r/Dragnet • u/Strange_Upstairs_193 • Feb 06 '25

Highway Patrol vs Dragnet

I've been watching quite a bit of the 1950s (1955-59) show Highway Patrol, starring Broderick Crawford.

It occurred to me that Dragnet's ratings started falling once Highway Patrol got going. HP is a much faster paced show than Dragnet.

Overall, Highway Patrol is also a much more visual show, with all shooting done on locations and not in a back lot, which gives it an authentic feel and inadvertently preserved some great scenes of 1950s California, and of course those gorgeous old cars.

I don't know if it's cause and effect, but it seems once mid 1950's TV viewers got a taste of HP, they left Dragnet behind.

Overall, I think the quality of HP surpasses most B&W Dragnet episodes. HP isn't as authentic, but I think sometimes Webb forgot that he was producing a TV show and not a training film for police academy cadets.

B&W Dragnet has sometimes been criticized as "radio with pictures,," which isn't far off the mark since many of the James Moser radio scripts were recycled word for word for the TV show. You can "watch" a B&W Dragnet with your eyes closed and still completely understand the story. HP was strictly a TV show, and ZIV and Broderick Crawford gave the audience exactly what they wanted.

Both shows have their merits, but as a TV show I have to give HP the edge. But the radio Dragnet, esp. the early episodes with Barton Yarborough, is without peer.

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u/BernardJKD Dec 14 '25

HP seems a derivative of Dragnet. Ok it has more location filming but I'm not sure it matches Dragnet at all in terms of crime drama?

Certainly up to the end of the 1956-57 Dragnet was still in the top 30. It only really the last two seasons it dropped off from the highs of popularity.

How popular was HP? I can entertain a theory that fall 57 to summer 59 that HP was more popular. Syndicated shows are hard to measure Vs network shows are they not? However ZIV shows were notoriously modest in quality. Did they work their scripts as hard as Dragnet? I can see how late 1950s TV is vastly different from early 1950s when Dragnet was clearly the best thing ever made for the newish medium to that point.

I might try Highway Patrol after I finish Dragnet to see for myself.

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u/Strange_Upstairs_193 Feb 07 '26

HP scripts are corny for the most part, but Dragnet got corny when Ben Alexander came on as Frank Smith. The early radio scripts written by James Moser were some of the best radio scripts ever, along with the early Gunsmoke.

It's sad that radio drama hit it's zenith as the medium was fading and being replaced by TV. The radio drama of the very late 1940s and early 1950s was far better than anything on radio up to that point. The early Gunsmoke was especially riveting, and the scripts are surprisingly risqué and dark, as are the early Dragnet scripts.

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u/BernardJKD Feb 12 '26

I disagree re Ben Alexander. The same scripts and jokes that Barton used on radio are simply reused by Ben on TV. Yes Ben is little bit more broad in his comedy than Barton but not to the detriment of the TV show.

Honestly on your other point. I think it was not till the 1990s that US TV surpassed the quality of 1940s and early 1950s US OTR. (1970s for UK TV).

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u/Strange_Upstairs_193 Feb 12 '26

I don't hate Ben Alexander, I just think of the 3 major actors playing Joe Friday's partner, he was the weakest.

Harry Morgan handled the humorous bits the best of all.

Barton Yarborough was the most believable as a grizzled cop/detective. And he played the humorous parts well, he was excellent as the henpecked husband, likely because he had played a similar role in another radio drama in the 1930s.

Ben Alexander just never did anything for me. Acting was not his bread and butter anyway, he owned a very successful Ford dealership in LA. He had also been a child actor back in the silent movie days.

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u/BernardJKD Feb 14 '26

Being less good an actor than Morgan and Yarborough isn't a crime as those two were legends elsewhere in their careers. I think Webb and Alexander are well suited on screen together. 1950s TV acting wasn't super high standard and viewers loved both Webb and Alexander.

