A 

Abortion
Accounting
Advertising
Africa
African-American Studies
Aging
Agriculture
American Indian Studies
Anthropology
Archaeology
Architecture
Argumentative
Art: Artists (Alphabetized)
Art: General
Become an Affiliate and Earn $$$
Biographies (Alphabetized)
Book Reviews (Non-Fiction) (Alphabetized)
Business: Companies (Alphabetized)
Business: General
Business: Industries (Alphabetized)
Business: International
Business: Small
California
Canada
Caribbean
Child Abuse
China
Communication: Journalism
Communication: Language & Speech
Communication: Media
Communication: Non-Verbal
Communication: Television
Communication: Television & Children
Communism
Computer Science
Consumerism
Criminal Justice: General
Criminal Justice: Juvenile Delinquency
Criminal Justice: Police Science
Criminal Justice: Prisons
Cuba
Death & Dying: Euthanasia
Death & Dying: General
Death & Dying: Suicide
Drama: American
Drama: English
Drama: World
Drugs: Alcohol
Drugs: General
Economics: Banking
Economics: Economists (Alphabetized)
Economics: General
Economics: Inflation
Economics: International Trade
Economics: Macroeconomics
Economics: Microeconomics
Economics: Taxation
Education: Administration
Education: Curriculum
Education: General
Education: Higher
Education: Physical
Education: Psychology
Education: Reading
Education: Special
Education: Teaching Methods
Education: Theory
Energy: General
Energy: Nuclear
Energy: Solar
Environmental Studies
Evolution
Family & Marriage
Films: Artists (Alphabetized)
Films: General
Finance: Companies (Alphabetized)
Finance: General
Former Soviet Union: Post-1990
France
Gender & Sexuality
Geography
Germany
History: Ancient Greek & Roman
History: European
History: Great Britain
History: U.S. (After 1865)
History: U.S. (Before 1865)
History: U.S. Presidency
History: U.S. Presidents (Alphabetized)
Homosexuality
Immigration
India
Indonesia
International Relations: Arms Control
International Relations: Cold War
International Relations: Non-U.S.
International Relations: U.S.
Japan
Jewish Studies
Korea
Labor
Latin America
Law: Business
Law: Capital Punishment
Law: General
Law: International & Non-U.S.
Law: Supreme Court
Leadership
Literature, American: Authors (Alphabetized)
Literature, American: Faulkner
Literature, American: Fitzgerald
Literature, American: General
Literature, American: Hawthorne
Literature, American: Hemingway
Literature, American: Melville
Literature, American: Poe
Literature, American: Steinbeck
Literature, American: Twain
Literature, English: Authors (Alphabetized)
Literature, English: Chaucer
Literature, English: Conrad
Literature, English: Dickens
Literature, English: General
Literature, English: Joyce
Literature, English: Lawrence
Literature, English: Shakespeare
Literature, English: Swift
Literature, General: Children
Literature, General: Classic (Greek & Roman)
Literature, General: Russian
Literature, General: World
Management: General
Management: Japanese
Management: Motivation
Management: Theory
Management: Women
Marketing: Companies (Alphabetized)
Marketing: General
Marketing: Plans
Mathematics
Medical: Aids
Medical: Dentistry
Medical: Diseases & Disorders (Alphabetized)
Medical: General
Medical: Nursing
Mexican-American Studies
Mexico
Middle East: Egypt
Middle East: General
Middle East: O.P.E.C.
Military
Music: Classical
Music: General
Mythology
Nutrition
Parapsychology/Occult
Philosophy: Ancient Greek
Philosophy: Descartes
Philosophy: Eastern
Philosophy: General
Philosophy: Kant
Philosophy: Sartre
Poetry: American
Poetry: English
Poetry: Milton
Poetry: World
Political Science: Elections & Campaigns
Political Science: Foreign
Political Science: Lobbyists & Pressure Groups
Political Science: Machiavelli
Political Science: Mill
Political Science: Political Theory
Political Science: U.S.
