This Is The City…

I don’t want to belabor the point but there are a lot of new people reading. I have been living without T.V. for over a year now. I’m not making any social statement. It’s not that I don’t like T.V. I really enjoy it. I find that I get a lot more done if I don’t have the option.

Last night my sister told me about Retrovison. I read an article about this site several weeks ago and from what I remember they are allowing people to post personal copies of old T.V. shows movies and radio shows.

Anyway, I decided to take a look and found three very early episodes of what is, by far, the best television series ever, Dragnet.

What follows the undeniable reasons that Dragnet is the best show ever.

1. The writing; take a look at this beautiful soliloquy that I found at Dragnet Quotes.

“It’s awkward having a policeman around the house. Friends drop in, a man with a badge answers the door, the temperature drops 20 degrees.

You throw a party and that badge gets in the way. All of a sudden there isn’t a straight man in the crowd. Everybody’s a comedian. “Don’t drink too much,” somebody says, “or the man with a badge’ll run you in.” Or “How’s it going, Dick Tracy? How many jaywalkers did you pinch today?” And then there’s always the one who wants to know how many apples you stole.

All at once you lost your first name. You’re a cop, a flatfoot, a bull, a dick, John Law. You’re the fuzz, the heat; you’re poison, you’re trouble, you’re bad news. They call you everything, but never a policeman.

It’s not much of a life, unless you don’t mind missing a Dodger game because the hotshot phone rings. Unless you like working Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays, at a job that doesn’t pay overtime. Oh, the pay’s adequate– if you count pennies you can put your kid through college, but you better plan on seeing Europe on your television set.

And then there’s your first night on the beat. When you try to arrest a drunken prostitute in a Main St. bar and she rips your new uniform to shreds. You’ll buy another one– out of your own pocket.

And you’re going to rub elbows with the elite– pimps, addicts, thieves, bums, winos, girls who can’t keep an address and men who don’t care. Liars, cheats, con men– the class of Skid Row.

And the heartbreak– underfed kids, beaten kids, molested kids, lost kids, crying kids, homeless kids, hit-and-run kids, broken-arm kids, broken-leg kids, broken-head kids, sick kids, dying kids, dead kids. The old people nobody wants– the reliefers, the pensioners, the ones who walk the street cold, and those who tried to keep warm and died in a $3 room with an unventilated gas heater. You’ll walk your beat and try to pick up the pieces.

Do you have real adventure in your soul? You better have, because you’re gonna do time in a prowl car. Oh, it’s going to be a thrill a minute when you get an unknown-trouble call and hit a backyard at two in the morning, never knowing who you’ll meet– a kid with a knife, a pill-head with a gun, or two ex-cons with nothing to lose.

And you’re going to have plenty of time to think. You’ll draw duty in a lonely car, with nobody to talk to but your radio.

Four years in uniform and you’ll have the ability, the experience and maybe the desire to be a detective. If you like to fly by the seat of your pants, this is where you belong. For every crime that’s committed, you’ve got three million suspects to choose from. And most of the time, you’ll have few facts and a lot of hunches. You’ll run down leads that dead-end on you. You’ll work all-night stakeouts that could last a week. You’ll do leg work until you’re sure you’ve talked to everybody in the state of California.

People who saw it happen - but really didn’t. People who insist they did it - but really didn’t. People who don’t remember - those who try to forget. Those who tell the truth - those who lie. You’ll run the files until your eyes ache.

And paperwork? Oh, you’ll fill out a report when you’re right, you’ll fill out a report when you’re wrong, you’ll fill one out when you’re not sure, you’ll fill one out listing your leads, you’ll fill one out when you have no leads, you’ll fill out a report on the reports you’ve made! You’ll write enough words in your lifetime to stock a library. You’ll learn to live with doubt, anxiety, frustration. Court decisions that tend to hinder rather than help you. Dorado, Morse, Escobedo, Cahan. You’ll learn to live with the District Attorney, testifying in court, defense attorneys, prosecuting attorneys, judges, juries, witnesses. And sometimes you’re not going to be happy with the outcome.

But there’s also this: there are over 5,000 men in this city, who know that being a policeman is an endless, glamourless, thankless job that’s gotta be done.

I know it, too, and I’m damn glad to be one of them.”

There is no contemporary T.V. writing that compares. The dialogue on Dragnet is tight, precise and delivered with a Benzedrine edge. There is closure in the writing. In every episode of Dragnet, there is a problem pointed out, explained in detail and a solution to that problem.

The reason the dialogue is so quick is because there is so much information. There is more dialogue in a 22 minute Dragnet than most 90 minute feature films. You get your money’s worth.

2. Jack Webb.
Jack Webb wrote, acted, produced and directed. He was salt of the earth; a man’s man, a B-26 crewmember in W.W. 2. He would finish a days work and hold court in his office, slamming scotch and smoking heaters ’til 4 A.M., outlasting all of his many drinking buds and show up fresh and ready to work a couple of hours later.
He was cool. He had his own look, talk and stiff walk. He was cool because he wasn’t trying to be anything but himself.

He was cool enough that Julie London married him and that Julie and new husband Bobby Troup stayed friends with him after the split.

3. The partners.
Of course, there was Bill Gannon, (Harry Morgan) everyman, comic relief, solid as rock, a guy who embraced the supporting role and one who would have your back when the chips were down. But, there was also Frank Smith (Herb Ellis, Ben Alexander) the chunkier, more street-tough, wisecracking ’50s version.

4. The cast.
Great character actors that would sometimes show up two weeks later as someone else. A lot of them are unknown to me because I never saw them anywhere else. However, check out this list of notables that had early Dragnet spots; Lee Marvin, Aaron Spelling, Leanord Nimoy, Fess Parker, Claude Akins and Dennis Weaver

5. The Visuals.
In the black and white version, there was creative use of light and shadows. Also, a lot of close-up character studies and clever visual aids (maps with pins to show locations of crimes, close-ups of highlighted police documents describing suspects or stolen items). The color version had many more outside shots. Every time Webb says “This is the city”, at the beginning, there is a different shot of Los Angeles. These shots alone are a time capsule. I would watch for no other reason than to see well filmed versions of an L.A. that doesn’t exist anymore.

6. The wardobe.
Once again; cool because it’s not trying to be. Anti-cool.

7. The music.
Dum duh dunh duhhh Dum duh dunh duh DAHHH
The theme song “Dragnet” is also known as “Danger Ahead” and “The Dragnet March”. It was composed by Miklos Rozsa for the 1946 film version of “The Killers” and later arranged by Walter Schumann.

The theme is great, immediately recognizable but it’s only part of the story. Every episode has interesting music that was recorded and played well. Webb was a huge music fan and he didn’t screw around. He hired great composers, arrangers, and orchestra and studio players. The black and whites tend to lean to the classical side often dark, minor key pieces. In the later episodes, there is more of a mixed bag. There is a lot of real jazz going on. Sometimes it’s a little goofy like when the guys crash a drugged out, crazed, hippie party and the soundtrack is a Tommy Tedesco, acid rock, telecaster interpretation. But, even when it’s cheesy it’s good.

8. The ending.

“The story you have just seen is true. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent.”

No cliffhangers here; every episode was tied up at the end. You always knew if the perp went to jail and for how long. Plus, you got to see the criminal posing for a mug shot. In the end; a sense of satisfaction; a sense that justice was served.

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Tags: Dragnet, Jack Webb