Two armed robbers are working the streets of Los Angeles, and Sergeant Joe Friday is on their trail. A reformed ex-con steps forward with a tip, and one small detail — a stutter — becomes the thread Friday pulls until the whole case unravels. This is Dragnet at its most methodical: no theatrics, just the facts, and the relentless procedural grind that made this show the template for every police drama that followed. Premiering on NBC in 1949 and built from real LAPD case files, Dragnet ran for nine seasons and set the standard for the entire genre.