This is the city

The great Badge 714 website has reproduced this short entry from Scholastic Book’s TV 70, a look at the upcoming television season sold in classrooms across the fruited plain! It’s great to see Dragnet 1970 get some good press! Enjoy!

Jack Webb’s Dragnet Tells It Like It Is
by Peggy Hudson

(from “TV 70″, published in 1970 by Scholastic Book Services)

It must be doing something right.
What other TV show has been put back on the beat?

This is the city: Los Angeles.
Population: 2,479,015—some good, some evil.
One of its natives carries a badge. His name: Joe Friday. We visited him on a Tuesday.
The time: 11:06 A.M.My partner and I had been assigned the interview detail. The Chief had briefed us. He said Dragnet had started as a radio show in 1949. Switching to television in 1952, it had become one of the medium’s all-time popular shows.

Then, eight years later, it had abruptly dropped from sight. Now, under a number of aliases—from Dragnet 1967 to Dragnet 1970—it had reappeared and resumed full-time operations. Our assignment: To learn at firsthand the program’s “MO.”

At 11:07 A.M.. we drove into the sprawling grounds of Universal City. We knew that this was Friday’s headquarters. Friday, in real life, operates under the name of Jack Webb.

As soon as we’d stepped into Webb’s reception room, we knew we were in the right place. Hanging in a big frame on one wall was a large collection of police stars, shields, and other badges from such cities as East Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Troy, New York. Some have Jack Webb’s name inscribed upon them.

In a large museum case were other police memorabilia, including an ancient lock and handcuffs. Beside it, in another frame, was a fan letter simply addressed: “Dum-de-dum-dum”—and decorated with appropriate musical notes. The postman, undoubtedly a Dragnet fan himself, delivered the letter—possibly even humming the program’s theme music as he did so.

Led into Webb’s office, we found ourselves in a different world. This was no precinct station. It looked like a living room. Wall-to-wall carpeting. Easy chairs. Tall lamps. One wall was decorated with etchings of U. S. presidents. On a small table stood an American flag.

A man was in the room. Dressed in shirt sleeves and slacks, he was seated at the big desk, talking on the telephone. He wore big black horn-rimmed glasses.

Even behind the glasses, though, it was evident that this was our man. Realizing that the disguise was useless, he hung up the phone, whipped off the glasses, and stood up to shake hands.

Webb is a slight man with narrow shoulders but a powerful build. His natural expression is serious, but he smiles quickly. He graciously waved us to a seat.

We weren’t about to be put off. “We have a few questions we’d like to ask you,” we said. Webb nodded. The interrogation began.

The story you are about to read is real.

---

Dragnet has an air of authenticity seldom matched by rival cops-and-criminals TV shows. Other police dramas have been gunned down by the ratings, but Dragnet has survived. “Why?” we wondered aloud.Webb looked thoughtful. “We’ve tried to tell it like it is for many years,” he said in his dry, Sgt. Friday’s voice. “We work very closely with the Los Angeles Police Department. We have meetings three or four times a year with division commanders and at least one meeting a year with police officials of even higher rank.

“We try to find out what the latest police problems are, what they’d like said. It’s really their program as much as ours. “We aren’t allowed—and don’t want—to read actual case histories. We deal with stories that are accurate, but the dialogue is recreated.

“All of our hardware is authentic. There’s a policeman assigned to each show as technical adviser. Each of our scripts passes through 12 to 15 officers’ hands, from the rank of captain down to sergeant. This is done to catch us in any technical slip-ups. To my knowledge, Dragnet and our other show, Adam-12, are the only police programs done as semidocumentaries.”

Webb created Dragnet 20 years ago. A former radio announcer turned radio serial actor, he got a big break in 1948, shortly after his discharge from I the Army Air Corps. He was cast in a supporting role in the movie, He Walked By Night.

It was a bigger break than even Webb realized. During the filming of the movie, he struck up a friendship with the film’s technical adviser, an officer of the Los Angeles Police Department.

“He sparked my interest in police work, and I found myself spending nights in police prowl cars and researching the crime lab files by day when time permitted,” Webb recalled. “Through this Dragnet was born.”

The show was one of the few programs to survive the transition from radio to television. After its long TV run, Webb voluntarily took Dragnet off the air in 1959.

“I think the public grew a little weary after eight years,” Webb admitted. “We’d done 275 half-hour TV shows and over 500 radio shows.”

But in January, 1967, Dragnet did the unprecedented. It became the first TV program to come from “retirement” and make a successful comeback.

