Dragnet (franchise)

Dragnet
Dragnet opening frame from the 1950s version
Created by	Jack Webb
Starring	Jack Webb Ben Alexander Harry Morgan
Narrated by	John Stephenson George Fenneman Jack Webb
Opening theme	excerpt from Miklós Rózsa's score for The Killers
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of episodes	276 (1951-1959) 100 (1967-1970) 52 (1989-1991) 22 (2003-2004)
Production
Producer	Jack Webb
Production locations	Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Running time	30 minutes (1951-1959; 1967-1970; 1989-1991) 60 minutes (2003-2004)
Original release
Network	NBC Syndication ABC
Release	1951 – 2004

Dragnet is a long-running radio and television police procedural drama about the cases of a dedicated Los Angeles police detective, Sergeant Joe Friday, and his partners. The show takes its name from an actual police term, a "dragnet", meaning a system of coordinated measures for apprehending criminals or suspects.

Introduction

Dragnet was perhaps the most famous and influential police procedural drama in American media history. The series gave millions of Americans a feel for the boredom and drudgery, as well as the danger and heroism, of real-life police work. Dragnet earned praise for improving the public opinion of police officers.

Actor and producer Jack Webb's aims in Dragnet were for realism and unpretentious acting. He achieved both goals, and Dragnet remains a key influence on subsequent police dramas in many media.

The show's cultural impact is demonstrated by the fact that even after five decades, elements of Dragnet are known to those who've never seen or heard the program:

• The ominous, four-note introduction to the brass and tympani theme music (titled "Danger Ahead") is instantly recognizable (though its origins date back to Miklós Rózsa's score for the 1946 film version of The Killers).
• Another Dragnet trademark is the show's opening narration: "Ladies and gentlemen: the story you are about to hear is true. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent." This underwent minor revisions over time. The "only" and "ladies and gentlemen" were dropped at some point, and for the television version "hear" was changed to "see". Variations on this narration have been featured in many subsequent crime dramas, and in satires of these dramas (e.g. "Only the facts have been changed to protect the innocent").

The original Dragnet starring Jack Webb as Sgt. Friday ran on radio from June 3, 1949 to February 26, 1957 and on television from December 16 1951 to August 23, 1959, and from January 12, 1967 to April 16, 1970. All of these versions ran on NBC. There were three Dragnet feature films, a straight adaptation starring Webb in 1954; a TV-movie produced in 1966; and a comedy spoof in 1987. There were also television revivals, without Webb, in 1989 and 2003. A newspaper comic strip version of Dragnet, written by Jack Webb and Joe Scheiber, ran in newspapers from about 1952 to 1955.

History

Creation

Dragnet was created and produced by Jack Webb, who starred as the terse Sgt. Friday. Webb had starred in a few mostly short-lived radio programs, but Dragnet would make him one of the major media personalities of his era.

Dragnet had its origins in Webb's small role as a police forensic scientist in the 1948 film, He Walked by Night, inspired by the actual murder of a police officer in Los Angeles. The film was depicted in semidocumentary style, and Marty Wynn (an actual LAPD sergeant from the robbery division) was a technical advisor on the film. Webb and Wynn became friends, and both thought that the day-to-day activities of police officers could be realistically depicted, and could make for compelling drama without the forced sense of melodrama then so common in radio programming.

Webb frequently visited police headquarters, drove on night patrols with Sgt. Wynn and his partner Officer Vance Brasher, and attended police academy courses to learn authentic jargon and other details that could be featured in a radio program. When he proposed Dragnet to NBC officials, they were not especially impressed; radio was aswarm with private investigators and crime dramas, such as Webb's earlier Pat Novak for Hire. That program didn’t last long, but Webb had received high marks for his role as the titular private investigator, and NBC agreed to a limited run for Dragnet.

