Dragnet "Big Little Jesus/Christmas Story" Edited Together

Final scene of "The Big Little Jesus"
(1953) and "The Christmas Story" (1967) edited together!

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Jack
• Webb
• Dragnet
• Harry
• Morgan
• Ben
• Alexander
• Adam
• 12
• Adam-12
• Emergency!
• The
• Big
• Little
• Jesus
• Christmas
• Story

[ohiofan1989]

Contrary to some of the messages I have received, the 1953 version was not filmed in color.

[LuvvyDuck]

You did an awesome job on this vid; I've been pretty depressed about Christmas this year, and it did me a world of good to see this episode. In these troubled times we're living in, we need a reminder of what Christmas is REALLY about, regardless of one's beliefs. God bless you for putting in both these beautiful stories, and Merry Christmas!

[ohiofan1989]

Thank you very much for your comments. I worked very hard to put this video together and I am very thankful that you enjoyed it.

Merry Christmas, my friend!

[webbauthority714]

Great job editing...This brings back many fond memories of family and friends...This episode was one of Jack's favorites...He would have loved this...Shortly before he passed away he was working on a new Dragnet for 1983 very similar to this one with scenes from the 50's and 60's Dragnets edited together and then fast forwarding to the present...Unfortunately, this was only in the early stages when he died...Nice video...Keep up the good work.

From:

The Family of Jack Webb

[cllewis1]

amen to that...it was so obvious that Hollywood had real respect for the Church and the Clergy back then...

[SWApilot1964]

Hey Matt, it's Christmas once again and it wouldn't be the same without watching 'A Christmas Story' with your edited work of Jack Webb. Still looks great. TT

[gymnastix]

@ohiofan1989 The CTVAcitation looks like this:

Just look up the third season of the 1953 "Dragnet" series in the U.S. Crime Series section of the CTVA Biz website, to find the citation of Episode #17, which shows it was filmed in color.

It looks like this:

3.17 [064] Dragnet: THE BIG LITTLE JESUS (Christmas episode)(color) (verified on film RF)/(c) Mark VII Ltd. - Pathécolor/24Dec53

[gymnastix]

@ohiofan1989 Just look up the third season of the 1953 "Dragnet" series in the U.S. Crime Series section of the CTVA Biz website, to find the citation of Episode #17, which shows it was filmed in color.

[gymnastix]

@ohiofan1989 One such episode was of "The Jack Benny Program," wherein Benny took a boy's scout troop known as "The Beverly Hills Beaver Patrol" to a carnival/circus, a pretty logical venue for a color TV episode. The color film of that Benny episode has also, reportedly, gone missing.

More proof this 1953 Christmas ep. of "Dragnet" was shot in color may be found on the CTVA website, as well the records of the Library Of Congress website.

[gymnastix]

@ohiofan1989 Even at CBS, as early as 1955, chairman William Paley had ordered all his popular TV series' to film one episode per season in color, as an experiment, for what was considered an inevitability of future TV programming.

[gymnastix]

@ohiofan1989 Also, don't forget NBC was "The Peacock Network," the first of the TV networks to go all-color. But even before that time, it was common to film special episodes of series' (especially Christmas ones), and TV specials themselves, in the multi-hued format, for the day when such programming could be seen by all or most viewers in beautiful, rich, "living color.

[gymnastix]

@ohiofan1989 Another possibility would be to colorize a dupe of the original episode. Colorization of the black & white eps. of "Gilligan's Island" actually came out pretty well, with richer colors, as the technology has evolved, not always appearing as those pastel-tinted fadejobs of the older MGM films colorized by Ted Turner.

[gymnastix]

@ohiofan1989 Some still think a 35mm color print of the original color "Dragnet" Christmas episode from 1953 may exist somewhere. But even if not, we still have a pretty good monochrome print, plus the 1967 version that is in color. You have nicely edited both together here.

But just because the master print of a color film may be lost or destroyed does not necessarily mean a film or TV episode was not shot in color originally.

[gymnastix]

@ohiofan1989 If no color film of the first Christmas "Dragnet" episode exists, how, you may ask, do we know it was shot in color?

Simple, the many millions of TV viewers who watched the color episode (the first of a regular NBC-TV series) in its original and repeated airings between 1953-58, as may be attested by the ratings of the A.E. Nielsen Company, as well the records of Mark VII, Limited, Webb's production company.

[gymnastix]

@ohiofan1989 Also, the location of the church in the original episode was the Old Mission Plaza Church in L.A., founded 09-04-1781, the same day as the city of Los Angeles itself, while the church of the second episode is Mission San Fernando Rey, in the San Fernando Valley.