“Had Sgt. Friday gotten restless to get back on the beat?” we asked Webb.

He smiled. “There was no driving urgency on my part,” he said. “It was more or less NBC’s idea, though I thought we could make some kind of statement on law and order.”

In making that statement, Dragnet dramas present all the variety to be found in real-life police work—from homicide to housebreaking. Shows frequently deal with the problems of young people.

When dealing with teenagers on the program, Sgt. Friday and Officer Bill Gannon—played by Harry Morgan—seem tuned in to the younger generation. “Do you think such cops really exist?” we asked Webb.

“Positively, yes, “he replied. “We have only 23 1/2 minutes to tell a story which actual police officers may have spent months on. The officers in real life might have shown even more understanding than Harry and I are able to in such a short time.”

Webb is concerned about the lack of public support for police departments in some areas of the country. “It’s no secret that being called a ‘pig’ affects a man’s morale,” he said. “If we don’t do something quickly, the spirit of accomplishment will be taken away from men on the job. When that happens, low morale can spread through a department. Eventually you risk having no department at all.

“Today, being a policeman is a distasteful, almost tragic, way to make a living. The abuse he takes is ridiculous.

“If the public doesn’t begin to loudly support their policemen, I’m afraid we’re heading for a bleak period in urban history.

“We hope in some way we make the policeman’s job easier for him.”

The Original Pilot for ‘The Twilight Zone’

Back in the late 1950s, Rod Serling sold a script to CBS called The Time Element. He had hoped to craft a weekly anthology series using many of the devices used in this script – a normal person put into an unusual situation, an ironic twist ending, etc.. Interestingly, this teleplay had the distinction of being Serling’s first science fiction type writing.

The script languished in the offices of CBS for a while until it was finally produced as an episode of Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse, and was broadcast on November 24, 1958.

The Time Element is a time travel story, using many time travel devices that have since become hackneyed. The episode featured William Bendix and Martin Balsam in the central roles, and the cast also includes Joe DeRita, who years later he would join Moe Howard and Larry Fine in the final incarnation of The Three Stooges.

The broadcast was critical and popular success, and over six thousand positive letters flooded CBS’s offices, convincing CBS to green light Serling’s proposed Twilight Zone series. The rest is TV history.

So sit back and enjoy Rod Serling’s The Time Element.

The Three Stooges Parody Dragnet

Well, most people who know me even casually know that two of my many passions are Dragnet and The Three Stooges! I know what you’re thinking – those two things are among everyone’s many passions! And you’re probably right!

So when those Knuckleheads decided to parody Dragnet, it simply can’t fail! So please join Moe, Larry, & Shemp in their 1955 short, Blunder Boys.

He wants to rule your land, man.

Drugs aren’t cool!

Fridays for Friday returns with a vengeance! Today’s clip is from the classic episode, The Big Prophet. It’s a minimalist episode done almost entirely on one set between Joe Friday, Bill Gannon, and Brother William Bentley (Liam Sullivan), a Timothy Leary-type counterculture guru who advocates experimentation of all sorts of mind altering drugs.

Needless to say, Mr. Webb sets him straight! All I have to say is, “Thank God, It’s Friday!”

LSD isn’t the Answer

In the mid 1960s, serious cultural changes were in the works. Those with their finger on the pulse of America saw the changes coming. People were becoming more cavalier, and less responsible, with sexuality. And drug use was on the rise -- and more problematic, encouraged and glorified by certain segments of the culture.

Mr. Jack Webb noticed, and he didn’t like it one bit.

When the network decided to give him a chance to re-imagine his classic radio drama/1950s tv hit Dragnet, Mr. Webb was enthusiastic. One reason was that he saw the cultural trends that encouraged drug use, and wanted to address those trends.

The tv movie, Dragnet 1966, pleased the network executives so much that they ordered a weekly tv series. And Mr. Webb delivered -- 17 episodes of Dragnet 1967, kicking off a successful 4-year run of 98 episodes. Interestingly, the 1966 tv movie didn’t air until 1969!

In any event, the drug issue was important to Mr. Webb and it is prominent in the tv series pilot, The LSD Story, which aired on January 12, 1967. It’s a memorable episode because of the subject matter and the way it is handled. The junkie in the episode, Blue Boy enjoys a well deserved footnote in television history!

A YouTube user edited together the best parts of the episode, and thanks to him I can present selections from The LSD Story as part of our series, Fridays for Friday.

Enjoy!

