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* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: For the first three seasons, episode titles followed a "Log #: Descriptive Phrase" convention.
to:
* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming:
** For the first three seasons, episode titles followed a "Log #: Descriptive Phrase" convention.
** For the first three seasons, episode titles followed a "Log #: Descriptive Phrase" convention.
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* ImpersonatingAnOfficer: In one episode there's someone out there claiming to be a particular detective in the LAPD, flashing his badge around and inisiting on bribes. They aren't sure until the end of the episode whether it's really that cop turned bad or someone impersonating him. [[spoiler:It's someone impersonating him.]]
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The series ran 174 episodes on Creator/{{NBC}} between 1968 and 1975, accompanied by several comic book adaptations from [[Creator/GoldKeyComics Gold Key]]. There was a failed {{Revival}} in 1990-91.
to:
The series ran 174 episodes on Creator/{{NBC}} between 1968 and 1975, accompanied by several a comic book adaptations adaptation from [[Creator/GoldKeyComics Gold Key]]. There was a failed InNameOnly {{Revival}} in 1990-91.
1990-91 (not to be confused with the 1989 TV movie ''Nashville Beat'', a SpiritualSuccessor starring Milner and [=McCord=] as former partners now working in Tennessee).
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* ComicBookAdaptation: Several comic books based on the series were released by Gold Key.
to:
* ComicBookAdaptation: Several comic books based on the series were released by Gold Key.A Creator/GoldKeyComics adaptation ran for 10 issues.
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* ComicBookAdaptation: Several comic books based on the series were released by Gold Key.
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* TieInNovel: Several comic books based on the series were released by Gold Key.
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The series ran 174 episodes on Creator/{{NBC}} between 1968 and 1975, accompanied by several comic book adaptations from [[GoldKeyComics Gold Key]]. There was a failed {{Revival}} in 1990-91.
to:
The series ran 174 episodes on Creator/{{NBC}} between 1968 and 1975, accompanied by several comic book adaptations from [[GoldKeyComics [[Creator/GoldKeyComics Gold Key]]. There was a failed {{Revival}} in 1990-91.
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* TieInNovel: Several comic books based on the series were released by Gold Key.
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The series ran 174 episodes on Creator/{{NBC}} between 1968 and 1975. There was a failed {{Revival}} in 1990-91.
to:
The series ran 174 episodes on Creator/{{NBC}} between 1968 and 1975.1975, accompanied by several comic book adaptations from [[GoldKeyComics Gold Key]]. There was a failed {{Revival}} in 1990-91.
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Changed line(s) 40 (click to see context) from:
* {{Expy}}: Picture [[Franchise/{{Dragnet}} Joe Friday]] in his uniform days. That's Malloy. Also, the team dynamic of happily-married X/confirmed-bachelor-playboy X is a typical feature of many other Jack Webb shows, including ''Franchise/{{Emergency}}'' and ''{{Dragnet}}''.
to:
* {{Expy}}: Picture [[Franchise/{{Dragnet}} Joe Friday]] in his uniform days. That's Malloy. Also, the team dynamic of happily-married X/confirmed-bachelor-playboy X is a typical feature of many other Jack Webb shows, including ''Franchise/{{Emergency}}'' and ''{{Dragnet}}''.''Franchise/{{Dragnet}}''.
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* {{Crossover}}: with several other Jack Webb productions: ''Franchise/{{Dragnet}}'', ''{{Emergency}}'', and the short-lived Robert Conrad vehicle, ''The D.A.''
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* {{Crossover}}: with several other Jack Webb productions: ''Franchise/{{Dragnet}}'', ''{{Emergency}}'', ''Franchise/{{Emergency}}'', and the short-lived Robert Conrad vehicle, ''The D.A.''
Changed line(s) 40 (click to see context) from:
* {{Expy}}: Picture [[Franchise/{{Dragnet}} Joe Friday]] in his uniform days. That's Malloy. Also, the team dynamic of happily-married X/confirmed-bachelor-playboy X is a typical feature of many other Jack Webb shows, including ''{{Emergency}}'' and ''{{Dragnet}}''.
to:
* {{Expy}}: Picture [[Franchise/{{Dragnet}} Joe Friday]] in his uniform days. That's Malloy. Also, the team dynamic of happily-married X/confirmed-bachelor-playboy X is a typical feature of many other Jack Webb shows, including ''{{Emergency}}'' ''Franchise/{{Emergency}}'' and ''{{Dragnet}}''.
