Posted on 07/21/2012 5:41:05 PM PDT by djone
This is the city: Los Angeles, California."
With those words, an episode of the 1960s version of "Dragnet" would start. Perhaps the most accessible version of the classic cop concept .
Just how good was it? Consider this: Its cancellation in 1970 was not because the network didnt feel it was pulling in ratings, but because show creator/star Jack Webb was focusing on other shows, like "Adam-12" and "Emergency!" (which was this author's favorite as a kid). The 1950s "Dragnet" was cancelled for the same reason Webb wanted to pursue other projects.
"Dragnet" has aged well. Around his death, Webb was planning a third incarnation with Joe Friday, starring alongside Kent McCord (Joe Friday and James Reed as partners). After he died, two re-boots were attempted, but each lasted only two seasons.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
What fascinated most about Dragnet is they’d let Joe Friday get the last word in a lot of scenes and his argument was so profound, so wise that, no matter who it was directed at- his partner, his boss, a citizen or some crook, they were so overcome by his logic, they were incapable of responding. Watch the show. It happens at least once in every episode.
Highway Patrol was pretty good , too .
I would guess like the movie "The D.I.". Webb as a Marine Corps Drill Instructor (with G rated language). Excellent film.
His off screen behavior, on the other hand, was full bore Hollyweird. He was married to the greatest torch singer of all time (Julie London) but abandoned his wife and kids for at work affairs. They parted as amicably as can happen in Hollywood, and she and her second husband did appear on Emergence as Dixie McCoy and Bill Gannon.
How’s that, Ma’am?
I recall hearing a bit of that trivia some years ago, but not quite with this much detail. Thanks!
Law and order is so liberal it makes me want to puke.
Same with Law and Order SVU. About the only show I watch now is NCIS and even they on occasion get lefty.
That’s what I meant. I worked two summers in an automobile parts stamping plant and discovered that it really is possible to use the word f*** several times in every single sentence one can speak for an entire day. Something about (at that time) all male work environments.
Met him pre-Dragnet. What a great guy.
"Twenty-one-fifty by."
I don’t like it. I don’t like it one bit.
His off screen behavior, on the other hand, was full bore Hollyweird. He was married to the greatest torch singer of all time (Julie London) but abandoned his wife and kids for at work affairs. They parted as amicably as can happen in Hollywood, and she and her second husband did appear on Emergence as Dixie McCoy and Bill Gannon.
Wasn’t Joe Friday’s partner in Dragnet also named Bill Gannon ?
Jack Webb, for any virtues he may have had was the worst, one-dimensional actor of all time. He could gave been replaced with a cardboard cut-out with no loss of verve.
He did have some odd attributes.
He always talked in deadpan monotonous tone. He also walked without swinging his arms. I will say some of the episodes were very very good.
I remember one where this kid worshiped some comic book super hero. He had a big picture of his hero on the wall. When Friday caught him the kid started to weep. He went up to his hero poster and placed his face against it. when he moved away, the poster had tears in it’s eyes.
(As my English teacher she became fascinated why, I was one her the brightest most articulated students in her class yet I was/am a terrible writers to the point of my having writing phobia, i'm severely dyslexic in my writing and only now can get by using a computer and spellcheck...our conversation grew from there)
She was very connect high up in the Hollywood Si/Fi pecking order was very close with Roddenberry, Nemoy and ever related to Rod Serling...heard a lot of interesting back story I can't get in too
The radio version of “Dragnet” has aged as well, if not better, than the TV versions. Easy to acquire in MP3 on the internet and from several sellers.
I always loved it when he would point in someones face while lecturing them, with a cigarette between his fingers
Emergency! wound up recruiting a lot of high school seniors into the local volunteer fire department and rescue squads. One high school senior had nearly a full crash kit in the back of his Chevy - The school nurse had his class schedule in case there was an accident in the shop class (and she called 911). That senior BTW was a good EMT and a fast learner, my father trained him (leutenenant on the squad and an EMT instructor).
Now today if a high school senior had the same crash kit in his car, he would be suspended due to the “zero tolerance” policy on “weapons” and “drugs”.
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