With writer James E. Moser, Webb prepared an audition recording, then sought the LAPD's endorsement; he wanted to use cases from official files in order to demonstrate the steps taken by police officers during investigations. The official response was initially lukewarm, but in 1950 LAPD Chief William H. Parker offered Webb the endorsement he sought. Police wanted control over the program's sponsor, and insisted that police not be depicted unflatteringly. This would lead to some criticism, as LAPD racial segregation policies were never addressed, nor was there a suggestion of police corruption.

Radio

Jack Webb in an advertisement for Fatima Cigarettes, ca. 1951. The now-defunct Fatima brand was the primary sponsor of the early Dragnet radio episodes.

Dragnet debuted inauspiciously. The first several months were bumpy, as Webb and company worked out the program's format and eventually became comfortable with their characters (Friday was originally portrayed as more brash and forceful than his later usually relaxed demeanor). Gradually, Friday's deadpan, fast-talking persona emerged, described by John Dunning as "a cop's cop, tough but not hard, conservative but caring." (Dunning, 210) Friday's first partner was Sgt. Ben Romero, portrayed by Barton Yarborough, a longtime radio actor. When Dragnet hit its stride, it became one of radio's top-rated shows.

Webb insisted on realism in every aspect of the show. The dialogue was clipped, understated and sparse, influenced by the hardboiled school of crime fiction. Scripts were fast moving but didn’t seem rushed. Every aspect of police work was chronicled, step by step: From patrols and paperwork, to crime scene investigation, lab work and questioning witnesses or suspects. The detectives’ personal lives were mentioned, but rarely took center stage. (Friday was a bachelor who lived with his mother; Romero was an ever-fretful husband and father.) "Underplaying is still acting", Webb told Time. "We try to make it as real as a guy pouring a cup of coffee.” (Dunning, 209) Los Angeles police chiefs C.B. Horrall and (later) William H. Parker were credited as consultants, and many police officers were fans.

Webb was a stickler for accurate details, and Dragnet used many authentic touches, such 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.

Two announcers were used. Episodes began with announcer George Fenneman intoning the series opening ("The story you are about to hear is true; only the names have been changed to protect the innocent.") and Hal Gibney describing the basic premise of the episode. "Big Saint" (April 26, 1951) for example, begins with, "You're a Detective Sergeant, you're assigned to auto theft detail. A well organized ring of car thieves begins operations in your city. It's one of the most puzzling cases you've ever encountered. Your job: break it."

The story then usually began with footsteps and a door closing, followed by Joe Friday intoning something like: "Tuesday, February 12. It was cold in Los Angeles. We were working the day watch out of robbery division. My partner's Ben Romero. The boss is Ed Backstrand, chief of detectives. My name's Friday."

Friday offered voice-over narration throughout the episodes, noting the time, date and place of every scene as he and his partners went through their day investigating the crime. The events related in a given episode might occur in a few hours, or might span a few months. At least one episode unfolded in real time: in "City Hall Bombing" (July 21, 1949), Friday and Romero had less than 30 minutes to stop a man who was threatening to destroy the City Hall with a bomb.

At the end of the episode, announcer Hal Gibney would relate the fate of the suspect. They were usually convicted of a crime and sent to "the State Penitentiary" or a state mental hospital. Murderers were often "executed in the manner prescribed by law." Occasionally, police pursued the wrong suspect, and criminals sometimes avoided justice or escaped, at least on the radio version of Dragnet. In 1950, Time quoted Webb: "We don’t even try to prove that crime doesn’t pay ... sometimes it does" (Dunning, 210)

Specialized terminology was mentioned in every episode, but was rarely explained. Webb trusted the audience to determine the meanings of words or terms by their context, and furthermore, Dragnet tried to avoid the kinds of awkward, lengthy exposition that people wouldn’t actually use in daily speech. Several specialized terms (such as "A.P.B." for "All Points Bulletin" and "M.O." for "Modus Operandi") were rarely used in popular culture before Dragnet introduced them to everyday America.

