Of the Joe Friday character, actor Dan Aykroyd has said: "I've had a fascination with Joe Friday since I was a kid. Next to Clouseau, he's the most famous cop in the world. I've studied his speech inflections, his mannerisms, his walk. During filming, I'd listen to tapes of the old shows. I even started dreaming in character. If there was ever a character I'd always wanted to play, it was this . . . "m a huge fan of [Jack] Webb's. I basically just love everything he did. Dragnet was something I'd always wanted to do but I never thought the opportunity would come up because I didn't know who owned the rights to the idea. When Universal called and said they were interested in doing it, I think I made a deal to write the script the next week".
The TV watch Detective Streebeck is watching was a real TV watch invented by SEIKO in 1983. It did require a separate battery pack/tuner about the size of a Walkman and would only support monochrome images.
Pep Streebeck is watching television using the Seiko brand "TV Watch". He is clearly not using headphones; but the Seiko "TV Watch" has no external speaker and requires the headphones to hear any audio. He is also not using the television's antenna. Therefore, not only should there be no sound coming from the watch, there should also be no reception either.
Narrator: Your attention, please. The story you are about to see is true; the names have been changed to protect the innocent. For example: George Baker is now called "Sylvia Wiss. "