Dragnet

"Dragnet" is the best police show ever. "Dragnet" was directly responsible for the maturation and realness of police television shows, but it didn't dive into soggy drama stories surrounding the police officers the way soap opera police shows like "Hill Street Blues" did. "Dragnet" instead focused on the actual police stories and the apprehension of the crooks. On radio, the death of actor Barton Yarborough (no relation to me) who played Friday's first partner, Sgt. Ben Romero, was brought into the story, and in a 1953 TV episode Friday shows regret after killing a man for the first time, but that was as far as the drama went. For the most part, "Dragnet" was engaging nuts-and-bolts police work that was directed plausibly by Webb (who was a film-noir veteran by 1950, having appeared in 1948's "He Walked By Night," on which the show was based, and other film-noir classics like "Sunset Boulevard" and "The Men," both filmed in 1949). Many episodes of "Dragnet" have a film noir-like quality to them, often making for nail-bitting, high quality television.

In correction of Mr. Richmond's comment, in the fall of 1952 Herb Ellis took over as Friday's partner after the departure of Barney Phillips. Ellis was the first Frank Smith, and he served as a temporary replacement until someone who matched Yarborough's wholesome humor could be found. And Ben Alexander was chosen. But Alexander's humor was more outwardly silly, whereas Yarborough brought out more unexpected humor. In the first episode, for instance, when Friday and Romero are told about a man carrying a bomb, Romero voluntarily decides to help Friday stop the man because, as he says "Can't go home. My wife wants me to paint the bathroom today." As stiff as Friday's partners often were, they all had their own unique traits: Romero was the unintentionally silly Southerner; Jacobs was the stone cold, ice-eyed quiet one; Herb Ellis's Frank Smith was quiet but easy going; Ben Alexander's Frank Smith was simply goofy.

Jack Webb voluntarily pulled "Dragnet" off the air in 1959, but it returned to the air in new episodes in 1967, going for three and a half years (again in correction of Mr. Richmond's comment). These color episodes were rather different than the original black-and-white ones, but were still of very high quality.

I've been watching some older episodes recently, courtesy of a couple of bargain four-episodes DVD I got in a Brighton 99p shop, and my attitude towards the series has changed somewhat from when I first saw Dragnet some decades ago. I now realise that the very tight, plodding format with the story told mostly through voice-over - much satirised, most memorably in Police Squad! and in a classic parody in an early Mad magazine - can somewhat blind the viewer to some of the show's more subtle strengths. The show does seem to make an effort to show the often tedious and legwork-heavy aspects of police work, and avoids violence and gratuitous gunplay as much as possible. But there's often a very sympathetic tone in Dragnet episodes towards the culprit, understanding that crime is often tragedy - such as in an episode called Big Porn, where in the final minutes a pornographer is revealed as a sad, tired old man, reliving his old days as a movie director. I particularly like an episode called Big Shoplift where the criminal turns out to be a lonely woman suffering from kleptomania, for whom even Joe Friday recognises that jail is not the right place. This compassion was a step forward from the efficient but rather cold film that inspired Dragnet, He Walked by Night, in which Webb had a bit part.

When I first saw Dragnet, I think in particular I underestimated the performance of Jack Webb, who seems to approach his suspects with a very human demeanour which is entirely realistic and such an antidote to the overplayed performances of many later TV cops. Webb produced and often wrote and directed the shows, and he displays a sure, experienced touch. Incidentally, the series didn't always take itself that seriously: look out for a wildly campy episode which alters the opening titles to read "Badge 417".

Jack Webb set the standard for law and order police with the creation of Dragnet a show which impacted for better or worse every television police show down to this day. Webb who was a respected character player in the day vaulted to stardom first with the Dragnet radio series and then when it moved to television.

The show started in radio in 1949 and moved to television in 1951 where it ran for 8 seasons. Every story followed a rigid pattern where Jack Webb as Sgt. Joe Friday and Ben Alexander as Detective Frank Smith start the day out working in one aspect of police work. They could be at a specific precinct or at a special command, narcotics, juveniles,homicide, etc. An incident would happen and for the next half hour these two followed the leads and made the arrest.

Webb's interrogation technique became legendary. One can still hear his staccato questioning and when someone got off point, he'd respond with the familiar catchphrase, 'just the facts'.

About the middle point of the show Webb and Alexander would be in their police car and this was where these two got humanized. Alexander and later Harry Morgan would talk about home and family. Webb would listen and smile and occasionally mentioned he had a date coming up. No relationsips though. The phrase 'married to the job' applied to Joe Friday like no other. What a spartan existence he led.

Dragnet was beautifully satirized in an 80s movie that starred Dan Aykroyd as Joe Friday and Tom Hanks as a young and hip partner. It was brought back by Webb for another run from 1968-1971 this time in color.

Webb did the same thing for uniform police with a show he produced Adam-12 which had a respectable run. And the show Emergency. his also, had some solid stories about EMS technicians done in Dragnet style.

Few shows for better or worse had the impact Dragnet has.

Several sources have stated that Jack Webb really wanted to be a Los Angeles policeman. The height restrictions of that time period kept him from qualifying for his badge. It also has been said that "Dragnet" is the closest to reality of all the police shows ever made.

I'm most familiar with the Harry Morgan period but all versions I've seen of the TV and radio originals are really good. Post-sixties angst is absent from the stories and characterizations, as in Perry Mason and perhaps a few others. Actually, "Ozzie and Harriet" from a different angle gives the same picture of a time with a bit less self-doubt.