Joe Friday

Joe Friday
Jack Webb as Joe Friday in Dragnet
First appearance	Dragnet (1949)
Last appearance	Dragnet (2003)
Created by	Jack Webb
Portrayed by	Jack Webb (1949-59, 1967-70) Ed O'Neill (2003-04)
Information
Gender	Male
Occupation	Los Angeles police officer
Rank	Sergeant

Detective Sergeant Joseph "Joe" Friday is a fictional detective in the Los Angeles Police Department. The character was created (and portrayed) by Jack Webb as the lead for his Dragnet series, and first appeared on June 3, 1949 in the premiere of the NBC radio drama that launched the series. Webb played the character on radio and later television from 1949-1959 and again from 1967-1970, also appearing as Friday in a 1954 theatrical release and a 1966 made-for-TV film that aired three years later.

Over the earlier run of the series, Friday was partnered with Sgt. Ben Romero (Barton Yarborough), Sgt. Ed Jacobs (Barney Phillips), and then (for the rest of the radio run as well as the 1954 film and the 1951 television series) Officer Frank Smith (first Herbert Ellis, then Ben Alexander). For the 1960s revival, Friday's partner was Officer Bill Gannon (Harry Morgan).

During the 1958–59 season, Friday was promoted to Lieutenant. However, when the show returned in 1967, he was again a Sergeant without any on-screen explanation; Webb later explained that in the real LAPD, the Lieutenant rank is a supervisory position and involved less investigatory time in the field, which would change the structure of the show.

Friday narrated every story, providing details of what went down and where. He had several bits of consistent dialogue that remained throughout the series: the opening narration, "This is the city, Los Angeles, California, I work here. I'm a cop" (or, in later series, "I carry a badge") and the introduction of the story's plot ("It was (date), it was (weather) in Los Angeles; we were working (shift) out of (police division). The Captain is (name). My partner's (Ben Romero/Frank Smith/Bill Gannon). My name's Friday."

A common misattributed catchphrase to Friday is "Just the facts, ma'am". In fact, Friday never actually said this in an episode, but it was featured in Stan Freberg's works parodying Dragnet.