"Dragnet" was the most successful police series in the history of television. Dragnet's hallmark was its appearance of realism, from the documentary-style narration by Sergeant Joe Friday (Jack Webb), to the cases drawn from the files of a real police department (Los Angeles). Episodes began with a prologue promising that "the story you are about to see is true; the names have been changed to protect the innocent", then faded in on a pan across Los Angeles. Sergeant Joe Friday then told us "This is the city. Los Angeles, California", and usually offered statistics about the city, its population, and institutions. Among the show's other realistic elements were constant references to dates, the time, and weather conditions. Dragnet emphasized authentic police jargon, the technical aspects of law enforcement, and the drudgery of such work. Rather than engaging in fist fights and gun play, Friday and his partner spent much screen time making phone calls, questioning witness, or following up on dead end leads. Scenes of the detectives simply waiting and engaging in mundane small talk were common. At the end of each episode, after the criminal was apprehended, an announcer would describe what happened at the subsequent trial and the severity of the sentence. The series was an enormous hit. This disc contains 3 episodes from the 4th Season produced in 1954 - 'The Big Producer', The Big Crime' and The Big Bar'.
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