Dragnet (later renamed to "L.A. Dragnet" in its second season) was a short lived detective series starring Ed O'Neill as Los Angeles Police Department Detective Joe Friday. It is a reboot of the classic Dragnet series that ran from 1951 to 1970 as well as another reboot in 1989. The series ran from 2003 to 2004 on ABC and was produced by Dick Wolf, who is best known for the Law and Order franchise.
The series focused on Detective Joe Friday and his partner, Detective Frank Smith, of LAPD's robbery and homicide division. The show followed a typical police procedure format, as they solved crimes in the Los Angeles area. During the 2nd season, numerous changes were made to the series, such renaming the series to "L.A. Dragnet", Detective Smith being written out and a younger, ethically diverse set of detectives was added in his place. These changes eventually led to the cancellation of the show 5 episodes into its 2nd season.
All episodes can currently be viewed on Hulu and for free on the Roku Channel.
Trivia[]
- Ethan Embry, who played Detective Frank Smith had previously worked with Ed O'Neil in the 1991 film Dutch.
- Luna Lauren Velez, who played Det. Denise Beltran in the first season and Desmond Harrington, who played Det. Jimmy McCarron in the second season, would later star in the Showtime series, Dexter, which also featured several MWC guest stars including Geoff Pierson, Ian Patrick Williams, Julie Benz, and Jesse Borrego. Both actors would also play a police detective in that series.
- In the pilot episode of Married... with Children, when Kelly's date arrives, his van horn plays a slightly altered version of "Danger Ahead (Dragnet Theme)".
- In the Season 6 episode, "The Egg and I", "Danger Ahead (Dragnet Theme)", is heard at the end of the episode, after Buck Bundy receives the reward for turning Steve Rhoades and the Bundys over to the FBI.