Dragnet

Dragnet is an American police procedural television series created by and starring Jack Webb as Sergeant Joe Friday of the Los Angeles Police Department. The series ran from 1951 to 1959 on NBC and established the template for every police procedural that followed. Webb, who also directed and produced through his company Mark VII Limited, insisted on documentary realism: real police procedures, real LAPD technical advisors, and the flat, clipped dialogue that became his trademark. Each episode began with the famous narration: "The story you are about to see is true; the names have been changed to protect the innocent." Friday and his partner worked cases methodically, interviewing witnesses, checking records, and following leads with a patience that was revolutionary in a medium that preferred action. The series was adapted from Webb's 1949 radio show, itself inspired by a film noir called He Walked by Night. Many early episodes were never copyrighted and are in the public domain.