Dragnet

This was one of my favorite shows when I was a kid. But I can see what you mean. I recently bought Pete Kelly's Blues, and in it, Jack has the same kind of dead-pan delivery as he does Joe Friday.

Deadpan sums up Jack Webbs' acting range,

I thought his best film was "Deadline Midnight", a night in the life of a newspaper office which had humour, sentiment,tension and William Conrad in great form as a blustering sub-editor. Mind you, it's been some years now, so I guess that might have dated too.

Lady, I don't have the time....

I thought his best film was The Men.

Yes, But that wasn't a Jack Webb film. He just appeared in that.





Lady, I don't have the time....

Webb had a small role in Sunset Boulevard, as the boyfriend of Nancy Olson and came across as pleasant, if unremarkable. His acting range was rather limited, but it narrowed considerably after "Dragnet" as if the actor was unable to shake off that particular staccato style.

Robert Stack also seemed to fall into that category after "The Untouchables" and William Shatner, a decent actor before Star Trek, developed bad acting habits during the run of that series. It took Shatner years to recover, but he is still the object of widespread derision, for various reasons.

The "Dragnet style" was forever rendered obsolete when "Hill Street Blues" hit the airwaves. I still enjoy Webb and Henry Morgan in the sixties version of "Dragnet," as dated as it now appears, and vaguely recall the Ben Alexander years and the feature film from 1954.

To God There Is No Zero. I Still Exist.

They have a bunch of episodes on the Best Of Detectives(150 eps) set, I like it, though I still prefer the later Dragnet with Harry Morgan.

I collect dead pigeons then I press them between the pages of a book.

I remember seeing the '78 Dragnet movie, with Dan Aykroyd doing Jack Webb/Joe Friday. The plot is dumb, but a "must see" for veterans of the TV show. Even though Aykroyd doesn't look a thing like Webb, he has the mannerisms and movements down cold.

In the theater, there were clearly two sets of viewers -- young and old. The younger folks laughed at most of the silly scenes. Those of us who remember the TV program laughed at Aykroyd's movement ... his whole body is dead pan. There's a distance shot of Friday and Pep Streebeck (Tom Hanks) walking, and crossing over some railroad tracks. Aykroyd steps over them with leg movements only, his upper body, shoulders and neck remaining absolutely rigid ... hilarious.

Whatever I may feel about a person's politics, I have great respect for anybody with the ability to poke fun at him/herself. For this reason, I developed a whole new attitude for Jack Webb after Johnny Carson's Dragnet spoof. I also felt he gave a admirable performance in Halls Of Montezuma.

But throughout it all, my motto was "Dignity! Always dignity!".