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** Dialouge in the season five episode, "Lost and Found," suggests the area Reed and Malloy patrol is a "district" known as "Adam-12." However, this is the ''{{Emergency}}'' cross-over and it may be that the character speaking, a woman working a suicide-prevention hotline at Rampart, doesn't understand what the designation means.
to:
** Dialouge in the season five episode, "Lost and Found," suggests the area Reed and Malloy patrol is a "district" known as "Adam-12." However, this is the ''{{Emergency}}'' ''Franchise/{{Emergency}}'' cross-over and it may be that the character speaking, a woman working a suicide-prevention hotline at Rampart, doesn't understand what the designation means.
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* MythArc: It's not very evident due to the show's episodic nature, but there ''is'' an overarching storyline which begins with the pilot and concludes in the series finale - Reed's development from an eager, idealistic, very happily married rookie into, in the seventh season, a somewhat cynical, world-weary veteran whose job is having a negative affect on his home life. The series finale brings things full circle by very nearly placing Reed in the same shoes Malloy was wearing in the pilot.
to:
* MythArc: It's not very evident due to the show's episodic nature, tendency of Jack Webb's shows towards StatusQuoIsGod, but there ''is'' an overarching storyline which begins with the pilot and concludes in the series finale - Reed's development from an eager, idealistic, very happily married rookie into, in the seventh season, a somewhat cynical, world-weary veteran whose job is having a negative affect on his home life. The series finale brings things full circle by very nearly placing Reed in the same shoes Malloy was wearing in the pilot.
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* DeconfirmedBachelor: For most of the series, Malloy is a confirmed bachelor who breaks out in hives at the mere mention of marriage. Then he meets a widow named Judy and before long he's doing her laundry, buying gifts for her son, dating her exclusively and well on his way to settling down.
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* MythArc: It's not very evident due to the show's episodic nature, but there ''is'' an overarching storyline which begins with the pilot and concludes in the series finale - Reed's development from an eager, idealistic, very happily married rookie into, in the seventh season, a somewhat cynical, world-weary veteran whose job is having a negative affect on his home life. The series finale brings things full circle by very nearly placing Reed in the same shoes Malloy was wearing in the pilot.
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* StoryArc: Several short ones occur over the course of the series, mainly in the early seasons - one which involves a restaurant owner named Duke, another revolving around an informant named T.J., yet another dealing with the events leading up to and following the birth of James Reed, Jr. In the seventh season both Reed and his wife begin to feel dissatisfied with his job, which comes to a head in the two-part series finale.
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* EagleEyeDetection: Arguably what makes Reed a very strong officer – his ability to observe, pay attention and analyze almost instantly what's going on. He can easily spot license plates that belong to wanted cars, to determine whether someone is a suspect (just by how he's behaving) ... to the very last episode, where the last case involves him cracking a typewriter theft ring by spotting the serial number and matching it with an advisory on the thefts.
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* OneBulletLeft: Several times throughout the course of the series, most notably in a 1969 episode where, during Reed's rookie days, he and Malloy are engaged in a burglary-in-progress call at a warehouse, which ends in a shootout. Malloy stresses to Reed how important it is to not shoot unless absolutely necessary or if ordered to. Reed follows the orders to a "T" and ... after the suspects are all successfully taken in custody, Reed sees exactly why it was a good idea he listened: his gun had just one bullet left, and any time spent reloading gives the bad guys – who think they have nothing to lose – the opening they need.
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Seems pretty out of character for Pete... wonder why they let that slip by.
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* TranslationByVolume: In "Astro," the only person at a residence who is available to tell the officers why they were called speaks very little English. They manage limited communication using pantomime, but Malloy, for some reason, also tries repeating his questions VERY LOUDLY.
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PoliceProcedural, featuring Martin Milner as Officer Peter J. Malloy and Kent [=McCord=] as Officer James A. Reed, two Los Angeles cops partnered in a patrol car with the call sign "Adam-12". Produced by Jack Webb of ''{{Dragnet}}'' fame (and arguably a SpiritualSuccessor to that show), ''Adam-12'' was scrupulously accurate about police procedures of the period, to the point that several episodes were used in police academies as instructional films. The sense of realism was aided by casting actual L.A. police dispatcher Shaaron Claridge as the unseen voice whose frequent calls of "One Adam Twelve! One Adam Twelve!" were virtually emblematic of the show.
to:
PoliceProcedural, featuring Martin Milner as Officer Peter J. Malloy and Kent [=McCord=] as Officer James A. Reed, two Los Angeles cops partnered in a patrol car with the call sign "Adam-12". Produced by Jack Webb of ''{{Dragnet}}'' ''Franchise/{{Dragnet}}'' fame (and arguably a SpiritualSuccessor to that show), ''Adam-12'' was scrupulously accurate about police procedures of the period, to the point that several episodes were used in police academies as instructional films. The sense of realism was aided by casting actual L.A. police dispatcher Shaaron Claridge as the unseen voice whose frequent calls of "One Adam Twelve! One Adam Twelve!" were virtually emblematic of the show.
