ABAC students to explore history of TV crime drama in public art exhibit ‘You Don’t Know Jack’

Students at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College will present a public art exhibit focused on the early days of television crime dramas.

The exhibit is the senior capstone project of students enrolled in the Bachelor of Science in Writing & Communication and will include a museum-style gallery and a short documentary film.

The project is led by Dr. Jay Baldwin of the Department of English & Communication and Polly Huff, curator of the Georgia Museum of Agriculture.

Few names among television pioneers are as well-known as Jack Webb, creator of the police procedural crime drama “Dragnet” in 1951. The show was a cultural phenomenon, and Webb has long been celebrated as “the father” of the genre. The students’ exhibit calls this claim into question.

“Jack Webb gets all the credit from media historians and fans. We think they overlook an important influence, a man named Jack Dederick,” Baldwin said.

Dederick was an officer with the Los Angeles Police Department and an accomplished illustrator. Following World War II, he illustrated the LAPD’s training materials in a comic book style. The drawings, Baldwin argues, set the stage for Webb’s “Dragnet” and later “Adam-12,” which together established the procedural genre.

“If you watch cop shows on TV, like ‘Law & Order’ and ‘NCIS,’ they owe their existence to this early work,” Baldwin said.

Through original research, archival exploration, and curated visual design, ABAC students bring Dederick’s story to light.

“It’s such a cool story,” Huff said about the GMA’s involvement. “As soon as I heard the story, I knew I wanted in."

The project examines the intersection of law enforcement, media, history, and storytelling, while demonstrating the power of communication to shape public values.

An opening night reception and showing will be held April 29 from 5 to 7 p.m. in ABAC’s King Hall. The event is free and open to the public.