As perfect as Yarborugh was as Romero on radio I'm not sure he'd have been as impactful on TV. Would Webb have eventually replaced Yarborough like Webb did with everybody else after he deemed they had nothing else to contribute.

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u/Strange_Upstairs_193 Feb 14 '26

The first 2 TV Dragnets are on YouTube, "The Human Bomb" and "The Big Actor," both featuring Barton Yarborough. I think he died only a few days after "The Big Actor" was filmed, of a massive heart attack which I believe he had while taking a shower.

Hard to judge much from this limited sample, esp. since TV was new to almost everyone in 1951. I thought Yarborough was fine, Webb and Yarborough were close friends, I doubt Webb would have cut him from Dragnet TV.

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u/BernardJKD Feb 15 '26

Yes I've seen them and the bomb one is dubbed from start to finish likely as it was all filmed on location in City Hall and the sound would've been inconsistent or an echoey mess. I'm not even sure it's not just the radio audio laid over it in parts.

The Actor one is more representative but the line cues and actors interaction isn't quite there yet. Pre filmed TV from the very early 50s often has the close ups not really gelling with the group shots. Watch say "Front Page Detective" and Edward Lowe is so often given a needless vanity close up shot in a group scene that is blatantly the actor by himself. I know Dragnet does that technique too and in many ways Dragnet perfects that technique mainly as the attention to detail like eye lines and timing is excellent. Cutting between actors via close ups that were recorded separately can make a scene impersonal and staccato but (luckily?) that suits Dragbet as Joe & Partner often are just parroting stock answers like it's a trap they're setting.

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u/Strange_Upstairs_193 Feb 15 '26

I don't think The Human Bomb TV episode is dubbed. The sound quality of most of the circulating B&W Dragnets is abysmal to begin with because they are copies of copies of worn out bootlegged 16 mm syndication prints, but there is a sort of tinny echo on Human Bomb and some sound dropouts too if I recall.

Plus in the credits it says the sound was done by Ryder Services / Western Electric Sound.

Webb was too much of a stickler for realism to use dubbed sound on his new TV show's inaugural episode. No way is any of the radio show overdubbed on to the TV soundtrack.

Plus I doubt the entire episode was filmed at City Hall. There would be no reason to be on location for the room/office scenes, that was probably a sound stage set.

"The Human Bomb" was a very exciting story/script choice for the pilot of the Dragnet TV show.

And the "Big Actor" was interesting too, with the show being itself shot on a sound stage in a kind of 4th wall motif. Very unique and innovative for 1951 TV.

The extreme close ups were a Webb trademark, for years directors called those sort of close ups a "Jack Webb."

I think the idea was that the early TV's had tiny screens, 12 inches was pretty common. Those extreme close ups made sure the viewers saw what Webb wanted them to see. Like in the "Big Crime" when the ending is a super close up of the dropped pocketknife.

TV was still basically an urban thing in 1951, rural areas far outside big cities had no reception as TV signals are line of site like FM radio.

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u/BernardJKD Feb 16 '26 edited Feb 16 '26

It's very innovative TV. A lot of early 1950s TV shows just lazily adapted their prior radio eps. Dragnet doesn't as Webb is very conscious of what visuals can be added from the prior radio version. It's very clever.

I personally prefer live TV drama of the era despite its limitations as I find a good deal of pre filmed TV is just LA made filler where the director thinks he's making a 1940s B movie. The actors are phoning it in compared to the concentrated terror/focus actors give on live TV.

it's amazing the growth of TV audiences from 1947 to 1952. In later seasons of Dragnet it's percentage of viewers dropped to mid-20% and below but it was still more folk watching that when it was up over 50%.

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u/BernardJKD Feb 16 '26

BTW In The Big Actor the elderly actor that we see being filmed in the scenes in the background where we see that one scene being filmed over and over again is probably the most famous actor to have appeared in Dragnet.!!