Radio: Life of Crime

TV detectives spend more time locked in combat with blondes than with criminals. Dragnet (alt. Thurs. 9 p.m., NBC), long a radio favorite, has become the best of the TV crime shows by tossing overboard all such TV cliches — from incendiary blondes and comic stooges to roaring gunfights and simple-Simon detection. Last week the TV Dragnet came back to the air after a summer vacation in the first of a new series of 47 filmed episodes. The suspenseful story of a man about to jump from an eighth-floor ledge, it was well acted, filmed and directed and undoubtedly Dragnet’s best show to date.

Star of the show, as well as its director, is Jack Webb, 32, who plays Police Sergeant Joe Friday with a minimum of fake heroics. His cases range from simple theft to multiple murder, but the program is more concerned with the painstaking solving of crimes than with showing their gory execution. Once the entire half-hour was devoted to a verbal third degree, as Webb and his fellow detective, Ed Jacobs, broke down a coolly stubborn jewel thief.

Webb got his idea for Dragnet while he was playing a typical private eye on radio. A Los Angeles police sergeant named Marty Wynn said disgustedly: “Why don’t you do a show about real cops?” and arranged for Webb to use the Los Angeles police files. Webb began building a show based on authentic police methods and backgrounds. After three years on radio (this week, the radio Dragnet was rated No.1 by Nielsen researchers), Webb decided to apply his successful formula (“realism plus entertainment”) to TV.

The show has paid off to the extent of five-year contract with sponsor Liggett & Myers Tobacco Co. This summer, 34 U.S newspapers began running a new comic strip, using Dragnet’s characters and atmosphere (but not its plots). By the firs of the year, Webb hopes to have a new show called Pete Kelly’s Blues ready for TV. After his long life of crime, Jack Webb will star as a trumpet-blowing musician of the 1920s.