Network Radio, TV, Dragnet & NYPD

Dragnet was first a radio program and was carried over onto television with the same cast in 1954. Radio and television were both developed as commercial media in the era after World War I. Radio was the first truly mass medium of communication, reaching millions of people instantly and altering social attitudes, family relationships, and how people related to their environment. Television would have an even greater impact once it was commercially viable. Television was invented in the late 1920s, and various experiments were conducted into the 1930s. What delayed the development of television as a product for a mass audience was World War II, and within a few years of the end of that war, television would start

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investigation in Los Angeles. Whether this was the impetus for Dragnet or not, Webb took a similar idea to radio, a program presenting authentic police cases about the Los Angeles Police Department. When television began to cut into the radio audience, Webb developed a television version of the show (though, as was then common with shows carried over from radio, the radio version continued to run as well for several years). Dragnet was a major hit on radio and on television. For most of the run, two detectives were followed as they investigated a crime each week, the detectives played by Jack Webb and Ben Alexander. The style of the show was much like the film-noir style of the movies, with spare dialogue, a focus on crime, and a cynical attitude. The style was much parodied because it was so easy to imitate. The show suggested that the cases were all taken from the real files of the Los Angeles Police Department, though it was never clear that this was as direct as it sounds. In fact, Webb developed stories by talking to police about their cases and then taking portions from different cases to make a dramatic presentation. Webb would follow the same approach with other shows he produced, notably Adam-12 in the 1970s. H
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Approximate Word count = 2237
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)