Unless you were a product of the Fifties, it’s impossible to understand the complete infatuation our generation had with television. We were able to watch technology unfold to the extent that – with the aid of an aerial on the roof, and 21-inch picture box within a huge console – images and sounds actually appeared in our own living rooms. It was television and whatever was on, we watched.
On a given Monday morning, an entire nation would relive a Lassie program on the previous Sunday night. We watched the circus acts on Ed Sullivan, Milton Berle’s slapstick and the antics of Martin and Lewis on the Colgate Comedy Hour. We even watched the test patterns, but we especially watched Dragnet.
Dragnet began as a radio series in the late 40’s and early 50’s and was hugely successful. The creator, Jack Webb, also starred and his raspy, to-the-point dialect added to the police drama.
Then came TV and at first, Webb was reluctant to play his role in front of cameras. Producers considered another actor for the Sgt. Friday role, but that would have been like having a beagle play the part of Lassie.
Finally, Webb agreed, the show first aired in 1951. It was an instant success. Webb, as Sgt. Joe Friday, later promoted to Lt. Friday, narrated all the episodes. Friday was the consummate police officer, a straight and narrow type. His famous line, when interviewing women involved in cases, was “Just the Facts, Ma’am”. He was sympathetic to the victims, and he always caught his man. At the end of the show, it was revealed what sentence the perpetrator had received.
The show was so popular it might be still airing today, except that Webb wanted to get more involved in producing and directing films, as he did.
Speaking of “Just the Facts, Ma’am, the fact of the matter is that Dragnet was a great show, and everybody tuned in.
