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Jack Webb Show (1946)
a madcap comedy-variety show. It was one of
Jack Webb's earliest efforts. The routines
were packed with absurd one-liners and nonstop
silliness as well as traditional jazz in roaring
Dixieland backup by Phil Bovero and "eight
retards known as the Raggedaires."
Pat Novak: For Hire (1946-47)
written by Dick Breen who also wrote the scripts
for the Jack Webb Show. It Jack
Webb's first significant radio crime drama.
It was also the vanguard of radio hard-edge,
hard-boiled as to be high camp in its own time.
The show was rich with hilarious pessimism,
rippling with ridiculous metaphors. "The
street was as deserted as a warm bottle of
beer," Novak would say. "The car
started up down the street and the old man
couldn't have made it with a pocketful of aces.
I caught a glimpse of the license plate in
a dull, surprised way, the way you grab a feather
out of an angel's wing." * Please note
after spring 1949, Ben Morris took over the
roll of "Pat Novak".
Jeff Regan, Investigator (1948-1950)
followed Pat Novak: For Hire and by
this time, Jack Webb had almost a cult following,
and Regan was the transition show away from Novak and
into Dragnet.
It lacked the originality and flavor of Novak and
also the humor. * Please note the last 5 episodes
(in 1949), Jack Webb was replaced by Frank
Graham who played the part of Regan.
One Out of Seven (1946), documentary
drama, is one of Jack Webb's earliest series
which took an uncompromising stand against
racial prejudice. Aired from San Francisco,
the stories were often tough attacks against
bigotry and hate.
Pete Kelley Blues (1951) arrived
on radio almost two years after Jack Webb reached
stardom in Dragnet. All the Webb trademarks
were here: the quips, the snappy comebacks,
the short-tempered realism. Much of the show's
appeal was in the music: Webb was a lifelong
fan of hot jazz. This is one of Webb's best
shows and the basis of his 1955 film of the
same name.
Other episodes are from guest appearances
in the series Escape, Suspense and
appearances on the Bob Hope Show and Martin
and Lewis. This collection also contains
a number of episodes of the legendary crime
series, Dragnet. See also Johnny Modero.
SOURCE:
The Encyclopedia of Old Time Radio, John Dunning
See also: Hardboiled Detectives.
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Jack Webb was born April 2, 1920 to a working class family in Santa Monica, California. His father left his family soon after he was born and his single mom raised him in a rooming house in Bunker Hill slum section of Los Angeles. In the rooming house in which his family lived, a musician gave the young Webb a jazz album. This impressed Jack Webb and begun his life long love of jazz music (over 6,000 jazz albums in his private collection) and a dedicated stance against racial bigotry. 
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