While most radio shows used one or two sound effects experts, Dragnet needed five; a script clocking in at just under 30 minutes could require up to 300 separate effects. Accuracy was underlined: The exact number of footsteps from one room to another at Los Angeles police headquarters were imitated, and when a telephone rang at Friday's desk, the listener heard the same ring as the telephones in Los Angeles police headquarters. A single minute of ".22 Rifle for Christmas" is a representative example of the evocative sound effects featured on "Dragnet". While Friday and others investigate bloodstains in a suburban backyard, the listener hears a series of overlapping effects: a squeaking gate hinge, footsteps, a technician scraping blood into a paper envelope, the glassy chime of chemical vials, bird calls and a dog barking in the distance.

Scripts tackled a number of topics, ranging from the thrilling (murders, missing persons and armed robbery) to the mundane (check fraud and shoplifting), yet "Dragnet" made them all interesting due to fast-moving plots and behind-the-scenes realism. In "The Garbage Chute" (15 December 1949), they even had a locked room mystery.

Though rather tame by modern standards, Dragnet--especially on the radio--handled controversial subjects such as sex crimes and drug addiction with unprecedented and even startling realism. In one such example, Dragnet broke one of the unspoken (and still rarely broached) taboos of popular entertainment in the episode ".22 Rifle for Christmas" which aired December 21, 1950). The episode followed the search for young Stevie Morheim, only to discover he’d been accidentally killed while playing with a rifle that belonged to a friend; his friend told Friday that Stevie was running while holding the rifle when he tripped and fell, causing the gun to discharge, fatally wounding Morheim.

NBC received thousands of complaint letters, including a formal protest by the National Rifle Association. Webb forwarded many of the letters to police chief Parker who promised "ten more shows illustrating the folly of giving rifles to children." (Dunning, 211) Another episode dealt with young women who, rather than finding Hollywood stardom, fall in with fraudulent talent scouts and end up in pornography and prostitution.

The tone was usually serious, but there were moments of comic relief: Romero was something of a hypochondriac and often seemed henpecked; though Friday dated women, he usually dodged those who tried to set him up with marriage-minded dates.

Due in part to Webb's fondness for radio drama, Dragnet persisted on radio until 1957 as one of the last old time radio shows to give way to television's increasing popularity. In fact, the TV show would prove to be effectively a visual version of the radio show, as the style was virtually the same. The TV show could be listened to without watching it, with no loss of understanding of the storyline.

Television

When television was interested in Dragnet, Webb bucked the prevailing wisdom which argued that radio staff couldn’t adapt to the new medium. He insisted on hiring radio staff (from actors to writers and production staff) as much as was feasible to work on the television version. This loyalty would endear Webb to many of his Dragnet colleagues for decades to come.

He also insisted that Friday and his partner use badges in the then-unique shield shape used by LAPD. This led to the loan of actual LAPD badges, brought in every morning from the Office of the Chief of Police in the care of an officer who acted as technical advisor.

Television offered Webb the opportunity to increase the realism to a point unmatched by any other program for years. Many early episodes involved cases which had been handled by the Robbery or Homicide Divisions, which was at that time located in the ground floor of the Los Angeles City Hall. Webb had his set designers duplicate the "feel" of the office, including details such as the remnant of a notice which had been torn from the bulletin board, leaving only one corner.

Webb, uncomfortable with firearms, mentioned this to the technical advisor. When an early script called for Friday to use a shotgun, LAPD detailed Jesse Littlejohn, a member of the Robbery Division's elite "Hat Squad", to teach Webb how to handle the riot gun. In the episode, Friday carries the shotgun using proper technique, but passes it to his partner rather than fire it himself. In thanks for this and assistance by other officers, Webb dropped their names into scripts, beginning a tradition which continued through the end of production of Dragnet and Adam-12—all officers' names are real (except for recurring characters and officers suspected of wrongdoing, in which cases the names were changed to protect the innocent).

Dragnet first aired on television in December 1951 on a special presentation of the NBC program Sound-Off Time. The regular series debuted in January 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 replaced by first by Detective Sergeant Ed Jacobs (Barney Phillips), and then by Officer Frank Smith. Smith was first played by Webb crony Herb Ellis. After four episodes, Ben Alexander took over the role on both television and radio.

