Community relations is the theme, as Friday and Gannon try to narrow the gap between the Department and the citizens it is sworn "to protect and to serve." The gap is especially wide between African-Americans and the primarily Caucasian LAPD, as demonstrated when a young - and slightly militant - black man barracades himself in his apartment rather than submit to a traffic warrant.
Over $100,000 has been embezzled from an industrial company. An investigation of the employees leads Friday and Gannon to a habitual gambler.
Friday and Gannon are screening applicants for the Police Academy. One seems to have all the right qualifications, except that six months are missing from his application.
Petty theft from drug and hardware stores leads to a group of four teens who are determined to start their own nation on a remote island off the California coast.
Friday and Gannon learn that a young man has called his mother from Hollywood "to say goodbye." With the help of the man's sister, the two detectives trace the impending suicide to a hotel with over 1,200 rooms.
An ex-con accused of extortion is interrogated. He calmly and smugly insists that he is innocent, but Friday and Gannon have a surprise for him: taped conversations and a voice analysis device.
When a nine-month old child is beaten, Friday and Gannon investigate the parents, who are more concerned about their failing relationship than their baby son.
Sgt. Friday is offered a bribe to assist a gypsy family trying to gain control of the gypsy community.
A teenage runaway, intent on becoming a star, has instead wound up in pornographic films. Acting on behalf of the girl's aunt, Friday and Gannon try to find the young "starlet."
Citizens are full of praise for Officer Gideon C. Dengle - they want to bestow him with awards, honors and home-baked cookies. There's only one problem: there's no such officer in the LAPD.
Friday and Gannon confront "Brother" William Bentley at his Temple of the Expanded Mind. They think he is using his new age religion as a front to push drugs to the nearby elementary school.
Two small girls, ages three and five, are missing. Their mother is certain that her ex-husband, an alcoholic, has kidnapped them. However, he is now in recovery and has no knowledge of the girls' whereabouts. The search seems hopeless until Friday and Gannon, acting on information from a former neighbor, follow a hunch.
Drugs are found aboard a plane that has crashed in the San Fernando Valley. The pilot is quickly traced, but in order to force him to name his connection, Friday and Gannon ask the press to sit on the story for a few hours.
A statue of the child Jesus was stolen from a church. Joe and Bill have to get it back by Christmas. They have less than 48 hours.
An officer accused of taking a bribe has chosen Sgt. Friday to represent him at his trial board hearing. Witnesses saw the officer accept the money, but he insists it was for the payback of a loan made years ago.
Friday and Gannon investigate a scam involving a phony LAPD newsletter, which comes with a card for subscribers entitling the bearer to preferential treatment from the police.
A female con-artist uses an evangelistic approach to lure buyers into her pyramid scheme. The Bunco division can't charge her with false advertising, so they prosecute her for operating a lottery.
Friday and Gannon are on the case to find ... a purse-snatching dog? Making things more difficult, victims give different descriptions of the four-legged thief.
A woman real-estate agent is missing and turns up dead in a vacant home. The detectives suspect her ex-boyfriend. Then credit card bills for purchases made after the woman's death start appearing.
An ex-con named Steve Deal contacts Friday and Gannon when a classified ad that he placed, offering to do "anything" for money, results in an offer to commit murder. Friday goes undercover as Deal.
An elderly businessman, concerned about the welfare of his grandchild, informs Friday and Gannon that his daughter and son-in-law are using marijuana regularly. The young couple make no apologies for their lifestyle, which inevitably leads to disaster.
A series of daring daylight house burglaries are taking place. Friday and Gannon go undercover in a laundry truck to discover the perp.
Sgt. Carl Maxwell, a frustrated fellow detective, goes AWOL; Friday and Gannon have three days to track him down before Maxwell loses his badge for good.
Bill invites Joe to dinner and a football game at his home in Eagle Rock. The only problem: Gannon's neighbors keep interrupting the visit with petty, and not-so-petty, problems.
A nervy bank robber uses innocent women to help commit his crimes. Friday and Gannon are nearly sidetracked when one of the victims lies about her involvement and later proves to have a criminal record of her own.
Three con artists have been swindling businessmen from out-of-town by posing as a prostitute and two policemen. The detectives set a trap as Gannon pretends to be a manufacturer from Lincoln Nebraska.
Joe tries to stop a burglary at an all night launderette and ends up exchanging fire with the suspect. When SID tries to find the bullet fired at Joe, they come up empty and Joe faces a shooting board with no proof the man ever fired at him.
A volatile teenager throws acid on the back of another student (played by a teen-aged Jan Michael Vincent), then crashes a party armed with a live hand grenade.
