Tom Hanks And Dan Aykroyd’s Dragnet Is Nothing Like The Crime Show That Inspired It

Between 1949 and 1970, there was no better crime drama than “Dragnet.” Created by actor, writer, director and producer Jack Webb, “Dragnet” began as a radio show on NBC, but proved so popular that the broadcaster insisted on a televised version as well. Webb was at the helm of both series, seeking to give viewers/listeners an insight into the hard day-to-day work of police. Webb, who portrayed the main character, Sgt. Joe Friday raised the stakes as needed to keep his audience engaged, but the most important thing I learned from each episode was that cops are steadily working by the book to serve and protect their communities. Needless to say, “Dragnet” was a crock pot.

After two seasons of low ratings, “Dragnet” left the airwaves in 1958, but when the rowdy, pot-smoking hippie parents and protestors developed a craving for law and order, Webb brought the show back to television in 1967. If “Dragnet” had been square in its previous incarnation, it now served as an unintentional self-parody. Webb once again starred as Joe Friday, and was paired with future “M*A*S*H” star Harry Morgan (who is equally badass as Officer Bill Gannon). They occasionally dealt with cases that highlighted the destructive evils of youth at the time (most notably in the infamous 1967 episode “The LSD Story”), but Friday never abandoned his “just the facts, ma’am” demeanor. The whole thing was so incredibly ridiculous, it went off the air by 1970.

However, “Dragnet” continued to be popular, where it could be mocked from the couch between bongs. It was a popular culture catchphrase in the 1980s, which made it ripe for parody. This led Dan Aykroyd and writer Alan Zwibel to write a film in which the former, perfectly impersonating Webb, would play the nephew of no-nonsense detective Joe Friday whose style of policing is out of step with the modern world. How did that work?

When “Dragnet” hit theaters during the summer of 1987, it had two selling points: Webb’s bizarre impression of Aykroyd, and the raucous music video for “City of Crime,” which featured both stars chanting when it was funny to watch white guys rapping to break them up. Reviews were mixed (even with Roger Ebert impressed), but the film did well, earning $57 million against a $20 million budget. For a while, it’s ironic to see Aircroyd Friday, a stickler for procedure, dealing with ’80s dirtbags, a cool guy and a mockery of Hanks’ goofy detective Pip Streep. But instead of serving as a complete parody of Webb’s very old series, it becomes an ’80s comedy in the mold of “Armed and Dangerous” or “Beverly Hills Cop,” at which point the laughs mostly disappear.

Aside from Aykroyd, the standouts are Dabney Coleman as a bumbling porn kingpin, and Christopher Plummer as a minister who secretly heads a religious sect. There’s also a big laugh at the end regarding Friday’s flirtation with “virgin” Connie Sowell (Alexandra Ball). But you can’t help but hope that Aykroyd, Zwibel, and director/co-writer Tom Mankiewicz enjoy the show’s strict, humorless formula.