Harry Morgan admitted that the original Dragnet was better than the reboot version he starred in

"A lot of the esteem has gone out of television," Morgan said.

NBC/Universal

Rebooting a show can have its advantages and drawbacks, like anything else. Sure, you get to usher in a new version of a show that you already know and love, but of course, there's always the fear that this new show might never live up to your expectations. Worse, it could diminish the joy you experienced while watching the first time around.

Although Harry Morgan was a member of the cast of the 1960s reboot of Jack Webb's Dragnet, when he was asked whether the show held the same amount of appeal as the original 1950s iteration, he disagreed. "No, it couldn't have," Morgan said. "Nothing that makes a comeback carries the punch it had in the beginning."

But while Morgan seemed to think that later iterations of Dragnet paled compared to the original, that doesn't mean that his iteration of the show lacked appeal.

"I think Dragnet is a damn good show," he said. "It had something to say, it's about something. And its point-of-view is honest. No question about it. It's the only show on the air that has the full cooperation of the L.A. police. If we stretched the truth one little bit we wouldn't get their approval and we wouldn't have full use of police equipment on the show when we need it.

"When you've been around the length of time I have, it's not exactly a thrilling occupation," Morgan said of acting. "The glamour went out of it long ago. There is satisfaction, I suppose. I don't know...there are few of us in this business doing what we would ideally like to do, so you learn to be satisfied on a comparative basis."

"I'd rather be doing Dragnet than most of the other stuff on the air. A lot of the esteem has gone out of television."

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2 Comments

cperrynaples 2 months ago
This will come as a surprise, but Harry once played a bad guy against Palladin on Have Gun Will Travel! He also planned to murder his wife on Alfred Hitchcock! However, his first big role was as a kindly neighbor on December Bride!
ncadams27 cperrynaples 2 months ago
He played the same character, Pete Porter, in a spin-off - Pete & Gladys.
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