Jason Ruffin
COM 290
DRAGNET PRESENTATION
INTRODUCTION
- The 1st episode aired January of 1952 on Thursday nights 9:00 – 9:30 PM on NBC
- The show played on NBC through 1970 in September
- Radio – 1949 – 1957
- Cast members:
- Jack Webb as Sgt. Joe Friday and producer
- Barton Yarborough as Sgt. Ben Romero (1951)
- Barney Phillips as Sgt. Ed Jacobs (1952)
- Herb Ellis as officer Frank Smith (1952)
- Ben Alexander as Officer Frank Smith (1953-1959)
- Harry Morgan as Officer Bill Gannon (1967-1970)
- Every episode began with "The story you are about to see is true. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent." The famous men behind those words was George Fenneman on earlier episodes and Hal Gibney on later episodes.
- True cases that actually took place in Los Angeles.
- The cops would always solve the case and catch the bad guy in every episode. "Dum de Dum Dum."
IMPACT ON THE AUDIENCE
- When Dragnet first aired the NBC executives didn’t like it.
-lack of gunplay
-slow building plot
- As more people began watching and taking interest in the real life crimes in the shows it began to hit if off.
- After 5 seasons, Dragnet had captured the love of approximately 35 million faithful fans.
- People took pride in their police because of the supercharged producer, and leading man, Jack Webb.
- In Newsweek in 1957, they quoted Webb as saying "I used to think every year was the end. Now, I’m convinced we can go on indefinitely. It’s what the public wants." After 300 files were used from the LA Police Department and then began to branch out to other suburbs.
GENRE
- The type of genre in popular culture the Dragnet series represented was the cops and robbers category.
-Cops were always smarter.
-Fooled the criminals.
-Always got their man.
-Everyone in the area felt safe and happy due to the aid of the police.
JAMES CHESEBORO’S SCHEME
- Definitely Leader
- Sgt. Friday’s and his men’s intellect was always presented as superior to the audience.
-"witty comments"
- It always seemed as though Friday’s values were violated when a crime was committed, which would make him solve the crime.
- Every episode ended with the crooks being arrested and the cops in the spotlight.
- At the end. There was usually a scene with the men discussing what happened as though they were re-establishing their values.