The police badge appears on the screen, followed by ominous four-note flare and a stern voice announcing: “The story you are about to see is true. The names have been changed to protect the innocent.” This was the beginning to one of the most influential television shows in American history, the forerunner to the CSIs and Law and Orders of modern times. Dragnet starred Jack Webb, playing hard-boiled police detective Sgt. Joe Friday. Webb also produced the show, inspired by a 1948 film He Walked by Night that he had a minor part in.

On this day, December 5, in 1951, two years after its radio debut, Dragnet premiered on CBS-TV.

Webb’s Detective Sargent Joe Friday was joined by Officer Bill Gannon, played by Harry Morgan, a fellow LAPD detective, and the two re-enacted actual police cases, mixing in the drama of the chase with documentary-style looks inside the inner workings of the police departments. The scenes were not all glamor, but the vérité style, with attention to actual police procedures and jargon, made Dragnet an enduring classic.