Ben Romero, Friday's first partner, was pretty quirky too. His character really didn't start to develop until early in the second radio season but neither did any of the other characters. Ed Jacobs and Bill Lockwood were more along the Joe Friday line, but Frank Smith was a quirky guy from the beginning of the TV series.They're all completely normal compared Bill Gannon though.   See 2 other replies

All of Friday's partners were kind of eccentric... except maybe the very first one back in the radio days. Still... whatever their quirks they're all very professional when it comes to their job.
It's interesting how the show changes... starting from the old radio shows up to this newer color version. The old radio shows are pretty much just hard-boiled cop shows with a certain attention to detail/realism... by season 3 of the color episodes it's almost a public relations show for the LAPD, what with all the stuff about internal procedures of the department... and much less time spent on the streets.
I wonder if these changes were meant to balance out the more action-packed (!) and youthful Adam-12?   See 2 other replies

That is odd, but the air date is correct. The same general idea was used in an episode titled "The Big Little Jesus" that aired on 12/24/53.The only explanation I can come up with is that somehow the original film containing the intro and title card was lost or damaged. Then for syndication, they cut in the intro from the final season.One thing I've noticed as the series went along is that Friday's introduction ("This is the city...") got shorter and shorter. Nearly every episode in the first seasons had a longer intro where he would talk a little about LA. But in the last two seasons, he went right into "I work here, I carry a badge."   See 1 other reply

I recently finished season 1, and now I'm about halfway through season 2, and I've noticed that now when Friday identifies himself to civilians, he shows his badge, but in season 1 he only showed an ID card.Also in season 2, Bill's character seems a lot more eccentric than in season 1.   See 2 other replies

I just got done watching an episode from Season 2, The Christmas Story, and the intro said it was "Dragnet 1970" but in the list of episodes, where it says the original air date, it says Dec. 1697.   See 1 other reply