A first-day-of-issue ceremony was held today for a 20-stamp set honoring TV series of the 1950s, with Los Angeles Police Department officials paying special tribute to the stamp commemorating the cop show "Dragnet."

The Early TV Memories stamp set features the stars of "The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet"; "Alfred Hitchcock Presents"; "The Dinah Shore Show"; "Dragnet"; "The Ed Sullivan Show"; "The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show"; "Hopalong Cassidy"; "The Honeymooners"; "Howdy Doody"; "I Love Lucy"; "Kukla, Fran and Ollie"; "Lassie"; "The Lone Ranger"; "Perry Mason"; "The Red Skelton Show"; "The Phil Silvers Show"; "Texaco Star Theater"; "The Tonight Show"; "The Twilight Zone"; and "You Bet Your Life."

Carl Reiner and Jayne Meadows, widow of Steve Allen, the first host of "The Tonight Show," who is depicted on the stamp, were among those taking part in a North Hollywood ceremony honoring the release of the stamps.

The stamp went on sale today. The shows it honors -- Westerns, crime, comedies and variety -- were chosen to reflect the best of early television, according to Mark Saunders, a U.S. Postal Service spokesman.

LAPD officials held a ceremony at the Police Academy in Elysian Park to honor the "Dragnet" stamp, which features a portrait of series star and creator Jack Webb.

"I'm a real fan of this show, of Jack Webb, certainly of this department that I've come to love in the seven years that I've had the opportunity to be its chief, and to understand its traditions and its roots," LAPD Chief William Bratton said. "And Jack Webb did so much to bring America into an appreciation of how great this organization was in the 50s and then ... in the 60s."

Opal Webb, a former wife of Webb, attended the early afternoon ceremony, along with Harry Morgan, who played Officer Bill Gannon in the 1967-70 "Dragnet" revival.

"It meant that he was showing the police department as protectors and saving our lives. Wonderful," Opal Webb said.

An exclusive LAPD 140th anniversary postmark, complete with a commemorative envelope and a special "Badge 714" photo stamp, was sold at the ceremony, designed and offered through the LAPD Historical Society.