Friday arrests a fellow student after their night school class and incurs the wrath of Professor Grant, who expels him after a vote of the other students at their next meeting. Friday demand... Read allFriday arrests a fellow student after their night school class and incurs the wrath of Professor Grant, who expels him after a vote of the other students at their next meeting. Friday demands a chance to plead his case to the students before a second vote is taken. Grant says he ... Read allFriday arrests a fellow student after their night school class and incurs the wrath of Professor Grant, who expels him after a vote of the other students at their next meeting. Friday demands a chance to plead his case to the students before a second vote is taken. Grant says he must garner 2/3 of the votes to be reinstated.
- Director
- Writers
- Richard Morgan
- Jack Webb(uncredited)
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- GoofsAside from Barbara, everyone, including Professor Grant, appear to be wearing not only the same outerwear but also the same clothing underneath to class on the three consecutive Tuesdays in April. Barbara's outerwear changes: first wearing a buttoned-up white coat; then a daisy yellow blazer with a white blouse and gold necklace on the outside; and finally, an olive blazer with the same blouse and necklace.
- Quotes
Carl: [Joe starts to leave. Carl wearing an eyepatch, stands up and speaks] Just a minute. Where are you going, Sergeant? The vote was even.
Prof. Grant: Friday made a deal. He had to get a two-thirds vote to stay in this class.
Carl: Who wrote that rule?
Sergeant Joe Friday: I agreed to it.
Carl: Well, I didn't. I've been sitting through this silly mess for a week now. I wanted to see what kind of policeman this man really is. I wanted to wait and see if he would take this nonsense that's been thrown at him, or if he was really interested in remaining in this class--if he'd come back. Well he didn't disappoint me. He's back, he's interested, and he's gonna stay. For the record, I'm a practicing attorney attending this class for the same reason as the rest of you: to learn about human nature. Well, I just took a post-graduate course with this ridiculous display. Now let me spell this out for you people in simple English: This man will be allowed to stay in this class, and complete the semester, and receive a grade in this class commensurate with his ability in this particular subject--or I'm prepared to file charges against you, Professor Grant, on his behalf.
Prof. Grant: Charges? What charges?
Carl: Denying him an education because of his occupation. A couple of fancy words for that, Professor--it's called "job discrimination."
Prof. Grant: That's fine coming from you--you didn't even vote
Carl: Certainly I didn't. Why? Neither you nor any of the people in this class can vote this man out. Policemen have constitutional rights, too.
[pause]
Carl: Or didn't you know that?
[Professor Grant knows when he's been licked. He motions Joe back to his desk]
But I think the real topic is finely disguised. Like the other reviewer has said, it's not about drugs, but about free speech. I'll agree, but I think it goes deeper into the police officer being the "enemy," or at least the symbol of what the radical-minded young people hated. As that circumstance is largely what made the "pigs" the targets of the rioting, racial and otherwise, in the 60's era, it's reflected in this episode. If liberals were really concerned with the rights of the individual, Joe being ejected from the class would not have happened-- they would, as Joe himself urged, be trying to change the laws and the system. But an object that is manifest in the physical senses is needed, and thus the police officer was like the hated mascot of your school's chief rival that you love kick around, stick pins in, or hang in effigy. So Joe was considered "fair game" to be the object of hatred after he made the arrest, followed by Grant's propaganda-filled speech to kick him out.
But this quickly leads to the unanswered questions. Would a LAPD sergeant not have known that a college class cannot just vote somebody out? If a student is to be expelled, he is entitled to a hearing by the administrative authorities. But Joe doesn't even question the professor's or the class's right to kick him out; he's just upset that they refuse to understand his point of view and his responsibility to his badge. When Bill Gannon advised him to talk to the captain, Joe refused and said "It's not my way." Maybe if it had been, he could have learned then that the class was overstepping any legal prerogative-- supposing he wouldn't have known that, which he should have. And finally, how would the class have responded to Joe after the lawyer finally gave it them straight? If Joe had to participate in the discussion to make his grade of B, it's easy to imagine the radicals ignoring anything he said, or else never failing to address him as "pig" if they did respond, and Prof. Grant would have loved it. If he and the class succumbed to the fact that they couldn't vote him out, then they would have tried to harass him out. Then the right-wingers would have come to Joe's defense, and the conflicts between them we see would be dwarfed by the fights after that. And would the prof give Joe a B regardless of whether or what he then said in class? It's hard to see that Joe and that lawyer could have a case based on the prof's negative opinion. If it really anything like that, that would surely be one class to remember. But I tend to think the real incident was much simpler-- that a cop made an arrest of a classmate in a discussion group, that the prof and the class wanted to kick him out, but he told them he would sue if they tried it.
- cynic2all
- Mar 8, 2012