Angeles has had 2 baseball teams since 1961. Why didn't he mention the Angels? Maybe he just wasn't a fan of American League baseball. Oh, & by the way, this is another well written episode with outstanding acting.
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6/10
Dubious forensics
Fluke_Skywalker11 July 2023
Warning: Spoilers
Today I suppose shows like "C. S. I. (fill in the blank)" are held to a higher standard thanks to the internet making all of us instant "experts" on the subject at hand. But I don't think you have to do a Google search to figure why the forensics of this particular episode just don't add up. Primarily; How in the heck did the casing get into the study?

With only two possible suspects, the killer was hiding in plain sight, and since the wife was too obvious, the moment we met mom I knew who pulled the trigger. Neither actress is Meryl Streep--in fact, they're both quite bad--but as written and acted, the wife does a decent job of making us feel that there's something fishy going on, and that at least had me wondering if she was in cahoots with her mother.
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7/10
The Angels are in Anaheim
roadrunner-3387725 November 2021
Jack Webb was a stickler for details. Technically Los Angeles only has one baseball team, the Dodgers. Dodger Stadium is near downtown LA and Chinatown. The Angels have their stadium in Anaheim, roughly 30 miles to the south in Orange County, not Los Angeles County.
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6/10
I did not understand the ending... ???
imdb-2528812 October 2020
Warning: Spoilers
So Darrin Stephens' mother in law shot and killed him??? She said she shot him but didn't say she hit him or that he died. At the end, she asks the cops "Well, who could have killed him?" and asks why they're taking her to jail.

Granted, I was busy mopping the floor, since these crazy people are putting hardwood floors all over the place, you have to mop 3 times a day, and it's still impossibly dusty-dirty soon as you done mopping. But still, my ears were following the show: that's what granny, mother-in-law of the most gorgeous TV witch said.

So who dunnit? And why did they haul off granny at the end? I have no idea. All I know is she was like 66 at the time and played a 62 year old, if that helps anyone?
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How Did The Bullet Case Get In The Study?
1Wishbone11 January 2023
I've seen this episode multiple times, and it never gets old. First, I always thought the stiff character and dialog of the wife was odd. But I also have an observation: I have always had this question, and maybe someone can answer it here. Both guns were fired in the living room of the house. The .38 gun that shot the Bible keeps the shell casing in the gun - it doesn't eject, and that's where they found it. However, the 9mm Luger that killed the man (shot by the Grandma) ejects the shell casing when shot. All this shooting took place in the Living Room. My question: HOW did the 9mm shell casing end up in the office room, where it was later vacuumed up from the floor?
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Slow Detective Work
raad-7163419 December 2023
Must be before they created CSI, even though it's been around since the early 1900s.

Assuming it's a suicide, even after finding different caliber shell casings. EMT's only check for vital signs, declared him DOA. Everyone is walking all over the crime scene, touching everything.

Once they figured out it's a homicide and investigate the wife and her mother, there should have been a search warrant issued and the entire house searched. Instead, they bring in a CSI who's clueless about the crime other than the 2 bullet casings.

Dragnet is half cop show, half documentary, the way Friday goes on his "let me educate you" rants. And Friday and Gannon are the only 2 people I've seen that walk like stiff boards. Too much starch in the underwear. Talk so fast, closed captioning can't keep up (Oh, that wasn't invented yet).

Still, I love the show cause I love being grossed out by Gannon's liverwurst and onion with mustard, pickles, peanut butter on garlic bread..... Friday, you don't know what you are missing....(yes, he does.)
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