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The entire series has been released on DVD, and the first four seasons can currently be enjoyed [[http://www.hulu.com/adam-12 on Hulu]], [[OldMediaPlayingCatchUp assuming one is in the United States.]] As of May 2013, the show (along with the 60s/70s ''Radio/{{Dragnet}}'') airs weekday afternoons on digital subchannel network MeTV.
to:
The entire series has been released on DVD, and the first four seasons can currently be enjoyed [[http://www.hulu.com/adam-12 on Hulu]], [[OldMediaPlayingCatchUp assuming one is in the United States.]] As of May 2013, the show (along with the 60s/70s ''Radio/{{Dragnet}}'') ''Franchise/{{Dragnet}}'') airs weekday afternoons on digital subchannel network MeTV.
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* {{Crossover}}: with several other Jack Webb productions: ''{{Dragnet}}'', ''{{Emergency}}'', and the short-lived Robert Conrad vehicle, ''The D.A.''
to:
* {{Crossover}}: with several other Jack Webb productions: ''{{Dragnet}}'', ''Franchise/{{Dragnet}}'', ''{{Emergency}}'', and the short-lived Robert Conrad vehicle, ''The D.A.''
Changed line(s) 38 (click to see context) from:
* {{Expy}}: Picture [[{{Dragnet}} Joe Friday]] in his uniform days. That's Malloy. Also, the team dynamic of happily-married X/confirmed-bachelor-playboy X is a typical feature of many other Jack Webb shows, including ''{{Emergency}}'' and ''{{Dragnet}}''.
to:
* {{Expy}}: Picture [[{{Dragnet}} [[Franchise/{{Dragnet}} Joe Friday]] in his uniform days. That's Malloy. Also, the team dynamic of happily-married X/confirmed-bachelor-playboy X is a typical feature of many other Jack Webb shows, including ''{{Emergency}}'' and ''{{Dragnet}}''.
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* PoorlyDisguisedPilot: Season 6, Episode 24's ''A Clinic on 18th Street'' is the pilot for a show featuring Fraud Division. The cast of the pilot (including future ''Series/{{Switch}}''[=/=]''Series/CagneyAndLacey'' star Sharon Gless who gets the WelcomeEpisode treatment), are all listed in the opening credits as "Special Guest Stars". Reed and Malloy only appear in the very begining and very ending of this story of a Doctor peddling electronic health belts to diabetics and fake blindness cures to little girls. Jack Webb directed, but not in his trademark ''{{Dragnet}}'' style.
to:
* PoorlyDisguisedPilot: Season 6, Episode 24's ''A Clinic on 18th Street'' is the pilot for a show featuring Fraud Division. The cast of the pilot (including future ''Series/{{Switch}}''[=/=]''Series/CagneyAndLacey'' star Sharon Gless who gets the WelcomeEpisode treatment), are all listed in the opening credits as "Special Guest Stars". Reed and Malloy only appear in the very begining and very ending of this story of a Doctor peddling electronic health belts to diabetics and fake blindness cures to little girls. Jack Webb directed, but not in his trademark ''{{Dragnet}}'' ''Franchise/{{Dragnet}}'' style.
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misuse of something that is being removed from the wiki anyway
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** It's safe to say that if there is a fetish for by-the-book cops, this show is your [[FetishFuel fuel]]. There are scenes in which the MirandaWarning is given in full, and lovingly composed shots of Reed and Malloy buckling their seatbelts and locking their sidearms away.
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Covered on the trivia page.
Deleted line(s) 71 (click to see context) :
** The line about knowing all the jokes could be an ActorAllusion to Amsterdam's reputation as "The Human Joke Machine".
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More minor indentation stuff.
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* TitleDrop: Constantly. Probably sets some sort of record.
** In addition, the title of an individual episode is often stated word-for-word in the episode.
* TotallyRadical: "Helicopters? That's dirty pool, man."
** In addition, the title of an individual episode is often stated word-for-word in the episode.
* TotallyRadical: "Helicopters? That's dirty pool, man."
to:
* TitleDrop: Constantly. Probably sets some sort of record.
**record. In addition, the title of an individual episode is often stated word-for-word in the episode.
*TotallyRadical: TotallyRadical:
** "Helicopters? That's dirty pool, man."
**
*
** "Helicopters? That's dirty pool, man."
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Eliminating triple indent and making the quote a quote.
