Dragnet is an American radio series, enacting the cases of a dedicated Los Angeles police detective, Sergeant Joe Friday, and his partners. The show took its name from the police term "dragnet", meaning a system of coordinated measures for apprehending criminals or suspects.
Dragnet gave audience members a feel for the daily work of police officers and earned praise for improving the public opinion of police officers.On a March, 1953 episode, the Detroit Police Officers' Association gave Dragnet a commendation, citing the program's efforts at increasing public esteem of policemen, and furthermore describing Dragnet as the "finest and most accurate" police program on radio or television.
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 theme music, Danger Ahead, with its distinctive ominous, four-note brass and tympani introduction, was composed by Walter Schumann. It is derived from 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. Variations on this narration have been featured in subsequent crime dramas, and in parodies of the dramas (e.g. "Only the facts have been changed to protect the guilty").
The radio series was the first entry in a Dragnet media franchise encompassing film, television, books and comics.
History and creation Dragnet was created and produced by Jack Webb, who stars as stoic Sergeant Joe Friday. Webb had starred in a few mostly short-lived radio programs, Pat Novak, for Hire, Johnny Madero, Pier 23, Jeff Regan, Investigator, Murder and Mr. Malone, and Pete Kelly's Blues. Dragnet would make him a major media personality in his era.
Dragnet originated from Webb's small role as a police forensic scientist in the 1948 film He Walked by Night, inspired by the 1946 violent crime spree of Erwin Walker, a disturbed World War II veteran and former Glendale, California, police department employee."Crazy Like A Fox", Los Angeles Times, June 2, 1947"Man Continues to Fight Police Despite Wounds", Los Angeles Times, December 21, 1946 The film told the story in semidocumentary style, with technical advice from Marty Wynn, a sergeant from the Robbery Division of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). Inspired by Wynn's accounts of actual cases and criminal investigative procedure, Webb convinced Wynn that day-to-day activities of police officers could be realistically depicted in a broadcast series, without the forced melodrama of the numerous private-detective serials then common in radio."" Time, March 15, 1954. The film contributed two phrases to the Dragnet television series: the opening text overlay stating that the story was true and "only the names are changed—to protect the innocent", immediately followed by establishing shots of Los Angeles with the narration "This is the city: Los Angeles, California."
Webb frequently visited police headquarters, rode along on night patrols with Sgt. Wynn and his partner Officer Vance Brasher, and attended Police Academy courses to research authentic jargon and procedural details. 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 was short lived, but Webb was praised for his role as the titular private eye, and NBC agreed to a limited run for Dragnet.
With writer James E. Moser, Webb prepared an audition recording, then sought the LAPD's cooperation; he wanted to dramatize cases from official files to portray the reality of police investigations. The official response was initially lukewarm, but in 1949 LAPD Chief Clemence B. Horrall gave Webb his approval. Police wanted control over the program's sponsor, and insisted that police not be depicted unflatteringly. This would lead to criticism, as less flattering aspects of the LAPD, such as its racial segregation policies, were never addressed.
Premiere
Dragnet debuted inauspiciously. The early months were bumpy, as the program was as yet unable to attract a sponsor and the budget was limited, forcing Webb to employ relatively few radio actors. The network originally stressed a shrill, strident tone as popularized on rival show Gang Busters (the earliest Dragnet episodes mimic the Gang Busters opening, with an announcer shouting "Draaaaag...net!"). Webb put a stop to this after only a few episodes, with a different announcer adopting a more deadpan delivery. Webb also discovered how versatile his actors were, and kept them on hand week after week. Barton Yarborough was there for every episode as Webb's partner, with character roles played variously by Harry Bartell, Vic Perrin, Virginia Gregg, Herb Butterfield, Jack Kruschen, Peggy Webber, Herb Ellis, Barney Phillips, and Clarence Cassell. All these radio performers continued into the Dragnet television series. During the radio show's first year, Raymond Burr played chief of detectives Ed Backstrand.
