L.A. DRAGNET {2003 SERIES}: THE MAGIC BULLET (TV)
Summary
One in another update of this popular radio and television drama based on logs from the Los Angeles Police Department, narrated by the laconic Joe Friday. This episode begins on a cool Tuesday in Los Angeles as Friday and detective Jimmy McCarron respond to the finding of a dead woman in a downtown loft. Heading to the warehouse district where "in-crowd" parties are held at night, Friday and McCarron examine a corpse found dead on the pool table in the VIP room. Friday observes scars on both of the Jane Doe's wrists. Then, Adrian Shur, the party promoter, arrives on the scene, shocked to see a dead body in the warehouse. He notes that he left at 5 a.m., thinking everyone was gone. He reveals that lots of "party girls" attend his parties. The coroner finds a medium caliber gunshot in the corpse's back and notes that she wasn't raped in a "traditional" sense -- she was shot through her vagina. Friday gives the ninety-one name guest list to detectives Gloria Duran and Raymond Cooper for further investigation. Meanwhile, McCarron determines the Jane Doe's name, Charlene Pagni. Next, the detectives go to speak with a man, Michael Jamalski, who filed a restraining order against Pagni the previous year. He reveals Pagni's obsession toward him. Duran and Cooper go to check out Pagni's empty apartment, finding that she was a passionate dreamer intent on "making it" in Los Angeles. McCarron speaks with Pagni's mother, Mrs. Price, who is surprised by how much her daughter had altered her appearance. Price reveals that she hadn't talked to her daughter in months, then points Duran and Cooper to one of Charlene's old friends, Melissa Edgar. Saying that she and Pagni hadn't spoken in a while, Edgar tells the detectives of a "fixture" that helped them get into parties, Kevin Grimes. Friday and McCarron question Grimes about the victim, but he claims he was "hammered" on the night of the party. Meanwhile, Duran figures out what kind of gun shot Pagni while Cooper traces a receipt and finds out that Pagni was pregnant. McCarron and Duran wonder if the coroner can get DNA samples from the fetus. They also notice that Pagni had several expensive plastic surgery procedures that she couldn't have afforded. Friday and McCarron go to speak with one of the party attendees, wealthy record producer Victor Hellman. The eccentric Hellman has trouble remembering the party, as well as Pagni. He also shows off his massive gun collection, but Friday doesn't press him as to whether he has the .38 Colt murder weapon. Then, Friday and McCarron inadvertently learn that Grimes lives in Hellman's guest house. Afterward, the detectives begin analyzing Hellman's personal life. They find that Hellman had a previous relationship with Edgar. Revisiting her, Edgar claims that Hellman had been dating Pagni for the past couple months and is "a freak." Duran presses Edgar, learning that Hellman liked to use a gun in the bedroom. With that information, Cooper and Duran speak with Assistant D.A. Sandy Chang, who says that she needs to know that Hellman was with Pagni on the night she was murdered. Friday and McCarron again speak with Grimes, who admits that Pagni was with Hellman at the party. The next day, the detectives get Hellman's fingerprints and a DNA sample. Friday is surprised when he realizes that Hellman didn't know Pagni was pregnant. Hellman admits that he accidentally killed Pagni during a "game" that they had played several times. Hellman claims that he never loads his guns and he was shocked it went off. Afterward, McCarron and Cooper search through a dumpster, where Hellman claimed he trashed the gun. Later, Hellman's daughter comes by the station to speak with Friday. The psycho-babbling woman claims that she won't be standing in the way of the investigation, thinking it's a healthy process for her father to endure. Then, fingerprints from the gun's spent shell casing are found not to match Hellman's. Nevertheless, Chang is still ready to press charges, until Friday convinces her to stall until the casing's fingerprints are matched. Friday and McCarron try to figure out who wanted to set Hellman up. Hellman generates his own suspects list, also admitting that he turned his daughter into "an automaton." When talking to Duran and Cooper, one of the suspects reveals that Hellman's daughter once made a power grab for her father's company by deeming him mentally incompetent. McCarron and Cooper wonder if the overly ambitious daughter might have convinced someone to load the gun for her. Visiting her hotel room, they are surprised to find a semi-dressed Grimes. He reveals that they have been dating for a year and that she wasn't manipulating him in order to topple her father's empire. Later, Hellman tells Friday that he cheated on Pagni and she found out. He claims his affair was with Edgar. Speaking again with Edgar, Friday and Duran wonder why she was dating Hellman. She recalls getting a mysterious call from Pagni on the day of the party, during which Pagni said that she would make Hellman suffer. The fingerprint on the bullet casing is subsequently found to be that of Pagni, who loaded the gun and had herself killed to ruin Hellman's life. Finally, Hellman is charged with involuntary manslaughter. Includes commercials.
