Series Overall
- Backed by the Pentagon: Jack Webb's various incarnations of the show were heavily supported by the real LAPD because of his attention to detail and for showing the department (no stranger to controversy) in a good light, with bad/corrupt cops always facing the consequences of their actions. In fact, Friday's badge wasn't a prop but a genuine badge issued by the LAPD and was ferried to and from the set by an on-duty police officer. When Jack Webb passed away, he was given a police funeral with full honors and badge number 714 was permanently retired by the LAPD in his memory.
- Beam Me Up, Scotty!: "Just the facts, ma'am." was never said by Jack Webb's Friday in the radio or TV show, instead originating in a radio parody by Stan Freberg. However, it had become so ingrained in popular culture by the time of the 1987 movie, Dan Aykroyd's Friday does regularly use the phrase.
- Directed by Cast Member: In possibly the über-example of this trope, Jack Webb directed every single episode of the radio series, the original TV series and the revival (as well as the 1954 movie). Webb also wrote several episodes under the pseudonym of John Randolph (Webb's given name was John Randolph Webb).
- Referenced by...: Has its own page.
- You Look Familiar: There were many of these
, actually. Jack Webb maintained a cadre of actors that he liked working with, and cast them often as he needed them, provided they were available. Many of these actors got their start working with Webb on the radio series, and continued working with him to the end of the '60s revival series. Of particular note are:- Don Ross, who according to IMDB holds the record at 31 episodes.
- Virginia Gregg, probably the most recognizable actress, a fixture on the radio series and appearing at least 13 times on the TV series.
- Peggy Webber, who many may remember from her appearances on the MST3K episodes "The Screaming Skull" and "The Space Children", was in eight episodes of the '60s revival, four episodes of the fifties show, and a couple of the radio shows, plus several episodes of Adam-12 and Emergency!.
- William Boyett played various detectives or uniformed officers in both the 50's and 60's series before landing the recurring role of Sgt. "Mac" MacDonald in Adam-12.
- Kent McCord appeared as a desk clerk (uncredited) in the made-for-TV movie, then as a couple different patrolmen in early episodes before appearing as Officer Reed here and in Adam-12. (Oddly enough, he appeared in consecutive episodes in the 1968 season as different cops. One of his partners was an Officer Reed, according to the credits of the first of the two shows. He appears in the 1968 episodes "The Phony Police Racket" and "The Search" as an Officer Reed, but it's not certain if he's playing the Jim Reed or if the name of the character was just a coincidence.) At the time of Webb's death, he was preparing yet another revival of Dragnet, where McCord was to play his new partner, though it was never established whether the character's name would have been Jim Reed or a different name.
- Tim Donnelly qualifies both in terms of the Dragnet series itself (5 different roles), as well as the Dragnet/Adam-12/Emergency! shared universe (2 roles in Adam and his regular role as Firefighter Chet Kelly in Emergency!).
- "Marty" Milner, later of Adam-12, played a role in one of the 1953-54 season TV episodes as well as several radio episodes, including a short stint as Joe's partner.
- Harry Morgan also starred on Jack Webb's series D.A., and Webb appeared as Joe Friday in one episode of the series as well.
Radio Show
- The Character Died with Him: Sergeant Ben Romero died of a heart attack the next episode after his actor, Barton Yarborough, died. The episode, "Big Sorrow", was dedicated in his memory and they talked about him during it.
- Contractual Immortality: Even if one didn't know the series would continue, one would expect Joe Friday to survive being shot (as he was in "The Big Ben".)
- Keep Circulating the Tapes: Much of the radio series dropped into the public domain. As a consequence, several hundred episodes are available for download from miscellaneous sources — for example, at archive.org in both ZIP-archive and single-episode formats.
- Missing Episode: While the majority of the radio series has been found, there are at least 11 episodes that are missing, including the first episode.
- Recycled Script
- Episode 57 ("The Big Bomb") is a remake of Episode 7 ("Attempted City Hall Bombing") with minor edits to accommodate a different police chief and make room for the sponsor's advertisement.
- While the TV and radio series were airing concurrently, Webb would occasionally lift the audio track from a TV episode, add some narration, and use it as a radio episode (for instance, the Christmas episode "The Big Little Jesus").
- Technology Marches On: Downplayed. Any modern listener will notice that the usual Police Procedural techniques and forensics literally haven't been invented yet. Also in one episode an elevator operator has to give Friday a crash course on how to use the non-automated elevator.
