The Welcome to the great detectives of old-time radio from Boise, Idaho.

This is your host, Adam Graham. In a moment, we're going to bring you this week's episode of Dragnet. But first, I want to encourage you, if you're enjoying the podcast, please follow us using your favorite podcast software. Today's program is brought you in part by the financial support of our listeners.

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Now we have the first of many casting changes in terms of Joe Friday's partner.

This is a decision that laid out on radio, but really had its root in the television program.

Ed Jacobs was meant primarily as a stopgat, and the network really thought that

Barney Phillips looked too much like Jack Webb. And throughout Dragnet's first season, they tried a lot

of things in order to make this less apparent.

They use glasses, they dyed Barney Phillips' hair.

And they also, for one episode, gave him this amazing leather rain jacket,

which I really wish had gotten more airtime. You know, if they had to, they could just say it was raining all the time in Los Angeles.

But apparently they were not satisfied, and so they began the search for a permanent partner.

This mostly doesn't play out very much on TV.

As Barney Phillips would play at Jacobs throughout the entirety of the

first season, and then in the second season, it wouldn't be long before Ben Alexander would

take over as Frank Smith. But over radio, it was different, and they tried a few different things.

This may have been the best idea they had,

and if it had worked, it would have been a big shift in the series. The new partner, unlike Friday's

other partners, was a younger man, and so was the actor who played him,

Martin Milner, who had just turned 21 and would go on to

success on television, most notably in Route 66,

...