"My Name's Friday. I'm a cop."
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Enter: Sergeant Friday. At 8 p.m. on June 3, 1949, a red-lighted sign in NBC's Los Angeles studio H flashed "On the Air." Dragnet, in its first radio form, was born. CBS had turned it down because it "wasn't enough like Sam Spade." The show, which Webb says he created "because I was starving and I had to keep the wolf from the door," was on the air only as a summer replacement. Webb's weekly take was only $150. But week by week he labored for improvement; week by week his rating rose. In little more than two years Dragnet was the most popular show on radio.
Even before that, Webb had feverishly begun planning for the big jump to television. NBC, fearful of film, insisted that the show be done live and in New York. Webb refused. Finally, the Liggett & Myers Tobacco Co. stepped in, pressured the network into agreement. NBC shelled out $38,000 for a pilot film, The Human Bomb, a real-life thriller about a madman who threatened to blow up the Los Angeles city hall to get his brother out of jail.
Webb had no sets, no camera crew, and could only hope he would be able to cast, direct and edit a motion picture. He briskly talked the police force into letting him shoot his scenes in their offices. Early on the morning of Columbus Day, 1951, while a rented Mitchell camera followed him (low side shot from a high hat) and off-duty cops held back spectators, Webb hurried across Los Angeles' Spring Street and up the steps of the city hall. Halfway to the top he hesitated, turned toward the camera, flipped away a cigarette, looked at his wristwatch, and then hurried on into the building. Sergeant Friday had taken his first steps on film.
Realism & Quality. Webb shot his first picture in two long days. When he looked at it he began realizing with growing horror that it would be seen by armies of viewers on ten-inch television screens. He spent two extra days of shooting to achieve an effect which has become one of his trademarks: in every possible situation he told his story with closeups. The Human Bomb was a smash hit—with his sponsors, the critics and the public. In the 2½ years since—years of increasing success and acceptance—Webb has achieved Dear miracles in combining speed and cheap operation, with realism and the look of quality.
As a director, he is forced to work at a pace and in a catch-as-catch-can manner reminiscent of the early days of silent pictures. Where major studios do well to dub sound on one 1,000-ft. reel of film in one day, Dragnet must finish three reels in a half-day. But Webb refuses to surrender his almost fantastic insistence on accuracy of detail in backgrounds, dialogue and mannerisms.