Adam-12 - General Discussion

[kikismom]

TrooperYork:  Yes, the two brothers of Gary Crosby who confirmed his stories of abuse later committed suicide, both by gunshot. His mother died of cancer. Then Gary died of cancer. What a tragic family.

[kikismom]

Tonight's episode directed by Harry Morgan---Col. Potter on M*A*S*H*...and of course, Sgt.Friday's partner on Dragnet. (Jeez, that whole Jack Webb mafia was a tight crew!)

Did you know that...Harry Morgan was arrested as an 81-year-old wife beater in real life? Messed up his elderly wife pretty bad in their home in 1997. (He has since died of course, so impossible to ask if he had any thoughts on Bing Crosby's creepy off-screen behavior.)

That's today's not-so-much-Fun-Fact.

[Raja]

Just caught a 1969 episode. How things have changed in the CSI era. There was a homicide hit and run but it was Sunday so no detectives from accident investigations were on duty and homicide passed on the case in a way seen only on The Wire. There was the old chalk outline as the body was covered and moved and no gloves when they found the murder weapon.

[kikismom]

Raja: LOL saw that, loved when they found the car used in a hit-and-run, and Reed just pulls the bloody scrap of dress out from the headlight--crucial evidence-- and no one thinks to leave it there, and take a picture, or anything.

A witness is asked for ID...and when she hands over her drivers license---a piece of paper--they ask if it's her correct address and she says no she moved but she wrote her new address, herself, in pen, on the back. And they consider that just fine.

[Raja]

Raja: LOL saw that, loved when they found the car used in a hit-and-run, and Reed just pulls the bloody scrap of dress out from the headlight--crucial evidence-- and no one thinks to leave it there, and take a picture, or anything.

A witness is asked for ID...and when she hands over her drivers license---a piece of paper--they ask if it's her correct address and she says no she moved but she wrote her new address, herself, in pen, on the back. And they consider that just fine.

Actually California still issues a little piece of paper where you write your address in on the back when you report an address change to the DMV. I suppose they can swipe the magnetic strip now if there were a question

[kikismom]

Yesterday's episode was all about Jim's wife finally having that baby, and the constant search for a pay phone...but all I could see was the sign at the gas station with the price per gallon...."31.9" cents.

I'm giving away my age, but I remember getting my driver's license and pulling in by a tank and telling the attendant (who would pump the gas, squeegee the windows, pop the hood and check the oil)  "Give me a dollar's worth!"

[Raja]

According to wiki Kent MCord would have been around 40, depending on the exact year of the episode and Connie Stevens is just four years older than him. Now mid 40s the age difference is nothing. Back when Adam-12 was in production the ages they gave the characters in the Jack Webb acting troupe seems surreal. When the parents of teenagers were brought in my first thought is they are the grandparents and legal guardians, as many played the parents in the 50s version of Dragnet also.

[kikismom]

I guess I assumed she was older than that, I never saw Kent McCord in anything until Adam-12, but Connie Stevens has been around show-biz forever. Strangely, Martin Milner had 2 dates of birth, for years listed as 4 or 5 years younger.

[kassa]

I loved this show and had a crush on Reed.  Now 40 years later, I think Malloy's hotter!

 

Don't have access to whoever's airing it now, but I did watch every episode a few years ago on TVland or whoever was running it.   Loved the never ending search for payphones (not as prevalent as in early Dragnet episodes - the Adam 12 guys had much more interactive police radios).  Loved how tough/Jack-Webby Milner was in the pilot episode -- that character certainly underwent a transformation over the course of the show!

 

I'm not a car person, but it always cracked me up that the "ambulance" was basically a station wagon and they'd unceremoniously toss the person onto a table and move them in.  

 

I do remember one episode where they needed crime scene pictures and one of the cops had his instamatic in the car.  COmplete with the square rotating flash, if I'm not mistaken!

 

Another show from that era that doesn't get aired anywhere is The Rookies.  Loved that show, but wasn't allowed to stay up late enough to watch it much.

[Raja]

in the hit and run homicide episode Sergeant MacDonald did the CSI work with the instamatic camera. The Rookies is sometimes bundled with its spin-off SWAT. With fewer episodes SWAT seems to air more often.

[kikismom]

A recent episode showed the guys in the locker room hollering because one cop said his wife wanted to get a job!

