Zucker based his character on Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood, while scriptwriter Pat Proft wrote all of Drebin's lines with nothing being improvised.

In the original TV series, he is a competent police officer who plays the straight man in the unique comedy going on around him.

He consistently demonstrates respect for his associates and those he assists in the television series, despite occasionally inadvertently causing them some distress.

All of this may be due to the news Frank receives from Ed in the first film: His dedication to police work has caused his wife to leave him for an Olympic gymnast, and she is now having "the best sex she's ever had.

In 2008, Drebin was selected by Empire magazine as number 55 on The 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time,[12] as well as 74 on their newer 2019 list.

[15] Ryan Lambie on Den of Geek argues that, "Nielsen's performance is so perfect because he plays the role of the clumsy, clueless detective almost entirely straight; the situations in which Drebin finds himself may be absurd, but the character at the center of them is entirely serious" and that with his deadpan portrayal, Nielsen's character could very well have been taken straight out of one of the more serious 1960s or 1970s television series.