Dragnet

Dragnet

1951
Dragnet
Dragnet

Dragnet

7.5 | TV-PG | en | Drama

Follows the cases of a dedicated Los Angeles police detective, Sergeant Joe Friday, and his partners. The show takes its name from the police term "dragnet", meaning a system of coordinated measures for apprehending criminals or suspects.

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Seasons & Episodes

8
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1
EP39  The Big Red
Aug. 23,1959
The Big Red

An informant's tip puts Friday on the trail of a narcotics ring.

EP38  The Big Counterfeit
Aug. 16,1959
The Big Counterfeit

A man impersonating a police officer is going to local businesses and asking for donations for the widows and orphans fund. Smith and Friday set out to stop the con man.

EP37  The Big Byron
Aug. 09,1959
The Big Byron

A man reports that his fiance's former boyfriend has taken shots at him.

EP36  The Big .38
Aug. 02,1959
The Big .38

Cab drivers are being held up, but the descriptions given by the victims don't match.

EP35  The Big Appetite
Jul. 26,1959
The Big Appetite

Friday and Smith track a burglar who breaks into homes and businesses to steal gourmet food items.

EP34  The Big Infant
Jul. 19,1959
The Big Infant

Friday and Smith's investigation of a stolen car - containing a sleeping baby - leads them to two juvenile suspects.

EP33  The Big Bray
Jul. 12,1959
The Big Bray

Friday and Smith investigate a series of food market robberies, where the bandit has been posing as a salesman.

EP32  The Big Operator
Jul. 07,1959
The Big Operator

Friday and Smith investigate a the death of a woman found beaten in her car, and suspect that her husband is somehow involved.

EP31  The Big Carnation
Apr. 28,1959
The Big Carnation

Friday and Smith hunt "The Carnation Kid," a suspect in a series of hotel burglaries.

EP30  The Big Picture
Apr. 21,1959
The Big Picture

A young girl commits suicide after she is tricked by a pair of movie talent scouts who are really operating a prostitution ring.

EP29  The Big Squeeze
Apr. 14,1959
The Big Squeeze

Friday investigates a robbery that is caused by a blackmail victim's refusal to pay.

EP28  The Big Couple
Apr. 07,1959
The Big Couple

Friday and Smith investigate a husband and wife con team that have a long criminal record.

EP27  The Big Name
Mar. 31,1959
The Big Name

The only clue to a murder investigated by Friday is the tape on a knife handle.

EP26  The Big Holdup
Mar. 24,1959
The Big Holdup

A robber called "The Rattlesnake Bandit" takes pleasure in beating and shooting his victims after he takes their money.

EP25  The Big Starlet
Mar. 17,1959
The Big Starlet

Friday investigates a young starlet under suspicion of check forgery.

EP24  The Big Sour
Mar. 10,1959
The Big Sour

An elderly couple are beaten and robbed. The key to finding the bandits lies in a paper boy and an alert bartender.

EP23  The Big Thirteen
Feb. 24,1959
The Big Thirteen

An elderly man reports a loss of money to the LAPD, then subsequently denies making the report. Friday and Smith must investigate.

EP22  The Big Roll
Feb. 17,1959
The Big Roll

We don't have an overview of this episode, please check back later.

EP21  The Big Mailman
Feb. 10,1959
The Big Mailman

Friday works with a postal inspector to catch a gang using the mail to scam money from people.

EP20  The Big Accident
Feb. 03,1959
The Big Accident

An insurance adjuster files a report with Friday about possible fraudulent insurance claims.

EP19  The Big Signet
Jan. 27,1959
The Big Signet

Friday and Smith have to find a man selling forged passports and paperwork.

EP18  The Big Doctor
Jan. 20,1959
The Big Doctor

Friday goes undercover to investigate a bookie operation.

EP17  The Big Smart Girl
Jan. 13,1959
The Big Smart Girl

Friday and Smith investigate a series of robberies in fashionable homes.

EP16  The Big Malcolm
Jan. 06,1959
The Big Malcolm

Friday and Smith investigate a criminal gang that preys on all-night restaurants.

EP15  The Big Donation
Dec. 30,1958
The Big Donation

Two con artists are selling phony magazines subscriptions to unsuspecting suckers.

EP14  The Big Maria
Dec. 23,1958
The Big Maria

Friday and Smith investigate the death of a woman found murdered in a churchyard on Christmas Eve.

