Episode 447 – Your Police Force in Action (Dragnet)

Down These Mean Streets (Old Time Radio Detectives)

Jack Mooney

Tv & Film, Performing Arts, Arts

4.5 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 25 July 2021

⏱️ 102 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Dragnet was an immensely popular radio, and later TV, series that entertained millions of Americans each week for over a decade. It was also strictly overseen by LAPD Chief William H. Parker, who made sure the show painted his department in the best light and glossed over its abuses of power. In the wake of calls for police reform and the systemic racism in law enforcement, it can be tough to separate the procedural storytelling elements from its role as propaganda, but we'll try as we listen to three episodes: "The Big Evans" (originally aired on NBC on March 6, 1952); "The Big Bobo" (originally aired on NBC on July 19, 1955); and "The Big Ruling" (originally aired on NBC on September 6, 1955).

Transcript

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0:00.0	Get this and get it straight. Crime is a suckers road and those who travel it wind up in the gut of the prison of the grave.
0:07.0	The story you are about to hear is true, only the names have been changed to protect the innocent.
0:18.0	The Adventures of Sam Spade Detective.
0:22.0	The Adventures of the Saints starring Vincent Prize
0:25.4	Bob Bailey in the exciting adventures of the man with the action-packed expense account
0:30.4	America's fabulous freelance insurance investigator.
0:33.0	Yours truly, Johnny Deller. the Hello and welcome to down these means streets with more stories of old time
1:00.7	radio crime Solvers.
1:03.7	This week we're revisiting one of the most influential shows to come out of the Golden Age
1:08.9	of Radio, a program that spun off into films and television and also created a genre of police
1:16.6	procedural that for decades has helped to shape the American public's perception
1:22.3	of the powers of law enforcement. The story you were about to hear is true. The names have been changed to protect the innocent.
1:37.0	Dragnet is one of those rare shows from the era that's entered into pop culture. It's recognizable to people
1:46.1	who don't even listen to old-time radio shows. Now granted that recognition probably comes
1:52.3	from the 60s TV series.
1:55.3	But aside from some period slang and topics,
1:58.5	LSD and the hippie movement, those 60s TV episodes are right in line with the radio show that
2:06.1	premiered in June 1949. And from that first radio episode throughout the first TV series a movie and the revival 60
2:16.4	series there were two steady hands at the helm of dragnet one belonged to actor, producer, and director Jack Webb, and the other belonged to the Los Angeles
2:28.5	Police Department. Listeners may know that I've mostly steered away from cop shows on this
2:35.6	podcast in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and nationwide calls for
2:40.3	police reform. But I think Dragnet is due for a re-evaluation both as a piece of
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