TVSquad

How many people remember Dragnet? Or maybe I should say how many people remember actually watching Dragnet, the "just the facts" police show starring the iconic Jack Webb? The reason I ask is because the U.S. Postal Service is immortalizing Dragnet with a postage stamp tomorrow.

In light of the fact that letter writing and postal service are dramatically in decline, my guess is that there will be an older crowd nodding appreciatively when Dragnet is honored. You see, the younger generation (did I really say that?) doesn't have much use for stamps and won't be buying the Dragnet first class stamp.

That leaves the stamp to be bought by people who fondly recall the docudrama-like TV series that had three network runs, 1951-59 on CBS, 1967-70 on NBC, and 2003 on ABC. There was also a comic version of Dragnet for the big screen, starring Dan Ackroyd and Tom Hanks.

The most famous of all the Dragnet series, probably, is the 1967 version that was in color and starred Jack Webb and Harry Morgan as Los Angeles police officers Sgt. Joe Friday and Harry Morgan (pre-M*A*S*H) as Officer Bill Gannon. It was meat-and-potatoes television. Nothing complicated, just straight stories out of the files of the police department, but somehow it worked and people tuned in for more.

On Tuesday at the Police Academy in Elysian Park – where they recently filmed scenes for The Closer – there will be a ceremony to unveil the Dragnet stamp.