Talk:Dragnet (franchise)

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Disambiguation Proposal[edit]

The term "dragnet" has two other potentially encyclopedic meanings [1]:

  1. A controversial fishing technique in which a wide array of flora and fauna are dredged from the bottom of a river or lake using a large conical net. The practice is widely frowned upon by ecologists, as it unnecesarily damages ecological systems. It is only still used in rural areas, notably in Chile and Argentina.
  2. Various police techniques used to apprehend a criminal in a large geographic area (this is presumably the term for which the show is named).

I propose that we move the current article to Dragnet (TV series) and make Dragnet a disambig for the three separate articles. Anybody have any objetions to this proposal? --DropDeadGorgias (talk) 20:40, Jan 10, 2005 (UTC)

This seems to have been done already, or similarly. 68.39.174.150 04:06, 7 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Line breaks[edit]

What are they good for? Other then screwing up alot of markup and links. Thanx 68.39.174.150 04:06, 7 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Annother early satire[edit]

I have the CD A Proper Introduction to Spike Jones: Thank You Music Lovers. One of the tracks is called Dragnet and is about detective Jim Saturday and someone who has kidnapped the entire state of Texas. The decidedly skimpy liner notes simply say:

Narration Spike Jones and Jerry Hausner
September 9, 1953
-E3-VB-0191 DRAGNET

Does anyone know any more about where this is from? --217.210.193.118 05:09, 29 August 2006 (UTC)[reply]

WP:TV infobox[edit]

I'd add a WP:TV infobox, but I don't know the right way to do it for this multi-media, multi-release article. Jordan Brown 01:36, 30 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Haha they fail[edit]

"At the end of the episode, the announcer would relate the fate of the suspect."

Not perpetrator? Just a suspect. they goofed —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.82.41.179 (talk) 08:44, 29 December 2006 (UTC).[reply]

  • Since the program only contained the investigation prior to the trial (like the first half of a typical Law & Order episode), calling the suspect the "perpetrator" at that point would be a violation of the presumption of innocence. The closing comments would announce the results of the trial. Wahkeenah 08:47, 29 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • The person who actually committed the crime (and, if there's a crime, there is always someone who must have committed it) is called, in some US police departments (almost exclusively Eastern Seaboard departments) the "perpetrator" or "perp." Other departments might use terms like "offender," "violator," "unsub" (for "unknown subject"), "doer," "responsible," or "actor." A person suspected of being a "perp" ("offender," "violator," etc.) is a "suspect." A person being tried for being a "perp" ("offender, "violator," etc.) is a "defendant." Hence, a "suspect" can be a "defendant" or a "perp" ("offender," "violator," etc.), or both. In any case, on the show, the narrative line was "The suspect was found guilty of . . .," so the article writer's use of the word suspect is entirely accurate.

(JIM DOHERTY)

    • Actually, I don't recall the term "perpetrator" ever being used on the show. That term (and especially the cutesy nickname "perp") seems to have caught the fancy of cop show writers rather more recently... and if, as you say, it's an east coast thing, it would stand to reason that Jack Webb wouldn't write it into his west coast show. In any case, Sgt. Joe Friday merely did the investigations and made the arrests, and the arrests ended each program except for the epilogue. It was up to the courts to try the suspect(s), and that part was skipped over. It was like the first half of Law & Order and a fast-forward to the end. Wahkeenah 02:30, 17 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Friday's partners[edit]

Some mention should be made of the second partner (between Romero and Smith), Ed Jacobs, played by Barney Phil(l)ips (sp?). Also, Herb Ellis was the original Frank Smith, replaced by Alexander after a few episodes. Ellis continued as a semi-regular in various roles. During the second series, Friday had another new partner for one episode, played by Anthony Eisley. He turned out to be a crook, and Gannon returned in the following episode. All this is from memory, you should verify it. I am a MAJOR Dragnet fan. --86.91.42.242 15:29, 29 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Episode Titles[edit]

The title of nearly every episode of the radio series and the original TV series began with the word "Big" - there were a few exceptions. These titles, however, were for cataloging purposes only and were not used on the air. --86.91.42.242 15:41, 29 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]


Does anyone have any idea why the episodes used the word "big" in their title. It seems strange and I wondered if there was some inside meaning. Throckmorton Guildersleeve (talk) 18:47, 31 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Split[edit]

There really needs to be two new articles - one for the radio show, and one for the television show. - A Link to the Past (talk) 01:50, 8 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

1967+ series[edit]

This article doesn't seem to say much about the 4-year series that started in 1967 (in color) with the Blue Boy episode. Wasn't that the more well-known series? Stayman Apple 03:41, 24 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Fair use rationale for Image:Dragnet '67 S1.jpg[edit]

