ABC has set a date for its midseason dramas "Dragnet" and "Miracles." Both will bow Monday, January 27 (the day after ABC's broadcast of the Super Bowl) in their previously announced homes of 9:00/8:00c and 10:00/9:00c respectively. Fellow drama "Vertias" is expected to assume the Monday, 8:00/7:00c at some point later on in this season. A two-hour pilot telefilm for the family drama will likely air as part of "The Wonderful World of Disney" banner.


Comments: I think Dragnet will be good, it won't have Monday Night Football numbers, but I hope it does well.



U P D A T E ON 12/11/02:
In one of the most notable changes to its schedule in years, ABC announced this morning that it will move its long running drama "The Practice" to Monday nights at 9:00/8:00c as part of a shakeup of its previously announced midseason schedule. Sensing the risk of launching a completely new three-hour block of programming, the Alphabet network decided against letting midseason entries "Vertias," "Dragnet" and "Miracles" stand on their own. Instead "The Practice" will be sandwiched between "Vertias" and "Miracles" starting January 27, the block's original start date. "Dragnet" will then premiere February 2 in "The Practice's" old Sunday, 10:00/9:00c slot.

Mondays, starting January 27:
(all times E/P)
8:00PM Veritas
9:00PM The Practice
10:00PM Miracles

Sundays starting February 2:
10:00PM Dragnet

Originally posted by pavanbadal
Comments: I think Dragnet will be good, it won't have Monday Night Football numbers, but I hope it does well.

I think it's going to do pretty good, at least I hope. Time will tell I guess, it is up against CBS' winning block of comedies, but ABC seems a little more supportive of their new shows this year (well, at least their comedies, LOL).

I'll try to remember to watch it. It's going to be interesting how people will try to adjust to Ed O'Neill as Joe Friday instead of Al Bundy.

Its going to suck. This will be the fourth remake of the Dragnet series, but the first time without Jack Webb's influence. If no one watched the "Cops on TVLand" show last sunday night, you missed a good show that, basically, revolved around Dragnet as "The King of all Cop shows" (that phrase was actually used). And, Dick Wolf was interviewed and I couldnt believe his hypocracy of some of the things he said (which I wont state here for obvious reasons), but all others interviewed were talking about it and had many negative things to say about it. Producers of classic tv cop shows stated "to do Dragnet today, you would be laughed right off of the screen". Actors who have played and are playing famous cops agreed. They said, "Dragnet without Webb is ludicrous". So its been shown that this new Dragnet isnt going to make it. Not only is most Webb fans against it, most of those in Hollywood in the crime tv genre are, as well.


I cant wait for this farce to fall flat on its face. Although I enjoy the *idea* that someone wants to keep the Dragnet mystique alive, they're being unrealistic to do it without Jack Webb, since he *was* Dragnet. Its like having Thanksgiving without the turkey or Christmas without the tree.



Pickles

Yeah, it will probably be like when they tried to make a new Perry Mason series without Raymond Burr and company. It was an okay court show, but it wasn't Perry Mason. I don't remember it lasting a whole season.

Previews for Dragnet looks pretty good. I liked the movie with Dan Akroyd & Tom Hanks. I never watched the old tv series. I can see Ed O Neill playing a serious guy. What movies has Ed played in? I saw him in a movie before but i can't remember what it was.

I at first though it'd be good, but the previews looked awful. I'll pass on this one

Originally posted by callmetootie
I at first though it'd be good, but the previews looked awful. I'll pass on this one

There has been only 2-3 promos, and all it says is "Ed O'Neill in Dragnet" and you see him walking? What kind of person judges a show on that? I think this show will be a dominate in the ratings, what else airs at 10 p.m. Sundays?

One thing's for sure, The Practice will die. Dragnet will probably come in 2nd in it's timeslot, with the CBS movie at first, and NBC movie 3rd. Oh yeah...and one more thing...


TOLD YOU SO....Dinotopia died like an ant under a rock! Proved you wrong! Kneel to Callmetootie!

Originally posted by callmetootie
One thing's for sure, The Practice will die. Dragnet will probably come in 2nd in it's timeslot, with the CBS movie at first, and NBC movie 3rd. Oh yeah...and one more thing...


TOLD YOU SO....Dinotopia died like an ant under a rock! Proved you wrong! Kneel to Callmetootie!

