Joe Friday is a fictional character created and portrayed by Jack Webb as the lead for his series Dragnet. Friday is a detective in the Los Angeles Police Department. The character 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. Original series Friday had joined the police shortly before World War II; Ben Romero was his first partner. After Friday was discharged from the U.S. Army, he returned to the police and the pair eventually reunited in the Detective Division, prior to the events of the series. Over the earlier run of the series, Friday was partnered with Sgt. Ben Romero (Barton Yarborough), Sgt. Ed Jacobs (Barney Phillips), Romero's nephew, Officer Bill Lockwood (Martin Milner), 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, but when the show was revived 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 in voiceover of what happened and where. He had several bits of consistent dialogue that remained throughout the series. The opening narration in the original 1951–59 TV series remained brief and straightforward: "This is the city, Los Angeles, California... I work here... I'm a cop." What followed was the introduction of the story's plot: "It was [day of the week and date], it was [weather conditions] in Los Angeles; we were working the [day|night] watch out of [police division]. My partner is [name]. The boss is [name]. My name's Friday." In many openings from episodes of the 1967–70 revival series Friday would add assorted details about Los Angeles ranging from its geography and history to its landmarks and population, the latter of which would often lead to observations about how most of the people are good while some go bad, leading to the