DUM DE DUM DUM…(Dragnet- Old Time Radio)
Dragnet is my absolute favorite Old Time Radio show. Here are 96 episodes for your entertainment. Click the play button above. “Dum De Dum Dum…”
The following information about the radio show Dragnet was taken from http://otrr.org/index.htm
This series ran from 6/3/49 to 2/26/57 on NBC at various times and days and starred Jack Webb as Detective Sergeant Joe Friday. Various partners throughout the show’s run were Sergeant Ben Romero (Barton Yarborough), Ed Jacobs (Barney Phillips), and Officer Frank Smith (Ben Alexander). Webb was the creator/Director of the series and wanted everything to be as authentic as possible, down to the last sound effect. The stories were based on actual police files and “the names were changed to protect the innocent”. Dragnet broke a few radio taboos as well, such as dramatizing sex crimes. Children also were killed on occasion as in the episode “Twenty-Two Rifle For Christmas”. The series eventually went to television and ran there for many years. The familiar DUM DE DUM DUM, the first four notes of the opening theme composed by Walter Schumann, became a pop culture legend and was forever associated with Webb, Dragnet, and just plain getting in trouble.
Man that brings back some memories. Webb was a genius the way he made each story sound so real. The detail was incredible with all the extraneous bull shit he included.
For example, in one episode (I don’t remember which), he had stopped home early morning to get something to eat. His mother woke and came into the kitchen and wanted to fix him breakfast. At first he told her to go back to bed, but then gave in and let her make something to eat. While he was sitting waiting at the table, (here’s the amazing detail) he said he was going to get the milk from the fridge. Nothing earth shattering, but that simple, inconsequential detail was an example why this didn’t seem scripted as a fictional radio story but was a real life story happening right before our ears.
GREAT STUFF. Keep it coming!
January 15th, 2011 at 12:42 pm