So I've been watching the 1960s version of "Dragnet" on Amazon Prime for the past couple of weeks (I had to find something to watch once I finished "Adam-12"), and the more I watch this show the more the changes that have taken place in our country hit me.
The second version of this show started in 1967, with the first version taking place in the 1950s. I remember growing up in the '60s and I remember the turmoil, unrest, and at times, chaos that was taking place in our country due to the Vietnam War, racial discrimination, and the quickly-emerging drug culture. Vietnam wasn't really in full swing in 1967 so the show never addressed that, but the drug culture was so that was the main topic of the first two seasons.
LSD didn't hit the streets until 1967, and when it first came out there was no law against its manufacture, possession, sale, or use. Very little was known about this drug at first, but that changed pretty quickly. Most of the first season was spent preaching the evils of LSD and *gasp* marijuana, and both of them were portrayed as evil, habit-forming, mind-altering and society-destroying drugs.
I'm happy to say two things that the show got wrong: LSD didn't take over the world and ruin mankind as they said it would. You hardly ever hear about LSD use these days because people have indeed wised up to just what a dangerous and unpredictable drug it truly is; they'd rather use coke or meth instead. (That's called trading one evil for another, by the way.) The other thing is that we know MUCH more about marijuana now than we did then, and we now know that it's not the habit-forming drug they said it was. So much is known about it now and society's attitude towards it has changed so much that it's now legal in ten states, and I don't think it'll be much longer before it's legal nationwide.
The third season continued to focus on drug use, but they were preaching the evils of pot instead of the hard stuff now. The main focus in this season (as I've seen so far, and I'm 13 episodes into a total of 24 for the season) is the attitude of the people towards the police. I remember when it was "cool" to hate cops, and it was an everyday occurrence for people to spit on them, throw rocks at them, other things like that. I also remember thinking that all of this was wrong, the people doing it were total assholes, and that I wanted to be a cop when I grew up.
And I was ten when this was going on.
People felt that way about cops because they saw them as representatives of what they felt was an oppressive, corrupt government - the "Establishment" that all of the hippies and flower children despised so much. I'm happy to say that instead of the cops going away and the hippies running the show, the exact opposite has happened - hippies are a thing of the past, and the police are stronger and more well-respected now than ever. Sure, you still have those morons, cretins, idiots, and assholes who hate the police, and to those outcasts all I can say is the next time you need a cop, call a crackhead instead.
All told, our country has come a very long way in the past 54 years since this show aired, and I'm glad to see that. I still have one or two more seasons to watch, and I'm curious to see what other changes I'll come to realize as a result.
Oh, and one last thing - contrary to popular belief, Joe Friday never said, "Just the facts, ma'am."
Deo Vindice
IHC
