Adam-12

**Adam-12** Is a 1968 American Police Drama Series, That Ran until 1975, It follows Pete Malloy (Martin Milner) and Jim Reed (Kent McCord). They were Police Officers in the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and together they ride the streets of Los Angeles in their patrol unit, 1-Adam-12. The series was created by **Robert A. Cinader** and **Jack Webb**, the latter of whom also created **Dragnet**. It purported to realistically capture a typical day in the life of police officers. The show ran from September 21, 1968, through May 20, 1975, and helped to introduce police procedures and jargon to the general public in the United States. Each Episode was also Based on a Real Life Case during that time as seen by a title screen once the episode ended.

## Locations

Adam-12's radio call sign identified it as a Central Division unit serving Downtown Los Angeles, but the show actually featured the fledgling Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Rampart Division station located at 2710 West Temple Street as the setting for the series. This was either a production creative decision or a Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) bureaucratic decision to showcase a new modern facility rather than the much older Central Division police station.

Many of the filming locations were in the San Fernando Valley (composed of Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Devonshire,Foothill, Mission,North Hollywood,Topanga,Van Nuys,West Valley,and Valley Traffic Divisions just to name a few); and the garage used tow trucks from the North Hollywood Division, close to Universal Studios, which co-produced the show with Mark VII Limited. The Temple Street building was closed in 2008, as a newer and larger station now houses the Rampart Division; the old building is being renovated to serve as headquarters for the Metro Division of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), the specialized division that is home to the Special Weapons and Tactics Team (SWAT), K-9 and Mounted platoons just to name a few.

## Name

The designation "1-Adam-12" is a combination of three elements. The first element indicates the unit's Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Patrol Area. The second element indicates the type of patrol unit. The third element identifies the patrol car's reporting district (beat). Therefore, the one in 1-Adam-12 means the patrol car operates in Division 1 (Central Division). The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) assigns two-person units the letter "A". In the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) phonetic alphabet, the letter "A" is spoken as "Adam". The third element is the patrol car's assigned reporting district (beat). In the program, the Rampart Division, Division 2, portrayed the Central Division, Division 1, so in reality the unit's call sign should have been 2-Adam-12. As all Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) reporting districts are odd-numbered, there was never an actual patrol car with the call sign of 1-Adam-12.

## Premise

*Adam-12* was a realistic police drama which followed two Police Officers working in the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD): veteran Police Officer II (P-2) Pete Malloy, Badge 744 (Martin Milner), and his rookie partner, probationary Police Officer I (P-1) Jim Reed, Badge 2430 (Kent McCord). Each episode of the series was based on actual cases, with names changed to protect the innocent, and covered a variety of incidents that the officers encountered during a shift, from the tragic to the trivial. The series' first episode was filmed in September 1967, a year before the pilot was picked up. It was directed by Jack Webb.

In episode 1, Reed is less than a week out of the prestigious Los Angeles Police Academy and is eager to begin his career. Three weeks earlier, Malloy's patrol partner and friend had been killed in a warehouse. The reason for them being in the warehouse is never mentioned; Malloy is deeply saddened, to the extent that he plans to resign from the force. (The episode "Elegy for a Pig" was not about Malloy's partner dying; Tom Porter was a friend who joined the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) with Malloy.) Watch commander Lieutenant Moore (Art Gilmore) was Malloy's first training officer seven years earlier, and he assigns Malloy to take Reed the rookie out for his first patrol on Malloy's final shift. Reed shows tremendous potential on his first night on the job, but disobeys a direct order given by Malloy and nearly gets himself killed. Malloy realizes that his new partner has plenty to learn, and the veteran officer decides to stay on the job and guide Reed during his nine-month probationary period.

Reed's probationary period is played out during the first and second seasons, after which he transitions to a permanent officer. Reed and Malloy remain partners. In later seasons, Malloy and Reed began patrolling other beats of Los Angeles, including the Los Angeles International Airport,The Los Angeles Harbor,The Foothill District,The West Valley Area,Venice,Van Nuys,Hollywood,Rampart,North Hollywood,Etc. 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, whereas Malloy had been promoted to the rank of a Senior Lead Officer (P-3+1) who coordinates patrols in many neighborhoods and works as the acting Shift Supervisor if the regular Shift Supervisor is not on duty.

Malloy displays a "Distinguished Expert" shooting medal, Reed displays a "Sharpshooter" medal.

Malloy and Reed reported to Shift Supervisor (Sergeant 1) William "Mac" MacDonald (William Boyett), who occasionally took a black-and-white command cruiser out in the field (a Plymouth station wagon, carrying extra police equipment. From Season 5 Mac's vehicle was an AMC Matador station wagon, in keeping with the Matador squad cars used by Malloy and Reed from Season 5.) Mac's call sign was 1-L-20 in the field. Reed once questioned why Malloy had not taken the sergeant's exam, as he would have rated higher than Mac did. Malloy related he preferred working patrol on the street to supervision. Malloy later showed he could supervise when Mac was ill, and Malloy filled in.

Several of their fellow officers were recurring characters; the most frequent were Jerry Woods (Fred Stromsoe), Ed Wells (Gary Crosby), Detective Sgt Jerry Miller (Jack Hogan), and Officer Brinkman (Claude Johnson). Shaaron Claridge voiced the dispatcher and was a dispatcher for the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) in real life.

The personal lives of Malloy and Reed came up on occasion and were always tied in to their duties. Malloy is a bachelor who has at least five girlfriends during the course of the series (the last being Judy (Aneta Corsaut), while Reed is married to a woman named Jean (played by several actresses, including Mikki Jamison and Kristin Nelson); in Season 2 he becomes a father.

