Word: dragnets
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...each episode; a pro-cop attitude; and little mushy stuff about characters' personal lives. For busy viewers, the label is a godsend: decisions, decisions...ah, hell, I'll just open a can of Jerry Orbach! But now Wolf is launching an ambitious new brand: a remake for ABC of Dragnet (Sundays, 10 p.m. E.T.), the 50-plus-year-old cop show that inspired L&O's "Just the facts, ma'am" sensibility...
...West Wing's Aaron Sorkin, he delegates heavily to his staff. And because his shows emphasize stories over character development, each actor is replaceable; L&O has run since 1990 without Friends-style salary increases or creative exhaustion. "Other shows eventually descend into a kind of soap opera," says Dragnet executive producer Walon Green. "Dick's shows are really cleverly disguised anthologies." As Dragnet star Ed O'Neill notes, this means Wolf's actors don't get Emmy-clip dramatic scenes. "That 'My kitten died' stuff," he says, "that's just not going to happen...
Wolf says this with a kind of amazement: Don't these people realize TV is a business? It would be too simple, though, to paint him as a bean counter who does nothing for the love of it. Dragnet is a venture of both business and nostalgia; Wolf reminisces about being a cop-smitten tot, getting his parents to let him stay up until 9 p.m. to watch the TV series' debut. But then he shifts gears. "From a business standpoint," he says, "it's hard to launch new names. Everybody knows what Dragnet is. It's a pre-emptive...
...good thing that Wolf's Dragnet is not a slavish copy of the original. However fondly Wolf remembers it, the 1950s version doesn't hold up well, with its establishmentarian stiffness embodied by star-producer Jack Webb as Sergeant Joe Friday. (And that's not counting the camp classic late-'60s revival in which Friday chased hippies on acid.) Casting O'Neill (Married... with Children's Al Bundy) as the new Friday may have raised titters, but O'Neill nails the role, with a hard-bitten empathy that Webb could never touch. The show also makes better use of Friday...
...next six days were the most crucial to the chase, but they were also the most hectic and confused as the dragnet spread cross country from the D.C. area to Montgomery, Ala., and Washington State. Here's what we know...