- You Sound Familiar: There were many of these. Jack Webb maintained a cadre of actors that he liked working with, and cast them often as he needed them, provided they were available. Many of these actors got their start working with Webb on the radio series, and continued working with him to the end of the '60s revival series. Of particular note are:
- Virginia Gregg, probably the most recognizable actress, a fixture on the radio series.
- Peggy Webber, who many may remember from her appearances on the MST3k episodes "The Screaming Skull" and "The Space Children."
- "Marty" Milner, who played a role in several radio episodes, including a short stint as Joe's partner.
- Harry Morgan, who would later play Bill Gannon in the '60s series, voiced a number of witnesses.
TV Shows
- Ability over Appearance: When the series was first being brought to television, Jack Webb argued that his face was not suitable for television and suggested Lloyd Nolan be cast as Joe Friday in his place. Fortunately, neither NBC nor Liggett & Myers (owners of Chesterfield) would accept any substitute.
- Actor-Shared Background: In the '60s revival series, Bill Gannon's wife was named Eileen; this was presumably an allusion to Harry Morgan's real-life wife, Eileen Detchon.
- Retroactive Recognition: In the episode s3e3: "Community Relations: DR-10", Friday and Gannon go to a community college to recruit black men into the LAPD. One of the men attending the talk is an uncredited O. J. Simpson. (The episode aired in 1968 and was probably filmed just as Simpson was becoming famous as a running back at USC. It's possible that he and the other men answered an open casting call for extras.)
- Keep Circulating the Tapes:
- Since just about all of the 1950's TV series has come into the public domain, entire episodes can be seen on YouTube. However, not every episode is available at this point. 47 complete episodes are available from the 1951-52 through 1954-55 seasons but only a total of 12 are available from the rest of the show's run (and seven of those are from the 1955-56 season).
- "The Joy Riders" from the third season of the 1960's series is on the Shout! Factory DVD set, but is not included in streaming packages for some reason.
- Missing Episode: The 1950s series has only around 60 episodes found. However, the series had 276 produced. It is rumored that the Webb Estate has all of the episodes.
- Prop Recycling: Jack Webb and Harry Morgan wore the exact same clothes every episode —- that is, for more than 5 years, they wore the same exact clothes! They tried swapping jackets once to see if anyone would notice. No one did.
- Recycled Script
- Many radio episode scripts were adapted for television, including the aforementioned City Hall bombing episode (Season 1 Episode 1: "The Human Bomb").
- The Christmas episode with the "theft" of the Child Jesus statue aired during the original TV series (where it was the first-ever TV episode to be filmed in color) and then was redone for the '60s remake. Three of the actors from the original version (Father Rojas, Mr. Flavin, and the hotel desk clerk) reprised their roles for the remake. In fact, the only changes to the script were references to Gannon and his wife (rather than Frank Smith) and a couple of lines to explain why central LA detectives were investigating a crime in Foothill Division, which was a distinction that didn't exist when the episode was first filmed.
- Screwed by the Network: The Controversial retool for the second season of the 2003 revival (Frank Smith being written out and Friday's role diminished in favor of an ensemble cast) was imposed by ABC in an attempt to boost ratings. Frank Smith's departure was due to Ethan Embry's objection to the ensemble cast idea. He didn't want to be part of that and asked to be released, and the producers granted him his wish.
- 20 Minutes into the Future: The episode "The Big Thanksgiving" was broadcast for the 1955 season. In the episode, Friday makes the reference that Thanksgiving was on November 22. Thanksgiving was on November 22 in 1956.
- What Could Have Been
- Webb wanted Ben Alexander to return as Frank Smith in the revival series, but Alexander had already committed to The Felony Squad on ABC, so Webb turned instead to his friend Harry Morgan and Bill Gannon was created.
- Jack Webb was working on a second Dragnet revival in 1982 right before his death with five scripts completed. With Harry Morgan still committed to M*A*S*H and having signed up for AfterMASH, and as Ben Alexander had died of a heart attack in 1969, Webb would have changed partners once again, this time to a character played by Kent McCord (although it's unknown if it would have been his Adam-12 character or a new one).
- One of the Lassie dogs appeared in the purse snatching dog episode - it clearly has the distinctive facial blaze absent in most collies but present in all the Lassies.
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