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** "The world is full of squirrels."
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* TheVoice: Real-life LAPD dispatcher Shaaron Claridge.
** [[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0505386 Actually, Claridge appeared on-screen in one episode]], helping Malloy run plate numbers on a dispatch computer.
*** Claridge isn't shown full-face, either - only in an over-the-shoulder shot. It's possible she got recognized enough on her voice alone.
** [[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0505386 Actually, Claridge appeared on-screen in one episode]], helping Malloy run plate numbers on a dispatch computer.
*** Claridge isn't shown full-face, either - only in an over-the-shoulder shot. It's possible she got recognized enough on her voice alone.
to:
* TheVoice: Real-life LAPD dispatcher Shaaron Claridge.
**Claridge. [[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0505386 Actually, Claridge appeared She appears on-screen in one episode]], helping Malloy run plate numbers on a dispatch computer.
*** Claridge isn't shown full-face, either -computer, though only in an over-the-shoulder shot. It's possible she got recognized enough on her voice alone.
**
*** Claridge isn't shown full-face, either -
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** It's safe to say that if there is a fetish for by-the-book cops, this show is your [[FetishFuel fuel]]. There are scenes in which the MirandaWarning is given in full, and lovingly composed shots of Reed and Malloy buckling their seatbelts and locking their sidearms away.
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Moves from Antenna to Me starting this Monday, to be exact.
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The entire series has been released on DVD, and the first four seasons can currently be enjoyed [[http://www.hulu.com/adam-12 on Hulu]], [[OldMediaPlayingCatchUp assuming one is in the United States.]] As of January 2013, the show (along with the 60s/70s ''Radio/{{Dragnet}}'') airs weekday afternoons and Saturday/Sunday evenings on digital subchannel network Antenna TV.
to:
The entire series has been released on DVD, and the first four seasons can currently be enjoyed [[http://www.hulu.com/adam-12 on Hulu]], [[OldMediaPlayingCatchUp assuming one is in the United States.]] As of January May 2013, the show (along with the 60s/70s ''Radio/{{Dragnet}}'') airs weekday afternoons and Saturday/Sunday evenings on digital subchannel network Antenna TV.MeTV.
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* TheAllegedCar: Malloy and Reed are assigned "The Beast," a patrol car only a few hundred miles away from its mandatory retirement, in the episode of the same title. It's so awful, Malloy even "lets" Reed drive for one of only a handful of times during the course of the series.
to:
* TheAllegedCar: Malloy and Reed are assigned "The Beast," a patrol car only a few hundred 300 miles away from its mandatory retirement, in the episode of the same title. It's so awful, Malloy even "lets" Reed drive for one of only a handful of times during the course of the series.
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Though the thought of those two jerks running around in rouge is pretty darn funny...
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** "Good Cop: Handle With Care": Two rouge freelance journalists, seeking to do a sensationalist story on police brutality, harass Malloy and Reed throughout the episode. Things reach their climax when the officers pull over a car matching the description of one used in an armed robbery. The journalists harass the officers as they're trying to take the suspects into custody just enough for one of the suspects to fire his gun ... and he ends up shooting an innocent passer-by across the street. The assailed – whom we quickly learn is a married father of three – later dies at the hospital of his wounds, and the officers muse about it in the tag scene.
to:
** "Good Cop: Handle With Care": Two rouge rogue freelance journalists, seeking to do a sensationalist story on police brutality, harass Malloy and Reed throughout the episode. Things reach their climax when the officers pull over a car matching the description of one used in an armed robbery. The journalists harass the officers as they're trying to take the suspects into custody just enough for one of the suspects to fire his gun ... and he ends up shooting an innocent passer-by across the street. The assailed – whom we quickly learn is a married father of three – later dies at the hospital of his wounds, and the officers muse about it in the tag scene.
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Actually she did appear on-screen once, in the episode \"Suspended.\"
Changed line(s) 2,3 (click to see context) from:
PoliceProcedural, featuring Martin Milner as Officer Peter J. Malloy and Kent [=McCord=] as Officer James A. Reed, two Los Angeles cops partnered in a patrol car with the call sign "Adam-12". Produced by Jack Webb of ''{{Dragnet}}'' fame (and arguably a SpiritualSuccessor to that show), ''Adam-12'' was scrupulously accurate about police procedures of the period, to the point that several episodes were used in police academies as instructional films. The sense of realism was aided by casting actual L.A. police dispatcher Shaaron Claridge as the never-seen voice whose frequent calls of "One Adam Twelve! One Adam Twelve!" were virtually emblematic of the show.
to:
PoliceProcedural, featuring Martin Milner as Officer Peter J. Malloy and Kent [=McCord=] as Officer James A. Reed, two Los Angeles cops partnered in a patrol car with the call sign "Adam-12". Produced by Jack Webb of ''{{Dragnet}}'' fame (and arguably a SpiritualSuccessor to that show), ''Adam-12'' was scrupulously accurate about police procedures of the period, to the point that several episodes were used in police academies as instructional films. The sense of realism was aided by casting actual L.A. police dispatcher Shaaron Claridge as the never-seen unseen voice whose frequent calls of "One Adam Twelve! One Adam Twelve!" were virtually emblematic of the show.
