{"id":1422,"date":"2002-01-09T16:38:04","date_gmt":"2002-01-09T21:38:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=1422"},"modified":"2002-01-09T16:38:04","modified_gmt":"2002-01-09T21:38:04","slug":"just_the_facts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/01\/09\/just_the_facts.html","title":{"rendered":"Just the facts, ma’am"},"content":{"rendered":"

For birthday, Margie gave me two of the books from my Amazon wish list: Just the Facts, Ma’am: The Authorized Biography of Jack Webb<\/i><\/a> (Moyer and Alvarez), and My Name’s Friday<\/i><\/a> (Hayde).<\/p>\n

I’ll probably do more thorough reviews on Amazon, but the latter book is a much better read — and a better biography of Webb, and of his cinematic works. <\/p>\n

The former work gets into more detail in some places, due to a number of interviews — but is clearly twisted by those interviews, and talks of Webb and his works uncritically. The narrative is difficult to follow, and twists and turns on itself, and has an annoying tendancy to include lots of weaselly “seems” and “appears” and “is said to,” even though these are never directly footnoted. There is a strong bibliography in the back, and the writers were working with Webb’s daughter before her death — which both explains some of the early detail on Webb’s life, as well as the generally favorable tone they give to the man.<\/p>\n

Hayde’s work is organized well and chronologically. All of Webb’s works, including the different renditions of Dragnet<\/i> are gone into in detail, and Webb’s evolving relationship to the show, and to his own creative genius and his Hollywood
\n“star” are made understandable.<\/p>\n

Most people have a stereotyped view of Webb and his “wooden” Sgt. Friday style, not realizing that he was a pioneer of early television, both stylistically and technically, and that his contributions have affected TV dramas to this day. Law & Order<\/i>‘s Dick Wolf is the first to credit Webb as an inspiration for his show. While it’s easy today to poke fun at Webb, consider the “watchability” of other dramas of the different eras he produced in — Dragnet<\/i> on the radio (’49-’55), and on TV (’51-’59, ’67-’70), not to mention Adam-12<\/i> and Emergency<\/i>. His impact on the medium was at least that of a Lear or a Bochco. <\/p>\n

Good stuff. Thanks for the gifts, honey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For birthday, Margie gave me two of the books from my Amazon wish list: Just the Facts, Ma’am: The Authorized Biography of Jack Webb (Moyer and Alvarez), and My Name’s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[36,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media-books","category-media"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7511,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/02\/16\/how_times_chang.html","url_meta":{"origin":1422,"position":0},"title":"How times change","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 16-Feb-05 3:54pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been listening to a faboo collection of 1952 Dragnet radio shows on my daily commute. More about that some other time (and about my general fascination with Dragnet). Instead,...","rel":"","context":"In "Health"","block_context":{"text":"Health","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/health"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16310,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/11\/28\/wish-lists-are-updated.html","url_meta":{"origin":1422,"position":1},"title":"Wish Lists are up(dated)","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 28-Nov-09 2:08pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Mine's updated: Dave's wish list Katherine's is updated: Katherine's wish list Margie wants interesting cook books. And, um, other stuff. But she's keeping it a secret ... (Actually, I kid. She's just not an Amazon-listable person. Clothes from Coldwater Creek and interesting things from Williams-Sonoma or Crate & Barrel are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Holidays"","block_context":{"text":"Holidays","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/holidays"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/xmas.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9731,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/11\/09\/christmas_is_coming_the_l.html","url_meta":{"origin":1422,"position":2},"title":"Christmas is coming, the List is getting fat …","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 9-Nov-06 6:52am","format":false,"excerpt":"Note to self: Need to update my Amazon wish list. And Katherine's. And noodge Margie re same. Also need to note Katherine sizes, etc., to the respective families....","rel":"","context":"In "Personal"","block_context":{"text":"Personal","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/personal"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10588,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/12\/18\/amazon_fiendishly_makes_s.html","url_meta":{"origin":1422,"position":3},"title":"Amazon fiendishly makes shopping easier","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 18-Dec-06 6:36am","format":false,"excerpt":"A few years back I complained about how Amazon's Wish List technology was way too limited, allowing you only a single list, and having it only oriented around yourself. Wouldn't...","rel":"","context":"In "Media Moguls"","block_context":{"text":"Media Moguls","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-moguls"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1535,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/12\/15\/wish_lists.html","url_meta":{"origin":1422,"position":4},"title":"Wish lists","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 15-Dec-01 12:33pm","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Okay, what are we getting for Person X?\" \"I'll pick something off his Amazon wish list.\" \"Okay, how about for Person Y?\" \"Oh, he has an Amazon wish list, too.\"...","rel":"","context":"In "Hi-Tech"","block_context":{"text":"Hi-Tech","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/hi-tech"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8452,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/11\/13\/if_wishes_were.html","url_meta":{"origin":1422,"position":5},"title":"If wishes were fishes","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 13-Nov-05 2:03pm","format":false,"excerpt":"For those as keep track of such things, my Amazon wish list and Katherine's are both updated for the season. 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