On this day, June 3, in 1949, crime drama “Dragnet” first broadcast on radio. Sixty years later, elements of “Dragnet” are known to those who have never seen or heard the program.
The show was created by its star, Jack Webb, who played Los Angeles police detective Sgt. Joe Friday. Within two years of its radio debut, the show was also broadcast on television, where it became perhaps the most influential police drama in history.
The show opened with what is now instantly recognizable theme music, and the narrator saying, “The story you are about to hear is true. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent.”
The narrator usually began the story with something like: “Tuesday, June 3. It was sweltering in Los Angeles. We were working out of robbery division. My partner is Ben Romero. My name’s Friday.”
While “Just the facts, ma’am” has come to be known as Friday’s catch phrase, he never uttered it. The closest he came was, “All we want are the facts, ma’am.”
When Webb died of a heart attack in 1982, the Los Angeles Police Department retired Friday’s badge, No. 714.
