MovieChat Forums > Classic TV: The 50s > Dragnet

Dragnet

posted 14 years ago by Spudling2
9 replies | jump to latest

I recently got a box set of episodes from this show. It had been hugely popular at the time, innovative, different....but it has not stood the test of time. Now you can see how cheaply it was made, with Joe Friday and his sidekick never talking to any other cops except on the phone, with a lot of dialogue replaced by Fridays' voiceover -- a good way of reducing sound synchronisation costs -- and the whole series with hardly any exterior scenes.

I found it virtually unwatchable.

Lady, I don't have the time....

[–] opryphantom1 14 years ago

DRAGNET came from Radio; they shoulda filmed Webb's PAT NOVAK. "Patsy" was the
cynical, fast talking, cheap gumshoe who was always meeting the wrong dames.
He too often returned to his cheap, Frisco apartment and finding a stiff there.
His nemesis, Lt. Hellman (Ray Burr) was always going to "put him away."

Hellman: "I'm going to get you, I'll follow you night and day!"
Novak: "You couldn't follow a moose through a revolving door, Hellman!"