"Dragnet" was a half-hour television program which ran on the NBC television network from 1951 to 1959 in black and white and again from 1967 to 1970 in color. This episode is titled "The Subscription Racket" and was first broadcast on April 20, 1967. Sergeant Joe Friday and Officer Bill Gannon are two long-time Los Angeles police officers who work in a different police department office each week. Friday and Gannon are assigned to appear on an evening television program to talk about various scams and confidence games. The men flip a real US silver quarter coin to decide who goes in front of the camera. Friday discusses a couple of scams and after the program ends, one of the employees, Mr. Tate, tells the policemen that his wife has given a lot of money to door-to-door magazine subscription salespeople. Friday and Gannon decide to investigate. The wife says that one salesman showed her a military medal.

Sergeant Friday and Officer Gannon are to appear on a local television program. They flip a coin to decide who makes the actual appearance in front of the camera.

The quarter decides that it is Sergeant Friday who will be "on camera." Their boss, Captain Lambert, briefs them on the appearance.

The two policemen head for the studio. The program is being taped for later broadcast.

Friday, seated, with the camera running, pulls a snake out of a box.

Friday explains that a crook will go under a house and come back out with a rubber snake and tell the owner that there is a nest of rattlesnakes under the house. The crook then offers to remove the snakes for a price. Friday then holds up a tree twig.

Friday explains that some crooks will offer to trim a homeowner's tree and charge by the branch. After working on the tree the crooks will charge the owner for every little twig, resulting in a large bill. Friday then signals the cameraman for a close-up of a "money duplication" machine that he has brought with him.

Friday explains that a crook will demonstrate the machine by inserting a $20 bill into it and taking out two $20 bills from a hidden compartment. After the show finishes a station employee, Mr. Tate, asks if he could talk to the officers. Mr. Tate tells them that his wife Marilyn has bought several magazine subscriptions from a man claiming to be an ex-Marine war hero and a woman claiming to be a nursing student. Friday and Gannon start their investigation by driving to see Mrs. Tate in Tarzana.

Mrs. Tate explains that the man claimed to be Glenn Procustan, an ex-Marine Vietnam veteran, and that he showed her a military medal. He told her that he was soliciting magazine subscriptions for the Marine Corps to send magazines to wounded Marines staying in military hospitals in Vietnam. The two officer take notes and a receipt from the salesman and return to their office. They learn the name of another "customer" and interview her. She tells the policemen that she gave a $50 check to the salespeople but her bank called her and said it had been fraudulently raised to $500.

The officers drive by the then famous Ambassador Hotel, home of the Cocoanut Grove nightclub. The policemen locate Pete Benson, the crew chief of a group of magazine salespeople.

Benson tells the policemen that he fired Glenn Procustan for stealing money and that Norma Bryant, a woman in the group, ran off with Glenn. The policemen do some checking up on Glenn and find out that his father was a Marine who was awarded the medal for an act of heroism in Vietnam in which he died. They policemen then locate Glenn.

Glenn is polite and admits to selling magazines. The policemen then mention the $500 check and he denies changing any check amount. His girlfriend Norma arrives dressed as a nurse.

Norma tearfully admits to "raising" the check to pay for their upcoming wedding. Glenn pulls out his father's medal.

The medal appears.

The medal is a Medal of Honor, sometimes known as a Congressional Medal of Honor. The program ends in the usual way for "Dragnet."

Jack Webb as Sergeant Joe Friday
Harry Morgan as Officer Bill Gannon
Jerry Dexter as Jerry Dexter
Brian Avery as Glenn Procustan
Marianne Gordon as Norma Bryant
Director: Jack Webb
Writers: Henry Irving, Jack Webb