When working on the Dragnet series for certification, the 22 Rifle for Christmas episodes coincide with the dates each character role was in the script.

030 Dragnet. December 22, 1949. "22 Rifle for Christmas" Ed Romero
080 Dragnet. December 21, 1950. "22 Rifle for Christmas" Ed Romero
132 Dragnet. December 20, 1951. "22 Rifle for Christmas" Ed Romero
183 Dragnet. December 21, 1952. "22 Rifle for Christmas" Frank Smith

I have no evidence to determine if ep  080 was a rebroadcasts or reuse of script. Ep 132 is probably a rebroadcast as Barton Yarborough died right after the broadcast of episode 132.

Other research on the series strongly suggests all shows after the date September 20, 1955 are re-runs.  The 22 Rifle for Christmas episodes from that period are of the last live broadcast with the character Frank Smith.  Frank Passage arrived at the same conclusion.

Hope this answers the questions.  If anyone has other questions, please toss them out and I'll go over them as best I can.

ed_sehlhorst@yahoo.com
7/25/07