DRAGNET

[Dr Doran]

I recently got the first 3 episodes of the old tv show, hoping for some noir fun. I only watched the first one. IT WAS HORRIBLE.

Am I missing something?

 

[plain old dave]

I always thought the color episodes were better.....

 

[Godfrey]

Try the Radio shows - much better!

http://www.archive.org/details/Dragnet_OTR

 

[Matt Deckard]

I remember the black and white series... and yes it sucks rotten eggs. Hard to watch until the next partner step in.

I did like the version of Dragnet that came out a few years back which starred Al Bundy.

 

[LizzieMaine]

There was never anything noirish about Dragnet -- never any ambiguity as to who was good and who was evil, never any shadings of grey in the characters. What it was, was the first meticulously accurate police-procedural program, on both radio and TV, the first program to treat police officers not as either heroes or stooges but as ordinary working people doing a difficult job. Jack Webb had a very meticulous approach to his material, and it isn't to everyone's taste -- but in his own quiet way he was a revolutionary.

An essay I wrote some years ago about the radio version of Dragnet can be found here --

http://www.lofcom.com/nostalgia/columns/retro/199909.phtml

 

[Vornholt]

The radio versions are vastly better than the stiff first episodes on TV. Don't judge the program by that early TV effort.

 

[Doh!]

My take on Dragnet is thus:

The radio shows are superb, from the pacing to the sound effects.

The black-and-white version is a good, solid police drama. Noirish in look if not in tone.

The color ones are pretty campy with today's eyes. But also the most entertaining -- and watchable.

There was a syndicated version in the '90s that was just... lame.

The most recent Ed O'Neill version was a nice try, but they didn't seem to "get" it. They paired Friday with a much younger partner whereas the joy of watching/listening to the Webb versions was that the two cops were always peers and thus quite comfortable with each other.

Finally, the Dan Ackroyd/Tom Hanks movie was pretty damned funny at the time, although I haven't seen in many years.

(Ms. Maine, nice essay!)

 

[dostacos]

remember that was a totally pro LAPD program and the badge they show at the beginning was actually "issued" to Jack Webb.

I loved how every week they worked for a different unit, one week day watch bunco, the next time robbery/homicide on nights. No wonder Joe Friday never wanted to get married.

As for quality, please judge against other TV shows of the time, you will find it not nearly as disagreeable in that light.

 

[Flivver]

As for quality, please judge against other TV shows of the time, you will find it not nearly as disagreeable in that light.

I watched the black & white Dragnet as a kid in the 1950s. Actually, it was one of my favorite shows back then...but I was only in elementary school!

I'll have to pick up some episodes on DVD and see if I still like it. I know I still enjoy Highway Patrol, with Broderick Crawford.

10-4

 

[dhermann1]

Even in the 50's Dragnet was a popular target for lampooning. Jack Webb's utterly flat delivery was about as exciting as watching paint dry. And especially irksome was how he ended each episode with a flat snide comment about the perp of the day. It was really the show you love to hate.

 

[funneman]

I've watched the Dragnet movie from 1953, I believe, and it never disappoints. And it's in color!

From the double barreled shotgun blasts that open the movie to the twist at the end this is not the TV version at all.

Even the dialog is pretty good.

Lab guy: "The first two blasts cut him in half."

Friday: "Yeah, and the last two turned him into a crowd."

I recommend.

 

[Mr. 'H']

Why are you all so negative about Dragnet?

[huh]

It is a good show that helps explain the inner workings of the LAPD. I read a lot of Ellroy and when I later watched the Dragnet show it helped a lot in realizing how he used the show as an inspiration. Even some of the characters appeared in his novel (Thad Green/Thad Brown).

I think the procedure-based show is great when you think how murky the whole history of the LAPD in those days really was.

 

[Benny Holiday]

Like everything, Dragnet was a product of its time and my parents remembered it as being down to earth and even, for those days, kind of gritty - as LizzieMaine says, it was meant to show everyday cops doing a difficult job.

For today's audiences it can seem cheesy and funny, but of course our versions of entertainment will seem just as trite 50 years down the track. The episode with the guy who went around breaking into people's houses and stealing their canaries was funny, especially when Sgt Friday asks if a lady's checked on her bird lately and they move into the next room to find an empty birdcage. The the melodramatic music comes on: Dum, dum-dum-dum! Dum, da-dum-dum-DUUUM!

Still entertaining I think, but then again, I dig 1950's B-grade flying saucer/juvenile delinquent/mutant monster flicks too!

 

[dostacos]

I watched the black & white Dragnet as a kid in the 1950s. Actually, it was one of my favorite shows back then...but I was only in elementary school!

I'll have to pick up some episodes on DVD and see if I still like it. I know I still enjoy Highway Patrol, with Broderick Crawford.

10-4

ah yes, Highway Patrol, where every week, Broderick Crawford shoots the bad guy while holding his 2" barreled 38 at his waist WHAT A SHOTlol

 

[dostacos]

Like everything, Dragnet was a product of its time and my parents remembered it as being down to earth and even, for those days, kind of gritty - as LizzieMaine says, it was meant to show everyday cops doing a difficult job.

For today's audiences it can seem cheesy and funny, but of course our versions of entertainment will seem just as trite 50 years down the track. The episode with the guy who went around breaking into people's houses and stealing their canaries was funny, especially when Sgt Friday asks if a lady's checked on her bird lately and they move into the next room to find an empty birdcage. The the melodramatic music comes on: Dum, dum-dum-dum! Dum, da-dum-dum-DUUUM!

Still entertaining I think, but then again, I dig 1950's B-grade flying saucer/juvenile delinquent/mutant monster flicks too!

this and other programs were really at the dawn of TV.

The Roy Rogers Show
Sky King
Whirlybirds
Sea Hunt
Dragnet

none of these are known for great actinglol

 

[Doh!]

I've watched the Dragnet movie from 1953, I believe, and it never disappoints. And it's in color!

From the double barreled shotgun blasts that open the movie to the twist at the end this is not the TV version at all.

Even the dialog is pretty good.

Lab guy: "The first two blasts cut him in half."

Friday: "Yeah, and the last two turned him into a crowd."

I recommend.

Great dialogue! Yeah, the '53 movie is definitely worth a rental!

 

[Paisley]

I thought the 1987 movie with Dan Akroyd and Tom Hanks was pretty funny.

 

[Dr Doran]

Well, all I have seen is the first episode ever. A married, middle-class woman has been stealing from department stores. She keeps being described by witnesses as beautiful and in her mid to late 20s. When we finally meet her, she is NOT beautiful by any stretch and at least 42.

I'll read Lizzie Maine's essay. Maybe I'll change my mind.

 

[FourKingTwenty]

Are you referring to "The Big Shoplift?" That's not the first episode ever, it's from the third season. The first episode ever is called "The Human Bomb." It's about a man who threatens to blow up Los Angeles City Hall. I think I know what DVD you have. While "The Big Shoplift" is Episode 1 of Volume 1, it's not the first episode of the series.

 

[Dr Doran]

Are you referring to "The Big Shoplift?" That's not the first episode ever, it's from the third season. The first episode ever is called "The Human Bomb." It's about a man who threatens to blow up Los Angeles City Hall. I think I know what DVD you have. While "The Big Shoplift" is Episode 1 of Volume 1, it's not the first episode of the series.

I must have assumed since it was Episode 1 of Volume 1 it was the first episode. OK. Well, it was ... uninspiring.