About this season
Follows the cases of a dedicated Los Angeles police detective, Sergeant Joe Friday, and his partners. The show takes its name from the police term "dragnet", meaning a system of coordinated measures for apprehending criminals or suspects.
Episodes (39)
1. The Big Producer
10.0Aired 26 August 1954 • 30 min
A man claims to be a big Hollywood producer, but Friday and Smith discover that he's merely the leader of a pornography ring.
2. The Big Fraud
10.0Aired 2 September 1954 • 30 min
A group of con artists are posing as cops and victimizing out-of-town businessmen in fashionable hotels.
3. The Big Crime
10.0Aired 9 September 1954 • 30 min
Four-year-old twin girls are abducted from the local park.
4. The Big Pair
10.0Aired 16 September 1954 • 30 min
An old man and his granddaughter are burglarized, leaving them broke and starving.
5. The Big Escape
Aired 23 September 1954 • 30 min
A case hits too close to home for Friday when his old army buddy robs a liquor store and shoots his partner. Friday believes his friend wants to go straight after doing time, but things get worse when his friend breaks jail.
6. The Big Kid
Aired 30 September 1954 • 30 min
When Friday and Smith learn that a showdown between two teenage gangs is about to take place within 48 hours, they do their utmost to prevent it.
7. The Big Missing
Aired 7 October 1954 • 30 min
Friday and Smith are looking for a missing businessman.
8. The Big Bar
Aired 14 October 1954 • 30 min
A holdup man is sticking up bars. After he takes the money he kills many of his victims. Sergeant Friday has few leads other than that the holdup man likes a certain song on the jukebox.
9. The Big Present
Aired 21 October 1954 • 30 min
Friday and Smith are looking for a burglar who leaves a milk bottle at the scene of the crime. They suspect a juvenile might be involved.
10. The Big Gangster (Part 1)
Aired 28 October 1954 • 30 min
An attempt is made on the life of a gang leader. Friday and Smith must find the shooters before his followers seek revenge.
11. The Big Gangster (Part 2)
Aired 4 November 1954 • 30 min
Friday and Smith must find the men who murdered a gang boss before an open gang war starts.
12. The Big New Years
Aired 11 November 1954 • 30 min
On New Year's Eve, Friday and Smith are working out of Central Receiving Hospital.
13. The Big Want Ad
Aired 18 November 1954 • 30 min
Friday and Smith investigate a man who is conning people by using the want ads.
14. The Big Affair
Aired 25 November 1954 • 30 min
Friday and Smith discover that the key to finding a hold-up artist lies in his married girlfriend.
15. The Big Bible
Aired 2 December 1954 • 30 min
A man locks himself in his study and threatens suicide if his wife leaves him.
16. The Big Bindle
Aired 9 December 1954 • 30 min
Friday goes under cover to bust a drug ring that is operating out of a high-class hotel.
17. The Big Office
Aired 16 December 1954 • 30 min
Friday and Smith are assigned to the business office, where they must deal with the paperwork on a busy weekend.
18. The Big Rod
Aired 30 December 1954 • 30 min
An expectant mother is run down and killed by two teenagers in a hot rod.
19. The Big Rescue
Aired 6 January 1955 • 30 min
A group of bandits arm themselves and break their comrades out of jail.
20. The Big Family
Aired 13 January 1955 • 30 min
Local businessman John Keith Jarrett disappears and evidence of suicide is discovered. Friday and Smith check on the surviving members of his family and find them not the least concerned about their father's death, with his son a tennis bum, his daughter promiscuous, and his wife drunken. The case gets even murkier when a report comes in of a traffic incident upstate involving a camper in which the driver was using Jarrett's license.
21. The Big Shock
Aired 20 January 1955 • 30 min
Friday and Smith go after a burglar who plans to break into a bank through an underground tunnel.
22. The Big Screen
Aired 27 January 1955 • 30 min
Friday and Smith team up with a newspaper reporter so they can investigate television repairmen who may be overcharging their customers.
23. The Big TV
Aired 3 February 1955 • 30 min
The detectives search for a missing mother and child at the behest of her mother-in-law, unaware that the girl's husband has died in action and is not overseas as the woman had claimed.
24. The Big Dog
Aired 10 February 1955 • 30 min
An old man sits on his front porch with a shotgun, threatening to kill the man who poisoned his dog.
25. The Big Underground
Aired 17 February 1955 • 30 min
Friday and Smith use a stolen check as a lead to a series of used car lot robberies.
26. The Big Key
Aired 24 February 1955 • 30 min
A woman's badly mutilated body is found in a churchyard on Christmas eve. The only clue is a key lying under her.
27. The Big Mailman
Aired 3 March 1955 • 30 min
Friday and Smith go after a bandit who is robbing mailboxes and then trying to cash other people's checks.
28. The Big Customer
Aired 10 March 1955 • 30 min
29. The Big Tar Baby
Aired 17 March 1955 • 30 min
A bartender's wife is kidnapped, beaten and rolled in hot tar.
30. The Big Number
Aired 24 March 1955 • 30 min
Friday and Smith Investigate a Bank Robbery, but they don't have much to go on.
31. The Big Mask
Aired 31 March 1955 • 30 min
A masked bandit is holding up supermarkets and the police are not able to catch him.
32. The Big Sucker
Aired 7 April 1955 • 30 min
A con artist is swindling jewelers using fake diamonds.
33. The Big Moustache
Aired 14 April 1955 • 30 min
Friday and Smith investigate the robbery of an appliance store.
34. The Big Heel
Aired 21 April 1955 • 30 min
Friday and Smith use an unusual footprint to help solve a murder case.
35. The Big Gone
Aired 28 April 1955 • 30 min
The owner of a flower shop kills a man who is trying to rob him, but the corpse mysteriously vanishes.
36. The Big Student
Aired 5 May 1955 • 30 min
Friday and Smith are on the trail of a bunch of teenagers selling fake magazine subscriptions.
37. The Big Watch
Aired 12 May 1955 • 30 min
Bandits are offering rides to hitch-hiking soldiers, then robbing and beating them.
38. The Big Dig
Aired 19 May 1955 • 30 min
Friday and Smith are looking into a report of a missing woman that turns into a murder investigation.
39. The Big Mug
Aired 26 May 1955 • 30 min
Two hold-up men are robbing and beating pedestrians in the down town area.