Dragnet (radio series)
Dragnet was an American radio series, enacting the cases of a dedicated Los Angeles police detective, Sergeant Joe Friday, and his partners.
The ominous, four-note introduction to the brass and tympani theme music (titled "Danger Ahead"), composed by Walter Schumann, is instantly recognizable.
[4][5] 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).
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 didn't last long, 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 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.
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.
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.
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.")
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 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.
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.
A single minute of ".22 Rifle for Christmas" illustrates the evocative sound effects; while Friday and others investigate bloodstains in a suburban backyard, the listener hears a series of overlapping effects: a squeaking gate hinge, footsteps, an investigator scraping blood into a paper envelope, the glassy chime of chemical vials, bird calls, and a dog barking in the distance.
When shows ran short, directors stalled for time, as in "The Big Crime", where a real-estate agent spent a full minute answering and explaining a phone call.
[7] The earliest radio programs ended each week with a remembrance of fallen officers who died on the job from all over the country, read over somber organ music.
Scripts tackled topics ranging from the sensational (murders, missing persons and armed robbery) to the mundane (check fraud and shoplifting), yet Dragnet made them all interesting with fast-moving plots and behind-the-scenes realism.
In one such example, Dragnet broke an unspoken taboo of popular entertainment in the episode ".22 Rifle for Christmas", which aired December 22, 1949 and repeated at Christmastime for the next three years.
Webb forwarded their letter to police chief Parker, who promised "ten more shows illustrating the folly of giving rifles to children".
Another episode dealt with high school girls who, rather than finding Hollywood stardom, fell in with fraudulent talent scouts and ended up in pornography and prostitution.
Webb's anti-drug screeds, continuing through the TV run, would be derided as camp by later audiences; yet his character later showed concern and sympathy for addicts as victims, especially juveniles.
Other Principal Actors: Frank Lovejoy, Paul Frees, Ted DeCorsia, Hans Conried, Homer Welch, Parley Baer, Harry Morgan, Betty Lou Gerson, Herb Vigran, Jeff Chandler, William Johnstone, Tony Barrett, William Conrad, Richard Boone, Whitfield Connor, George McCluskey, Stacy Harris, Charles Smith, Eddie Firestone, Virginia Gregg, Ralph Moody, Helen Kleeb, Jack Kruschen, Marion Richman, Martin Milner, Victor Rodman, Inge Jollos, June Whitley, Gil Stratton, Sam Edwards, Joyce McCluskey, Ken Patterson, Gwen Delano, Cliff Arquette, Sarah Selby, Edwin Bruce, Sammy Ogg, June Whitley, Peter Leeds, Lee Marvin, Carolyn Jones, Jean Tatum, Art Gilmore, Paul Richards, Lillian Buyeff, Irene Tedrow, Michael Ann Barrett, Vivi Janiss, Georgia Ellis & Bert Holland.
