Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Link Fixed for Dragnet/Gangbusters

Computer must be suffering from Super Bowl hangover, much like the rest of Indianapolis.  Try clicking on the title of the below post for the Dragnet/Gangbusters show.

Monday, February 8, 2010

Season #1, Show #13: Dragnet and Gangbusters, OR, The Super Bowl of Cop Shows

Yes, it's lucky show 13, and on a night when a record 106.5 million people were watching television, ousting the M.A.S.H. finale from the top spot, our lonely little radio show played on. 

So we had our own Super Bo - er, "Big Game".  We had a faceoff of two of the best and most famous police shows of all-time.  To mix our metaphors, in one corner, we have Dragnet, the upstart show that came along in the early 50's and changed everything.  No longer were the rat-a-tat machine gun, glamourous gangster bad guys in.  This was realistic fiction at its earliest and best. 

In the other corner, we have the old puncher, the archetype of all early radio cop shows.  Gangbusters may be best remembered now for its blaring and busy introduction, but it was a good piece of radio.  It started a lot of trends, including dramatizing actual police files and using the airwaves to give clues to listeners to hunt real criminals, a trick that would be stretched to make full TV shows, like America's Most Wanted

Who wins this battle of the titans?  You be the judge.  Listen and vote over to the left.