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Changed line(s) 26 (click to see context) from:
* "1" indicates Division 1 (Central Division), "Adam" indicates a two-officer patrol car unit, and "12" is their number within Central Division. 1-Adam-12 means "Central division, two-officer car number 12".
to:
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* "1" indicates Division 1 (Central Division), "Adam" indicates a two-officer patrol car unit, and "12" is their number within Central Division. 1-Adam-12 means "Central division, two-officer car number 12".
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* NotWithTheSafetyOnYouWont: Malloy chases a suspect with a shotgun over a hilltop to find the shotgun leveled at him. Then the suspect gives up. Turned out he left the safety on by mistake and pulled the trigger so hard it ''broke''.
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* HostageSituation: Too many to count. Reed, Malloy, or both got involved in a few of them.
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Trivia bump, formatting, correction
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* CowboyBebopAtHisComputer:
to:
* CowboyBebopAtHisComputer:CowboyBeBopAtHisComputer:
Deleted line(s) 29 (click to see context) :
* TheDanza: In an episode telecast 01/14/75, Riikka Pitkonen plays a character named Riikka Kekkonen.
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* DirectedByCastMember: Season 4 episode "The Grandmothers" was directed by Ozzie Nelson, who also plays a robbery victim in one scene.
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* EveryCarIsAPinto: In the first-season episode "Log 62 Grand Theft Horse?", a Ford Falcon Adam-12 is pursuing fails to make a turn and hits a tree. The engine explodes on impact (or, from the way it appeared, explodes ''just before impact.'') but the car isn't destroyed.
to:
* EveryCarIsAPinto: In the first-season episode "Log 62 Grand Theft Horse?", a Ford Falcon Adam-12 is pursuing fails to make a turn and hits a tree. The engine explodes on impact (or, from the way it appeared, explodes ''just ''[[SpecialEffectFailure just before impact.'') impact]]'') but the car isn't destroyed.
Changed line(s) 48,54 (click to see context) from:
-->Malloy: You know what this is?
-->Reed: (smiling) Yes sir, it's a police car.
-->Malloy: This ''black and white patrol car'' has an overhead valve V8 engine. It develops 325 horsepower at 4800 RPM's. It accelerates from 0 to 60 in seven seconds; it has a top speed of 120 miles an hour. It's equipped with a multi-channeled DFE radio and an electronic siren capable of admitting three variables: wail, yelp, and alert. It also serves as an outside radio speaker and public address system. The automobile has two shotgun racks - one attached to the bottom portion of the front seat, one in the vehicle trunk. Attached to the middle of the dash, illuminated by a single bulb, is a hot sheet desk, fastened to which you will always make sure is the latest one off the teletype before you ever roll.
-->Reed: Yes, sir.
-->Malloy: It's your life insurance...and ''mine''. You take care of it, and it'll take care of you.
-->Reed: Yes, sir. You want me to drive?
-->Malloy: (DeathGlare)
-->Reed: (smiling) Yes sir, it's a police car.
-->Malloy: This ''black and white patrol car'' has an overhead valve V8 engine. It develops 325 horsepower at 4800 RPM's. It accelerates from 0 to 60 in seven seconds; it has a top speed of 120 miles an hour. It's equipped with a multi-channeled DFE radio and an electronic siren capable of admitting three variables: wail, yelp, and alert. It also serves as an outside radio speaker and public address system. The automobile has two shotgun racks - one attached to the bottom portion of the front seat, one in the vehicle trunk. Attached to the middle of the dash, illuminated by a single bulb, is a hot sheet desk, fastened to which you will always make sure is the latest one off the teletype before you ever roll.
-->Reed: Yes, sir.
-->Malloy: It's your life insurance...and ''mine''. You take care of it, and it'll take care of you.
-->Reed: Yes, sir. You want me to drive?