Jack Webb and company worked out the format and grew into their characters. Friday was originally portrayed as more brash and forceful than his later, usually flat demeanor. Gradually, Friday's earnest, fast-talking persona emerged, described by John Dunning as "a cop's cop, tough but not hard, conservative but caring." Friday's first partner was Sergeant Ben Romero, portrayed by Barton Yarborough, a longtime radio actor. After Yarborough's death in 1951 (corresponding to Romero's death of a heart attack on the December 27, 1951, episode "The Big Sorrow"), Friday was partnered with Sergeant Ed Jacobs (December 27, 1951 – April 10, 1952, subsequently transferred to the police academy as an instructor), played by Barney Phillips; Officer Bill Lockwood (Ben Romero's nephew, April 17, 1952 – May 8, 1952), played by Martin Milner (with Ken Peters taking the role for the June 12, 1952 episode "The Big Donation"); and finally Frank Smith (introduced in "The Big Safe", May 1, 1952), played originally by Herb Ellis (1952), then Ben Alexander (1952–1959). Alexander would reprise the role of Smith for the initial television version and the 1954 film, making him Friday's longest-serving partner in all the franchise's media.
When Dragnet hit its stride, it became one of radio's top-rated shows. Webb insisted on realism. The dialogue was clipped, understated, and sparse, influenced by the hardboiled school of crime fiction. Scripts were fast-moving but did not 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 rarely took center stage, though it was mentioned that Friday was a bachelor who lived with his mother, and Romero was a Mexican-American from Texas, 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." Los Angeles police chiefs Clemence B. Horrall, William A. Worton, and later William H. Parker were credited as consultants, and many police officers were fans.
Most later episodes were entitled "The Big _____", where the key word denoted a person or object in the plot. In numerous episodes, this would be the principal suspect, victim, or physical target of the crime, but in others was often a seemingly inconsequential detail eventually revealed as key evidence in solving the crime. For example, in "The Big Streetcar" the background noise of a passing streetcar helps establish the location of a phone booth used by the suspect.
The series' radio years depict pre-renewal Downtown L.A., with working-class residents frequenting cheap bars, cafes, hotels, and boarding houses. At the climax of the early episode "James Vickers" (September 17, 1949), the chase leads to the Subway Terminal Building, where the robber flees into a tunnel—only to be killed by an oncoming train. By contrast, episodes set in outlying areas show locations far less built up today. The Imperial Highway, extending 40 miles east from El Segundo to Anaheim, is now a heavily used boulevard lined with low-rise commercial development; but in the episode "The Big Chance" (February 4, 1954), scenes on Imperial near "the road to San Pedro" show it as a country highway.
Verisimilitude Webb was a stickler for accurate details, and Dragnet used authentic touches such as the LAPD's actual radio call sign (KMA367 ), and the names of actual department officials, such as Ray Pinker and Lee Jones of the crime lab or Chief of Detectives Thad Brown (later LAPD Chief 1967–1969).
Two announcers were used. Episodes began with announcer George Fenneman intoning the 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 premise of the episode. For example, "Big Saint" (April 26, 1951) 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."
After the first commercial, Gibney would officially introduce the program: "Dragnet, the documented drama of an actual crime. For the next thirty minutes, in cooperation with the Los Angeles Police Department, you will travel step-by-step on the side of the law through an actual case transcribed from official police files. From beginning to end—from crime to punishment—Dragnet is the story of your police force in action." The earliest episodes had an elaborate preamble: "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", followed by the standard opening.
The story usually began with footsteps, followed by Joe Friday reporting the date and the local weather conditions, followed by the assignment of the day: "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 would then narrate where he and his partner were going, the time they arrived, followed by a door opening and an elaboration of the location: "I was on my way in to work, and it was 4:58 PM when I got to Room 42 ... (door opening) Homicide." ("The Big String", January 18, 1953)
Friday gave voice-over narration throughout, noting the time, date and place of every scene as he and his partners went through their day investigating the crime. The events of a given episode might occur in 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 thirty minutes to stop a man threatening an explosion. In one episode, "The Big Ben" (March 15, 1951), Friday was shot and hospitalized, and Romero took over the voice-over narration for the remainder of the episode.