Psychology: Behaviorism
Psychology: Child & Adolescent
Psychology: Disorders
Psychology: Dreams
Psychology: Experimental
Psychology: Freud
Psychology: General
Psychology: Jung
Psychology: Physiology
Psychology: Piaget
Psychology: Rogers
Psychology: Social
Psychology: Testing
Psychology: Therapies
Public Administration: General
Public Administration: Government Agencies (Alphabetized)
Racism
Real Estate
Recreation & Leisure
Religion: Eastern
Religion: General
Religion: Islam
Religion: The Bible
Research: Completed Studies (With Statistics & Results)
Research: Designs & Proposals
Research: Statistics & Methodology
Russia: Pre-1917 Revolution
Science: Astronomy
Science: Biology
Science: General
Science: Genetics
Sociology: Durkheim
Sociology: General
Sociology: Marx
Sociology: Social Problems
Sociology: Social Theory
Sociology: Social Welfare
Sociology: Weber
Soviet Union: 1917-1990
Sports: Drugs
Sports: General
Technology
Transportation: Automotive
Transportation: Aviation
Transportation: General
Transportation: Railroads
Urban Studies
Vietnam
Women Studies
 

DRAGNET & NYPD BLUES.   Term Paper ID:28020 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Compares & contrasts the 1950s & current police shows. Includes growth of TV as a medium, style of the 2 shows, social climate.... More...

8 Pages / 1800 Words 6 sources, 6 Citations, MLA Format $32.00 Return to List of Papers

Paper Abstract: Compares & contrasts the 1950s & current police shows. Includes growth of TV as a medium, style of the 2 shows, social climate. Paper Introduction: The 1950s era television series Dragnet and the current 1990s television series NYPD Blue would seem to have little in common aside from both being about police and police cases, but in fact the two shows are more closely related than that. Dragnet was the first television series to try to present the police in a realistic light, not as superheroes but as men and women doing a job. NYPD Blue is a direct descendant of this effort, though the emphasis has changed greatly and the shows diverge widely in many different ways. The differences between the two shows reflect not just a different emphasis but also different social settings, different eras in television, different technical capabilities, different audience expectations, and different levels of freedom. Dragnet was first a radio program and was carried over onto Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. NYPD Blue is an example of a broader societal and entertainment trendaway from the establishment-orientation of shows like Dragnet, with theirsqueaky-clean police officers, and toward a more realistic view of thepolice officer as a human being with flaws as well as virtues: Dirty Harry's American icon has long since been supplanted by the likes of Pembleton [of Homicide] and Sipowicz [of NYPD Blue]- -cops who could easily pass for John Le Carre's gray men, defined by inner torments and moral ambiguity. Bochcoindicated that times had changed and that it was necessary to offersomething more to attract viewers: "In 1993, when you're doing a cop show, and you're competing with cable, which has a tremendous penetration into homes now, I don't think at 1 o'clock we can effectively compete any longer unless we can paint with some of the same colors," Bochco said (Mann E1).The inclusion of nudity and realistic language were the primary reasons forcomplaints, and many network affiliates refused to carry the show when itfirst aired. The guiding hand behind NYPD Bluewas Steven Bochco (teamed here with David Milch). This was evenmore true of the revived Dragnet that returned to network television in1967 and ran for three more seasons. The style was much parodiedbecause it was so easy to imitate. This included the system of sponsorship and advertising. Dragnet was a major shift in radio programming when it first went onthe air in 1949. Theensemble cast of characters contend with their private demons as well asthose on the street. NYPD Blue came on the air in 1993 and from the first challenged theboundaries of television and socially accepted behavior. However the shows were developed, they gave the impression ofallowing the public into the real world of the Los Angeles PoliceDepartment, and Webb focused on this as he became a virtual spokespersonfor the department, boosting it whenever possible, and shaping stories sothat the police were presented in the best possible light. Gone are the stand-up heroes of the doughnut-and-Smith & Wesson beat, the fellows from "Adam-12" or "Hunter" who'd gladly break a few heads to defend the virginal myths of an America few of us ever really knew (Caldwell 7F).Such portrayals are possible only because society at large has also come todistrust the police officer who appears to be too good, and indeed todistrust the police entirely in some cases. The characters on NYPD Blue as well as the situationsoff and on the job that they find themselves in reflect a complexity thatwas lacking in the simplistic Dragnet. Advertisers also could take on the task ofscheduling as they decided to which network the program would be offered,and by negotiating with the network for the specific time periods in whichit would be heard or shown. Barnes & Company, 198 .Fornatale, Peter and Joshua E. Instead, the way people related to radio changed, butthis happened in a way that gave radio its own important media niche, onethat was even bigger than it had occupied before. Police shows from Dragnet to NYPD Blue have in some degreereflected society's view of the police and of the threat of crime to everycitizen. Television's Transformation: The Next 25 Years. Some advertisers even had in-house production units whichproduced the program directly. Radio and television were bothdeveloped as commercial media in the era after World War I. Theessential pattern was the same--crime, investigation, capture, and anannouncer telling the viewer the results of the subsequent trial. There was anerosion in national radio advertising, but this was offset by a growth inregional and local advertising (Fornatale and Mills 3-4). Woodstock, New York: Overlook Press, 198 .Jencks, Richard W., "How Network Television Program Decisions Are Made." In Network Television and the Public Interest, Michael Botein and David M. In1948, he appeared in a film entitled He Walked by Night which was a semi-documentary drama about a police investigation in Los Angeles. Lexington, Maryland: Lexington Books, 198 . From the first, NYPD Blue created a furor because of the degree towhich it pushed the envelope for sex and violence on television. Creator, producer, and star Jack Webb had had severalradio series before this, usually as some form of extremely tough privatedetective in shows like Pat Novak for Hire or Jeff Regan, Investigator. Asa result, 1948 was a period of transition as the number of cities withtelevision grew from eight to 23 and the number of stations on the air from17 to 41. Dragnet was a major hit on radio and on television. Whetherthis was the impetus for Dragnet or not, Webb took a similar idea to radio,a program presenting authentic police cases about the Los Angeles PoliceDepartment. This also meant less freedom to explore anyelement of the dark side that might face the police in society--it was amore black-and-white world as far as seeing everything in terms of goodversus evil. Establishment institutions like the police departmentwere respected as a matter of course, and there was much greater trust ofthe police than we see today. The NBC researchdepartment predicted in 1946 that television would produce an $8 millionloss over the next four years, and it was suggested that radio should bemade to finance that loss. Television was invented in thelate 192 s, and various experiments were conducted into the 193 s. "Shades of 'Blue.'" Entertainment Weekly (October 29, 1993), 16. The style of theshow was much like the film-noir style of the movies, with spare dialogue,a focus on crime, and a cynical attitude. NYPD Blue presents police in a different lighteven as the show also delves more deeply into the terrors of the street,the ravages of crime, and the social problems that produce crime. Webb wouldfollow the same approach with other shows he produced, notably Adam-12 inthe 197 s. Whatdelayed the development of television as a product for a mass audience wasWorld War II, and within a few years of the end of that war, televisionwould start to become a feature in the American home. The differences between the two showsreflect not just a different emphasis but also different social settings,different eras in television, different technical capabilities, differentaudience expectations, and different levels of freedom. The Golden Age of Radio was coming to an end in 1946 and 1947 whenradio was very profitable and when the networks were planning to use theirprofits from radio to build the television industry. NYPD Blue is a direct descendant of thiseffort, though the emphasis has changed greatly and the shows divergewidely in many different ways. In fact, Webbdeveloped stories by talking to police about their cases and then takingportions from different cases to make a dramatic presentation. Bochco had earlierrevamped the police drama form with his series Hill Street Blues, a showwith an ensemble cast, completely fictional, but at the same time offeringa sense of realism and grittiness that was different for televising. Radio held its own at first,perhaps because of the shortage of television outlets. Mills. When television began to cut into the radio audience, Webbdeveloped a television version of the show (though, as was then common withshows carried over from radio, the radio version continued to run as wellfor several years). New York: A.S. The development of the networksystem for television was structured a holdover from radio: Television was deliberately created by the radio networks, and so it is hardly surprising that our television system was conceived in terms of a network from the very beginning (DeLuca 128).The advertising system followed this pattern as well: During the entire history of network radio entertainment, and during the first decade of network television, program decisions were largely made, not by the networks themselves, but by advertisers and their agencies (Jencks 37).Such control was thorough, extending to decisions on the format and natureof programs, the selection of stars and supporting