Happy Birthday, Jack Webb - a podcast by Mean Streets Podcasts

Is there anybody who doesn’t know Dragnet?  Even if you don’t know the series or couldn’t pick Jack Webb out of a line-up, chances are you know the distinct “dum-da-dum-dum” opening.  Like the eerie sounds of the theme to The Twilight Zone, the opening notes of the Dragnet march have become shorthand for someone in trouble about to get busted, or the arrival of an authority figure on the scene.  This writer discovered the taut police series in between Get Smart and The Dick Van Dyke Show on Nick at Nite in the early nineties, and it wasn’t until years later that he discovered the radio series.  It’s hard for modern audiences to appreciate just how revolutionary Dragnet was when it hit radio.  The style it perfected and the approach to docudrama realism it produced can still be seen in TV procedural programs and films today, more than sixty years after it premiered.

The series was the brainchild of actor, writer, and producer Jack Webb. Born April 2, 1920, there was more to the man than Joe Friday’s no-nonsense demeanor.  Webb was a talented writer, director, and producer, a music aficionado, and - perhaps least well known - a man with a wicked sense of humor.  Along with Rod Serling and Quinn Martin, Webb was arguably one of the biggest creative forces in the Golden Age of Television, and he is undeniably a legend of the Golden Age of Radio.

Webb grew up in Los Angeles.  His father left before Webb was born, and Webb was raised by his mother and grandmother.  As a boy, Webb grew up with a love of movies and jazz music, the latter cultivated by a jazzman tenant in his mother’s rooming house.

He enlisted in the Air Force in World War II, but he did not make it through flight training (in his words, he “washed out”).  After his discharge, Webb moved to San Francisco where he got into radio.  The lack of announcers due to the war left vacancies on the schedule of ABC’s San Francisco affiliate KGO, and Webb served as an announcer, DJ, and as host of his own comedy show, The Jack Webb Show, a sketch comedy series that poked fun at current events and featured a house band playing Dixieland jazz numbers.  His comedy career on the air would be short-lived, as he turned his attention to the crime genre that would come to define his output for the rest of his career.

During his time at KGO, Webb struck up a friendship with writer Richard Breen and the two collaborated on The Jack Webb Show.  The two were approached to fill some holes in KGO’s programming schedule, and they created a character who was perfectly suited for Webb’s downbeat, naturalistic style.  He would be a detective of the hard-boiled school, operating out of an office on the San Francisco waterfront, and he would deliver some of the purplest dialogue this side of a pulp novel.

Pat Novak For Hire premiered on KGO in 1946 and was a hit almost immediately.  The combination of Webb’s voice and Breen’s words were unlike anything radio listeners had heard up until that point.  Novak was cynical and world-weary, and he had great reason to be both.  He was often double-crossed by his clients; he rarely got the girl; and he was always on the outs with the law, particularly with the block-headed Inspector Hellman.  His only friend (if you could call him that) was Jocko Madigan, an ex-doctor and full-time boozer who could come to Novak’s aid, but not without dropping a ton of unwanted tipsy advice on Novak.

Despite the success, Webb and Breen jumped ship for reasons that have never fully been explained.  ABC soldiered on with Ben Morris stepping in as the new Pat Novak, while Breen and Webb set up shop on Mutual with the very similar program Johnny Madero, Pier 23.  Listeners didn’t take to Morris in the role, and the series signed off in early 1948.  Webb continued in the detective business, and he starred for a season as Jeff Regan, Investigator for CBS before returning to Pat Novak for a national run on ABC in 1949.  It was during this period where Webb was beginning to get the ideas for what would become his signature series and role.

In 1948, Webb played the role of a crime scene technician in He Walked By Night.  During breaks in the filming, he struck up a friendship with the movie’s technical advisor, Sgt. Marty Wynn.  Webb believed there was an opportunity to dramatically depict police work in an authentic manner; most radio shows (including Webb’s own Pat Novak and Jeff Regan usually played cops as incompetent at best and corrupt at worst).  Working with Wynn and other police officers, along with writer James Moser, Webb pitched the concept to NBC.  That series would become Dragnet, and its combination of authentic cases and a “ripped from the headlines” style with Webb’s signature realistic approach made for a series that - once again - was unlike anything radio audiences had heard.

Webb starred as Sgt. Joe Friday, the epitome of a professional policeman, who rotated in and out of different divisions of the LAPD (Homicide, Narcotics, Traffic, etc.).  This allowed Webb and his team to tell a full range of stories, all taken from LAPD files.  Sometimes there was a corpse and the thrill of the hunt of a killer; in other episodes, there were stake-outs and spent shoe leather running down leads.  Through it all, Webb pushed for authenticity: “We try to make cops human beings.  We try to combine the best qualities of the men I’ve seen downtown, incorporate their way of speaking, make a composite.”

Dragnet exploded in popularity not long after it premiered in 1949.  A TV version followed in 1951 and a film version hit the big screen in 1954.  Even during this time, when he was on Dragnet twice a week on radio and TV, Webb continued to work elsewhere.  He starred in the short-lived 1951 radio crime drama Pete Kelly’s Blues, which incorporated his love of jazz into the mystery stories.

Big screen success eluded Webb, and after a few misfires at the box office in the late 1950s, he was back in television.  In 1963, he was given the reins of the private eye drama 77 Sunset Strip, which he rebranded in his own style.  The series, which had been one of the more “hip” mystery shows on TV, suffered a ratings hit as a result of the shift and was cancelled.  Fortunately for Webb, there was still a demand for his style - and his signature series.  He was approached by Universal in 1966 to develop a new Dragnet TV movie.  The product was so well received that NBC put a new Dragnet series on the air, with Webb back as Sgt. Joe Friday.  It’s this color run of Dragnet (which aired often on Nick at Nite in the early 1990s) with which Webb is most closely associated.  It also kicked off the next phase of his career, as a producer of TV content through his Mark VII production company.  In addition to Dragnet, Webb produced the squad car-based police drama Adam-12 and the EMT/paramedic series Emergency!, both of which enjoyed long runs in the late 1960s and early 1970s.  (His Adam-12 star Martin Milner got one of his first jobs on the radio version of Dragnet, playing one of Joe Friday’s young partners.)

In the early 1980s, Webb was prepping for yet another Dragnet revival, and he tapped Kent McCord of Adam-12 to play Joe Friday’s new partner.  Before the series could go into production, Webb passed away at the age of 62 from a heart attack on December 23, 1982.  In recognition of his long partnership with the Los Angeles Police Department, the LAPD retired 714, Joe Friday’s badge number.  All flags in Los Angeles flew at half-staff in his honor.

One doesn’t need to look far to see Jack Webb’s legacy alive and well today.  Reality-based police procedurals cover the prime-time landscape, and the realistic style of acting he helped introduce to the mainstream has influenced generations of writers and actors.  He was a tireless professional who worked right up until the end of an unfortunately short life, but his body of work will continue to outlive him and entertain new generations of fans.

Jack Webb has made a number of appearances on Down These Mean Streets, including in this week's new episode, which spotlights the actor in his signature role of Joe Friday. Click here to check out some of his other visits to the podcast as Sgt. Friday, Pat Novak, Jeff Regan, and Pete Kelly.

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