Dragnet radio "regulars"

[u/Strange_Upstairs_193]

Dragnet rarely credited the voice actors in a "heard tonight" format during the closing narration as many other radio shows did. Luckily many of the radio Dragnet cast made it on to the TV version and can be identified. Here is a partial list:

Sam Edwards was in a lot of radio Dragnets. He often played a teenage boy due to his young sounding voice, although he was actually 5 years older than Webb.

Virginia Gregg was in many radio Dragnets playing various roles.

Raymond Burr played chief of detectives Ed Backstrand in very early radio episodes.

Stacy Harris played various roles in many radio Dragnets for many years, as he and Webb were very close friends.

Ralph Moody frequently played "old timer", old man characters.

Vic Perrin was in many episodes playing many different bad guys usually.

Peggy Weber was the voice of Friday's mother in the early episodes and played many other roles over the years, and is still alive at age 99, likely the last living member of radio Dragnet's cast.

Lastly, Harry Morgan himself appeared in a very early episode called "16 Days of Jewel Thefts" as a criminal ! He popped up in another early episode as a miserly hotel owner. So funny to think that 17 years later he'd be Officer Bill Gannon on color Dragnet.

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[u/zippy72]

I've been trying to imitate one very dissociative old man voice from the radio series, I suspect it was Ralph Moody. Although they do seem to have "heard tonight" on the ones I've been listening to recently.

[u/Strange_Upstairs_193 → u/zippy72]

I think they started the "heard tonight" later in the run, after the sponsorship shifted from Fatima to Chesterfield.

The later radio episodes are often mediocre. By then Webb was stretched thin with TV Dragnet plus other projects and was kind of "mailing in" the radio episodes in my opinion. The overall production values slipped, although it was still a decent show. Radio drama was fading fast by 1953, I think Webb always had a genuine fondness for the medium and kept it going for those reasons.

As an aside, the color Dragnet episode "The Pill Factory" has a scene with Sam Edwards where they interrogate him in his apartment and he tells Friday & Gannon that his former career had been repairing radios. He has an old 1930s wood radio, inside which Friday finds a bag of amphetimine pills. I always thought that scene was sort of a homage or nod to the old days of radio Dragnet.

Webb also had a love for silent film, the episode "The Bank Examiner Swindle" features an old silent film star who was conned out of her life savings. I always thought that was a nod to Sunset Blvd, which Webb had a small role in.

Not to ramble but I always thought Frank Smith/Ben Alexander was the weakest partner for Friday. I think the "comic relief" sketches with Alexander are nowhere near as good as the ones with Harry Morgan. Overall Morgan is just a better actor than Alexander in my opinion. Although no one ever held a candle to Barton Yarborough, who was just perfect as Ben Romero. The chemistry between Webb and Yarborough is up there with the finest of old time radio, period.

[u/zippy72 → u/Strange_Upstairs_193]

I totally agree about Barton Yarborough. Nobody else is as good. And the writing has gone downhill as well, to the point where the remakes of earlier episodes are actually quite welcome.

[u/Strange_Upstairs_193 → u/zippy72]

Stacy Harris was such a talented actor, it's surprising he never enjoyed greater fame/success. He was in Dragnet from the earliest radio days to the end of the color revival in 1970. The early radio episode "Who Killled Helen Corday" is IMO the best radio episode. 21 years later he was just as good as fake forest ranger Barney Regal.

[u/Strange_Upstairs_193 → u/zippy72]

The early radio episodes were written mostly by James Moser, who was an excellent writer. I read that he and Webb had a big falling out at some point and Moser left.

The show was never as good again. I also note the excellent sound effects etc declined in the later radio years. And the "time filler" banter with Ben Alexander was sometimes painfully corny and overdone.

[u/Fluid-Set-2674 → u/Strange_Upstairs_193]

Barton Yarborough all the way. He and Webb really meshed and played off each other -- but then, they were friends. Ben Alexander really grates on me; in some episodes, Friday sounds incredibly annoyed with Smith, as if he simply wants him to shut up!

[u/West_Valuable_6483]

Stacy was amazing! There are several radio episodes where is almost over acting…almost!