-->Malloy: (DeathGlare)
to:
-->Reed: (smiling)
'''Reed:''' ''(smiling)'' Yes sir, it's a police
-->Malloy:
'''Malloy:''' This ''black and white patrol car'' has an overhead valve V8 engine. It develops 325 horsepower at 4800 RPM's. It accelerates from 0 to 60 in seven seconds; it has a top speed of 120 miles an hour. It's equipped with a multi-channeled DFE radio and an electronic siren capable of admitting three variables: wail, yelp, and alert. It also serves as an outside radio speaker and public address system. The automobile has two shotgun racks - one attached to the bottom portion of the front seat, one in the vehicle trunk. Attached to the middle of the dash, illuminated by a single bulb, is a hot sheet desk, fastened to which you will always make sure is the latest one off the teletype before you ever
-->Reed:
'''Reed:''' Yes,
-->Malloy:
'''Malloy:''' It's your life insurance...and ''mine''. You take care of it, and it'll take care of
-->Reed:
'''Reed:''' Yes, sir. You want me to
-->Malloy: (DeathGlare)
'''Malloy:''' ''({{death glare}})''
Deleted line(s) 65 (click to see context) :
* TheOtherDarrin: Jean Reed was played by two different actresses, and her incarnation in season seven is practically SameCharacterButDifferent. [[TheSeventies The decade]] can account for her radically different wardrobe and hairstyle choices, but also gone is the understanding Jean Reed who knew the risks and was happy anyway, until in the final episodes she almost seems to resent her husband's job.
Changed line(s) 88,89 (click to see context) from:
* StayInTheKitchen: Wells. He never stops complaining about the female officer who rides patrol with Malloy in one episode, though it does get toned down a little after she proves herself during a concert riot and even has to save him.
* TeamDad - Malloy, who in his [[DeadpanSnarker stern way]] sometimes chides other officers in the division that they should "listen to daddy." He's also of a rank and seniority that is "almost as good as a sergeant."
* TeamDad - Malloy, who in his [[DeadpanSnarker stern way]] sometimes chides other officers in the division that they should "listen to daddy." He's also of a rank and seniority that is "almost as good as a sergeant."
to:
* StayInTheKitchen: Wells. He never stops complaining about the female officer who rides patrol with Malloy Reed in one episode, though it does get toned down a little after she proves herself during a concert riot and even has to save him.
*TeamDad - TeamDad: Malloy, who in his [[DeadpanSnarker stern way]] sometimes chides other officers in the division that they should "listen to daddy." He's also of a rank and seniority that is "almost as good as a sergeant."
*
Changed line(s) 91,94 (click to see context) from:
-->Reed: I can live without [helicopters].
-->Malloy: Don't be too sure. It wasn't so long ago we thought we could live without something else: the two-way radio. Remember?
-->Reed: That was before my time.
-->Malloy: (DeathGlare)
-->Malloy: Don't be too sure. It wasn't so long ago we thought we could live without something else: the two-way radio. Remember?
-->Reed: That was before my time.
-->Malloy: (DeathGlare)
to:
-->Malloy:
'''Malloy:''' Don't be too sure. It wasn't so long ago we thought we could live without something else: the two-way radio.
-->Reed:
'''Reed:''' That was before my
-->Malloy: (DeathGlare)
'''Malloy:''' ''({{death glare}})''
Changed line(s) 99,102 (click to see context) from:
-->Junkie (to Malloy after being rescued from a burning building): Hey...I wanna...thank you...you saved our lives...you guys in the Fire Department...man, I'll tell ya...you're the greatest.
-->Malloy: Wrong department, friend. We're the police.
-->Junkie: Fuzz...lousy, stinking fuzz!
-->Malloy: Don't give it another thought.
-->Malloy: Wrong department, friend. We're the police.
-->Junkie: Fuzz...lousy, stinking fuzz!
-->Malloy: Don't give it another thought.
to:
-->Malloy:
'''Malloy:''' Wrong department, friend. We're the
-->Junkie:
'''Junkie:''' Fuzz...lousy, stinking
-->Malloy:
'''Malloy:''' Don't give it another thought.
Deleted line(s) 112 (click to see context) :
* YouLookFamiliar: Gary Crosby was a part-time regular as Officer Ed Wells on Adam-12 and appeared in two different roles (the first time as a firefighter, the second time as a publicity-happy paramedic) in season one of ''{{Emergency}}''
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[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/adam-12_4348.jpg]]
PoliceProcedural, featuring Martin Milner as Officer Peter J. Malloy and Kent [=McCord=] as Officer James A. Reed, two Los Angeles cops partnered in a patrol car with the call sign "Adam-12". Produced by Jack Webb of ''{{Dragnet}}'' fame (and arguably a SpiritualSuccessor to that show), ''Adam-12'' was scrupulously accurate about police procedures of the period, to the point that several episodes were used in police academies as instructional films. The sense of realism was aided by casting actual L.A. police dispatcher Shaaron Claridge as the never-seen voice whose frequent calls of "One Adam Twelve! One Adam Twelve!" were virtually emblematic of the show.
