Like many early television shows such as Martin Kane, Private Eye, Gangbusters, The Adventures of Superman, The Cisco Kid, and The Lone Ranger, Dragnet began as a radio show. The show was created by a young radio star named Jack Webb. And took its name from the police term "dragnet", meaning a system of coordinated measures for catching criminals or suspects. Webb began his entertainment career as a radio announcer. But while playing a small part in a detective film, He Walked By Night, Webb became friends with the film’s technical advisor, Marty Wynn, who was a detective sergeant in the Los Angeles Police Department. He Walked By Night was based on the true story of the murder of the California Highway patrolman Erwin Walker. Based on the knowledge gained from working on that film and talking with Wynn, Webb created Dragnet. Dragnet was a procedural detective drama. Procedural detective dramas first appeared in print in 1880 but were new to radio.
The major difference in the procedural drama is that they follow police procedure in solving crimes and the perpetrator isn’t revealed until the end of the story. Dragnet crime dramas presented the cops as the “good guys”, which was unusual in the early 1950s. Webb was adamant about showing the hard work and heroism of the police. He created the procedural police drama for radio initially and was quite successful. However, when the show made the leap to television he didn’t want to reprise his role as Sgt. Joe Friday. He wanted the actor, Lloyd Nolan, to play Joe Friday. Nolan had played a detective in some films in the 1940s. But Webb succumbed to the pressure of his superiors at NBC and reprised the role of Joe Friday on television. Actors playing the same characters on television as radio added continuity to the transition between radio and television.
The show ran for eight seasons initially. Jack Webb’s usual partner in his role as a Los Angeles police sergeant, Joe Friday, was Officer Frank Smith. Smith was played by Ben Alexander. At first, Friday’s partner was played by Barton Yarborough who unfortunately died of a heart attack during the first season after filming only two episodes. Most of the other cast members were veteran radio actors and were used for many different roles. Harry Bartell, Art Gilmore, Peggy Webber, Barney Phillips, Carolyn Jones, Virginia Christine, Kathleen Freeman, Stacy Harris, Virginia Gregg, Olan Soule, Herb Vigran, and many others. Lee Marvin of M Squad, and Raymond Burr of Perry Mason had roles in two of the shows. Burr was in the first television episode playing Friday’s boss.
Dragnet was unique in several ways by today's standards. The show began with the disclaimer that the events in the show were true but the names had been changed to protect the innocent. Today I think we would refer to the show as a docudrama. Webb did a lot of voice-overs for the series. Frequently a scene would consist of actors performing without their voices being heard. Webb’s first person voice-over would describe the action to the viewer. In a twenty-five minute show there was little chance for character development and very little small talk. Stories followed the police force often encountering the seedy side of Los Angeles, with a steady stream of calloused fugitives, desperate gunmen, slippery swindlers, and hard bitten women. The titles tell much about the stories, "The Big Lamp," "The Big Seventeen," "The Big Grandma," "The Big Show," "The Big Break," "The Big Frank," " The Big Hands," "The Big Dance," "The Big Betty," "The Big Will,"
Dragnet had a number of well known writers.. James E. Moser wrote the majority of the scripts for the first three seasons. Webb wrote a few and, he was the show’s producer and director. But after Moser, John Robinson became the most frequent writer of the show. Although the scripts were written by staff writers each script was vetted by the LAPD for accuracy. And, of course, to see if it did not reflect unfavorably on the Los Angeles Police Department. Since all shows were based on actual investigations the results were always revealed at the end as the narrator read the punishment for the perpetrator.
Remakes have been made of the series but none have reached the success of the original. None quite matched that Webb style. But there are many today who still remember the music, those brass and timpanis. And “Dum-de-dum-dum”
That is if “Dum-de-dum-dum” is considered music!
