TMC
04-02-2018, 12:50 PM
https://lebeauleblog.com/2018/04/02/april-2-happy-birthday-michael-fassbender-and-jack-webb/
Jack Webb (1920-1982) began working in radio in the 1940s; it will surprise some readers, if they are familiar with his later career, that one of his first shows was a comedy series. He had a modest career as a film actor; he starred with Harry Morgan in the 1950 film noir Dark City and was the title character in the 1955 musical/crime film Pete Kelly’s Blues. In retrospect, however, his most significant film role was a supporting part he had in the 1948 film noir He Walks By Night, where he plays a police lab technician—the film is a police procedural told in a semi-documentary style, with voiceover narration, and an uncompromising law-and-order attitude. In many ways, it was a template for Webb’s most famous creation, Dragnet, which began as a radio drama, moved to television in 1951 and ran for most of the fifties, and was revived in the late sixties (in color). Webb was the creator and executive producer, directed many episodes, and starred as Sergeant Joe Friday.
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Television of the 1960s and ’70s would not have been the same without Jack Webb. Aside from Dragnet, he was the creator and/or executive producer of a substantial number of television series, almost all oriented around different aspects of law enforcement. Some of them had very short lifespans—the legal drama The D.A., for example, or Sierra (about rangers in a national park). But two were considerably more durable: the police procedural Adam-12, which ran from 1968-75, and the medical/paramedics drama Emergency!, which aired from 1972-76. That’s not to mention the impact his series had on the style and tone of other crime series of that era.
Jack Webb (1920-1982) began working in radio in the 1940s; it will surprise some readers, if they are familiar with his later career, that one of his first shows was a comedy series. He had a modest career as a film actor; he starred with Harry Morgan in the 1950 film noir Dark City and was the title character in the 1955 musical/crime film Pete Kelly’s Blues. In retrospect, however, his most significant film role was a supporting part he had in the 1948 film noir He Walks By Night, where he plays a police lab technician—the film is a police procedural told in a semi-documentary style, with voiceover narration, and an uncompromising law-and-order attitude. In many ways, it was a template for Webb’s most famous creation, Dragnet, which began as a radio drama, moved to television in 1951 and ran for most of the fifties, and was revived in the late sixties (in color). Webb was the creator and executive producer, directed many episodes, and starred as Sergeant Joe Friday.
7COcohB9n3w
Television of the 1960s and ’70s would not have been the same without Jack Webb. Aside from Dragnet, he was the creator and/or executive producer of a substantial number of television series, almost all oriented around different aspects of law enforcement. Some of them had very short lifespans—the legal drama The D.A., for example, or Sierra (about rangers in a national park). But two were considerably more durable: the police procedural Adam-12, which ran from 1968-75, and the medical/paramedics drama Emergency!, which aired from 1972-76. That’s not to mention the impact his series had on the style and tone of other crime series of that era.