Image:Dragnet '67 S1.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images uploaded after 4 May, 2006, and lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

BetacommandBot 10:09, 27 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Piperson[edit]

Vaguely I recall that the Bullwinkle's Corner presentation of Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son featured an interrogation of the title character by two fast-talking detectives from out of Dragnet. Anybody able to nail it down a bit tighter? Jim.henderson (talk) 00:57, 25 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Unsourced material[edit]

The following is unsourced information:

  • At the end of the original 1950s series, Joe Friday was promoted to Lieutenant. However, in the 1967 sequel, Friday's promotion was never mentioned and he was a Sergeant again. (The character was not demoted onscreen; the promotion was simply ignored as if it never occurred.) As Jack Webb said at the time: "Few people remember that Friday was promoted toward the end of our run. We think it's better to have Joe a sergeant again. Few detective-lieutenants get out into the field." Later, in the second season of the 2003 remake, Friday was promoted to Lieutenant.


  • Webb's portrayal of Sergeant Friday became so popular at one point that people started coming to LAPD City Hall asking to talk to Sergeant Friday, at which point they were invariably told, "Sorry, but it's the sergeant's day off".[citation needed]
  • In 1968, Dragnet crossed over with another Jack Webb created show, Adam-12, with the episode "Internal Affairs-DR-20", where Martin Milner and Kent McCord were seen in their roles of Officers Pete Malloy and Jim Reed.
  • For several years, Webb had a personalized California "vanity" vehicle license plate. It read "ABCA." When played on a piano, the keys ABCA play the first four notes of the Dragnet theme.
  • There are multiple explanations for the use of the shield number 714. Jack Webb was a big Babe Ruth fan, and Ruth hit 714 home runs in his baseball career. The number is also said to be from Jack's mother's birthday (July 14th). Another explanation is that Webb originally wanted the badge to be "777," to reflect the lucky number 7, but, at the last moment, decided instead to add the second two digits together to make 14, hence the final badge number was "714." A more prosaic explanation is that, at the time the series began, LAPD did not issue any badges in the "700" series, so there was no chance of the badge being associated with a real officer. Laurie Cooke, the daughter of Webb's LAPD liason during the '60s and '70s, Sgt. Dan Cooke, suggests the shield number was chosen because it was her father's number. This is mistaken. When Webb started production of the 1966 TV-movie, Sgt. Cooke was assigned by Chief Parker to work with Webb. The first thing Cooke did was dig up the "Lieutenant 714" badge Webb had carried during the final season of the original show. When Webb informed him that he no longer wanted Friday to be a lieutenant, Cooke put the now unneeded badge into his desk drawer. Some years later, when Cooke was promoted to lieutenant himself, he retrieved that shield from his desk drawer and arranged to have it assigned to him. This is all described in some detail in Michael Hayde's book-length study of the series, My Name's Friday. Further, the number "714" had been associated with the series from its very beginnings in the 1940s and '50s, and Cooke was not involved with the show until it was revived in the 1960s.
  • John Stephenson, who announced the epilogue at the show's end, was also the voice of Mr. Slate, Fred Flintstone's boss, on "The Flintstones" TV series.
  • One of the many police officers who submitted actual cases to Jack Webb was Gene Roddenberry, then a speechwriter for the Chief of LAPD, who would become famous for creating the Star Trek franchise.

While this is interesting, we can't use it unless you provide a source. Also, none of this is really trivia, as trivia by its definition is "unimportant information" - it therefore shouldn't be in a trivia section but instead the information should be incorporated into the main article. - Tbsdy lives (formerly Ta bu shi da yu) talk 10:33, 6 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

LA Dragnet?[edit]

Was the original series ever known as "LA Dragnet"? Or was that just the second season of the Dick Wolf series? SixFourThree (talk) 20:36, 20 March 2009 (UTC)SixFourThree[reply]

Guess it was just the second season of Wolf's series, so I'm taking it out of the opening paragraph, which refers to the original series. SixFourThree (talk) 19:46, 10 April 2009 (UTC)SixFourThree[reply]

List of episodes[edit]

This article lacks "lists of episodes". I created an initial List of Dragnet episodes (radio) for the radio episodes but could use some help with formatting, puctuation, layout, grammer, phrasing, etc. with that article. User Wrightaway created a list for the 2003 episodes. Episode lists are still needed for the 1951 series, 1967 series and 1989 series. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.40.62.65 (talk) 23:22, 15 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

forgot to sign the talk page ... again. - 64.40.62.65 (talk) 23:23, 15 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Regarding the 1987 film. It seems to be a bit disingenuous to call it a parody. I'd suggest that it's more a tribute to the show.

