Jack Webb had intended to do another revival of the series in 1982. However, because of Harry Morgan's commitments to both M.A.S.H. (1972) and its spin-off After MASH (1983), he didn't sign on for the proposed remake. Webb then decided to cast Kent McCord in the role of Friday's new partner; either as Jim Reed (the character McCord played on Adam-12 (1968)) or as a new character altogether. Unfortunately, those plans never came to fruition due to Webb dying of a massive heart attack in December 1982.
In numerous episodes, there are references to a police officer named Lt. Klingin. (Usually dealing with polygraph "lie detector" test) This was a real life police officer in the LAPD who would sometimes work as an advisor to the show. Gene Roddenberry, who created "Star Trek" and worked in the LAPD's public relations department, named the Trek villains "Klingons" after Klingin.
Webb borrowed his opening lines "The story you are about to hear is true . . ." directly from the opening of the 1948 film noir crime movie "He Walked By Night." Jack Webb played a crime scene investigator/lab technician in that film.
According to various actors and behind the scenes personnel who worked on the series, there is a telltale sign at the beginning of every episode whether the story of a particular episode is long or short (I.E.: The story fills a full 30min format or falls short, running about 20mins or less). If the episode content itself is too short, Friday's opening monologue of "This is the city, Los Angeles, California..." will be accompanied by what amounts to a tourist "travelogue" in which Friday starts describing aspects of the city's attractions, lifestyle, and/or history. If the episode is long, the opening monologue will simply be something like "This is the city, Los Angeles, California... I work here. I carry a badge..."