User Reviews

"This is the city—Los Angeles, California."

Dragnet 1968 has a still-viable topic for its opening episode: a young terrorist lashing out at those his own age who have considered him an outcast. A troubled male teenager pours sulfuric acid on the shoulder of a high school letterman (a buff Jan-Michael Vincent!), ruining his jacket, resulting in a bad burn that could have been much worse. This is only the precursor to a more dangerous situation: Gerald Paulson (Mickey Sholder), still seething with pent-up aggression, lashes out at his parents who were scolding him for a minor arrest for the use of a caustic chemical as a weapon, packs a live grenade, and seems like he will detonate it at a party full of kids who didn't like him! The finale is as intense as you will see on the Dragnet series, Sgt Joe Friday and his partner Bill Gannon (Jack Webb and Harry Morgan) will have to somehow stop Gerald (his finger ready to pull the pin, a party of teenagers scared for their lives, a volatile, disturbed mind that could go off and commit a massacre) from detonating the grenade! This episode has a strong conversation sequence, topical and thought-provoking because it touches on universal themes regarding parenthood and the inability to control the worsening juvenile crime rate (not to mention, teenage behavior as the economy allows more money to enter the households of suburbia), between Friday and Gannon about the why's and how's that determine the criminality of youth (Are they born "sour"? Are the parents to blame?). Good way to open the second season of the 60s reprisal of Dragnet. Advertised at the theater where the acid incident took place was "Dr. Zhivago" for celluloid buffs. That is a young Heather Menzies (Logan's Run: The Series; Piranha) as the girlfriend of Vincent in the theater! It is neat to discover familiar faces so young on television shows like Dragnet 1968.

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.

One of the better episodes. It has the same comforting ritualistic quality as the others. "It was Wednesday, October 6th. It was sunny in Los Angeles. We were working the day watch out of Juvenile." Well. Maybe it was cool and overcast in Los Angeles. I'm not sure of the weather. I'm sure of the date, October 6th, because it's the anniversary of my cataract operation.

Gerald Paulson (Mickey Sholdar) is picked up after having poured H2SO4 on the back of another high school kid in the movies. H2SO4 -- that's sulfuric acid to you and me. The victim is Jan Michael Vincent in an early role. John Rubenstein has a small role too.

Paulson is very polite and somewhat remorseful when he's interrogated by Friday and Gannon. And why not? Friday is Jack Webb, he of the pronounced nasolingual folds, and he has lines like, "Okay, now you listen to me, fella." That would intimidate anyone.

The problem is that this Gerald Paulson is a phony. He's not remorseful at all, and when his step-father tries to impose some discipline on him -- telling him to clean his chemistry set out of the garage (why?) -- Paulson goes on a rampage, gets hold of a live hand grenade, crashes the party of a girl who has snubbed him, and holds the guests hostage. His finger is through the grenade's pin. The kid makes everyone listen to a record of raucous pop music. He sneers when Friday says, "Now, son, you just hand that over to me."

It's a tricky deal, I'll tell you. Ordinarily a script like this calls for an illegal hand gun but here we have a grenade. It's all Friday and Gannon can do to disarm the kid -- who blames Friday for his having pulled the pin. "You made me do it," he claims.

So, you ask, why do kids like this go wrong? During a deep philosophical discussion, Friday advances what he calls his "sour theory." Some kids are just born bad and a good environment makes no difference. Gannon, on the other hand, is a behaviorist who has apparently been reading George Lakoff because he comes up with the stern parent metaphor. Kids are given too much say, too early in life. Not enough discipline.

Actually, their positions aren't in conflict. They're both probably partly right. I'd get into this in more detail. But I can't right now. I've just finished watching this episode and I'm a frame of mind that calls for short, pithy sentences. "Huh?", you say. Well, listen to me, fella. Nobody can put a complex idea into an apothegm. Unless he's Oscar Wilde. And, Mister, I'm not Oscar Wilde.

***SPOILERS*** During the showing of the film "Doctor Zhivago" at a local L.A movie-house 18 year-old Rick Schneiderman, Jan-Michael Vincent, was doused with a bottle of sulfuric acid as he was making out with his girlfriend Lorean Harper, Hather Mernzies Urich, in the movie balcony. Arrested at the scene is 17 year old Gerald Paulson, Mickey Sholdar, who had openly admitted what he did to the cops on the scene Sgt.Joe Friday and Officer Bill Gannon,Jack Webb & Harry Morgan.

As we soon find out young Gerlad has problems making friends and has developed this anger against those who don't accept him to the point where he strikes out on them. The fact that Gerald attacked Rick was that he was making out with a girl, Lorean, that he Gerald had the hots for. It's later with Sgt. Friday and Officer Gannon checking out Gerald's house they find out from his parents that he threw a fit and left! They also find out that he's far more dangerous as well as crazy then they at first thought! Gerald checked out with a live US Army issue grenade and is planing to do extreme damage with it! Gerald it turns out is planning to get even with to those who've been, in his mind, kicking him around all these years! From one of the few friends that loner Gerald Paulson has the nerdy Paul Widder, John Rubinstein, Sgt.Friday & Officer Gannon find out that Gerald is planning to crash a party that he wasn't invited to and do it with deadly, with his grenade, intent!

***SPOILERS**** Tense moments at the party that Gerald plans to do a number on as both Sgt.Friday and Officer Gannon try to get the deadly live grenade out of his hand before he pulls the pin! It's Friday who takes his life in his hands by rushing Gerald who's distracted when he disconnected the party's stereo system that was, in being turned up to it's highest decibel, in the process of rupturing everyone eardrums; At the party as well as those of us watching on TV.

You can't really dislike Gerald since he was a bit isolated and unstable in his being an outcast from society. Gerald just couldn't or wouldn't fit in which made his isolation that more serious as well as, in striking out at society, dangerous. It's fitting that Gerald didn't end up behind bars where his anti-social behavior would have only intensified with those anti-social inmates he would be locked up with. Gerald is sent to the Camarillo State Hospital where he can be treated for his mental illness and eventually end up being cured of it.