Adam-12

Adam-12
Adam-12 title screen, season 4
Format	Police drama
Created by	R. A. Cinader Jack Webb
Starring	Martin Milner Kent McCord
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	7
No. of episodes	174 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Jack Webb
Running time	30 Minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	NBC
Picture format	NTSC
Audio format	Mono
Original run	September 21, 1968 (1968-09-21) – May 20, 1975 (1975-05-20)

Adam-12 is a television police drama that followed two police officers of the Los Angeles Police Department, Pete Malloy and Jim Reed, as they patrolled the streets of Los Angeles in their patrol unit, 1-Adam-12. Created by R. A. Cinader and Jack Webb, who is known for creating Dragnet, the series captured a typical day in the life of a police officer as realistically as possible. The show ran from 1968 through 1975, and helped introduce police procedures and jargon to the general public in the United States of America.

Premise

Adam-12 was a realistic style police drama following the lives of two officers of the Los Angeles Police Department, veteran Police Officer III (P-3) Pete Malloy and his rookie partner, probationary Police Officer I (P-1) Jim Reed. Each episode of the series covered a variety of incidents that the officers encountered during a shift, from the tragic to the trivial.

In the series' first episode (filmed in September 1967, a year before the pilot was picked up, and directed by Jack Webb), Reed is less than a week removed from graduating from the prestigious Los Angeles Police Academy, and is eager to begin his career. Shortly earlier, Malloy's patrol partner had been killed in an attempt to apprehend an armed robbery suspect; Malloy is deeply saddened, to the extent that he plans to resign the force. On what is to be Malloy's last night on patrol, the captain assigns Malloy to take the young, raw, rookie Reed out for his first night on the job. While Reed shows tremendous potential on his first night on the job, Malloy realizes that his new partner has plenty to learn, and with renewed purpose, the veteran officer decides to stay on the job and guide Reed during his nine-month probationary period.

(Actually, viewers had been introduced to the character of Reed during the 1967-1968 season of Dragnet. McCord—credited as playing Officer Reed—had appeared in several episodes, alongside other veteran officers who were neither seen nor referred to when Adam-12 was picked up. It is unclear whether the character of Reed was still in the academy and riding along as a training exercise, or was a rookie at this point.)

Reed's rookie term is played out during the first two seasons, after which he is promoted to a full officer. Both Reed and Malloy remain beat partners.

Reed and Malloy comfort a boy whose sister was the victim of a hit and run driver.

In later seasons, Malloy and Reed began patrolling other areas of Los Angeles, including the L.A. International Airport, the Los Angeles Harbor, the Foothill District, the West Valley area, Venice, Van Nuys, Hollywood and North Hollywood. With Reed having completed his probationary police officer training period and now holding the rank of Police Officer II (P-2), several episodes featured the officers working with other rookie officers, with guest actors playing these one-time characters; some episodes had Reed serving as the training officer, while Malloy having been promoted to the rank of Senior Lead Officer (who coordinate patrols in geographic areas) worked as the watch officer.

Malloy and Reed reported to Sgt. William "Mac" McDonald (William Boyett). Several of their fellow officers were recurring characters; the most frequent were Jerry Woods (Fred Stromsoe) and Ed Wells (Gary Crosby). Shaaron Claridge, a real-life LAPD dispatcher, was the dispatcher.

The personal lives of Malloy and Reed come up on occasion, and are always tied into their duties. Malloy is a bachelor who has at least two girlfriends during the course of the series the last being Judy (Aneta Corsaut); Reed is married to Jean (in the last season was played by Kristin Nelson), and they have two children, and one of their births (off-camera) is a major part of the plot of the Season 2 episode "Baby."

Cultural impact

Adam-12 was the first TV series to more realistically portray the satisfactions and frustrations of being a police officer in the late 1960s through middle 1970s. This "new" attention to detail made the show a catalyst for uncounted numbers of people to enter law enforcement agencies when they became adults, the same way COPS has done since 1989.^{[citation needed]}

The police vehicles were central characters so that "mobile patrol units [became] associated with the black and white units made famous in such television shows as Adam 12." It was one of the shows that portrayed "the professionalism of the officers and police departments." The theme of Adam 12 also referred to a "military style topic while portraying a sense of contemporary action." "Adam 12 also marked [the] last gasp of the righteous style of cop TV." Their set was not a squad room or an office, but the actors "watched the changes in American culture through the windshield of their squad car."

Other notable actors and actresses

In Season 1, Episode 2 - Log 141: The Color TV Bandit stars Cloris Leachman and Melody Patterson .

In the Million Dollar Buff episode, (Season 4, Episode 2), Lindsay Wagner stars as Jenny Carson, a jewelry store attendant, and Ed Begley Jr. stars as Bud, the mistaken punk.

Episode 10, Log 132: Producer stars Karen Black (Easy Rider, Airport 1975, Dogtown) and James McEachin (DJ in Play Misty for Me). James McEachin was another character in 5 other episodes, Log 54: Impersonation, Log 71: I Feel Like A Fool Malloy, Log 94: Vengeance, Log 76: The Millitants, and (No Log number) The Princess and the Pig

Episode 22, Log 152: A Dead Cop Can't Help Anyone stars Barry Williams (Greg Brady of The Brady Bunch).

Episode 43, Log 24: A Rare Occasion stars David Cassidy of The Partridge Family.

Season 7,Episode 21, Gus Corbin stars Mark Harmon of NCIS

Police cars

The production of the program involved showing all aspects of correct police procedures, and “Webb wanted the vehicle itself to be considered a character.” The show specifically centered on police radio cars and helped reinforce “the sound of radio as an anti-crime technology.” The police vehicles used in the production of show were purchased from local dealerships and outfitted by the prop department to LAPD cruiser specs.

• 1967 Plymouth Belvedere - pilot
• 1968 Plymouth Belvedere - season one
• 1969 Plymouth Belvedere - seasons two and three
• 1971 Plymouth Satellite - season four
• 1972 and 1973 AMC Matador - seasons five through seven

The LAPD had purchased 534 Matadors for its patrol fleet. An event in 2001 that featured a restored LAPD Matador police car, brought together Bernard C. Parks, the former LAPD Police Chief, and Tom Williams, the producer of Adam-12.

DVD releases

Main article: List of Adam-12 episodes

Universal Studios Home Entertainment released Season 1 of Adam 12 on DVD in Region 1 on August 23, 2005.

In fall 2008, Shout! Factory acquired the distribution rights through an agreement with Universal. They have subsequently released seasons 2-5. Season 6 was released on January 17, 2012. The seventh and final season will be released on April 10, 2012.

In Region 4, Umbrella Entertainment has released the first two seasons on DVD in Australia.

Episodes of Adam-12 are available for on-line streaming at Hulu and Netflix.

DVD name	Ep #	Release date
		Region 1	Region 4
Season 1	26	August 23, 2005	May 11, 2011
Season 2	26	September 30, 2008	August 3, 2011
Season 3	26	August 11, 2009	TBA
Season 4	24	February 23, 2010	TBA
Season 5	24	August 10, 2010	TBA
Season 6	24	January 17, 2012	TBA
Season 7	24	April 10, 2012	TBA

External links

• The Official Kent McCord Archives: Adam-12
• Adam-12 at the Internet Movie Database
• Adam-12 at TV.com
• Adam-12 at TVguide