I had a bad feeling about this…

Probably my two favorite tv comedies of all time are The Odd Couple and Get Smart. The OC, of course, started on stage and made its way to the big screen, and ultimately the tv screen. Get Smart started on the tv screen and had a very successful run, and back around 1980 made it to the big screen in a forgettable film called The Nude Bomb.

The Nude Bomb brought Don Adams back to the role that he made famous, and indeed the role that made him famous, Control Agent 86, Maxwell Smart. Unfortunately, he was the only major cast member to return, and the loss of Barbara Feldon/Agent 99 and Edward Platt/The Chief really hurt the film.

In the late 1980s, however, a much better reunion film was made for television, Get Smart, Again!, reuniting as much of the original cast as possible. It’s released on DVD and usually in the $1 bin at Walmarts across the fruited plain – well worth the investment!

I love the original so much that I winced when a couple of years ago I heard that Hollywood was doing what it does worst, and making a big-screen, big budget Get Smart film. They almost always screw these things up, so why would Get Smart be any different?

Then I heard that Steve Carell was cast as Agent 86. While I am not a big fan, he seemed like a great choice given the current climate and talent pool. Alan Arkin as The Chief – seems like a good fit, and I can definitely see Max testing his patience! Anne Hathaway is easy on the eyes but seems a bit young for the top-shelf Agent 99. Duane ‘The Rock’ Johnson also seems perfect as Agent 23, a character created for the film: Control’s most capable and suave agent, and Max’s idol.

A glimpse at IMDB’s page reveals many old favorites in the cast of characters. Terrance Stamp as Seigfried – great choice! And Bill Murray as Agent 13, the Control spy who would always get assigned tight covert spaces. The pieces seem to add up, and I resolved to be of open mind and look forward to the film’s opening on June 20, 2008.

Though they haven’t begun marketing the movie in the states, I found both the teaser trailer and extended trailer for some international markets available on YouTube! So I checked them out.

Gotta say, I feel even better about the project after watching these two clips. Maybe it’s just a combination of hopefulness and gullibility on my part, though. I did hear that a rough cut of the movie was screened back in the Fall and tested horribly, enough to force the filmmakers to go back and redo some scenes. Usually not a good sign, but I am still hopeful.

Based on the clips. it seems faithful to the kind of humor that made the original tv series one of my favorites. In particular, that ‘element of surprise’ joke made me laugh quite a bit.

I suppose the question is, “Do audiences in 2008 want that?” I hope they do.

Wait and see…

PS – Anyone care to opine – the narrator of the shorter teaser sounds a lot like Leonard Nimoy, which would be a nice tie-in with another one of my favorite spy tv series, Mission Impossible. Anyone else think it sounds like ol’ Spock?

Sudden Urge To Bite Into A…

Now and then some really unusual stuff from around the globe crosses my desk here at the world headquarters of The Silver State Chronicles. Well, this time, a tv commercial from halfway around the world has caught my attention. It’s for a product McDonalds markets as ‘The Tomato McGrand.’

I can’t decide if the ad is sexy or creepy. Or maybe it’s sexy-creepy. Or maybe it’s creepy-sexy?

While whoever posted it on YouTube felt that this was a video of Ronald McDonald’s daughter, I tend to think she is a cheap floozie who comes by the McDonalds’ home when Mrs McD goes away for the weekend to visit her mother. Good for Ronald, I suppose! Always gotta keep an eye on those sly old dogs in clown makeup!

I also have to say I nearly fell out of my chair at the 15-16 second mark. Holy Baloney! Is McDonald’s gearing up to market the ‘McCamel Toe Royale?’

In any event, a creepy-sexy, or sexy-creepy, redhead and a catchy tune tend to be the start of something big! At least, that’s the way it’s always worked out in my life…

Watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat!

Those who know me know that I am a big fan of Bullwinkle and his pal Rocky, as well as Boris, Natasha, and the rest of their family of characters! Well, mix the antics of Bullwinkle with the antics of Dragnet, and you have a sure formula for success!

Sit back and enjoy!

Running with Cloverfield this weekend

Courtesy of AintItCool.com, word is that Hollywood boy wonder JJ Abrams is giving fans a sneak peek at his big-budget, big-screen re-imagining of the original Star Trek series. A teaser trailer evidently will run with his giant monster attacks New York movie Cloverfield, which opens this weekend.

Looks like the teaser starts with some real-life inspirational quotes about space exploration, and then gives fans a view of the construction of the original Enterprise.

Gotta admit, it looks pretty sharp!