So, I was watching Dragnet (the TV series) on Amazon Prime. In Season 2, Episode 10 (The Missing Realtor) which aired in 1967 there were some surprises for the era.
Detectives Friday and Gannon go to a real estate office. The receptionist is a black woman. She says she will get her boss. He’s a black man (Scatman Crothers). An employee at this office is missing. She’s a black woman. They go to a bar to talk to her boyfriend. He is black, as is the only customer in the bar.
When they go to several homes the missing woman had shown, the home owners are all black. When they eventually catch the man who killed the missing woman, he is black.
I looked around online and found a review on IMDB:
This episode illustrates that Jack Webb was ahead of his time in one respect.
This is a different kind of review (although this is one of the better Dragnet episodes). As noted in the trivia section of the IMDb page on this episode, this show featured black real estate professionals, which was rare for a late 60’s show.
Jack Webb, who has the reputation for being starchy and conservative, was actually quite progressive for that time period. If you watch Dragnet regularly, you will see black real estate agents, judges, lawyers, doctors, and nurses. Black criminals are somewhat uncommon. In one episode, the Lieutenant giving directions to Sgt. Friday is black, and Sgt. Friday is clearly displaying respect.
Moreover, the black professionals portrayed in the show are not stereotyped. They are well dressed and clearly well educated.
Yes, at times Dragnet can be inadvertently campy (e.g. “Blue Boy”), but we should also note Webb’s willingness to portray blacks in a positive manner (and to make them the victims of crime, rather than the criminals).
If you do not have Amazon Prime, the episode is also on YouTube.
Can you remember any similar surprises from “back then”?