Showing results by narrator "Jack Webb" in All Categories

Dragnet was radio's most successful police procedural series, and by far its most influential, shaping an entire generation's view of law enforcement, and bringing police work to life in carefully-documented detail. Never sensationalistic, but always a gripping listening experience, Jack Webb's signature creation remains the standard against which crime dramas are judged. Webb, who produced and directed the series, stars as Sergeant Joe Friday in gritty dramas of unprecedented realism.

If you got the idea that Pat Novak was a rather single-minded fellow, you'd be wrong. He appreciated liquor every bit as much as he appreciated women. He could be found most nights popping shots and wisecracks with his saloon-owner pal, Jocko Madigan (Tudor Owen). But, most of all, he appreciated the crisp greenness of a new 50-dollar bill. Operating out of the grim San Francisco waterfront, Novak didn't have much use for anyone and didn't much care who knew it.

The ultra-realistic crime dramas of Dragnet were tight, tense, and always on target. Guided by Jack Webb from its radio premiere in 1949 right through to the series' end, the medium's most memorable police procedural never cut corners in its meticulous recreation of crime, investigation, and punishment. Follow LAPD Sgt. Joe Friday and his partners, Sgts. Ben Romero and Frank Smith, in 20 real-life cases from both the early weeks of the program's run and its later years!

From the darkest, foggiest, most rain-swept streets of your imagination come The Great Radio Private Eyes! Detectives, investigators, shamuses all - here's a legion of radio's best-remembered gumshoes taking on all comers in a wide-ranging collection of thrill-packed cases of crime. They're all here! From Bulldog Drummond to Candy Matson, from the urbane world of The Falcon to the grubby dockside world of Pat Novak - get set for classic radio drama at its most compelling!

Racketeers and robbers, crap-shooters and kidnappers, hit men and hard cases - watch out! Joe Friday's on the job, and he isn't here to fool around! Join Jack Webb for 20 gritty true-life tales of urban crime from the files of the Los Angeles Police Department. Ben Alexander, Martin Milner, Jack Kruschen, Virginia Gregg, June Whitley, Stacy Harris, and more co-star as the city's cops, concerned citizens, and cold criminals.

We can all remember a time when we were young and under-the-weather, and Mom soothed and nurtured us back to health with her magical chicken soup elixir. Now we can revisit those cherished moments with a delightful batch of stories for and about mothers. Celebrity contributions include Barbara Bush, Reba McEntire, Erma Bombeck and Montel Williams.

From start to finish, Dragnet brings you a real-life police drama of unprecedented realism. When the series hit the air in 1949, there was nothing else like it, anywhere. In this collection, Jack Webb and Barton Yarborough star in 20 broadcasts from the earliest months of radio's landmark police procedural.

Crime is everywhere in postwar Los Angeles—and so is Sgt. Joe Friday. From robbery detail to the Bunco Squad, from narcotics to homicide, he's on the job in radio's definitive police procedural series.

To what lengths will people go to protect their children? Spite their siblings? Murder the missus? Find out in 21 digitally remastered and restored episodes spanning two decades of radio's outstanding theater of thrills.

No crime in the 1950s? Don't tell Joe Friday that! Here's radio's top cop taking on all the vice the postwar decade had to offer in 20 true-life police procedurals starring Jack Webb as Sgt. Joe Friday and Ben Alexander as Det. Frank Smith! Whether radio's most earnest cops were on robbery detail or working missing persons, narcotics, or homicide, each story was told in a straightforward manner that never questioned the intelligence of its audience.

Sergeant Joe Friday of the LAPD was arguably the most pivotal figure in radio drama's postwar shift toward ultra-realism. Just an ordinary plainclothes cop doing his job, and doing it with a meticulous attention to detail that revolutionized the way radio told its stories. Jack Webb stars Friday, with Barton Yarborough as Ben Romero, Barney Phillips as Ed Jacobs, and Ben Alexander as Frank Smith in this collection of 20 absorbing crime dramas!

Who knew mystery better than Sir Arthur Conan Doyle? Who knew science fiction better than H. G. Wells? Who knew high adventure better than... Escape? Venture into dark forests and darker jungles for suspenseful stories of creatures and curses, trains and treasure, secrets and superstitions. Jack Webb, William Conrad, Paul Frees, Peggy Webber, John Dehner, and Gerald Mohr thrill in tales by Doyle, Wells, Robert Louis Stevenson, Roald Dahl, Stephen Vincent Benet, and more.

Pat Novak, for Hire began in 1946 as a regional radio show produced at KGO in San Francisco and starred Jack Webb in the title role, with scripts by Webb's friend Richard L. Breen. When Webb moved to Los Angeles in 1947, Ben Morris replaced Webb as Novak. In a later network version, Jack Webb resumed the role along with Breen as scriptwriter. Pat Novak, for Hire lasted until 1949, when Jack Webb turned his attention to the series that would make him a star, Dragnet.

Jack Webb (1920 - 1982) was a popular American actor, television producer, director, and screenwriter. He started out in the entertainment industry in comedy, but achieved his first success playing the title character in the radio show Pat Novak, for Hire. His greater success came from his role as Los Angeles Police Department sergeant Joe Friday in the show Dragnet, which he created based on actual LAPD criminal case files and which ran for many years on both radio and television.

Jack Webb and Barton Yarborough star as Joe Friday and Ben Romero - just a couple of cops doing their job. Follow them step-by-step through 20 true-to-life cases, drawn from the files of the Los Angeles Police Department. Their dialogue was never clichéd or exaggerated, and their cases never relied on jumped-up action sequences to deliver impact. Whether they were on the trail of a car thief with violent tendencies, a fast-moving gang of safecrackers, a kidnapper, a mail thief, or a murderer, their job was the same: Get 'em.

Dragnet, the popular American radio series airing from 1949-1957, is arguably the most famous and influential police procedural drama in media history. Enacting the cases of a dedicated Los Angeles police detective, Sergeant Joe Friday and his partners gave audience members a feel for the boredom and drudgery, as well as the danger and heroism, of police work.

Doses of concentrated thrills and pure, raw excitement are delivered directly on the heels of the most explosive musical theme in radio - a crashing rendition of Mussorgsky's "Night On Bald Mountain". Produced and directed by William N. Robson, Norman MacDonnell, and Antony Ellis - and featuring stories by Rudyard Kipling, Ambrose Bierce, and more - Escape is capable of chilling spines as expertly as it accelerates heartbeats.

Set in Los Angeles and starring Jack Webb as the stoic Sergeant Joe Friday, Dragnet is perhaps the most famous and influential police procedural drama of all time, having made extensive runs on both radio and television. Webb, also the producer of the show, took the series to new highs, insisting on realism in every facet of the program. The dialogue was clipped and sparse, taking its cue from hard-boiled crime fiction à la Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett.

This Dragnet episode originally aired on May 25, 1950.

You better not shout, you better not cry, you better not pout, we're telling you why! Great Radio Christmas is coming to town! Pour yourself an egg nog, break out the ribbon candy, and tune in for a whole stocking-full of radio favorites celebrating the holiday season.