Before "plunk plunk," before "Book 'em, Dano," there was "dum de'dum dum,"...Dragnet. It began as a 1940's radio serial and, in 1951, executive producer, star and director Jack Webb took "this is the city, Los Angeles, California" to a whole 'nother level with the weekly TV series that starred Webb as Sgt. Joe Friday co-starred Ben Alexander as Lt. Frank Smith (he, after a few other changing partners). Famous for "just the facts, ma'am," "is that right?" and "why don't you tell us? the show remained a top ten NBC staple until 1959. Webb revived Dragnet again in 1967 with Harry Morgan as sidekick Officer Bill Gannon for another three successful years. Webb's production company, Mark IV, also churned out Adam 12 and Emergency for the same network. In 2004, Law & Order creator Frank Wolfe endeavored to fashion a new Dragnet on ABC, but, let's face it, while it was great to pay homage to his L&O inspiration, Ed O'Reilly (formerly Al Bundy on Married With Children is no Jack Webb and only Webb can do Joe Friday. That's a fact, ma'am.

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