"Dragnet" (2003) TV series 2003-2004

Creators:

Jack Webb
Dick Wolf

Seasons:

1 | 2

Release Date:

2 February 2003 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Tagline:

The badge is back.

Plot:

An updated edition of the classic police drama, featuring Ed O'Neill as the 2000 version of Joe Friday.

Plot Keywords:

Police | Police Detective | Remake | Criminal Investigation | Detective

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Ed O'Neill	...	Lt. Joe Friday (22 episodes, 2003-2004)
Ethan Embry	...	Det. Frank Smith (12 episodes, 2003)
Christina Chang	...	ADA Sandy Chang (12 episodes, 2003-2004)
Desmond Harrington	...	Det. Jimmy McCarron / ... (10 episodes, 2003-2004)
Eva Longoria Parker	...	Det. Gloria Duran (10 episodes, 2003-2004)
Evan Parke	...	Det. Raymond Cooper / ... (10 episodes, 2003-2004)
Erick Avari	...	Sanjay Ramachandran (9 episodes, 2003)

Also Known As:

L.A. Dragnet (USA) (new title)

Runtime:

USA:60 min (including commercials) (22 episodes)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Hungary:16

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Wolf Films

Trivia:

Ed O'Neill and Ethan Embry first starred together in the film Dutch (1991) when Embry was only 13 years old.

Quotes:

Det. Frank Smith: No, you're not A suspect, you're THE suspect.

Movie Connections:

Follows "Dragnet 1967" (1967)

Soundtrack:

Danger Ahead

Sgt. Joe Friday For The 21st Century

It may seem unimaginable that an iconic television series such as Jack Webb's Dragnet could be updated and still do justice to the original's charm and quality, but Dick Wolf and others behind the gripping Law & Order television series apply the strengths of their previous efforts into a superb updating of Webb's immortal series on the most famous working detective in the annuls of the LAPD.

Ed O'Neill is still most famous for his role of Al Bundy in Married.....With Children, but few remembered how he tackled the role of Popeye Doyle in the eponymous 1986 TV film sequel to The French Connection, and though not as gripping as Gene Hackman he nonetheless did a commendable job in a very difficult role. O'Neill really flexes dramatic muscle as Detective Joe Friday, in a much-faster-paced version of the classic series that at times reads like a real documentary, a goal Webb strove to achieve throughout the original run of Dragnet but which Dick Wolf and company have the resources to pull off.

While this new version of Dragnet is more keyed toward crime-solving and has a much greater intensity as a result, it nonetheless leaves some room for levity, such as in the recently-aired Bel Air kidnapping episode where the perp makes a deal with the LAPD to rat out his boss, but is arrested anyway because the FBI wants him. "We're local, they're federal," deadpans Ed O'Neill's Joe Friday, a line more fit for Ben Alexander's Frank Smith or Harry Morgan's Bill Gannon than Joe himself.

Ed O'Neill has thus succeeded in keeping an iconic character in TV history "alive and working," and TV land's LAPD knows that its most famous working detective is still on the job in the 21st century.