Dragnet

What the Show Dragnet Was About:
Dragnet was a police drama set in Los Angeles and it centered around Sgt Joe Friday, a policeman. Dragnet reveals the drudgery and boredom as well as the heroism and danger of police work in real life to millions of Americans across the world so that they could feel what it was like.

The tone of the show was unpretentious and real. It always started with Friday announcing to the audience what kind of a day it was. It was brief and to the point and all included was the time, the place, the weather, the police department he was in and who his boss was. The delivery was extremely deadpan and the actor who played this role for so many years was Jack Webb. The same impersonal and serious tone was adopted by his partners in the episodes as well.

The Sponsor of the Dragnet Show:
Most shows needed a sponsor to run on radio and Dragnet’s sponsor was Fatima cigarettes. So Webb had to talk about the cigarettes. This company really was the longest sponsor for this show.

The Music for the Dragnet Show:
The opening bars were by Walter Schumann and even today people still remember the music. The same music was used in the TV series later but with some changes. The theme music used tympani and brass to get the effect they wanted – the sound was almost ominous.

The Dragnet series opened the eyes of many Americans to the real life work as a police officer. There are many people today that don’t understand the importance of reach police officer’s responsibilities. By releasing this series, everyone located across America was able to see what it was like to walk in the shoes of a police officer each and every day. Dragnet was at one point of time a radio show, a TV show as well as a comic strip.