Word: dragnet
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Most radio whodunits rely on tough-talking private eyes, glossy gun molls and satanic scientists. By avoiding such standard characters, Dragnet (Thurs. 10:30 p.m. E.D.T., NBC) lags in the Nielsen ratings, but it has won a devoted following among policemen from New Haven to San Diego, who welcome Dragnet's non-nonsense approach. Says 30-year-old Jack Webb, creator of the show: "We don't do it by underplaying-because underplaying is still acting. We try to make it as real as a guy pouring a cup of coffee...
Each episode of Dragnet is "the documented drama of an actual crime" taken from the files of the Los Angeles police. Webb, who also plays matter-of-fact Police Sergeant Joe Friday, says: "We use the oldfashioned, plain way of reporting, where you don't know any more than the cops do. It makes you a cop and you unwind the story...
Even more important than sounds in the night is the jargon of the police. Instead of the familiar "Calling all cars," Dragnet uses the duller but truer "Attention all units," making sure that it is accompanied by a rush of air through the microphone (called a "squelch"), because most police radio dispatchers' are not educated in the genteel phases of commercial broadcasting...
...Large. Because its stories are based on actual cases, Dragnet breaks a few taboos. A program dealing with sex criminals "drew not one official or unofficial protest," and the city of Detroit borrowed the recording (minus the advertising plugs for Fatima cigarettes) as the climax broadcast of a campaign against sex crimes. The most mail was pulled by a Christmas show called "The Rifle." It dealt with a small boy who found the hiding place of his Christmas-present rifle in plenty of time to kill a playmate. The National Rifle Association protested strongly. Webb turned their letter over...
Last week, after test cases brought by the Communist Party and a teachers' group, State Supreme Court Justice Harry E. Schirick declared the law a bill of attainder (i.e., a legislative act that punishes without trial) and therefore unconstitutional. In its vagueness, said Schirick, the act was a "dragnet which may enmesh anyone who agitates for a change of Government...