Jack Webb thought Ben Alexander made an ideal partner. The dramatic scripts of the 1950s usually feature at least one comic interlude with Alexander to lighten the tone. Thus Frank offhandedly chats with Joe about his latest enthusiasm (favorite foods, fad diets, hobbies, home life, etc.). Alexander stayed with Dragnet through its original run, which ended in 1959. While Dragnet was still on the air, reruns began to air in syndication as Badge 714.

When Webb remounted Dragnet in 1966, he tried to get Ben Alexander to rejoin him as Frank. Alexander was then committed to an ABC police series, Felony Squad, and its producers would not release him. Webb reluctantly recast the role of Joe Friday's partner: Bill Gannon, played by movie and TV veteran Harry Morgan. Bill Gannon, like Frank Smith, was businesslike on duty but chatty in informal situations. Ben Alexander's light-comedy dialogues now fell to Harry Morgan, who played some of it more broadly; in "The Big Neighbor" his ad libs cause Jack Webb to openly burst out laughing, and in "The Weekend," Gannon's step-by-step preparation of a "garlic-nut-butter sandwich" is greeted with incredulous reactions from his friends.

Two other hallmarks of the TV show came at the end of each episode:

• The arrested criminal stands uncomfortably, presumably for the mug shot and the fate of the perpetrators is stated, as a verdict of a court "in and for the City and County of Los Angeles" on an appropriate date.
• A sweaty, glistening left hand appeared, holding what would turn out to be a 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 VII Limited Productions.

In 1954, a theatrical feature film adaptation of the series was released, with Webb, Alexander, and Richard Boone.

In 1958, Webb authored a book titled "The Badge." The book was a series of true stories told from the view of a patrolman, sergeant, lieutenant and others. It had a number of photographs and recently was reissued with a foreword by the author of "LA Confidential."

In 1966, a TV movie, also called Dragnet, was produced, although it did not air until 1969. Starring Jack Webb and Harry Morgan as his partner Officer Bill Gannon, it spawned a new series, Dragnet 1967, which aired until 1970, the title year changing with each season.

Jack Webb had begun the process of bringing Dragnet back to television yet again in 1982, writing and producing five scripts and even picking Kent McCord to play his new partner in "Dragnet '83" before suddenly passing away.

After Webb's death, the Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department announced that badge number 714—Webb's number on the television show—had been retired, and Los Angeles city offices lowered their flags to half-staff. At Webb's funeral, the LAPD provided an honor guard and the Chief of Police commented on Webb's connection with the LAPD. An LAPD Auditorium was named in his honor.

Remakes

In 1987, a comedy movie version of Dragnet appeared (also titled Dragnet), starring Dan Aykroyd as the stiff Joe Friday (the original Detective Friday's nephew), and Tom Hanks as his partner Pep Streebeck. The film contrasted the terse, clipped character of Friday, a hero from another age, with the 'real world' of Los Angeles in 1987 to broadly parodic effect. Beyond Aykroyd's effective imitation of Webb's Joe Friday (and Harry Morgan's small role reprising his earlier role as Bill Gannon), this film version shares little with the previous incarnations. Although officially a remake, the film was more a parody than a true remake. Despite this criticism, the film was a hit with audiences.

In 1989, The New Dragnet appeared in first-run syndication, featuring all-new characters, and aired in tandem with The New Adam-12, a remake of another Webb-produced police drama, Adam-12.

In 2003 another Dragnet series was produced by Dick Wolf, the producer of Law & Order, a series that was strongly influenced by Dragnet. It aired on ABC, and starred Ed O'Neill as Joe Friday and Ethan Embry as Frank Smith. After a 12-episode season that rather closely followed the traditional formula, the format of the series was changed to an ensemble crime drama.

