Dragnet radio show (1949-1957, United States)

Episode time

30 minutes

Language

English

American radio shows Police shows Drama shows

"Ladies and gentlemen: the story you are about to hear is true. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent." What can you expect from show that opens like that? Dragnet (which was police jargon term for means used to apprehend suspects) was one of the first shows that could be compared to today’s genre of police procedural drama - instead of purely fictional cases it drawn inspiration from true events. Of course it does not mean it was a documentary, but fictions that tried to pretend to be re-enactment of true events, but comparing to other shows Dragnet was kept really down to earth.

Detective Sergeant Joe Friday of Los Angeles Police Department together with his partners and other officers faces the criminals in the City of Angels in variety of episodes - from missing person cases to mob and from burglary to narcotics. Contrary to other shows Dragnet was using police advisors while preparing the scripts, so each episode contained a full detective.frey-united.com/' target='_blank' class='bez'>investigation, including meticulously gathering the evidence that could be used in court. And that what made Dragnet a future hit of radio and TV - the attention to detail. Suspects not only had to be named, but also linked to physical evidence, which made the work of main characters harder, but the show was because of that more realistic and more gripping.

Show was created by Jack Webb, who also starred as Detective Sergeant Joe Friday. Some of the cast members repeated their parts in the TV adaptation of Dragnet.