Dragnet is an American media franchise created by actor and producer Jack Webb and owned by his company Mark VII Limited and Universal Pictures.

Originating as a radio drama on NBC in 1949, Dragnet has been adapted into several successful television shows and films, though the franchise's popularity has reduced since Webb's death in 1982.

Webb reluctantly came up with a new character to take the role of Joe Friday's partner, calling upon his longtime friend Harry Morgan to play Officer Bill Gannon.

Morgan had previously portrayed rooming-house proprietor Luther Gage in the 1949 radio series episode "James Vickers".

NBC bought the show on the strength of the movie, and it debuted as a midseason replacement for the sitcom The Hero on Thursday nights in January 1967.

He brought that to the attention of Webb, who hired Orland to direct and film This is the City, a series of minidocumentaries about Los Angeles that preceded most TV episodes during the 1969 and 1970 seasons.

Much as was done 11 years earlier, Webb decided voluntarily to discontinue Dragnet after its fourth season to focus on producing and directing his other projects through Mark VII Limited.

From October 1, 2011, to April 26, 2013, the series ran daily on the digital cable channel Antenna TV, and before that, the show aired on the Retro Television Network.

In 1982, Webb had begun working on a revival of Dragnet, writing and producing five scripts and continuing his role as Joe Friday.

Once again, he needed to create a new character for Friday's partner; Ben Alexander had died in 1969 and Harry Morgan was tied up with his commitments to M*A*S*H, and its already greenlit followup AfterMASH.

Webb decided on former Adam-12 star Kent McCord who had several guest appearances early in the 1967 revival series, to fill the undefined role.

Jack Webb's LAPD sergeant's badge and ID card are on display at the Los Angeles Police Academy.

In 1954, a theatrical feature film titled Dragnet, an adaptation of the series, was released with Webb, Alexander, and Richard Boone.

The film begins with the shooting of small-time hood Miller Starkie (Dub Taylor) on orders from his boss, Max Troy (Stacy Harris).

Friday and Smith's superior is LAPD Intelligence Division Captain Jim Hamilton (Boone), a department member and the film's technical advisor.

One scene contains a violent fist-fight involving the two detectives, with the close-up cinematic technique typical of Webb's style of direction.

The story focuses on crime more typical of the 1960s than of the previous Dragnet era; the detectives are assigned to find a voyeuristic serial killer similar to Harvey Glatman (played by Vic Perrin, who appeared in the 1954 film as an assistant district attorney).

Also appearing is Virginia Gregg, who had a role in the 1954 feature and was a frequent guest actor in the 1951–59 series and the 1967–70 episodes, and John Roseboro, a catcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers, who dabbled in acting in the off season; Roseboro played a plainclothes detective who had been the target of racial slurs by a child molester until Friday came to his aid.

The film contrasted the terse, clipped character of Friday, a hero from an earlier age, with the "real world" of Los Angeles in 1987 to broad comedic effect.

Apart from Aykroyd's spot-on imitation of Webb's Joe Friday and Harry Morgan reprising his role of Bill Gannon (now Captain), the film version has few similarities with previous incarnations.

After a 12-episode season that followed the traditional formula, the format of the series was changed to an ensemble crime drama in an attempt to boost ratings.

(The change apparently reflected Webb's intentions for the 1980s revival series, with Joe Friday promoted again to Lieutenant and overseeing a pair or group of younger detectives.)

Dragnet, Friday was promoted to lieutenant with less screen time and Frank Smith was written out, in favor of a younger and ethnically diverse cast played by Eva Longoria, Desmond Harrington, Evan Dexter Parke, and Christina Chang.