Now titled L.A. Dragnet, Friday was promoted to Lieutenant but received less screen time (Frank Smith was written out entirely) in favor of a group of younger and ethnically-diverse detectives (played by Eva Longoria, Christina Chang, Desmond Harrington and Evan Dexter Parke). 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 the final two of the series' 22 episodes remaining unaired in the U.S. until the launch of the Sleuth channel in 2006. In some places (such as the Netherlands) this show is renamed Murder Investigation instead of Dragnet.

Parodies

Dragnet and its unique presentation style have been frequently referenced or lampooned.

• In the third issue of Mad (January-February, 1953), Harvey Kurtzman and Will Elder offered "Dragged Net!", a parody of the radio series. Since the show had been televised before Mad began, observant readers noted Webb was not caricatured and thus determined that Kurtzman did not yet own a TV set. The comic book's first radio-TV satire came in Mad #11 when Kurtzman and Elder offered a second "Dragged Net!", this time with caricatures.

• Comedian Stan Freberg produced a record (a 45, of course, Capitol F2596) featuring two of his skits "St. George and the Dragonet" and "Little Blue Riding Hood" (which opened with "...only the color has been changed, to prevent an investigation!" a reference to the 1950s McCarthy era. This sold one million copies in three weeks, prompting production of "Christmas Dragnet" (Capitol F2671), which was re-released as "Yulenet" (Capitol F2986). Quotes taken from these three skits became common in American law enforcement circles; some remain, half a century later.

• An early TV appearance of the Three Stooges, a kinescope of which turns up on AMC from time to time, featured a parody of the radio show's style. Each player introduced himself as a name ending in the syllable "day". They went through that schtick several times. In a comic triple, Moe Howard and Larry Fine introduced themselves seriously, as "Halliday" and "Tarraday", and Shemp Howard provided the punch line: "I'm Christmas Day!" or "I'm St. Patrick's Day!" and wearing appropriate garb. They went on to do a routine talking in the deadpan, staccato style of the show. This routine was also captured in their 1955 theatrical film, Blunder Boys.

• Another parody was done on the Sid Caesar show with him and Carl Reiner playing the characters. While investigating crimes, they would walk up to a victim’s apartment, and knock on the door. As the door opened they would introduce themselves by mumbling their identities and quickly and hastily showing their badges from the underside of their suit lapels.

• In several Tums commercials, Dragnet's famous four-note-plus-five-note opening theme was used as a jingle ("Tum-Tum-TUM-Tum... Tum-Tum-TUM-Tum-TUMS!"; the second half was used as the main jingle for several years). Eric Burdon & The Animals also spoofed the show's opening at the beginning of their hit single "San Francisco Nights", as well as the punk band The Afflicted in their recording "Here Come the Cops".

• In the Simpsons episode Mother Simpson Joe Friday and Bill Gannon are parodied as agents during the FBI's search for Homer's mother; Harry Morgan furnished the voice for the animated Bill Gannon. According to the DVD Commentary, the animation for Joe Friday was based on the Will Elder MAD magazine parody.

• Other animated references include Rocket Squad, a futuristic parody with Daffy Duck and Porky Pig as Detectives Monday and Tuesday. Says Monday of Tuesday, "He always follows me." Woody Woodpecker also took a shot at the format with "Under the Counter Spy", concluding with the production company's pounding hammer missing the stamp and hitting the hammerer's thumb. The opening line was also changed to "The story you are about to hear is a BIG FAT LIE."

• On television, Dragnet was the subject of a popular routine (featuring Webb himself and Johnny Carson) on The Tonight Show involving "Claude Cooper, a kleptomaniac from Cleveland who copped the clean copper clappers...", the wordplay involving words primarily starting with the letters "C" and "L" between Carson and Webb goes on for almost three minutes with Webb keeping a straight face has become a Tonight Show classic.

• "Dragnet" was parodied by Sesame Workshop, first, as a Sesame Street muppet skit involving two police detectives after a letter W, which disguises itself by turning upside down, into an M; then, much later, as "Mathnet", an ongoing film segment of the PBS series Square One TV.

