Although he will be remembered most for his physically rigid portrayal of the morally rigid cop Joe Friday on Dragnet, Jack Webb had one of the most varied and far-reaching careers in television history. In his four decades in broadcasting, Webb performed nearly every role imaginable in the industry: actor, director, producer, writer (under the pseudonym John Randolph), editor, owner of an independent production company, and major studio executive. Webb's importance stems not only from his endurance and versatility but also from his innovation and success.

     Webb entered broadcasting as a radio announcer in 1945. After leading roles in radio dramas such as Pat Novak for Hire, he conceived of his own police program based on discussions with Los Angeles police officers about the unrealistic nature of most "cop" shows. Dragnet began on NBC Radio in 1949, based on "actual cases" from the tiles of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and featuring Webb as director, producer, co-writer, and star in the role of the stoic Sergeant Joe Friday. Webb broke the traditional molds of both "true story" crime dramas and "radio noir" by de-emphasizing violence, suspense, and the personal life of the protagonists: he instead strove for maximum verisimilitude by using police jargon, showing "business-only" cops following dead-end leads and methodical procedures, and sacrificing spectacle for authenticity. Webb's personal ties to the LAPD (which approved scripts and production for every Dragnet episode) and his own admitted "ultra conservative" political beliefs tinted his version of "reality" in all of his productions, where good always triumphs over evil and the law always represented the best interests of all members of society at large.

     Dragnet was a huge success, moving to television in 1951, where it became the highest-rated crime drama in broadcast history. The television version featured more Webb innovations, including passionless dialogue and acting (obtained by forcing actors to read dialogue "cold" from cue cards) and using camera and editing techniques taken from a film model. The show's success fueled Webb's career as an independent producer and director of both television and feature films. His Mark VII Limited production company produced Draw1et throughout its run on television, including  its  four-year  return  in  the  late  1960s.  Webb also  produced  numerous  other  shows,  including   Adam­ 12. Emergency, and General Electric  True;  these  met with varied degrees of success, but all Mark VII productions featured Webb's special blend of heightened realism, rapid-fire emotionless dialogue,  and  conservative politics. In  1954  Dragnet  spawned  one  of  the  first in a long line of  successful  television-inspired  films. Webb directed and produced more  feature  films throughout the 1950s, most notably an acclaimed ver­sion of Pete Kelly's Blues in 1955.

     Webb's least  successful  venture  was  his  brief  tenure as a studio executive. Webb, whose association  with Warner Brothers ran back to his mid- 1950s film projects. was named head of production at Warner Brothers Television in early 1963. Although his previous successes created high expectations, he was only able to sell one show to a network (NBC's short-lived western Temple Houston). and his singular style was incompatible with Warner's only other series on the air. 77 Sunset Strip. This " ultrahip" crime show was created in direct opposition to the grim procedural quality of Dragnet, but Webb pushed the already-waning show in a new direction-toward the stark realism of his previous work. 77 Sunset Strip was canceled at the end of the season. but Webb did not last as long-he was fired in December 1963. ending a failed ten-month tenure.

     Upon Webb's death in 1982, most reports and cover­age focused on Joe Friday. His performance style has been parodied since his emergence in the 1950s, but Webb's impact on television has never been properly assessed. Always anomalous and bucking the tide of televisual convention, Webb's style lives on in syndicated episodes of Dragnet, while his innovations and creations are consistently being copied or forsaken on every crime show today.