Jack Webb sure had a weird sense of what was kooky. So many characters on Dragnet had quirks that made them unique. But these quirks were rarely played with any sense of subtlety. This episode has a perfect example of that; the guy with the flip–up glasses whose scene starts just after 10 minutes in. The actor is one of their regular actors; appeared in 7 episodes. This episode featured a lot of their regular bit part actors—I think I counted 6 of them.
Also featured is the blatant overacting played to the camera, not to the other people in the scene. Like right at the front is Gannon showing the trick card to Friday over and over and over and over. But Friday can't see it from where he's sitting. Lots of that went on in Dragnet, as did the pointing. I love the pointing. In the Dan Aykroyd/Tom Hanks movie version, they pay homage to the pointing at least once that I can recall. I'd bet that Aykroyd picked up on that. He's into those quirky details like that. But it's the quirks and kookiness and overacting that I love about the show.
And dig the computer system the little chubby guy (another regular) shows to Friday & Gannon. That's the quietest "high speed" printer I've ever heard, especially with the cover open like that. If it's anything like the big ass IBM printer I used at Seabury & Smith, it should sound more like about 100 nail guns going off.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
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2 comments:
you worked at Seabury and Smith?
Yup. Once when Nick was still there (after the flood, maybe '90), and then again a couple years later when Tom Rockerfella/Rockafeller/whatever had a heart attack and they needed somebody quick to fill in for a couple months.
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