## Cultural Impact

The police vehicles were central characters in 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". Ronald Wayne Rodman pointed out that the theme of *Adam-12* referred to a "military style topic while portraying a sense of contemporary action". Douglas Rushkoff noted, "*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".

In 1999, Mattel paid homage to *Adam-12* by producing a die-cast toy police car based on the series a part of their "Star Car" series.

In *The Matrix Reloaded*, Agent Johnson stands on a bridge by a police car and the call comes over the radio, "1-Adam 12" as an homage to the show.

## 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 AMC Matador - seasons five through seven

In seasons two and three, there were many instances where Reed and Malloy would be seen driving a 1969 Plymouth one minute, then with a camera or scene change, they would be in a 1968. The two years were very similar, with only minor differences being the grilles, tail lights and side marker lights (1968) and reflectors (1969) between them.

## Connections to other Mark VII shows

*Dragnet*, *Adam-12*, and *Emergency!* take place in the same universe and depict different aspects of the public safety infrastructure of Los Angeles, California. There are several "crossover" episodes on each series with characters from other Mark VII shows.

Officers Pete Malloy and Jim Reed appear on the *Dragnet* episode "Internal Affairs: DR-20", *The D.A.* episode "The People vs. Saydo" (the conclusion to a crossover that begins on "The Radical") and the *Emergency!* pilot movie, "The Wedsworth-Townsend Act". Sergeant MacDonald appears on the *Dragnet* episode "Personnel: The Shooting". The episode "Lost And Found" was set at Rampart General Hospital and featured the *Emergency!* cast. However, during an *Emergency!* episode, *Adam-12* is shown as a TV show that the paramedics like to watch, causing somewhat of a paradox between the shows.

Several years after *Adam-12* was cancelled, Kent McCord was signed to appear in a planned third series of *Dragnet* playing Sgt. Friday's partner, but the project was cancelled due to Jack Webb's sudden death in December, 1982; since none of the scripts Webb wrote for the project were ever produced or released, it is not clear if he intended McCord to play a different character or to revive the Jim Reed character, although in the final episode of *Adam-12*, the two-part "Something Worth Dying For," Reed talks about applying for an investigator's license.

## Other TV Appearances

Milner and McCord made cameo appearances as their *Adam-12* characters in various episodes of the fifth season of *Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In*. Both Milner and McCord would go on to make two appearances in a revival of *Adam-12* that ran over two seasons from 1990 to 1991. In one episode, both actors make cameo appearances as the owners of a store in Los Angeles. In the season 1 episode "Crack House", Martin Milner made a guest appearance formally reprising his role as Pete Malloy, who is still an LAPD officer and has risen to the rank of captain. In the next episode, "R.T.D. 211", Kent McCord guest stars, reprising his role as Jim Reed, who is also still with the LAPD and is now a lieutenant.

## List Of Episodes

* **Season 1:** 26 Episodes, September 21st 1968 - April 5th 1969
* **Season 2:** 26 Episode, September 20th 1969 - May 9th 1970
* **Season 3:** 26 Episodes, September 19th 1970 - April 8th 1971
* **Season 4:** 24 Episodes, September 15th 1971 - March 15th 1972
* **Season 5:** 24 Episodes, September 13th 1972 - March 21st 1973
* **Season 6:** 24 Episodes, September 12th 1973 - March 19th 1974
* **Season 7:** 24 Episodes, September 24th 1974 - May 20th 1975

*See All Adam-12 Episodes Here:* **https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam-12**

## Cast

* **Martin Milner** As Pete Malloy
* **Kent McCord** As Jim Reed
* **William Boyett** As Sergeant MacDonald
* **Gary Crosby** As Officer Ed Wells
* **Fred Stromsoe** As Officer Jerry Woods
* **William Stevens** as Officer Jerry Walters
* **Mark Harmon** As Officer Gus Corbin
* **Jack Hogan** As Sgt. Jerry Miller
* **Shaaron Claridge** As Dispatcher
* **Robert Donner** As T.J

## Gallery

Martin Milner (Left) and Kent McCord (Right) as Pete Malloy (Left) and Jim Reed (Right)Reed and Malloy comfort a boy whose sister was the victim of a hit and run driver.
## Videos

Adam-12- Season Six - Clip 2Dragnet 1967 Season 3 Episode 12Dragent, 1967 Season 3 Episode 12 (Not a Show of Adam-12 But The Actors of Adam-12 Play there Roles as Pete and Jim in a Cameo of This Full Episode)Adam-12 - Story of a Partnership
## Reviews

* My Dad Got All DVDs of Seasons 1 to 7, I Loved This Cop Show it's Up Top with CHIPs and T.J Hooker, Some Old Actors From Other Shows May Appear and Some Actors who are still Kids but will Grow up to Be Famous Actor like an Actor from the Brady Bunch, Or The Actor Who Played Chef O'Hara in Batman The TV Series, Of Course he was not playing Chef just a Normal Citizen in Fishing Gear that Just Happen to Walk In While they were Interviewing a Suspect, When I Saw The First Episode, The Moment I saw Kent McCord as Jim Reed, I Said He was Hot, with my Dad Watching the Episode with me, He Didn't Care I said that, You Know, I Hope Kent McCord Doesn't Find This Review from me and that i said he was a Hot Guy in the 60s and 70s, that would just be awkward for a Girl turning 17 2 days before B-Day on Typing This. (Review By **Rebekah Rodriguez**, August 24th 2021)

## Trivia

* Shaaron Claridge is one of the Most Recent Actor's of *Adam-12* to have Recently Pass away, She Died on September 15th 2021 at Age 82, From Natural Causes