Enjoy two free true-crime episodes of Dragnet

A) 5/10/53 The Big Joke w/ Jack Webb

B) 1/26/54 The Big Bid w/ Jack Webb

Jack Webb was a supporting actor on radio when he proposed Dragnet to CBS. The network heads, content with their own detective programs, turned down the idea but NBC saw its potential. However, a low-key dramatization of the real-life detection techniques used by two Los Angeles policemen and adapted from official case files at the Los Angeles Police Department, was not an original concept: the Gang Busters radio series had beaten Dragnet to the punch more than a decade earlier. But Webb’s insistence on a gritty brand of realism, coupled with innovative direction, storytelling, and convincing dialogue proved to be a winning formula. The result was often imitated but never came close to Dragnet. Jack Webb not only produced and directed each episode, he also played the central character of Sergeant Joe Friday. NBC paid him a mere $300 per broadcast in the first year and $600 in the second, but by the fourth year, Webb and his series were a bonafide hit. Unlike most radio detective programs, Dragnetdidn’t use the standard murder-solving format for each weekly episode. Cases were varied and reflected a wide range of criminal activities, such as supplying obscene comic books for sale in high schools, or forging checks. In December 1951, Dragnet made a monumentally-successful transition to television. Three years later a major motion picture, with some cast members from the radio program, was released. By giving fans a taste of real-life policing instead of the usual Hollywood theatrics, Jack Webb broke the mold. “From beginning to end – from crime to punishment – Dragnet is the story of your police force in action.”