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Dragnet

This series ran from 6/3/49 to 2/26/57 on NBC at various times and days and starred Jack Webb as Detective Sergeant Joe Friday. Various partners throughout the show's run were Sergeant Ben Romero (Barton Yarborough), Ed Jacobs (Barney Phillips), and Officer Frank Smith (Ben Alexander). Webb was the creator/Director of the series and wanted everything to be as authentic as possible, down to the last sound effect. The stories were based on actual police files and "the names were changed to protect the innocent". Dragnet broke a few radio taboos as well, such as dramatizing sex crimes. Children also were killed on occasion as in the episode "Twenty-Two Rifle For Christmas". The series eventually went to television and ran there for many years. The familiar DUM DE DUM DUM, the first four notes of the opening theme composed by Walter Schumann, became a pop culture legend and was forever associated with Webb, Dragnet, and just plain getting in trouble.


This audio is part of the collection: Old Time Radio

Keywords: dragnet; radio; dragnet radio show; jack webb; joe friday

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Audio Bitrate: 32Kbps
Format: MP3

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Reviewer: davidinberkeley - - June 26, 2007
Subject: That's okay, Ma, I'll just make a sandwich
I wanted to add in that not only was DRAGNET on radio a fine police drama, but it was, to me, a wonderful record of its time.

It documented a number of conventions of life in this time (how accurately I can't say) and not the big ones like politics or war. It includes details like how someone made a long-distance phone call, or would hang their laundry out - things that told me what the life of the ordinary person was like circa early 1950's.

The line in my review title tells you what Joe Friday said to his mother regularly. She was a great character that popped up occasionally and great fun for me to hear. The actress who played her was Peggy Webber, who played an endless stream of many different women. I love listening just to hear her many voices.

NOTE: Avoid reading the name of the show before listening to the broadcast! Once I did and an important surprise was revealed in the title.

Reviewer: Kartovatrix - - May 30, 2007
Subject: Long Live Fatima!!!
Dragnet is a "just the facts" cultural time-capsule in more ways than one.

Los Angeles is not the subject of many shows (can't recall any at the moment) of the radio era.

And for anyone familiar with Los Angeles and OTR shows, it is just fun to hear street names like Sepulveda and other geographical names in the context of the show...

Great pacing and sound effects. One of the MP3 discs I cannot use for my insomnia.

Reviewer: ronobvious - - August 9, 2006
Subject: My name's Friday, I'm a Cop
Well ahead of its time for some of the subjects,
yet not afraid of rank sentimentality either (Big Little Jesus), Jack Webb pulled it off on both
radio and t.v. Far and away the best of all his
series.

Reviewer: tomwsmf - - August 6, 2006
Subject: Just the Facts
In OTR, as with much media, there are some great moments and a lot of stinkers. Jack Webb had more than his share of Great Moments.

Dragnet was dead on perfect for what it was. It was a crime drama in a time when crime was being given a place at the table in popular American culture. No longer the stuff of heroic myth making or pulp soap opera like so much of what had come before, crime was the ugly cousin who was at your house to stay.

Dragnet was a response to this. Other shows tired and hit it to varying degrees, listen to the 21st Precinct for a good example, but Dragnet set the bar for any crime related show that came after it. Look at any Law And Order episode and you will see Dragnet's influence in force. CSI, Coldcase, any of the crimes shows of this type have a direct lineage to Dragnet.

None of the names in this review were changed to protect the innocent.