"What I love about Dragnet" Topic

I've been rewatching old Dragnet episodes on Netflix… the B&W from the 50s (the ones from the 60s are a bit more camp).
50s era Jack Webb is great… and I love the odd little details they drop in, conversations being interrupted by phone calls and such (MR. Rogers' Neighborhood had a lot of that as well). Another great thing are all the odd characters they run into… believable kooks and oddballs. There's a good bit of humor… which helps offset how surprisingly brutal the show can be. All those great faces! It's not happening in some alternate universe inhabited only by underwear models.
But what I REALLY love about the show is that Sgt. Friday and the other cops are not infallible supermen. Sgt. Friday is JUST a detective… he can't speak Spanish, his partner can… he isn't an expert on forensics… he defers to the crime lab for that.
He and his partner often get off on the wrong track, go after red herrings or pick up the wrong guys. The bad guys are often caught off camera by other police.
The whole police force works together on crimes… no one guy is more amazing than everyone else… lots of legwork and dead ends. Hard work. Not glamorous at all.
It's just so much more appealing to me vs. the modern shows I've seen where every detective seems to be a cross between Sherlock Holmes and The Amazing Kreskin.
I'm guessing that fans of the show in the 50s who ended up on a jury didn't create the 'CSI Effect' that my friends at the local crime lab have complained of.

I was never a big Dragnet fan, but one of my best friends was. So, when I was at his house and the show was on, I watched it.

You have to love Jack Webb's deadpan, straight-from-the-hip acting style, especially when he was railing about "kids these days." Friday might have been an uptight square, daddy-o, but at least you always knew where he stood. He never broke the rules.

Here he is waxing eloquent about the dangers of pot, heroin, and LSD versus alcohol. "Marijuana is the flame, heroin is the fuse, LSD is the bomb." YouTube link

"Just the facts ma'am…"

Webb seemed to be loyal to the actors who made up his "ensemble". You'll see the same folks playing different victims/perps throughout BOTH "Dragnet" series (and the motion pics – I believe there were two(?) starring Webb).

Acting (and sometimes pontificating plots) were PURE Webb "style" which left the second "Dragnet" series especially open to ridicule by contemporary "elites".

Still, "Dragnet" was good, solid TV drama of the day.

The copper clapper caper…
YouTube link

Grew up watching it. One of my favorite TV shows back then.

Who doesn't remember the rogue's gallery at the end followed by the sweaty hand pounding the stone cutter?

"Some punk who ate a big breakfast."