Dragnet

Dragnet is an American radio crime drama that debuted on NBC radio in 1949, created by and starring Jack Webb as Los Angeles Police Department detective Joe Friday. The series was built around a deliberately understated, procedural depiction of police work, following detectives investigating cases through methodical routine rather than the more dramatized heroics common to earlier radio crime programs, an approach Webb intended as a more realistic portrayal of law enforcement. Dragnet is widely regarded as one of the most influential police procedural dramas in American broadcasting history, credited with helping shape favorable American public perceptions of police work in the mid-twentieth century, and its format and title were later carried forward into a long-running television adaptation and further revivals across radio, television and film into the twenty-first century.