players, supervision ofday-to-day production, and the monitoring of the programs for taste andpropriety. With shows like NYPD Blue, however, we find the programsmore open to develop the idea that Dragnet would never acknowledge; namely,that the system itself might be geared to protecting bad cops for far toolong and that it might be the system itself that was in need of change.This is a fit subject for a televising show precisely because society as awhole has come to recognize it as a reality and to attempt to do somethingabout it. The show suggested that the cases wereall taken from the real files of the Los Angeles Police Department, thoughit was never clear that this was as direct as it sounds. The Dragnet of the 195 s was produced in a different social climatethan we face today. Still, large-scale television programming started in 1948 with the national politicalconventions and a number of weekly programs. Major events such as theRodney King beating have left the Los Angeles police image from Dragnetseem especially archaic. The 195 s era television series Dragnet and the current 199 stelevision series NYPD Blue would seem to have little in common aside fromboth being about police and police cases, but in fact the two shows aremore closely related than that. Dragnet was the first television series totry to present the police in a realistic light, not as superheroes but asmen and women doing a job. Shows like NYPD Blue are not less supportive of the job done by thepolice merely because they take a more realistic view of the human beingswho become officers, though some might see the issue in that light.Dragnet was always open about the possibility that some police officersmight go bad and have to be weeded out, and numerous episodes dealt withjust that issue. The FCC slowed the process by putting a freeze on all pendingtelevision licenses while it studied the likely impact of the new medium,and this freeze was extended by the Korean War until 1952. "Too Blue for TC?" The Record (Bergen County, New Jersey) (August 1, 1993), E1.Svetkey, Benjamin. Works CitedCaldwell, Gail. 37-49.Mann, Virginia. This was true in some forth small to midsize cities acrossthe country, though at the same time, the show managed to attain anaudience of 21 million viewers a week, making it the most successful newdrama of the season (Svetkey 16). Television would have an even greaterimpact once it was commercially viable. By theend of the first full decade of television broadcasting, however, it wasclear that television was different from radio in a number of respects, andthe system of advertising shifted from a sponsor-oriented system to one inwhich the networks and stations sold time to advertisers rather than havingadvertisers sponsor specific programs. Dragnet was first a radio program and was carried over ontotelevision with the same cast in 1954. The style of the two versions of Dragnet was subtly different. HillStreet Blues was set in a never-identified fictional Northeastern city,while NYPD Blue is set in the real city of New York and draws on thevitality of that city to infuse life into the form. Radio was thefirst truly mass medium of communication, reaching millions of peopleinstantly and altering social attitudes, family relationships, and howpeople related to their environment. The advertisers also had restrictions on the networks andwould withdraw support from any program that challenged the verities toodirectly or that called American values into question. Radio did not disappear as waspredicted by some. The shift from radioto television was not really a shift from one to the other but the creationof a new atmosphere which accommodate both. This change also involved a shiftin programming responsibility and control from advertisers to networks andindependent programmers and studios. Rice (eds.). Radio in the Television Age. Television as a medium was developed by companies that had beenactive in network radio, and the television system was patterned after thatof radio. For most of therun, two detectives were followed as they investigated a crime each week,the detectives played by Jack Webb and Ben Alexander. "The Case of the Disappearing `Decent' Detective." Minneapolis Star Tribune (May 25, 1997), 7F.DeLuca, Stuart M. However,where the 195 s version benefited from a film-noir style and from a cynicalattitude, the later version was so steeped in boosterism for the police andhad such a rigid and over-worked style that the two seem like verydifferent shows. In 1947 NBC chairman David Sarnoff urged radionetwork affiliates to get into television, and many heeded this advice. The show followeda long line of police dramas of various types, from the more documentary-like dramas of Dragnet and Adam-12, to hero-oriented shows like Kojak orHawaii Five- , to various combinations. In addition, what happens to the characters off the job is assignificant as the action at the station house and on the street. The shift was not only a response tochanging economic conditions but also to concerns about advertiser control,including questions being raised in Congress about the ways advertisersshaped programs and appealed to viewers. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.