Dragnet: The Big Jump (1952)
Season 2, Episode 1
Oddball Entry
3 September 2023
Oddball early entry in this popular series since there's no crime or criminal doings involved. Instead Friday tries to talk down a suicidal man from a ledge high above city streets. Friday's sweaty and so am I as the two perch there like two birds who can't fly. So how will it turn out since the wacko's pledged himself to dive in 15-minutes real time, our time. So now we can count down along with him - a good suspenseful touch. At the same time, nothing Friday or the ground crew seems to work at saving him. Instead he's dead set or is it set for dead. My one reservation: I wish the wife's humanizing reveal on why husband's gone wacko were inserted sooner. That way, he would be more sympathetic than the cruel angry man he comes across as, and maybe more worthy of police like Friday risking their lives. Anyway it's a 30-minute white-knuckler, so don't miss it.

( Note presence of actor Milburn Stone as what amounts to Friday's pardner. He would soon trade hats and go on to play Doc Adams in another enduring series Gunsmoke, {1955-75}.)
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