Dragnet, is arguably the most influential police procedural series in media history. Long before it became a television staple, Dragnet took the radio waves by storm on NBC in 1949, forever changing how crime dramas were written and performed.
Created by and starring Jack Webb as the deadpan Sergeant Joe Friday, the show focused on the unglamorous, day-to-day grind of real police work. The meticulous tracking of clues, the repetitive interviews, and the heavy reliance on scientific crime labs and mugshot books.
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).
He also used actual closed police files as the basis for his scripts, captured authentic police slang, and insisted on using real sound effects including the exact timing of the footsteps in the hallways of the old LA City Hall!
Webb 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.
A little bit of trivia is that although "Just the facts, ma'am" is known as Dragnet's catchphrase , the precise phrase was never actually uttered by Joe Friday. The closest lines were "All we want are the facts, ma'am" and "All we know are the facts, ma'am"! (Source: wikipedia.org)
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