True, but he had it down how to talk to the criminal characters, confidently assuring them that he will get them,
And you always looked forward to him poking them verbally after he caught them. It wasn't was he said as much as how he delivered it with facial expressions.
Alternatively Jack Web on the late 1960s version of Dragnet had the campiest way of lecturing criminals. It is fun to laugh at. I could always imagine young hippie like adults at the time (sometimes their guest characters) smoking weed and laughing at it. "Dig this square on the soap box again" LOL
“...It is fun to laugh at...”
Yeah, but he was a product of his generation, and he played it to the people from his generation who grew up with cops just like that. That program’s target audience pretty much couldn’t stand the dope-smoking hippie mentality.
RE Jack Lord: He just looked like a hard-ass. Same as Steve McQueen. Whatever part he played, he OWNED, and owned it well.