--- description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. title: Dragnet image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt47152e0fe598086c/69869f1513c79f0101193699/t100_tv_dragnet1.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Aug 11, 2014 # _Dragnet_ by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close  Everett Viewed alongside a complex modern cop drama like _The Wire_ or even _The Shield_, Jack Webb’s mother of all procedurals looks like a cave painting. But there’s an artistic economy to the show’s simple storylines and clipped cadences—Det. Joe Friday may never have used a semicolon in his life. And a lot of more ambitious dramas could learn something from its clean, documentary style and single-minded commitment to story, story, story. (“Just the facts, ma’am” was not a slogan but a command.) And then there are the spare, noir visuals; not only did this show teach _Law & Order_ and _CSI_ how to tell stories, it looked damn fine doing it. Friday kept his personal life under his tilted-just-so hat, but he arrested our attention all the same. [Get This TV Show](http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0007Z9RB6/?tag=timecom-20 "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3101581/dragnet/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3101581/dragnet/"},"headline":"Dragnet","datePublished":"2014-08-11T21:09:03.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T23:01:14.021Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3101581/dragnet/","keywords":["drama"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt47152e0fe598086c/69869f1513c79f0101193699/t100_tv_dragnet1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt47152e0fe598086c/69869f1513c79f0101193699/t100_tv_dragnet1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3101581/dragnet/","name":"Dragnet"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Dragnet","description":"Friday kept his personal life under his tilted-just-so hat, but he arrested our attention all the same.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/krok5vmZ/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2007-09-04T18:08:13.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/krok5vmZ.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3101581/dragnet/","duration":"PT26S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/collections/all-time-100-tv-shows/3101581/dragnet/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```