They were appalled. Of course.

 

I love the crappy radio/siren/flashing light "control panel"--with a toggle switch.

Does it seem to anyone else that in the driving scenes, Reed and Malloy seem to be sitting awfully close to the dashboard?

I've notice when the patrol car goes around a curving street, it's always the same curve. The same street. On whatever episode.

[Snowprince]

 

 

I love the crappy radio/siren/flashing light "control panel"--with a toggle switch.

Does it seem to anyone else that in the driving scenes, Reed and Malloy seem to be sitting awfully close to the dashboard?

 

Between the radio pack, control panel for the siren and "coke can" lights, shotgun rack and hot sheet stand, those interiors were pretty tight, especially in the Matadors. Talk about "old school", the Matadors didn't have power steering either.

[kikismom]

ooh--today's episode, Malloy lectures a father about his kid's criminal record:

"Sir, your son has a package the size of a telephone book!"

Well, then, He should be popular in prison.

[OSM Mom]

I've been watching this on Netflix lately. I remember watching it when it was first on. Yes I'm old. Lol I noticed that all the officers have a briefcase and another small black bag they carry to the car. What's in the small bag? Anyone know?

[kikismom]

This site refers to a small brown bag that they carry; used for carrying tear gas canisters.

It's quite a bit down the page, but all the stuff is cool---especially the ID cards for Reed and Malloy!

 

http://www.1adam12-1adam12.com/Equipment.html

[OSM Mom]

Thanks!

[Snowprince]

Our "kit" or "battle" bags we carried and stored in the trunk typically contained our helmets (hard plastic then, Kevlar now), a pack or 2 of plastic "flex" cuffs, extra ammo, rain slicker/poncho, surgical gloves, water and tons of various report forms.

[Ouisch]

Talk about "old school", the Matadors didn't have power steering either.

 

 

I don't know about the early-1970s version of the Matador used on the show, but my very first car was a 1976 AMC Matador Brougham (purchased used in 1980). It had power steering, air conditioning, and velour seats, I was stylin'.

 

Mr. Ouisch started it months ago, but now it's become automatic that he and I play "Slugbug" (or "Punchbuggy", depening on where you live) while watching Adam-12. There are a TON of VW Beetles to be seen in every episode! 

[OSM Mom]

Our "kit" or "battle" bags we carried and stored in the trunk typically contained our helmets (hard plastic then, Kevlar now), a pack or 2 of plastic "flex" cuffs, extra ammo, rain slicker/poncho, surgical gloves, water and tons of various report forms.

That's what I'm thinking it is. Thanks! And I wouldn't mind getting busted by Reed any day. Nope. Not at all.

[kikismom]

Tonight, Reed and Malloy bust 2 guys for "having a pot plant".

"It's marijuana! You're under arrest!"

Well, it was a potted plant. A dracaena. For a Jack Webb production, that was close enough.

http://www.farmlifenursery.com/sites/farmlifenursery/files/14in%20Dracaena%20Marginata.jpg

 

Bonus points for Reed's dialogue: "That's why they call it weed--because it grows everywhere."

Oh. Is that why?

[DXD526]

This show was always pretty funny when it came to drugs, particularly weed. In one episode, they were busting some hippies, and when one of them says 'It's just a little grass, man', Malloy shoots back in his best clipped Joe Friday manner: “Too many know-it-all’s like you get tired of pot and decide to try the hard stuff: heroin, the mainline to nowhere! We’re doing you a favor!” 

[kikismom]

Yesterday on Adam-12 Bobby Troup from Emergency (Dr. Joe Early) played a Mr.Big-type heroin trafficker who makes a buy with the undercover agent Jim Reed.

Mwoahahah!

[kikismom]

Today's episode had a bunch of old ladies marching with picket signs in front of the police station.

Across the street was a cheesy storefront, with a huge sign:

"SCIENTOLOGY"

[Raja]

the Scientology main campus along with the HMO hospital across the street in Hollywood have both grown exponentially in the past 45 years

[OSM Mom]

I had the same thought, ispansy. Lol

[Raja]

I just caught a second episode where Officer Malloy calls for a SWAT team and the boys become SWAT. At least this time Officer Reed was finished with probation.

