Talk:Jack Webb

This and other accounts of Jack Webb's career omit his supporting role in a major motion picture, the famous "Sunset Boulevard," starring Gloria Swanson and William Holden.

Webb's personal character

The description also paints Webb as a straight police wonk. In digging into his private life and body of work a bit more, my impression is that he was surprisingly edgy and progressive.

He had a life long love of jazz and eventually amassed a collection of over 6000 records.

His 1946 radio series, One Out of Seven, campaigned against racial prejudice and government corruption in a time when American patriotism was at its height.

His 1951 radio series Pete Kelly's Blues is absolutely intriguing. The plots are dark and sardonic. The hero doesn't tend to win, only survive. The contrast between that series and the other popular detective series of the time is astounding. The music in the series is very good, and frequently performed by black musicians. It's too bad only about 6 episodes survive. I've read that the music in the movie based on the radio series is also outstanding, though not outstanding enough to save the plot and acting.

Anyhow, I tried to do a bit to note the jazz influence and fill out Webb's private character. The description could use more work, but weaving his personal ideals into the strong narrative on his career is difficult.

He was also featured in "Sunset Boulevard" (1950; dir. Billy Wilder). He played the nerdy but nice screenwriter who is informally engaged to the girl Bill Holden falls in love with.

In my opinion, cigarettes killed Jack Webb. Most people don't die suddenly of heart attacks at age 62 unless they are obese (Webb wasn't), have previously-undiagnosed congenital heart defects, or are heavy smokers; Webb was the last of these three.Maccb 00:25, 21 August 2007 (UTC)

Webb was not in the best of health the last year of his life.He kept smoking and his cough was heavy and deep. Being the way he could be,he refused to see a doctor saying he would "tough it out". —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jackwebb714 (talk • contribs) 06:35, August 24, 2007 (UTC)

Early Life

As for the assertion that Webb's father abandoned him before he was born, that is not mentioned in the New York Times article cited.71.223.67.223 (talk) 14:42, 28 June 2020 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Jack Webb 250.jpg

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BetacommandBot (talk) 22:32, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

Project Blue Book

Wasn't he also the announcer on an "In Search of" type program, called Project Bluebook, in the 70's? It reenacted investigations from the Air Forces "project blue book." —Preceding unsigned comment added by 192.136.15.177 (talk) 11:20, 27 May 2010 (UTC)

Related links listed under Jack Webb/Mark VII

Apparently neither Webb nor Mark VII receive any form of screen credit for the 1987 film starring Aykroyd and Hanks(according to IMDB). Perhaps there's some other form of acknowledgement in the main or end titles, but I don't have a copy to check against. Considering Mark VII as a production company ended with Webb's death in 1982, including the 1987 film and its cast in this list is debatable. 75.171.2.20 (talk) 00:09, 15 December 2011 (UTC)

Contradiction?

At present, this article reads:

Webb was a stickler for attention to detail. He believed viewers wanted "realism" and tried to give it to them.

Yet a few sentences later it reads:

According to one Dragnet technical advisor, when the advisor pointed out that several circumstances in an episode were extremely unlikely in real life, Webb responded, "You know that, and now I know that. But that little old lady in Kansas will never know the difference."

Perhaps there is a way to explain the latter statement without seeming to contradict the former one, but at present the passages in question don't work together well because of the apparent contradiction. I suggest something be done about this, but am unsure what to do myself, except to delete one of the passages, possibly the latter one. --Skb8721 (talk) 14:50, 27 April 2012 (UTC)

The contradictory statement is both anonymous and unsourced. It should be removed on those grounds alone. In addition, a mountain of verifiable, fully sourced evidence that Webb exhausted himself making Dragnet realistic exists. The IMDB entry for Jack Webb is much fuller than this little article. In fact, I'm going to just remove it. If anybody wants to restore it, they must be able to provide a source. Profhum (talk) 18:14, 22 August 2013 (UTC)

Preston Wood

IMDb lists Preston Wood as a separate person who worked with Webb and others. You've got only one site claiming he and Wood are the same person. Zigwithbag (talk) 00:32, 30 May 2014 (UTC)

External links modified

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On Jack Webb's "edge" and tendency to be "progressive"

You might find the following article helpful in this regard: http://www.americanlegends.com/jackwebb/ In fact you echo the writer's text when you note that "Jack Webbb moved easily in the world of jazz...." You might cite this article as a source or at least list it as another useful link. You might also check out the Webb/Dragnet section in the book cited in this article: Gene Sculatti's Catalogue of Cool. --Lottelein511 (talk) 00:13, 19 September 2015 (UTC)Italic textlotteleinLottelein511 (talk) 00:13, 19 September 2015 (UTC)

John Robinson pen name

IMDB says "John Robinson" was Jack Webb's pen name. Is this true? If that's so, then Webb not only directed and starred in Dragnet, he wrote the majority of the episodes after James Moser left the show. What's more, as John Robinson, Jack Webb had a successful producing career on other shows, notably, Steve McQueen's iconic Wanted: Dead of Alive. But first, is it true? Profhum (talk) 08:32, 19 November 2017 (UTC)