EP13  The Big Hype
Dec. 16,1958
The Big Hype

Friday attempts to track down a heroin pusher.

EP12  The Big Green Monkey
Dec. 09,1958
The Big Green Monkey

Friday and Smith investigate a robbery, and their only clue to the suspect's identity is a green jade monkey.

EP11  The Big Hot Rod
Dec. 02,1958
The Big Hot Rod

Friday is on the hunt for a group of teens that are stealing sports cars.

EP10  The Big Nazi
Nov. 25,1958
The Big Nazi

While investigating reports of teenagers involved in a gunfight, Friday and Smith are shocked to find one of the teens involved wearing a Nazi uniform.

EP9  The Big Border
Nov. 18,1958
The Big Border

Friday and Smith must track a pair of escaped convicts across the Mexican border.

EP8  The Big Doll
Nov. 11,1958
The Big Doll

As Friday and Smith investigate a woman's death, they are disturbed to find that her daughter is more interested in discussing her collection of dolls.

EP7  The Big Jukebox
Nov. 04,1958
The Big Jukebox

Friday goes undercover as a bar owner in order to break up an illegal jukebox operation.

EP6  The Big Voice
Oct. 28,1958
The Big Voice

A mysterious telephone caller offers a man $1000 for a contract killing, and Friday must identify the caller before it's too late.

EP5  The Big Little Boy
Oct. 21,1958
The Big Little Boy

The detectives are trying to solve the case of the milk bottle bandit when they catch a break and apprehend a diminutive fifteen year old.

EP4  The Big Oskar
Oct. 14,1958
The Big Oskar

The detectives take a report of valuables stolen from the home of a somewhat eccentric old lady. They begin to suspect something is amiss when she starts talking about how she gets the "scoop" on crimes by being the first to report them to the local newspaper.

EP3  The Big Star
Oct. 07,1958
The Big Star

Friday and Smith investigate anonymous threats to disfigure a a famous actress.

EP2  The Big Sweet Annie
Sep. 30,1958
The Big Sweet Annie

Friday investigates a woman's disappearance after a convicted murderer is paroled into her custody.

EP1  The Big Beating
Sep. 23,1958
The Big Beating

Friday and Smith investigate a woman's claim that her neighbors are abusing their child.

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7.5 | TV-PG | en | Drama , Crime | More Info
Released: 1951-12-16 | Released Producted By: Mark VII Ltd. , Universal Television Country: United States of America Budget: 0 Revenue: 0 Official Website:
Synopsis

Follows the cases of a dedicated Los Angeles police detective, Sergeant Joe Friday, and his partners. The show takes its name from the police term "dragnet", meaning a system of coordinated measures for apprehending criminals or suspects.