The Practice will only be on Mondays from Jan to May, since MNF is in the fall, it will be second in it's timeslot I am predicting.

CBS movie first? I assume you watched the Jason Alexander movie, which did terrible. Dragnet will be first.

Like I said before and many other times, I do not watch Dinotopia. Kneel to you? A little 12 year old who tries to act older and doesn't really know anything about television (see Drew Carey board) and even lies to a special education kid (TVLANDFAN16), how low can you get? If this stupidness continues, you'll be gone...

I'm looking forward to it. It'll be the first new show I've watched in awhile.

I'm looking forward to it too since I have not seen the original show. It seems like that a lot of networks are remaking old shows, I hope when they do they will try to pay tribute to the older shows, and not to make the shows be totally different, and only with the same name.

'Dragnet' covers wide area
By Gary Levin, USA TODAY

Just the facts, ma'am. Any TV viewer of a certain age will recognize that catchphrase from Dragnet, TV's classic police-detective drama and the precursor of Law & Order and countless other modern cop series. Now Law creator Dick Wolf is behind the latest remake of Dragnet — last seen as a 1987 movie starring Dan Aykroyd — for ABC.

Ed O'Neill, right, stars as Joe Friday, and Ethan Embry is his sidekick in ABC's updated Dragnet.


The new series, starring Ed O'Neill as Joe Friday, premieres Feb. 2, Sundays at 10 p.m. ET/PT. It is a key component of ABC's midseason rebuilding plan, parts of which are being unveiled for TV critics Wednesday in Los Angeles.

Though the network has had moderate success with new comedies, all four of its new fall dramas have been canceled.

Should fans of Wolf's shows expect something more properly titled Law & Order: Dragnet? Well, yes, in that Law itself emerged from a beat-cop genre mastered by Dragnet, the 1950s series spawned from Jack Webb's radio show.

But, Wolf says, "it ain't Law & Order. The rhythms are totally different; it's L.A. vs. New York. The visuals are totally different; the color palette is totally different. The attitudes are cop attitudes, but they're in L.A. It's site-specific. You don't get confused."

Says ABC programming chief Susan Lyne: "It would be silly just to copy it directly. It's a many-decades-old show. We're seeing where (echoing the original) is useful, where it adds something, where it's not disconcerting."

Straddling new and old was "a huge challenge," Wolf says. "Nobody under 35 has ever seen Dragnet, unless they're stoned watching TV Land at 3 in the morning. And the big danger you had is that people over 35 would look at the show and go, 'That's not Dragnet.' Part of the mandate I had is if you're going to do it, the older audience tuning in had to find a show that (signaled) 'Well, OK, that's cool, that's Dragnet.' But the younger audience had to get a cop show that was really different."

Of course, the show's title was chosen strictly for its marketing appeal — a presold brand name that viewers will recognize. But the show does preserve some aspects of the original: no-nonsense narration ("It was Tuesday, a hot day in L.A., 3:55 p.m."), the eventually captured culprit in a mug shot, and a tiny cast. Only O'Neill and Ethan Embry (as sidekick Detective Frank Smith) are regulars.

Added are voice-overs in which viewers hear Friday's inner thoughts. The show is told strictly from the cop's point of view, with scant attention to his personal life. And like Law & Order, some stories are ripped from the headlines: The premiere episode features a copycat serial murderer who mimics the 1978 Hillside Strangler case.

Although O'Neill has done drama, most recently in CBS' short-lived police series Big Apple, he's best known as Al Bundy on Fox's first hit, Married ... With Children.

"I was leaning toward something different because I was tired of doing the sitcom format," he says. "I did (Married) for 10½ seasons."

How badly does O'Neill want to distance himself from Bundy? (He'll appear in a Fox reunion special next month.) "I know that dogs him, and there's a certain sensitivity about it," says executive producer Walon Green. "But people will see him in this show, and they'll instantly buy it — that's Joe Friday."

And though O'Neill is familiar with the old Dragnet — "I saw it as a boy and remembered it quite well" — he hasn't studied tapes to prepare for his new role because "I'd be trying to imitate Jack Webb, and I don't think I'd be too successful at it." Instead, O'Neill's Joe Friday is "not quite as wry and close to the vest as Webb played it; he has a little more tendency to laugh."