My name's Blue Boy
First Aired - January 12, 1967
A new drug called Lysergic acid diethylamide or more commonly known as LSD has turned up in Los Angeles.
Sergeant Joe Friday and Officer Bill Gannon are working in Juvenile Narcotics division and LSD has found its way onto the streets of the city and worse, has fallen into the hands of juvenile experimenters. The episode mainly centers around LSD but does focus on Benjie, aka Blue Boy, with him appearing the episode.
The episode, also sometimes called Blue Boy due to the character that appears in it, is notable for not only being the first episode of the 1960s Dragnet (the first season being called Dragnet 1967), but also the first episode of Dragnet to be broadcast in color.
Just the Tropes, ma'am:
- Adults Are Useless: Benjie's parents are shown to be this. They see no issues with their son taking LSD and want to sue the department for even arresting their son. After Benjie moves out of his parents house and LSD becomes illegal, they change their tune and the mother even apologize for their earlier interactions.
- Artistic License – Pharmacology:
- LSD is not addictive and while the doctor at the police crime lab says that there is not enough data to support it due to how new the drug is, it is more of a psychological addiction.
- It is nearly physically impossible to overdose on LSD. However, Benjie, aka Blue Boy appears to have taken a mix of other drugs as another character says of his desire to get "farther out."
Friday: [checking his signs] ...Well, he made it. He's dead. - Drugs Are Bad: The main theme of the episode. Benjie's parents even say Marijuana is worse than LSD.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": While the adults call Blue Boy by his real name, Benjie, all the kids and people on the street call him Blue Boy.
- Higher Understanding Through Drugs: A majority of people who are taking LSD to enjoy it, feel as if they have a higher understanding of the universe. Others think the drug is making them crazy.
- Intoxication Ensues: Two teenage girls are given LSD from Blue Boy without knowing what it is, just that it would take them on a trip. However, they have a really bad reaction from it to the point of throwing up.
- Left the Background Music On: The background music in the drug den scene is being played on a reel-to-reel player by one of the teenagers high on drugs. He stops the music for a second to rewind it and when Friday and Gannon break up the party the music stops playing.
- Never My Fault: Both Benjie's parents initially believe that it isn't their son's or even their own fault that he was arrested. They admit that they were wrong once LSD becomes illegal and Benjie is wanted for selling not only LSD but other drugs. They admit that they were not the parents they thought they were.
- Opium Den: Friday and Gannon bust up a den for people to take drugs, they find more than just LSD.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Teddy, a teenager who brought acid from Blue Boy, says that he will testify against Blue Boy, not because it is the right thing to do but Blue Boy gave him some bad acid.
- Rite of Passage: Benjie's mother believes that her son taking LSD and having long hair is due to an initiation and rite of passage test with the local teenagers.
- Shown Their Work: LSD really was legal in the early 1960s. California made it illegal in October 6, 1966 for possession while Federal laws prohibited the sale and manufacturing of the drug. Two years later, on October 24, 1968, possession was illegal federally.
- Smug Snake: Benjie, after his court hearing where he gets put on probation, steals Friday's lit match to light his cigarette and blows the smoke in Friday's face.
- Time Skip: The episode skips ahead 6 months once LSD is illegal and then another 2 months catching up to Blue Boy.
- Wham Shot: One of the most famous for the series, with Friday and Gannon pulling Blue Boy's head out of the ground.
