Dragnet was a long running NBC radio and television show about the cases of a Los Angeles, California police detective, Joe Friday, and his partners. It first aired on the radio on June 3, 1949 and began its television run on December 16, 1951. The show takes its name from an actual police term, a dragnet for any system of coordinated measures for apprehending criminals or suspects.
The show was created and produced by Jack Webb, who also starred as the terse Sgt. Friday. It was advertised as a true-crime police show, told from the point of view of a hard-bitten detective on the Los Angeles police force. It is said that Webb hung out at police headquarters and attended classes at the police academy to bring authenticity to the show, a connection referenced by the fictional Badge of Honor show depicted in the movie L.A. Confidential.
The series has been credited for playing a major role in dramatically improving the public image of the police in the USA.
While Webb used such authentic touches as the LAPD's actual radio call sign (KMA-367) and the names of many real department officials, such as Ray Pinker and Lee Jones of the crime lab or Chief of Detectives Thad Brown, it is important to note that there were no unsolved crimes in the world of "Dragnet". Nor were allegations of an LAPD segregation policy ever addressed; there are no black police officers on the radio version of "Dragnet."
The radio broadcasts invariably opened:
"Dragnet. The documented drama of an actual crime, investigated and solved by the men who unrelentingly stand watch on the security of your home, your family and your life. For the next 30 minutes, transcribed in cooperation with the Los Angeles Police Department, you will travel step by step on the side of the law through an actual case from official police files. From beginning to end, from crime to punishment, Dragnet is the story of your police force in action."
At the beginning of every broadcast, the announcer stated "Ladies and gentlemen: the story you are about to hear is true. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent." "Hear" was changed to "see" for the television version. This announcment has subsequently become a dramatic cliche. The show also started with a piece of music entitled "Danger Ahead".
Two other hallmarks of the TV show came at the end of each episode:
- The fate of the perpetrators was stated, as a verdict of a court "in and for the City and County of Los Angeles" on an appropriate date.
- A left hand appeared, holding what would turn out to be stamp for indenting metal; a heavy hammer struck the top of the handle of the stamp, twice, loudly; the stamp was removed to reveal the result, "MK VII", referring to the production company, Mark Seven Productions. It would later be revealed that the two hands were in fact, those of Jack Webb.
Dragnet first appeared on television in January of 1952. Friday's original partner in the TV episodes (as on the radio) was Sgt. Ben Romero, played by Barton Yarborough , who died after only three episodes were filmed. The Romero character was soon replaced by Officer Frank Smith, played by Ben Alexander. Alexander continued in the role through the show's original run, which ended in 1959. While Dragnet was still on the air, reruns began to air in syndication as Badge 714. In 1954, a theatrical movie of the same name aired, with Webb, Alexander, and Richard Boone.
In 1966, a TV movie, also called Dragnet, aired. Starring Jack Webb and Harry Morgan as his partner Bill Gannon, it spawned a new series, Dragnet 1967, which aired until 1970, the title year changing with each season.
In 1982, when Jack Webb died, the Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department announced that badge number 714, the number used by Webb in the TV show, would be retired by the department and the number would never be used again.
In 1987, a comedy movie version of Dragnet appeared, starring Dan Aykroyd as the stiff Joe Friday (the original Detective Friday's nephew), and his partner Pep Streebeck, played by Tom Hanks. The film contrasted the terse, clipped character of Friday, a hero from another age, with the 'real world' of Los Angeles in 1987. Harry Morgan would have a cameo role in the film, playing Bill Gannon, his character in the series.
In 1989, The New Dragnet appeared in first-run syndication, featuring all-new characters, and in 2003 yet another Dragnet series was produced by Dick Wolf, the producer of Law & Order, a series that was influenced by Dragnet. The most recent version starred Ed O'Neill as Joe Friday, and after a season that rather closely followed the traditional formula, the format of the series was changed to be more of an ensemble crime drama similar to CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. With this change came a new title, L.A. Dragnet and it focused less on Joe Friday. With most of the trappings that made Dragnet unique no longer in place, it became just another cops and robbers series and it was canceled only five episodes into its second season. Another three episodes aired on USA Network in early 2004, with two final episodes yet to be shown. A total of 22 episodes were produced.
References to Dragnet Within Popular Culture
Dragnet has been spoofed numerous times, notwithstanding the 1987 film version. Both the television series Police Squad and its motion picture spin-offs, the Naked Gun series, parodied elements of the show, particularly the deadpan narration. There is a animated cartoon called Rocket Squad which was a futuristic parody with Daffy Duck and Porky Pig as Detectives Monday and Tuesday ("He always follows me"). In television, it has been parodied, for example, as a popular skit (featuring Webb and Johnny Carson) on The Tonight Show, and years later as "Mathnet", an ongoing film segment of the PBS series Square One TV. In music, Stan Freberg took a potshot at Dragnet in the spoken-word comedy take-offs St. George and the Dragon-Net and Christmas Dragnet , and Eric Burdon & The Animals spoofed the show's opening at the beginning of their hit single San Francisco Nights .
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