DRAGNET NEW AND OLD THE STORY YOU ARE ABOUT TO READ IS TRUE, BUT THE NAMES HAVE BEEN CHANGED.

Byline: Dana Bartholomew Staff Writer

Ever since Richard Kalk heard the ``dum de dum dum'' thrum of the ``Dragnet'' theme as a high school freshman in Watertown, N.Y., he knew he'd be a cop.

And not just any cop, but a no-nonsense officer like actor Jack Webb's Sgt. Joe Friday, Badge 714, detective, Los Angeles Police Department.

``Loved it,'' Kalk, now 64 and a retired LAPD detective who heads the Los Angeles Police Historical Society, said of America's first reality cop show. ``I watched it religiously.

``When I was discharged (from the Marines), my first thought was to join the LAPD. I went to the LAPD because of 'Dragnet.'''

With the premiere of ABC's new ``Dragnet'' series Sunday, many true-blue Los Angeles officers and former brass are harkening back to the influence the classic police-detective drama of the 1950s and 1960s had on American culture.

The new show, starring Ed O'Neill as Friday, will debut at 10 p.m. Sunday. Though set in a Los Angeles vastly different from the one featured in the original series, the new ``Dragnet,'' its creators promise, will feature the same minimal cast, terse narration and mug-shot appeal.

Couch potatoes know it well:

``It was 3:55. We were working the day watch out of Homicide.''

And the famous Webb refrain: ``Just the facts, ma'am.''

Such lines, vetted by LAPD consultants to ``Dragnet'' from 1952 to its final episode in 1970, echo the professionalism and elite training drubbed into the rank and file by former Chief William H. Parker.

It was a time of whitewall haircuts, creased uniforms, military ethics and old-style, cut-and-dried police work, with the good guys always winning.

As a global showcase for the LAPD, ``Dragnet'' boosted squad morale and helped create a department held in high esteem by fledgling police officers across the nation - with four out of 100 applicants earning a seat in an LAPD cruiser.

``There was a lot of pride in it (the series),'' said former police Chief Ed Davis, 86, of Morro Bay, who stepped into Parker's black police oxfords. ``I felt proud. I run into LAPD all over the world - Spain, Scotland, everywhere - and they're proud of it.''

Webb, who died in 1982, loved police - and later became so identified with the LAPD that he donated funds to the police academy and once referred to the department as ``us'' during a Medal of Valor banquet.

His hard-working detective was a departure from private-eye dramas. His attention to detail, from police desks to doorknobs, brought realism to radio and the new TV medium, critics say.

Only the gunfire and car chases of current police dramas were almost nonexistent - for the first 60 shows, Webb said, viewers saw only 15 shots and three fights.

But that didn't lessen the appeal of Los Angeles police work.

LAPD Capt. Jim Tatreau, who heads the legendary Robbery-Homicide Division, was so caught up with ``Dragnet'' as a kid growing up in Long Beach that he decided to join the force.

``It was easy for a young boy to watch 'Dragnet' and be enamored with the LAPD,'' he said. ``It was everything good, professional, clean, good against evil.

``Jack Webb was just a wonderful, wonderful character. It was easy to like him - sarcasm, indignation, subtle dry humor. And certainly 'Dragnet' made the badge absolutely the most famous police badge in the world, and, I believe, the most beautiful.''

Police Chief William Bratton, who joined the Boston Police Department in 1970, one day after his 23rd birthday, said shows like ``Dragnet'' goaded him into uniform.

``I had grown up on images of the LAPD - 'Dragnet,' 'Badge 714,' 'Adam-12.' All of the TV shows of that era celebrated an organization that set the standard, for so many years, of the profession that I wanted to join.''

Tom Vandewalle, 64, of Port Hueneme also joined the LAPD after hearing such Jack Webb dialogue as, ``This is the city: Los Angeles, California. I work here. I carry a badge,'' while in high school in Wilmington.

``It wasn't easy to get in,'' said the retired homicide detective. ``They were turning guys away who wore glasses, or were five pounds overweight - they were gone.''

The LAPD, once a band of rangers on horseback, is, 153 years later, the nation's second-largest police force.

In the 1950s, ``Dragnet'' ushered in a era of LAPD glamour in the way only Hollywood could. The LAPD image portrayed in ``Dragnet'' was later shattered by the Watts Riots in 1965. Then came Rodney King, the O.J. Simpson trial and, most recently, the Rampart scandal - which led to the disbanding of the department's gang task force and a federal consent decree that many blame in part for the city's rising crime.

``It ('Dragnet') was a helluva good program,'' said Dale Rickards, 81, of Malibu, who served in the LAPD from 1946 to 1973 during what many cops call ``the glory years.''

``That was the department in those years - there was no difference in the department and 'Dragnet.' ... We wore ties, we dressed right, we tried to project an image - just like the show.''

But while the old ``Dragnet'' tried to reflect a 1950s police force, what remains to be seen is whether the new ``Dragnet'' will reflect a new, more noir, Los Angeles.

``I am excited,'' said Vandewalle. ```Dragnet' without Jack Webb is going to be interesting. I think it'll be great. But I hope it's in the same line as (classic) 'Dragnet' - (how) cops should act and conduct themselves: very clean, sterile police work.''

Staff Writer Jason Kandel contributed to this story.

CAPTION(S):

4 photos

Photo:

(1) Richard Kalk, a retired LAPD detective and the founder of the Los Angeles Police Historical Society, holds two of the badges used in the original ``Dragnet'' series, while standing in the jail area of the old Highland Park station.

Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer

(2) ``Dragnet'' creator and star Jack Webb, right, poses with then LAPD Chief William H. Parker on the set of the old ``Dragnet'' in downtown Los Angeles.

(3 -- color) Ed O'Neill, left, and Ethan Embry star in the new ``Dragnet.''

(4) Jack Webb's Badge 714