The series ran 174 episodes on Creator/{{NBC}} between 1968 and 1975. There was a failed {{Revival}} in 1990-91.
The entire series has been released on DVD, and the first four seasons can currently be enjoyed [[http://www.hulu.com/adam-12 on Hulu]], [[OldMediaPlayingCatchUp assuming one is in the United States.]] As of January 2013, the show (along with the 60s/70s ''Radio/{{Dragnet}}'') airs weekday afternoons and Saturday/Sunday evenings on digital subchannel network Antenna TV.
----
!!Tropes:
* AffectionateParody: "Boredom-12", in ''Magazine/{{MAD}}''.
* TheAllegedCar: Malloy and Reed are assigned "The Beast," a patrol car only a few hundred miles away from its mandatory retirement, in the episode of the same title. It's so awful, Malloy even "lets" Reed drive for one of only a handful of times during the course of the series.
* AlwaysOnDuty: Webb did his best to avert this. It is made clear that our main characters are one team out of many working one shift out of many and that just as much happens off-camera as on.
* AuthorAvatar: Malloy seems to be one for Jack Webb in the pilot, especially when he slips into Joe Friday's talking style during the InfoDump listed below. (Webb directed the pilot).
* BadCopIncompetentCop: Several episodes dealt with officers who were ill-suited for the job or made major mistakes that put others (if not innocent bystanders, Reed and Malloy) in jeopardy. Other episodes – for example, "Pressure Point" – have rookie officers with various handicaps, and even though they are by all accounts good officers, it is their shortcomings (not necessarily through any fault of their own) that lead to trouble.
* BigBrotherMentor: At least one episode paid homage to Big Brothers Big Sisters, with both Malloy and Reed serving as mentors. The other usage is Malloy (the senior officer) serving as training officer for Reed in the early episodes.
* BottleEpisode: The season two episode "Light Duty" takes place entirely within the police department, as Reed and Malloy man the front desk for a night while a riot brews elsewhere in the city.
* BrandX: In the pilot there is one quick insert shot of the radio (one that doesn't quite match the radio usually shown in the car) that has tape over the Motorola name but leaves the M logo intact.
* BuddyCopShow
* ByTheBookCop: Most of the officers are [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure reasonable]]. Malloy is completely willing to bend the nitpicky rules, particularly in an episode like "Suspended" where Reed's job is at stake. The obnoxiously by-the-book officers are figures of humour, often [[ObstructiveBureaucrat Obstructive Bureaucrats]] in uniform...including the cop that replaces Reed in "Suspended".
* CampGay: The occasional run-ins with "out there" types. While Reed's reactions can sometimes stray toward [[LicensedSexist Licensed Homophobe]], Malloy and the show as a whole are non-judgmental.
* CannotTellAJoke: Reed. He spends a good portion of the finale of season one trying to tell Malloy a joke about ... a dog... and paint... or ''something'', suffering constant interruptions from calls (not his fault) and his own disjointed retelling (totally his fault), and then he's crushed when Malloy doesn't laugh, invoking SoUnfunnyItsFunny. Also, Reed obsessing over Malloy's failure to laugh, to the extent that he [[DontExplaintheJoke explains the joke]] and is ''offended'' that Pete doesn't find it amusing, is completely {{Adorkable}}.
* CoolCar: Webb set out to make the patrol car the third star of the show, featuring it and its functions as much as possible.
* CowboyBebopAtHisComputer:
** The car's name is ''sort of'' Adam-12; that's the unit's call sign. It's not exactly a "KITT from ''Knight Rider''" deal. And neither of the two fellows pictured at the top of the page are named Adam.
** There is, however, a third-season episode in which Malloy and Reed chase a stolen police car. When it runs out of gas, they discover it was taken by a kid who had just signed up to work at the police department's auto shop. When he recognizes their car, he says "Yeah, that's 1-Adam-12," suggesting that the car's ID matches the radio call sign.
** Dialouge in the season five episode, "Lost and Found," suggests the area Reed and Malloy patrol is a "district" known as "Adam-12." However, this is the ''{{Emergency}}'' cross-over and it may be that the character speaking, a woman working a suicide-prevention hotline at Rampart, doesn't understand what the designation means.
* CowboyCop: A big no in Jack Webb land. In the episode "A Dead Cop Can't Help Anyone", recurring officer Ed Wells is characterized as a cop of the cowboy variety. He learns his lesson... Via shotgun. He lives and is reeled in a bit, but he's still an almighty JerkAss.
