[1] Lord narrated the episodes,[3] which used a "semi-documentary style"[3] to dramatize actual cases taken from files of law-enforcement agencies.
[7] Lord worked closely with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as the organization provided photographs and data about the criminals that they most wanted to apprehend.
Contents of episodes were gathered from sources that included friends and relatives of criminals, members of their gangs, and the perpetrators themselves.
[10] General Teleradio's Film Division bought the "Gangbusters" trademark from Lord, and in the summer of 1954 it began promoting a new first-run series to potential national advertisers.
"[3] Merrill Panitt wrote in The Philadelphia Inquirer, "Gangbusters is nothing more than an effort to attract an audience by dramatizing murder, robbery, brutality, and other less than commendable acts.
"[6] To illustrate his point, Panitt cited one episode of Gangbusters that he felt contained excessive emphasis on violence, while the work of the police "was an extremely minor element in the story.