Joe Friday
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Detective Sergeant Joe Friday was a fictional character created and played by American actor, television producer, and writer Jack Webb (1920-1982) on Dragnet. The series ran on radio (1949-1956) and television (1952-1959 and 1967-1970), and there was also a theatrical film (1954) and a TV-movie (1969).
His final partner (on the late 60's TV series) was Officer Bill Gannon, played by actor Harry Morgan. Over the earlier run of the series, Friday was partnered with Sgt. Ben Romero (played by Barton Yarborough), Sgt. Ed Jacobs (played by Barney Phillips), Officer Frank Smith (played first by Herb Ellis and then by Ben Alexander), and ultimately Gannon.
During the 1958-1959 season Friday was promoted to lieutenant. However, when the show returned in 1967 he was back to the sergeant rank without any on-screen explanation. (Webb later explained that in reality the lieutenant rank was more of a supervisory position and involved less investigatory time in the field, which would change the structure of the show.)
Friday made famous the line "My name is Friday - I'm a cop," (the latter part later changed to "I carry a badge") said in the introductory narration of every TV episode. Supposedly, he also made the line, "Just the facts, Ma'am," famous. In fact, what Friday actually said in an early episode is "All we want are the facts." As with such famous, but never actually said, lines as "Beam me up, Scotty" (supposedly said by William Shatner on Star Trek), Friday, as portrayed by Webb, never actually said the oft-repeated phrase.
Dragnet used Joe Friday's police badge as its title logo. When Jack Webb died in 1982, Chief Darryl Gates of the Los Angeles Police Department officially retired Joe Friday's shield number, which was 714. (Webb supposedly selected the number for the home runs hit by Babe Ruth in his career.) The number 714 is also one of the area codes for Southern California.
In 1987, actor Dan Aykroyd starred as Joe Friday, supposedly the original Joe Friday's nephew, in the comedy film Dragnet.
Ed O'Neill starred as Joe Friday in Wolf Films' 2003 revival of Dragnet. Since LAPD had discontinued the rank of Detective Sergeant, replacing it with the rank of Detective Three, or D-3, the rank banner on Friday's badge now said "Detective" instead of "Sergeant," and Friday was referred to as "Detective Friday" instead of "Sergeant Friday." During the first season of the series, Friday's partner was named "Frank Smith," but unlike the character played by Alexander and Ellis on the original series, this Frank Smith, as played by Ethan Embry, was not an experienced, veteran officer, but a young detective being mentored by Friday. On this show, Friday was finally heard to utter the phrase, "Just the facts."