"Just the facts, ma'am."[edit]

The article states that the phrase "Just the facts, ma'am" was actually used in Stan Freeberg's St George and the Dragonet, so I found a recording of that online, and listened to it.

Unless I missed something, I never heard this phrase used in the recording. The closest I heard was "We just want to get the facts, sir". I would directly change the article, but I figured I'd check here first to see if perhaps the version I heard was different, or missing a chunk. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.254.65.130 (talk) 16:32, 21 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Any support for splitting this article?[edit]

This article seems to be getting large and somewhat disorganized because everything is compressed in to a single article. Is there any support for splitting this article? - Hydroxonium (talk | contribs) 22:06, 28 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I think that would definitely be a good idea. Ithizar (talk) 02:57, 17 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]
This article should be retitled Dragnet (franchise) and each entry in the franchise should be given its own page, as is done with every other popular franchise. There should be pages for Dragnet (radio series), Dragnet (1951 TV series), Dragnet (1954 film), Dragnet (1967 TV series), The New Dragnet and Dragnet (2003 TV series) which would include the second season where the show was retitled L.A. Dragnet. I believe as of now the Dragnet 1987 film is the only entry with its own seperate article. 74.82.64.160 (talk) 14:35, 14 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Three Stooges[edit]

Sometime in the 1950's, before the Stooges quit making 2 reelers, they did a spoof of Dragnet. This was when Shemp was a part of the Stooges. The movie was broken down into several segaments and each one would open with Moe saying "I'm Holiday" and Larry would say "I'm Faraday" (or vice versa). Shemp would then say a different holiday: "I'm New Year's Day, (St. Patric's Day, etc)", whereupon Moe would slap him. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.246.231.27 (talk) 18:31, 9 October 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Mad Magazine[edit]

In an early Mad Magazine take-off on Robinson Crusoe, the character Friday bears a strong resemblance to Jack Webb and is shown in boxer shorts bearing his badge number 714. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Pithecanthropus (talk • contribs) 20:10, 12 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

St. George and the Dragonet[edit]

The phrase 'just the facts, ma'am' does not appear in Freberg's parody. He says 'We just want to get the facts,sir.'. The article says otherwise, twice, and should be changed. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2.25.46.4 (talk) 12:39, 17 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]


not really one of the last radio programs[edit]

"Dragnet persisted on radio until 1957 (the last two seasons were repeats) as one of the last old time radio shows to give way to television's growing popularity." 'old time' radio programs ended as a regular broadcast service on 30 Sep 1962. Dragnet leaving radio five years before the end of dramatic radio broadcasts should not be considered being one of the last "old time radio shows". Throckmorton Guildersleeve (talk) 18:50, 31 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Dragnet (1954) was the first movie based on a TV series[edit]

Both Turner Classic Movies and the Internet Movie Database credit Dragnet (1954) as the first ever theatrical movie based on a weekly TV series. Shouldn't that fact be added to the article on the film? There are references that prove that fact.204.80.61.133 (talk) 19:09, 2 June 2014 (UTC)Bennett Turk[reply]

"Captain Video: Master of the Stratosphere" was a 1951 movie that was based on a weekly TV series; "Captain Video and His Video Rangers", however, the film itself is more similar to a low budget serial film, with production sets very identical to the actual program and it barely meets the requirements of a theatrical film. "Dragnet (1954)" is an geniune theatrical motion picture.204.80.61.133 (talk) 20:17, 2 June 2014 (UTC)Bennett Turk[reply]

Epilogue[edit]

Suggest a paragraph in the opening section about the typical ending: Before the final commercial, the narrator usually announced something like "The story you have just seen is true. The names were changed to protect the innocent. On [date], trial was held in Section [xxx], Superior Court in and for the County of Los Angeles. In a moment, the results of that trial." Then after the commercial, the epilogue would show the actor who played the culprit and the narrator would say something like "The suspect was found guilty of [crime]. [Crime] is punishable by [sentence]." Then the culprit's (changed) name would appear on the screen along with something like "Now serving his sentence at [prison]", "Awaiting execution", or whatever.

Marijuana[edit]

The two detectives in this series were always fighting marijuana dealers; l often wish these episode could be banned here in Canada, where the production of this drug has become legal.Tnarrud3 (talk) 13:50, 20 November 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Turn the channel 2601:548:4180:1B90:21F6:9053:4D98:492B (talk) 12:33, 18 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Dragnet.[edit]

I love this show I wish there were more coloed episodes. I'm startimg to get in to the black and white episodes on dove channel. I do not look forward to the day me tv takes it off 2601:548:4180:1B90:21F6:9053:4D98:492B (talk) 12:33, 18 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

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