• Both the TV series Police Squad and its motion picture spin-offs, the Naked Gun series, parodied elements of the show, particularly the deadpan narration.

• James Ellroy featured a thinly-veiled twist on Dragnet in his L.A. Confidential novel with a popular 1950's TV police drama, Badge of Honor, which is also seen in the film adaptation of L.A. Confidential. Ellroy's perspective on Los Angeles cops as crooked and vice-ridden contrasts sharply with Webb's portrayals of police. The Brett Chase character in Confidential was based on Jack Webb. Among other novels with references to Dragnet is Thomas Pynchon's V.. Pynchon described two minor characters, Patrolman Jones and Officer Ten Eyck, as "faithful viewers of the TV program Dragnet. They'd cultivated deadpan expressions, unsyncopated speech rhythms, monotone voices."

• In Die Hard 2, John McClane sends a fax message to Al Powell. When the girl who sent the fax asks him what he is doing later, McClane thumbs his wedding ring and says, "Just the fax, ma'am, just the fax."

• The avant-garde band The Residents announced a 2006 project, The River of Crime, which is, as their website calls it, "A modern day Dragnet... The series follows the reminisces of its unseen narrator as he discloses a lifelong obsession with wickedness and vice. But, as opposed to the ironic and terse Joe Friday, a classic crime solver, The River of Crime's narrator is a crime collector."

• The character Nick Brick from the 1997 video game LEGO Island has a voice that is an obvious Joe Friday impersonation.

• In the video game Destroy All Humans scanning a police officer a few times will bring up the thought "I'm goin' all Joe Friday; I have a dragnet out for evildoers."

• Neil Gaiman's Sandman comic book has two supernatural beings (Loki and Puck) posing as stereotypical police detectives, and they are described by another character in the series as 'Dragnet refugees'.

• Alan Moore's Watchmen graphic novel starts with a murder being investigated by two police detectives, one of which bears a strong resemblance to Jack Webb.

• In War Boy by Thorn Kief Hillsbery, the character Radboy makes a list of satirical names for his impromptu environmental protest group trying to save the redwoods. One is "Rust the Ax Ma'am".

• First Choice's Armed and Extremely Dangerous features a sample of the theme song.

• On the PBS aired show Square One was a series called Mathnet. This parody of Dragnet featured detectives at the Los Angeles Police Department (later the New York Police Department) who solved mysteries using their mathematical skills. Each episode would start off with "The story you are about to see is a fib... but it's short. The names are made up, but the problems are real".

DVD Releases

Original Series (1951)

3 collections have been released to date, 2 from Alpha Video featuring 4 episodes each and 1 from Eclectic DVD featuring 3 episodes.

Platinum Video released 7 episodes from the original series in 2002.

The episodes are:

Big Crime, Big Pair, Big Producer, Big Break, Big September Man, Big Betty, Big Trunk.

In the episode Big Crime, Jack Kruschen appears as a child molester.

In the episode Big Producer, Martin Milner ( Adam 12 ) appears as a high school student. He was credited as Marty Milner.

Also included on the 2 disc set are one episode of Burke's Law, 2 of Peter Gunn, and 2 of Richard Diamond, along with an episode of Mr. Wong, Detective and Bulldog Drummond.

Dragnet 1967

On June 7, 2005, Universal Studios Home Entertainment released the first season on DVD in Region 1 for the very first time. It is unknown if the remaining 3 seasons will be released at some point.

Cover Art	DVD Name	Ep #	Release Date	Additional Information
	Season 1	17	June 7 2005	Bonus Audio CD of the original Dragnet Radio Show

The New Dragnet (1989)

No DVD releases to date of this remake that lasted 2 seasons

L.A. Dragnet (2003)

Universal Studios Home Entertainment was going to release the first season of this short-lived remake on DVD on November 11, 2003, but this release was subsequently cancelled. It is not known if the set will be released at some point.

