[Karate]

Anybody able to ID the Revolver that Ed O'neil (Friday) is carrying on The New Dragnet

[SquirrelNuts]

According to MMM, it is a custom Baby Killer model 12, referd to as BK12 :)

-SquirrelNuts

[KY Moose]

I could be wrong, but I thought it looked a lot like a Taurus Model: 608B4. The eight round .357 magnum.

http://www.taurususa.com/imagesMain/H_608B4.jpg

Although I think the grips on Ed's revolver were different than the ones pictured here.

[Karate]

Anyone had any experience with that Revolver

[Mal H]

At first glance I thought it was a Python also, but I think it had a longer barrel than 2.5". It was hard to tell since I kept ducking from the TV as both actors were walking around with their fingers on the triggers and ready to shoot each other.

[Topgun]

.

[Jason Demond]

I was thinking Python, also.

[slabsides]

This thread reminds me of an episode in the original Dragnet series (or, as I like to call it, the 'real' Dragnet: starring Jack Webb and Ben Alexander.)
This was in the heyday of the revolver as cop gun...Alexander, as a parsimonious and conservative ex-beat cop, continued as a plain-clothes officer to carry his six-inch K-38, which was issue for uniformed officers at the time. Friday carried a M&P (K-frame) .38 snub in a cross-draw Buchheimer holster.
In a memorable episode coincident with the real-world introduction of the Smith and Wesson J-frame Chief's Special .38, Friday was ceremoniously presented with one of the first of the new snubbies, and retired his 2" K.
Smith and Wesson got a world of good publicity out of that. Lots of people bought the new longer 'Special' J-frames, and some were undoubtedly motivated by a desire to 'own Friday's gun', in much the same way as Dirty Harry later popularized the big .44.
'Friday' carried and used the Chief's in all subsequent episodes of the original series. No quibbles about 'product placement' in those days.
Long time ago!

[HerbG]

Uh, I distinctly remember one of the early Dragnet episodes when Joe Friday (Jack Web) proudly displayed his brand new Colt Cobra! Of course, it's only been about 45 years since I saw that episode, so I know I couldn't possibly be mistaken.

[10-Ring]

Last night I thought I saw a Python...I really hope it was a Python & not a Taurus :D IMHO, the show is to good to be skimping on the prop guns. After all, they have an image to uphold.

[Johnny Guest]

- - -HerbG. I gotta ask-- do you specifically recall Friday calling his two-inch Colt a Cobra? All these years, I have been sure it was a Detective Special, for two reasons--

One - - - I long ago read that the DS was standard issue for plainclothes personnel on LAPD. Jack Webb was probably the absotively, posilutely GREATEST Public Relations person LAPD ever had, and I can't picture him NOT carrying what was the standard issue for the real cops. (Aside-- Have you seen the movie, "LA Confidential?" Sixties-era LAPD--Lotsa Ithaca M37 riot guns, Colt DSs, Military & Police, and at least one box-stock .45 Auto. No DA autos, ss revolvers, or other anachronisms.;))

Two - - - 1969 -- 72, I used to work with a cop named Bob Blackburn, who proudly displayed a Buchheimer cross-draw holster he said Jack Webb had used in the series, to carry his personal Detective Special. I don't recall exactly how Bob said he came to own this holster, though. (And, could you picture Webb NOT having one of the admitedly rare carry permits?:p )

Not arguing--Just checking. One of these days, I gotta find some archives with the early Dragnet episodes. Not an entirely impossible dream--The Denton Public Library has three shelves of videos of the old Have Gun, Will Travel seried, three episodes per tape.

Best,
Johnny

[Mal H]

Ok, I got a good side-view look at Friday's revolver in the episode this week. I'm still convinced it is a deep blued Python (no company does production bluing better than Colt). However, I now think the length might be 4" just from comparing it to my 4" GP100. It's definitely 3" or longer.

[Johnny Guest]

- - -By less than an hour!:D

I was just about to make this post. I watched "Boom Town," and recorded "Dragnet," and paid special attention to the big Colt.

Best,
Johnny

[Mal H]

:D

Well, there's one thing that can be said for us, Johnny (of the printable things, that is). We certainly won't give up on a subject until it's settled.





Ride not a free horse to death. -- Miguel de Cervantes