First Aired- February 1, 1968
Sergeant Joe Friday and Officer Bill Gannon are working in Juvenile division. Patty Lee Bundy, a runaway 16 year old, from another state, is reported missing to the LAPD. It is discovered she's taken work in adult film in her endeavor to get into pictures, and it's up to Joe and Bill to catch up with her before the worst happens.
Just the Tropes, ma'am:
- Abusive Parents: The reason why Patty Lee runs away, she was an unwanted child and was emotionally abused. Her aunt wanted to take her but the parents wouldn't allow it.
- Corrupting Pornography: Friday and Gannon take a missing persons case for a sixteen-year-old girl. Their investigation leads them to an underground porn studio. They find out the underage girl was recruited there, and eventually they the girl herself, dead of a drug overdose. This was a Very Special Episode: porn was illegal in the United States at the time, but Denmark had legalized it the previous year and legalization had become a freedom of expression-related issue in the US as a result, (ending in its 1973 partial legalization in Miller v. California).
- Goodbye, Cruel World!: Bundy leaves a note that says simply "To whom it may concern" before she overdoses. The note explains it all - she didn't think her death would concern anyone.
- Downer Ending: By the time they find Bundy at the rooming house where she'd been staying, she's dead from an overdose of sleeping pills, just freshly enough for the record she'd put on to still be playing as well.
- Horrible Hollywood: Talked about, the runaway wanted to be in pictures so she ran away from home. However she was tricked into making adult pictures.
- Junior Counterpart: Eva Gram tells Friday and Gannon that the reason she helped Patty Lee is because she reminded her of herself when she was younger. Sadly, it turns out she says this to a lot of other girls in order to get them into adult films. She does admit that Patty Lee is one of the few special ones.
- The Runaway: The main plot of the episode, Patty Lee runs away from home to try and make it in the pictures.
