This episode horrified me as a child. Tim Donnelly was so corny in this episode. I love it!

i have the script to this one he worked narcotics back then they had an actor play him. its interesting to know not everything said is in the final script. for years i had no idea. my grandfather was represented in some dragnet. until i was watching it on nick at night in the 90s i asked him he gave me the script. i do like the socail commentary on child abuse. anyone notice one of those officers is from another old show.

One of the things I liked about Dragnet was how wise guys always got theirs in the end. Like the smart ass young married couple here. You knew when they started mouthing off something bad was gonna happen to them, like in the early episode when some guy ran over two old people and said, "well they were old and were gonna die soon anyway". You just knew that guy was gonna get his. And the smart gal here. Now her kid's drowned and she's a psycho under the care of a shrink. This happened in 1968, so she's been in a padded room for 43 years, just because she got smart to Joe Friday.

I remember this shows rerun on Nick at Night and TV Land when I was a kid. I grew up in a good home in a Christian family armed with the knowledge from my father where drugs had caused him trouble during the original airing of these episodes. He's a ex-con that Christ had delivered from that lifestyle; which started with Pot and graduated to PCP. I didn't heed the things I was taught and saw from this episode when I was in my mid to late teens. I started smoking pot with friends till I got to the point I smoked everyday. It soon was not enough to get a good feeling. I moved to hard drugs LSD & Shrooms, Cocaine in powder and rock form, prescription pills, ecstasy, and the last one that nearly killed me... Methamphetamine (Meth)... I have friends that are dead or have destroyed their families because of a little flirt with pot... If someone fools with pot, then it's a dime to a dollar they have dabbled in other drugs... You're a fool to say differently... Now, I got mercy through Christ, and was delivered from drugs... I've been clean for nine years going on a decade... I'm not someone that doesn't know what they're talking about, because I've been there on the other side. The shame is that it is slowly being allowed to be legalized through slithery means just like Mr. Shipley said to Officer Gannon would happen. Tragically prophetic it seems to me....

I'm over 50 yrs old....i mean I have a friend that has been smoking marijuana for over 20 years. I better call him immediatly and tell him that in he next year or two he'll be moving on to heroin, so beware. He's not shady looking like the young married couple. As soon as I saw the wife i knew she was a real " pot-head" --- that desparate lost gaze--- they all have that "way out" look. It'll appear to be a great time.....until someone loses an eye --- or worse.

LOUD SHRIEKING BACKGROUND MUSIC, FAMOUS DEAD BABY IN THE BATH TUB SCENE.
"She's dead."
Paul Shipley moaning away in the corner of the can.
2 very moody police officers.
Jean Shipley sobbing away with her dead baby, Robin, wrapped in Jean Shipley's arms, just pulled out of the bath tub, and was completely draped under a bath towel, including over dead baby Robin's face and all.
"Joe?" "You can handle this for a minute, can't you?'
"Are you all right?"
"First time since I've been on the job,..."
"Yeah?"
"...I think I'm going to be sick!"
Officer Bill Gannon runs out of the can to shoot cookies.