Written by: Jaylin Emond-Hardin | Entertainment Editor
“The story you are about to see is true. The names have been changed to protect the innocent.” These are the opening lines of the 1951 radio show “Dragnet,” a program that followed the Los Angeles Police Department — LAPD — Detective Joe Friday and his partners as they conducted police work and solved crimes in the greater Los Angeles area. The show’s name was derived from the police term “dragnet,” which are measures used for apprehending criminals and suspects.
“Dragnet” is considered to be the first police drama on any broadcasting format, and eventually evolved into a TV show. Other shows, like “Hawaii Five-O” and “Columbo,” soon came after and became more popular and iconic than their predecessor.
“Hawaii Five-O” and “Columbo” occasionally resorted to outlandish premises and many fans have said that the acting and production were hardly ever on par, especially when compared to today’s shows, but the nostalgia factor is usually what brings people back to watch them again and again. After all, many people grew up watching reruns with their parents or grandparents and watched the remakes when they were released.
The series “Blue Bloods” gained popularity in 2010, following a family involved in different aspects of law enforcement. This series introduced more personal storylines into the world of crime dramas, especially with family members working alongside each other in a dangerous line of work.
Of course, the world of police and first responder dramas has evolved since the days of Detective Friday, with shows like “9-1-1” and “The Rookie” being two of the more popular modern shows.
In 2023, broadcasting companies NBC and ABC had a combined number of seven first responder dramas on their channels, playing both reruns and new episodes.
The most popular of these seven shows is the “One Chicago” franchise on NBC, which includes “Chicago Fire,” “Chicago Med” and “Chicago P.D.” In 2023 alone they amassed a combined total of 50 million viewers.
“Growing up we’d watch them back-to-back-to-back when a new episode came out,” said Michael Hager, a former Western student. “My dad would usually record them so we could watch them all at once.”
Medical dramas are usually at the forefront of fan favorites, like “Grey’s Anatomy,” which has racked up 24 seasons since it first debuted in 2005 and has led to the spin-off show, “Station 19,” following the Seattle Fire Department. Police and first responder shows have become equally as popular, especially in recent years. So what makes these shows so entertaining?
For one, they typically focus on an “emergency of the week” type of storyline, which offers thrills meant to keep viewers on the edge of their seats. S3E02 of “9-1-1,” for example, follows the LAPD and the Los Angeles Fire Department — LAFD — as they respond to a tsunami hitting Santa Monica Pier, and the stakes are elevated when one of the LAFD’s own becomes caught in the disaster while off duty.
But the other reason shows like this have become so popular in the media is the way they offer insight into the lives of firefighters, police officers and 9-1-1 operators. Fans watch on-screen romances bloom, see rivalries become born of pure spite and even have to say goodbye to their favorite characters when they are written or killed off.
One interesting thing of note is that first responder dramas are not simply limited to firefighters, cops and emergency services, they extend to shows like “Baywatch,” “NCIS” and “Bones,” which are shows that don’t fit the traditional sense of a first responder or medical drama. Even the popular children’s cartoon “Paw Patrol” is considered a first responder drama, seeing as it has cartoon dogs responding to local emergencies.
Movies are even included on lists that are a majority of TV shows. “Mission: Impossible,” “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” and the “Kingsman” franchise are considered to be among some of the best first responder shows, even if they are mostly situated within the crime drama genre. In the ’60s and ’70s “Mission: Impossible” and “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” started as TV shows, and it wasn’t until their movie counterparts were released in the 2010s that they gained a resurgence in popularity. After all, Tom Cruise is pretty cool as Ethan Hunt in the “Mission: Impossible” franchise.
Most of these shows follow the idealized representation of the police force and other first responders and often utilize the “Rule of Cool” trope, which is the principle that allows for implausible or unrealistic elements to be included in the show if they are considered cool or interesting.
For example, in “The Rookie,” two of the most common events to happen are the kidnapping or assault of LAPD officers and detectives. This occurs at least once or twice a season among the main cast of characters and is also common in other first responder and crime shows.
However, the FBI reported that in 2023, 60 officers were either assaulted or killed in the line of duty nationwide. While this does not account for the frequency of the kidnapping trope, it does show that the trope of officers being assaulted in the line of duty is not as common as these shows might suggest.
For as often as these shows use the “Rule of Cool,” they do exhibit diverse stories. The main character in “The Rookie” is John Nolan, played by Nathan Fillion, who joins the LAPD as a rookie in his 40s. One of the main characters in “9-1-1” is Henrietta ‘Hen’ Wilson, an African American lesbian who has a foster child and attends medical school when she is not at the fire station. These shows do not write these characters for the sake of inclusivity, but rather to showcase how truly diverse police forces, fire stations and public safety answering points are. They are simply just people.
Perhaps that is why modern crime and first responder shows have become so popular. The diverse stories they share help viewers see themselves as everyday heroes, and just maybe they will decide to enter the line of duty themselves.
Contact the author at howlentertainment@wou.edu