[MaryMitch]

I never watched this show when it was originally on, but lately I've been catching it on MeTV. I really enjoy the chemistry between Jim and Pete; it seems so natural. I like that they kinda switched it around a little, making the older one the bachelor and the younger one the more stable married man.

 

They just seem like nice guys. I'll keep watching to see some of the character development you all have mentioned.

[Actionmage]

I like the show because there is just the smallest amount of home life for Jim and passing talk about Pete's love life. It's all no big deal, because it isn't. The cops don't have an agenda other than keeping the peace and hassling Ed periodically.  I know that police departments were probably never that straightforward, but it's nice to think it could have been.

[MaryMitch]

I just saw the pilot. Even if I hadn't known, I would have been able to tell it was a Jack Webb show. The back and forth, clipped dialogue was very Dragnet-like, and Pete even sounded like Joe Friday when he lectured Jim on the patrol car and its features. I'm glad they made changed Pete to make him more likeable.

[magicdog]

One thing I find interesting is how Pete & Jim were the face of the modern police and the ideal in everything from professional demeanor with the public to being trusted partners.

 

On many sites discussing alleged abuse of authority, I often come across this image:

 .

[kassa]

If I recall correctly, however, they fired their guns an awful lot.   Or am I misremembering?  Old police shows used to have the most extended shootout scenes!  No bullet proof jackets, no swat gear... just ducking behind a cruiser door and emptying the old revolver.  Repeatedly.

 

Again, trying to remember how much of that was in Adam 12 - maybe less than I think?  My mind may be clouded by the Dragnet radio show podcasts I've been listening to -- boy, they shot 'em up every episode!  Didn't matter if it was an armed robbery, grand theft auto, cat in a tree, "Lookout, Ben!" *bang!*

Edited December 8, 2014 by kassa

[Raja]

I don't remember the never emptying cowboy six shooters. There is the famous command presence episode where Malloy held a man off with an empty revolver. Then when Reed had Mark Harmon as a boot the rookie lost his gun and used the same command presence to capture a gunman.

[bigskygirl]

Happy birthday Pete!!! Martin Milner turns 83 today.

[Raja]

One thing I find interesting is how Pete & Jim were the face of the modern police and the ideal in everything from professional demeanor with the public to being trusted partners.

 

On many sites discussing alleged abuse of authority, I often come across this image:

 .

I knew a cop from that era and he would tell stories of ambushes (his department lost  six officers in the early 70s) and the war on police that came out of the late Vietnam and civil rights protest era that seems to be happening again. Malloy and Reed had the unseen sniper take shots at them for no reason that was very special episode when Reed killed the sniper. Part of it was like a late Dragnet episode showing Internal Affairs doing their thing after the shooting.

[magicdog]

 

Old police shows used to have the most extended shootout scenes!  No bullet proof jackets, no swat gear...

 

To be fair, SWAT teams as we know them didn't exist until after 1966 (the infamous Texas Tower Sniper incident is cited as the reason police needed to step up their tactics).  Even when they were organized, they were still limited to large police departments that had the manpower and funding to train them (LA, NY, etc.).  When Bulletproof vests came along - they were made of lead, not kevlar.  That made them very heavy and not easy to move around in them.  Many cops chose not to wear them.

[Raja]

What the army wore in Korea and Vietnam stopped shell fragments. Not even pistol rounds. Today with add on trauma plates armor can stop some rifle shots

[Raja]

If I recall correctly, however, they fired their guns an awful lot.   Or am I misremembering?  Old police shows used to have the most extended shootout scenes!  No bullet proof jackets, no swat gear... just ducking behind a cruiser door and emptying the old revolver.  Repeatedly.

 

Again, trying to remember how much of that was in Adam 12 - maybe less than I think?  My mind may be clouded by the Dragnet radio show podcasts I've been listening to -- boy, they shot 'em up every episode!  Didn't matter if it was an armed robbery, grand theft auto, cat in a tree, "Lookout, Ben!" *bang!*

By the time the color episodes of Dragnet came around things were different. ME TV used to run the promo with a shotgun welding Sergeant Friday threatening to blow a suspects head down the street. When I saw the episode they were after a man who shot a cop with a M-1 carbine, the "assault weapon" of WWII. And going in it was just Friday and Gannon and for the arrest he describes going to property and got a shotgun and four shells. I think it may have been a recycled script from the radio or black and white Dragnet days

[MaryMitch]

I just saw (on Cosy TV) the episode where Reed shoots someone "Log 33: It All Happened So Fast". I thought Kent McCord did a good job showing Reed's slow reaction to killing a man. I was disappointed that in the next episode he didn't show any aftereffects; one would think that on a show that was supposed to be a realistic depiction of patrol officers they would have had a bit of a story arc on that.

