Can you guess the Dragnet decade by the types of crimes?

Match these cases to the correct era!

The Dragnet franchise has been around for nearly as long as television itself. Sgt. Joe Friday, his partners and his department have even busted crime on the radio and movie screen. Remember the Tom Hanks reboot in 1987?

This quiz sticks to the TV shows — the original 1951 Dragnet, the 1967 Dragnet with Harry Morgan, and the 1989 Dragnet, a.k.a. The New Dragnet, which ran in syndication.

Different eras bring different types of crimes and crooks. See if you can guess the correct decade from the plot descriptions!

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  1. Friday and Gannon break up an LSD party and track down a suspect who has been selling the drug to teenagers.
  2. The case of star high school quarterback Rick Randall, who is found dead in a park with crack in his possession.
  3. Friday appears on a TV panel. The topic: "The Police—Who Needs Them?"
  4. An expectant mother is run down and killed by two teenagers in a hot rod.
  5. Friday and Smith are looking for a burglar who leaves a milk bottle at the scene of the crime.
  6. A costumed thief calling himself "The Crimson Crusader" has been stealing comic books, movie posters and publicity photos of various superheroes.
  7. Gary Crosby plays a hippie whose wife has been persuaded—by other hippies—to pass bad checks.
  8. A lone gunman holds up individuals after they have made withdrawals from an automated teller machine.
  9. Investigating a burglary, the detectives discover that a valuable Andy Warhol painting was stolen from the victim.
  10. Friday and Gannon try to figure out a pattern to a series of candy store hold-ups.
  11. A young man reports that he was robbed by bandits on horseback while he was down in Mexico.
  12. Friday and Jacobs interrogate a jewelry store owner about the theft of $20,000 worth of precious gems.
  13. A businessman's war against drug addiction results in a new group whose motto is "freaking out isn't in."
  14. Obscene literature and pictures are spread among youngsters at a school in Los Angeles. The supplier of this illegal stuff turns out to be a former film producer from the days of silent movies.
  15. Four people attending an unlicensed party die in an arson fire at a warehouse.

Can you guess the Dragnet decade by the types of crimes?

Your Result...

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100 Comments

Adamtwelvia 14 days ago
Any question that says Gannon was from the 60s
LynCarceo 32 months ago
Guessed all, and did badly; just 7.
BrianMoore 32 months ago
13 out of 15. And they were all guesses.
scp 33 months ago
Thirteen out of fifteen. One seemed an eighties thing, and another a fifties thing, but they were both sixties. Go figure. Mentioning things like ATM's or hippies were kind of giveaways on some of the others.

I don't recall the 1980's Dragnet at all, but wasn't there a more recent revival with Ed O'Neill as Friday?

tootsieg 33 months ago
13/15. I don’t remember Dragnet in the 80’s.
country46 tootsieg 31 months ago
I got 12/15 do not remember 80s as well
nightshade tootsieg 13 months ago
it was a low-budget weekend syndicated show wasnt on long tho
tootsieg nightshade 13 months ago
Okay. Thank you!
RickBrosh 36 months ago
14/15, missed the LAST one !
CrowTServo 40 months ago
12/15. More than I thought I would get.
Jeffrey 40 months ago
I got 10 out of 15 which is better than the one I did before.
BobD 40 months ago
There was a Dragnet TV show in the 80's?
Wiseguy BobD 40 months ago
As mentioned in the article it was shown in first-run syndication, not seen in every area. Although I've read about the series several years ago, I've never seen it in my area. Fifty-two episodes were filmed during 1989-90. It was the only Dragnet (radio, movies and TV) not to have a Sgt./Lt. Friday character.
OldTVfanatic Wiseguy 39 months ago
They did the same 80s-glitz trend with Adam-12 as well.
nightshade OldTVfanatic 16 months ago
and they were on right after each other on ch 11 in la....fun fact the African American cop in adam 12 was in the last season of the original knight rider and he's done some notable things after that also
daDoctah 40 months ago
The TV panel show in question #3 was the one that featured Howard Hesseman in his pre-WKRP days. Back then he was still working under the name "Don Sturdy".
Geronimo 40 months ago
Not bad for someone who occasionally watched this show
10/15
frenchman71 40 months ago
I did TERRIBLE!!!! 8/15. I remember the 60s storylines but not the other decades. Ques. #6. was a great episode. The burglar was the guy from "Emergency!" When they catch him in the end he's blubbering like a 5-year old.
justjeff 40 months ago
One of the funniest bits that Johnny Carson ever did on the Tonight show was his spoof of Dragnet with Jack Webb.

The setup is that Sgt. Friday is investigating a robbery. The victim, Claude Cooper, makes clappers for bells. He alleges that Clara Clifford - his cleaning lady - stole them from the storage closet. The alliteration builds with each question and answer to this ultimate conclusion...

Cooper: "...If I ever catch that kleptomaniac Clara Clifford who copped my clean copper clappers that I kept in the closet..."
Friday: "Yes?"
Cooper: "I'll clobber her!"
justjeff justjeff 40 months ago
This kind of comic alliteration was performed hysterically by Jim Jordan who played "Fibber McGee" on the Fibber McGee and Molly radio program.

He'd do something like:

"Back in Peoria, I sold saws for old man Sawyer's saw factory. In fact, I was one of the best saw-sellers that old man Sawyer ever saw. I used to outsell every saw salesman that Sawyer sent out to solicit saw sales and I succeeded in selling specific saws for every speciality that Sawyer said would sell"... (that was my version of such an alliteration - and as Fibber would say - "or something like that there"...)
Jeffrey justjeff 40 months ago
Yes, You're right it is very funny, I have seen that many,many times over the years. I like it very much.
vinman63 justjeff 33 months ago
It ain’t the way I hear it, say
justjeff vinman63 33 months ago
Ah! Bill Thompson's "The Old Timer"... "That's pretty good, Johnny - but that ain't the way I heered it... Th'way I heered it, one feller say t'the other feller... SAAAAAY, he says..."
vinman63 justjeff 33 months ago
Mr Whimple and the unheard abusive sweetiepie
MikefromJersey 40 months ago
12 for 15. Not bad considering neither me or almost anyone else watched the 1980's Dragnet
when it was on, and I don't believe it was ever shown afterwards.
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