I am very familiar with the remake of this episode. It seems that Jack Webb liked it so much, it was repeated. And, when his second "Dragnet" series came out in the 1960s, he even remade it as "The Christmas Story" for season two. This is one of two Christmas episodes I know of for the original series. As I mentioned above, they repeated these shows each year.
The show begins with a VERY strange phone call. It's from a local priest who's called to say Jesus is missing--or, more correctly, the statue of baby Jesus from his church's manger scene. Friday and Smith investigate but the question they all have to ask is who would steal a cheap statue? It has very little intrinsic value, plus what sort of evil scum-bag would do such a thing? While the case isn't that important when it comes to the value of the item, it is important to the parish and the officers take it very seriously. The ending is a bit of a surprise--and quite adorable.
Technically speaking, this is not among the best episodes. It's very schmaltzy, the music at the end is way overdone, the child isn't the best actor and it's dripping with sentimentality. However, despite all this, it works! The more cynical viewers will probably laugh at it, but it tugged at my heart. Also, it was very nice to see Jack Webb actually smiling in the show!! At heart, despite his outer demeanor, you could tell from the various episodes that in real life, he was a real softy.
The show begins with a VERY strange phone call. It's from a local priest who's called to say Jesus is missing--or, more correctly, the statue of baby Jesus from his church's manger scene. Friday and Smith investigate but the question they all have to ask is who would steal a cheap statue? It has very little intrinsic value, plus what sort of evil scum-bag would do such a thing? While the case isn't that important when it comes to the value of the item, it is important to the parish and the officers take it very seriously. The ending is a bit of a surprise--and quite adorable.
Technically speaking, this is not among the best episodes. It's very schmaltzy, the music at the end is way overdone, the child isn't the best actor and it's dripping with sentimentality. However, despite all this, it works! The more cynical viewers will probably laugh at it, but it tugged at my heart. Also, it was very nice to see Jack Webb actually smiling in the show!! At heart, despite his outer demeanor, you could tell from the various episodes that in real life, he was a real softy.