[Moose135]

But honestly, there was very little of any storylines carried from episode to episode.  Sure, there were recurring characters and themes, but for the most part, each episode was a stand alone slice of life.

[Trooper York]

How about this guy for the Pete Malloy role in the remake?

 

[Ananayel]

There's a remake?

[ennui]

I was watching an episode the other day that had a multi car crash in and all I would think was "All those vintage cars destroyed".  My mom then said " But they weren't vintage then" 

I am an idiot.

You most certainly are NOT an idiot. I feel the same way for the car crashes in CHiPs. Maybe they weren't "vintage" cars at the time, but they were still great cars. Heavy. Mostly made in USA. My heart says "EEE!" every time I see an old Corvette in these shows.

[ennui]

There was a remake in 1990. Considering the current popular culture image of police officers, now is not the time for a reboot.

[MaryMitch]

I always like the episode where Ed Well's niece works in records. Ed is played by Bing Crosby's son, and the cop (well, one of the cops) who hits on his niece is played by Frank Sinatra's son. Ed was both funny and infuriating, trying to throw up a shield around Marilyn, who was like 25 or something!

 

This episode was on today. One thing that had a little ick factor was the niece was played by Tina Sinatra, Frank Sinatra Jr.'s sister. So his character was hitting on on his real-life sister. I found that odd casting!

 

Another thing that caught my ear was at one point Pete said "my date with Marilyn", which was the name of a 2011 movie http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1655420/ starring Michelle Williams (as Marilyn Monroe) and Eddie Redmayne (just won the Oscar for playing Stephen Hawking in "The Theory of Everything". )  I know that really is off-topic, but like I say, it caught my ear.

[kassa]

Or maybe precisely the time.  Wasn't Dragnet (the radio show) born out of some difficult days in LAPD history, hence their eagerness to assist for PR purposes?  The govt of LA in the early 30s was notoriously corrupt, with the vice squad actually enforcing for the mob.  Took a lot to clean it up, and I think Dragnet was part of the "things are different now, back to the way they should be" campaign of subsequent administrations.  

 

Its rebirth (and subsequent spinoff of Adam 12) in the 60s-70s would have worked for similar reasons -- an antidote and reminder of all that policework entails on a daily basis.

 

 

The formula may be too simple, now, post-COPS, NYPD Blue and Law and Order.

 

That guy, however, would be a super hot Pete!

Edited March 26, 2015 by kassa

[Raja]

This episode was on today. One thing that had a little ick factor was the niece was played by Tina Sinatra, Frank Sinatra Jr.'s sister. So his character was hitting on on his real-life sister. I found that odd casting!

 

 

 

I remember when Todd Bridges was on Different Strokes his sister Verda who was the cheer leading Captain at our high school played his girlfriend of the week a couple of times.

[Raja]

Who is he?

Brian Geraghty he joined Chicago PD in the second season as Officer Sean Roman the new patrol cop replacing the previous one who joined the main intelligence squad of the show

[DXD526]

With all the talk of that Scientology documentary recently, weird to see an Adam-12 episode last week where there was a protest outside the police station, and across the street was a storefront with "Scientology" written across it in HUGE letters. It was so big, and it looked deliberate that there was a conversation between characters at one point with that sign as the back-drop. It was impossible to miss. Then another lingering shot of the sign later in the same scene. It came off like an advertisement.

 

I think the episode was from 1973. It may be that the storefront just happened to be across the street from where the ep was being shot, but it was so intrusive it seemed deliberate.

[Kev]

You most certainly are NOT an idiot. I feel the same way for the car crashes in CHiPs. Maybe they weren't "vintage" cars at the time, but they were still great cars. Heavy. Mostly made in USA. My heart says "EEE!" every time I see an old Corvette in these shows.

Or a Camaro.

[Kev]

He's got that "Martin Milner" look about him.