(This series was named "Dragnet" in its first season.)
Details
- NETWORK: ABC
- DATE: October 25, 2003 10:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:58:24
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:80277
- GENRE: Drama, police/private detective
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, police/private detective; Asian American Pacific Islanders Collection
- SERIES RUN: ABC - TV series, 2003-2004
- COMMERCIALS:
- TV - Commercials - "Finding Nemo" home video
- TV - Commercials - "Indiana Jones" trilogy home video
- TV - Commercials - Alcoholics Anonymous
- TV - Commercials - Ameriquest financial
- TV - Commercials - Brawny paper towels
- TV - Commercials - Carnival cruise lines
- TV - Commercials - Cheerios cereal
- TV - Commercials - Citi cards
- TV - Commercials - Claritin-D allergy medication
- TV - Commercials - Dunkin Donuts coffee
- TV - Commercials - Elidel eczema cream
- TV - Commercials - Enbrel rheumatoid arthritis medication
- TV - Commercials - Kiwi shoe odorizer
- TV - Commercials - Mercury automobiles
- TV - Commercials - Nexium acid reflux medication
- TV - Commercials - Office of National Drug Control Policy
- TV - Commercials - Paxil anxiety medication
- TV - Commercials - Philip Morris tobacco company
- TV - Commercials - Pillsbury Grands biscuits
- TV - Commercials - Pizza Hut restaurants
- TV - Commercials - Rembrandt whitening toothpaste
- TV - Commercials - Riesen chocolates
- TV - Commercials - United Way organization
- TV - Promos - "10-8"
- TV - Promos - "According to Jim"
- TV - Promos - "Alias"
- TV - Promos - "Extreme Makeover"
- TV - Promos - "George Lopez"
- TV - Promos - "Hope & Faith"
- TV - Promos - "I'm With Her"
- TV - Promos - "It's All Relative"
- TV - Promos - "Karen Sisco"
- TV - Promos - "Less Than Perfect"
- TV - Promos - "Life With Bonnie"
- TV - Promos - "Married to the Kellys"
- TV - Promos - "Monday Night Football"
- TV - Promos - "NYPD Blue"
- TV - Promos - "Primetime Thursday"
- TV - Promos - "The Bachelor"
- TV - Promos - "The Practice"
- TV - Promos - "The Wonderful World of Disney: Phenomenon II"
- TV - Promos - "Threat Matrix"
- TV - Promos - ABC Halloween Week
- TV - Promos - Funai Classic at the Walt Disney World Resort
CREDITS
- Dick Wolf … Executive Producer
- Peter Jankowski … Executive Producer
- Walon Green … Executive Producer
- Arthur W. Forney … Co-Executive Producer
- Jeffrey Reiner … Co-Executive Producer
- Jonas Pate … Co-Executive Producer
- Josh Pate … Co-Executive Producer
- Barry Berg … Producer
- Tyler Bensinger … Producer
- Tim Deluca … Co-Producer
- Aaron Lipstadt … Director
- Dan Dworkin … Writer
- Jay Beattie … Writer
- Mike Post … Music by
- Walter Schumann … Theme Music by
- Miklos Rozsa … Theme Music by
- Ed O'Neill … Cast, Lt. Joe Friday
- Desmond Harrington … Cast, Det. Jimmy McCarron
- Eva Longoria … Cast, Det. Gloria Duran
- Evan Parke … Cast, Det. Raymond Cooper
- Christina Chang … Cast, Assistant D.A. Sandy Chang
- Michael Massee … Cast, Victor Hellman
- Hamish Linklater … Cast, Kevin Grimes
- Jennifer Sky … Cast, Melissa Edgar
- Nicole DeHuff … Cast, Claudia Hellman
- Robin Bartlett … Cast, Donna Bostick
- Lee Garlington … Cast, Mrs. Price
- Hal Ozsan … Cast, Bruce Berkowitz
- Neil Hopkins … Cast, Adrian Shur
- Hunter Bodine … Cast, A&R Guy
- Marci Brickhouse … Cast, Charlene Pagni
- Kim Evey … Cast, Jill Soames
- Todd Felix … Cast, Waring
- Bruce Katzman … Cast, Bernie
- David Anthony Marshall … Cast, Michael Jamelski
- Craig Ryan Ng … Cast, Bolo
- Jeannette O'Connor … Cast, Apartment Manager
- Scott Rabinowitz … Cast, Detective Selig
- Heidi Sulzman … Cast, Uniformed Cop
- K.T. Thangavelu … Cast, Griff
- Andrew Cooper Wasser … Cast, Session Guitarist