“The story you are about to hear is true; only the names have been changed to protect the innocent."

Naturally, as televisions began appearing in more and more homes, more and more programs began popping up.  Populated with variety and comedy programs with the occasional Western and ‘cop show’ mixed in, radio and television were pretty much the same-old same-old before Dragnet arrived on the scene: unrealistic.  With the legendary Jack Webb as the deadpan star of the show, the popular series jettisoned the ‘cop show’ format, along with some startling realism, into the mainstream and changed the direction of television for a generation. 

The seeds for Dragnet were sown in with the bit role Jack Webb picked up as a police forensic scientist in 1948’s He Walked by Night – the story for which was inspired by the real-life murder of a L.A. police officer.  While working on his ideas and the premise for Dragnet, Webb frequented LAPD headquarters, went on patrol with the technical advisor for He Walked by Night, Sgt. Marty Wynn, and even took police academy courses so that he could pick up on the tiny everyday details in a ‘cop’s life.’

When he brought to program to NBC, execs were initially skeptical.  Was it just going to be another cop show?  More unrealistic drama to shove at the masses?  Thankfully, Webb’s previous radio work had found some critical praise, so Dragnet got the green light for a limited run.  Starring as the devastatingly deadpan Detective Joe Friday, who seemed to spend every waking moment gathering the facts, taking interviews and putting the clues together to get the bad guy, Jack Webb’s first months on the radio were a bit bumpy.  As the cast fine-tuned their characters, radio listeners started tuning in turning the series into one of radio’s highest rated hits of all time. 

Dragnet featured a cast of characters, some colorful, some less-so, in contrast to Detective Friday.  Sgt. Ben Romero was Friday’s first partner, but due to the actor’s passing was replaced by Sgt. Ed Jacobs.  Chemistry was perfected with Friday’s third partner, Officer Frank Smith, whose presence lightened Joe Friday’s ‘just the facts’ attitude and remained his partner throughout the series.  Due to the era of the show and its setting, the show was male dominated, sprinkled with the occasional female love interest for Detective Friday.  Unfortunately for these lonely women, it seemed Friday only had time for work, and their relationships would typically fizzle by the end of the show.

Each episode of the radio series was based on real cases on file with the Los Angeles Police Department, and dealt with a number of topics that by today’s standards would seem rather tame, but for the late 40s and early 50s was nearly taboo, from drug addiction to sex crimes, children playing with guns and more.  At the end of each case, listeners perked their ears to find out what really happened to the people from the story in the show’s famous epilogue.  One of the last great radio dramas, Dragnet remained on the air until 1957.

Interest in recreating the show for television came quickly, with its first appearance as a part of a special television presentation for the series Sound-Off Time taking place in December of 1951.  One interesting aspect of the television series was that unlike other transformed radio programs, the series re-hired much of the radio staff, from top to bottom, proving that his skilled colleagues could adapt to the new medium.  The regular television series debuted at the start of 1952 and found enough success to propel it until 1959, many of those years running concurrent with the radio program. 

The success of the series in its regular run and syndication as Badge 714 (Joe Friday’s badge number from the series) made the choice for a TV movie in 1966 an easy one.  Unfortunately for Webb, the actor behind Officer Frank Smith, Ben Alexander, was tied up in another police show, Felony Squad.  In came Officer Bill Gannon, portrayed by Harry Morgan (who would later go on to star in M*A*S*H) to save the day.  The film proved popular enough to start up another run of the television series, which would run, from 1967 to 1970.  The change in pop culture of the time changed the tone of the show, as Webb seemed to go from crusader to someone who was unhappy with the behaviors of a new generation.  He even seemed rather irked with Gannon, and the chemistry between them tanked. 

Dragnet went on to inspire a legion of television shows over the decades, as well as several tie-in novels.  The series continues to come back in new and interesting forms, from the 1987 film starring Dan Ackroyd and Tom Hanks.  It also spawned the 2003 series L.A. Dragnet starring Ed O’Neill (Married with Children) and Ethan Embry.  Upon Webb’s passing in 1983, the LAPD recognized Webb’s role in building the reputation of their department and of cops everywhere, memorializing him by lowering their flags to half-staff, providing a police honor guard, and later naming an auditorium after the legendary star.  Beyond that, the series continues to live on in pop culture memory thanks to send-ups, parodies and the like, keeping us on our toes and ready for the next time we’ll hear the familiar four tone beginning… dunn-dun-dun-DUN!

“This is the city, Los Angeles, California.  I work here, I carry a badge.”