Trivia

• While "just the facts, ma'am" has come to be known as its catch phrase, it was a slight misquote. The closest he came was, "All we want are the facts, ma'am" and "All we know are the facts, ma'am". "Just the facts, ma'am" comes from the Stan Freberg parody "St. George and the Dragonet."

• Ethan Embry and Ed O'Neill costarred in the 2003 version of Dragnet. However, this was not the first time they had worked together on a project. They also co-starred in a movie in 1991 named Dutch when Embry started acting at the young age of 13.

• At the end of the original 1950s series, Joe Friday was promoted to Lieutenant. However, in the 1967 sequel, Friday's promotion was never mentioned and he was a Sergeant again. (The character was not demoted onscreen; the promotion was simply ignored as if it never occurred.) As Jack Webb said at the time: "Few people remember that Friday was promoted toward the end of our run. We think it's better to have Joe a sergeant again. Few detective-lieutenants get out into the field." Later, in the second season of the 2003 remake, Friday was promoted to Lieutenant.

• Jerry Leiber & Mike Stoller were among the first songwriters to lyrically immortalize Sergeant Friday in their 1957 hit song Searchin', recorded by The Coasters

• Webb's portrayal of Sergeant Friday became so popular at one point that people started coming to LAPD City Hall asking to talk to Sergeant Friday, at which point they were invariably told, "Sorry, but it's the sergeant's day off".

• In 1968, Dragnet crossed over with another Jack Webb created show, Adam-12, with the episode "Internal Affairs-DR-20", where Martin Milner and Kent McCord were seen in the roles of Officers Pete Malloy, and Jim Reed.

• In the 1980s, Dragnet inspired a series of television ads for the Bell Atlantic Yellow Pages, with actor David Leisure portraying Friday.

• One of the many police officers who submitted actual cases to Jack Webb was future television producer Gene Roddenberry, who would become famous for creating the Star Trek franchise.

• On the 1989 Beastie Boys album, Paul's Boutique, Mike D makes a reference to Dragnet in the track, "3-Minute Rule."

• There are multiple explanations for the use of the badge number 714. Jack Webb was a big Babe Ruth fan, and Ruth hit 714 home runs in his baseball career. The number is also said to be from Jack's mother's birthday (July 14th).

However, Laurie (Dragnet advisor and LAPD Sergeant Dan Cooke's daughter) also writes: "Although plausible, these are not quite right. Sgt. Dan Cooke was closely associated with Jack Webb. He originated some of the script concepts and was the technical director for a number of the Dragnet episodes. Badge 714 was Sgt. Cooke's badge and was retired from the LAPD when Sgt. Cooke arranged for the use of his badge for the series." http://www.badge714.com/dragfaq.htm

• Other TV series parodied Joe Friday's narrative style, including James Garner in Maverick, Hanna-Barbera in Huckleberry Hound, and Larry Harmon in Bozo the Clown.

John Stephenson, who announced the epilogue at the show's end, was also the voice of Mr. Slate, Fred Flintstone's boss, on "The Flintstones" TV series.

Sources

• John Dunning, On The Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio, Oxford University Press, 1998, ISBN 0-19-507678-8.
• Michael J. Hayde, My Name's Friday: The Unauthorized but True Story of Dragnet and the Films of Jack Webb, Cumberland House, 2001, ISBN 1-581-82190-5
• Jason Mittell, Genre and Television: From Cop Shows to Cartoons in American Culture. Routledge, 2004, ISBN 0-415-96903-4.

External links

• The 1951-59 series at IMDb
• "Dragnet 1967" at IMDb
• "The New Dragnet" at IMDb
• "Dragnet (2003)" at IMDb
• Badge714.com - Information on all Dragnet shows and the works of Jack Webb.
• Dragnet (1951) at TV.com
• Dragnet (1967-1970) at TV.com
• Dragnet (1989) at TV.com
• L.A. Dragnet (2003-2004) at TV.com
• Dragnet (Radio Series) in the Internet Archive's Old-Time Radio Collection