During its early success on radio, Dragnet was popular enough to move to television. More important was that it brought continuity between the television and radio series, using the same script devices and many of the same … See more

Broadcast history
• January 3, 1952 – December 29, 1955: Thursday at 9:00 pm on NBC
• January 5, 1956 – June 26, 1958: Thursday at 8:30 pm on NBC
• September 23, 1958 – April 28, 1959: Tuesday at 7:30 pm … See more

Half of the episodes of this series are in the public domain, with an estimated fifty-two episodes released on many DVD labels. A number of these collections recycle the same fifty-two episodes. Often some are mislabeled as there are no onscreen titles; as … See more

Sgt. (later Lt.) Joe Friday (Jack Webb): The focal character, who narrates all episodes. Friday is a dedicated police officer, and pretty … See more

The template for the TV show was simply the proven radio formula, embellished with visuals. Most early episodes were directly adapted from earlier Dragnet radio shows, and writer James … See more

Over 200 of the 276 episodes of Dragnet have not seen broadcast since the late 1960s, or received any kind of home video or DVD release. It is … See more

• Jason Mittell (2004). Genre and Television: From Cop Shows to Cartoons in American Culture. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-96903-4 See more