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Stream Online

The tv show is currently not available onine

Cast

Jack Webb , Ben Alexander

Director

Jack Webb

Producted By

Mark VII Ltd. , Universal Television

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Reviews

Dalbert Pringle Though somewhat dry and routine at times, generally speaking, Dragnet's no-frills approach to the telling of its "real-life" crime stories was actually very entertaining, for the most part.Presented in a semi-documentary style, this highly-popular TV show from the glorious 1950s featured Sargeant Joe Friday and his ever-helpful sidekick, Frank Smith, who, through intense investigation, always got their man (and sometimes got their girl).You can be sure that when Friday's on the case, justice will be served.Filmed in b&w, Dragnet's episodes were all approx. 25 minutes in length.
edwagreen Jack Webb was totally memorable in a part made for him. As Sgt. Joe Friday, he totally captured Los Angeles on the beat, he knew what made the city tick as well as being prepared for so many memorable characters that he would meet during his tour of duty.His wonderful sidekicks were Ben Alexander and later Harry Morgan.Each week we were treated to another episode. My personal favorite was the one where the neighbors cleaned out a person's home. They thought he had moved and left the furniture When they were charged with robbery, imagine the expressions on their faces.George Fennemann, a perfect foil for Groucho Marx, was the perfect announcer.Who can ever forget Mark V11? This show was an absolute classic.
loyaltubist Dragnet began on radio in June 1949. The first two programs contained a lot of gratuitous violence. Letters from listeners changed this aspect of the program. On the third program, even the theme music had changed. The lone writer for the radio show was James Moser. Many of Jim's scripts were adapted for television when the TV version started in 1951. Because Barton Yarborough, who played Ben Romero, died while working on the TV show at the Disney studios in Burbank, his rural wisdom was sadly missed.It should be remembered that Jack Webb was a comedian at heart. Comedy is a hallmark in every Dragnet episode. If you look hard in even the soberest episode about police officers getting killed, you will find smatterings of humor. Jack's first venture in broadcasting was a weekly comedy-variety series originating from KGO in San Francisco and heard on ABC West Coast stations during the spring of 1946.All of the 1950s shows were in black and white with the exception of the annual Christmas show (The Big Little Jesus), which was always done in color. It was also the only episode which did not bear the statement, "The names have been changed to protect the innocent." There was a Christmas episode used prior to this one which was about a little boy who got a rifle for Christmas. I won't spoil it by telling you the ending, but you can probably figure what happens, three minutes into the show.Some actors on Dragnet appeared as several different characters. They included Harry Bartell, Ed Phillips, Virginia Gregg, Olan Soule, Allene Roberts, Virginia Christine (Folgers Coffee lady), and many others. Some of the actors were "has beens" like Natalie Masters (who was Candy Matson on a radio series in the late 1940s) and Ben Alexander (Joe Friday's partner--had a big part in the 1930 antiwar flick "All Quiet on the Western Front.") Her husband, Monty Masters was on the production crew. Up and coming stars included Leonard Nimoy (bad guy), Dennis Weaver (worked in the police lab), and Martin Milner (your typical teenager from any Los Angeles high school). Peggy Webber, a woman who was probably born about the same year as Jack Webb, portrayed Joe Friday's mother, with whom he lived.Those of us who loved the 1950s series find the 1960s series lacking in some ways. While it was a good, wholesome show for the entire family, it wasn't the old series. Of course, Joe Friday's partner, Bill Gannon, would get better stuff in the years to follow, as Col. Sherman T. Potter on M*A*S*H.One thing a nitpicky guy like me notices is that at the end of Dragnet in the 1950s, Joe Friday was promoted to Lieutenant. When the show came back on the air in the 1960s, he was back to Sergeant.There were two other programs with the Dragnet name. One was a syndicated program in the late 1980s. It had different characters and a very different feel. The other premiered in 2003: Joe Friday, now Detective Joe Friday, had badge 714 and a partner named Frank Smith, who was Joe's permanent partner after Ben Romero died in 1951 on the original series.Actually, this show was rude in that the LAPD retired Friday's badge after his death. He had a State Funeral in Los Angeles City Hall. When Jack Webb died, so did Joe Friday.
yarborough "Dragnet" is the best police show ever. "Dragnet" was directly responsible for the maturation and realness of police television shows, but it didn't dive into soggy drama stories surrounding the police officers the way soap opera police shows like "Hill Street Blues" did. "Dragnet" instead focused on the actual police stories and the apprehension of the crooks. On radio, the death of actor Barton Yarborough (no relation to me) who played Friday's first partner, Sgt. Ben Romero, was brought into the story, and in a 1953 TV episode Friday shows regret after killing a man for the first time, but that was as far as the drama went. For the most part, "Dragnet" was engaging nuts-and-bolts police work that was directed plausibly by Webb (who was a film-noir veteran by 1950, having appeared in 1948's "He Walked By Night," on which the show was based, and other film-noir classics like "Sunset Boulevard" and "The Men," both filmed in 1949). Many episodes of "Dragnet" have a film noir-like quality to them, often making for nail-bitting, high quality television.In correction of Mr. Richmond's comment, in the fall of 1952 Herb Ellis took over as Friday's partner after the departure of Barney Phillips. Ellis was the first Frank Smith, and he served as a temporary replacement until someone who matched Yarborough's wholesome humor could be found. And Ben Alexander was chosen. But Alexander's humor was more outwardly silly, whereas Yarborough brought out more unexpected humor. In the first episode, for instance, when Friday and Romero are told about a man carrying a bomb, Romero voluntarily decides to help Friday stop the man because, as he says "Can't go home. My wife wants me to paint the bathroom today." As stiff as Friday's partners often were, they all had their own unique traits: Romero was the unintentionally silly Southerner; Jacobs was the stone cold, ice-eyed quiet one; Herb Ellis's Frank Smith was quiet but easy going; Ben Alexander's Frank Smith was simply goofy.Jack Webb voluntarily pulled "Dragnet" off the air in 1959, but it returned to the air in new episodes in 1967, going for three and a half years (again in correction of Mr. Richmond's comment). These color episodes were rather different than the original black-and-white ones, but were still of very high quality.