I really used to like Police Story. They had old Sea Hunt himself - Lloyd Bridges - on several episodes. They had one where he was a longtime plainclothes officer and Ryan O'Neal was his young partner. He told Ryan to only keep five rounds in his Colt Python. Not an empty under the hammer. An empty at 10:00. As he explained it, if you need to shoot someone, you know that the first trigger pull is going to be an empty, so you just pull twice - click bang. But if a bad guy managed to get his hands on your 6-inch, and attempts to shoot you with it, it will just go click, which will disconcert him, giving you time to pull your 2-inch and kill him.
That actually made sense when I was in high school.
In the other episode he was a beat cop, and came upon this expensive car parked in an alley. Sneaking up on it, he saw that it was being driven by well-known drug dealer and convicted felon Joe Blow. He makes Joe get out of the car and he performs a search. Finds a 1911 and a kilo of heroin. At the trial the defense attorney claims illegal search, and the judge agrees and throws out the evidence, so the case was dismissed. Mildly annoyed, Officer Sea Hunt jumps to his feet and demands to know if that means they're going to give him back the 45 and the heroin. Got himself a little lock up time for contempt of court.
...Ben
