There it was on the TV screen--African-American...

There it was on the TV screen--African-American residents accusing LAPD cops of mistreatment after being pulled over. Only this time, what Lisa Derrick of West Hollywood was watching was an ancient rerun of “Dragnet” on the Nickelodeon network.

“My boyfriend was watching, too, and he joked, ‘They made this three weeks ago,’ ” Derrick said.

The 23-year-old episode, “The Big Problem,” was originally summarized thusly: “Police brutality--That’s what a respected Negro couple call it when they’re stopped by police as burglary suspects. . . . “

No beating was involved. Sgt. Joe Friday, assigned to community relations, finds only that the officers failed to adequately explain why the couple were mistakenly pulled over. Friday points out, however: “Sure there are bad cops--we’re all human. But when one of them steps out of line, we sit on him.”

Oh, yes. Derrick swears that the “Dragnet” episode involved the LAPD’s Foothill Division.

TV reruns, it seems, have the ability to predict the future.

You may have caught recent cable installments of the 1960s comedy hit “Laugh-In,” in which the show’s “News of the Future” segment prophesied the Berlin Wall falling in 1989 and Ronald Reagan serving as President from 1980 to 1988. Those were jokes, by the way.

Verrrryy in-ter-est-ing, not to mention a little spooky.

Among the scenic highlights listed on a brochure for the Long Beach-to-San Pedro Harbor Cruise is:

“Federal breakwater.”

List of the Day:

Some classes offered in UCLA’s summer extension catalogue:

1--”Pet Rabbit Care.”

2--”Strategic Meat Buying and Merchandising for Professionals.”

3--”Using the Right Brain to Write Creatively.”

4--”The Motion Picture Trailer: Maximizing the Box Office Potential of Your Movie”

5--”Bagels”

For those of you who try to learn a new word each day, here’s one that Hollywood no doubt helped to inspire.

Joy Schor of L.A. found it in a Smith College publication:

“Lookism--The belief that appearance is an indicator of a person’s value; the construction of a standard for beauty/attractiveness.”

The suspense is over:

Western Waste Industries of L.A. has been named Official Trash Recycler/Hauler of the U.S. Olympic Festival.

miscelLAny:

Beverly Hills’ Monument to the Stars, a sculpture depicting a winding piece of movie film on Olympic Boulevard, is dedicated to Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and other celebrities who persuaded the city’s residents to vote against being annexed by big neighbor L.A. in 1923.