* CPRCleanPrettyReliable: In the first episode, Malloy preforms CPR on a suffocated infant, who is fine and dandy seconds later.
* {{Crossover}}: with several other Jack Webb productions: ''{{Dragnet}}'', ''{{Emergency}}'', and the short-lived Robert Conrad vehicle, ''The D.A.''
* TheDanza: In an episode telecast 01/14/75, Riikka Pitkonen plays a character named Riikka Kekkonen.
* DeadSidekick:
** Malloy's previous partner, who was about Reed's age. His death was Malloy's [[MyGreatestFailure greatest failure]], over which he almost quits the force. Malloy is a bit of a FailureKnight in the first episode, but as Reed gains more experience he mellows.
** Early in the third season, there was an episode titled "Elegy for a Pig," where another of Malloy's closest friends both on and off the force was shot to death while trying to capture an armed robber. Officer Tom Porter is '''''NOT''''' the same policeman that was gunned down shortly before Reed joins the force, but another officer that went through the police academy at the same time that Malloy did. The episode itself showed Porter as he and Malloy became fast friends in the academy, and Porter's role as not just a police officer but a family man and friend (Reed also grows close to Porter), and Porter's finest moment as an officer -- helping to catch an escaped mental patient who was about to go on a deadly rampage. The episode ends with Porter's funeral and showing his grieving wife and children.
* DeadpanSnarker: Malloy.
* DeathGlare: An integral part of Malloy's repertoire.
* DirectedByCastMember: Season 4 episode "The Grandmothers" was directed by Ozzie Nelson, who also plays a robbery victim in one scene.
* DirtyCop: As with BadCopIncompetentCop, a few officers thought that their badge allowed them to operate outside the law; it was always Reed and/or Malloy who made them see otherwise. The most notable example was "Internal Affairs – Blackmail," where one of Malloy's best friends had secretly been blackmailing witnesses.
* DrivingTest: An expired license forces Malloy to allow Reed to drive in the third season episode "Vice Versa".
* EveryCarIsAPinto: In the first-season episode "Log 62 Grand Theft Horse?", a Ford Falcon Adam-12 is pursuing fails to make a turn and hits a tree. The engine explodes on impact (or, from the way it appeared, explodes ''just before impact.'') but the car isn't destroyed.
* {{Expy}}: Picture [[{{Dragnet}} Joe Friday]] in his uniform days. That's Malloy. Also, the team dynamic of happily-married X/confirmed-bachelor-playboy X is a typical feature of many other Jack Webb shows, including ''{{Emergency}}'' and ''{{Dragnet}}''.
* FemaleGaze: Reasonably attractive actors [[FairCop in tight cop uniforms]]. It's a CopShow, fair enough. But then there are {{Anvilicious}} seat-belt buckling scenes (because all good, socially responsible people buckle their seat-belts) and the camera likes to focus directly on Reed or Malloy's crotch while they perform the maneuver. Remember kids, buckle your seat-belts, and let it not be said, ladies, that Jack Webb never pandered to your interests.
* FiveFiveFive:
** A form of: LXI 483 seems to be the license number of a ''lot'' of cars in Los Angeles. It's the license number the dispatcher checks in the opening credits of the first two seasons and of several cars over the course of the series.
** One of the things Pacific Telephone had set up in Los Angeles County was a fake phone number in every exchange, consisting of the exchange number, the digit 1, and the exchange number, so a phone number like 282-1282 or 772-1772 would be a fake number. At least one guy asked for his phone number by the police gave a number in the exchange-1-exchange format. Of course, this was back when Los Angeles consisted of just area code 213, not the current 10+ area codes it has now.
* HappilyMarried: Jim and Jean Reed. Frequently averted with couples encountered on calls, who are often enmeshed in the MasochismTango or perplexing relationships where there is just NoAccountingForTaste.
* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: For the first three seasons, episode titles followed a "Log #: Descriptive Phrase" convention.
** Season six episodes follow a "X Division" naming convention with "X" standing in for the name of the division, such as Hollywood, Northwest, Rampart (Some season six archived on You Tube are misnamed).
* InfoDump: Pretty common in all Jack Webb shows. Here's Malloy in the first episode, running down the specs of [[CoolCar Adam-12]]:
-->Malloy: You know what this is?
-->Reed: (smiling) Yes sir, it's a police car.
-->Malloy: This ''black and white patrol car'' has an overhead valve V8 engine. It develops 325 horsepower at 4800 RPM's. It accelerates from 0 to 60 in seven seconds; it has a top speed of 120 miles an hour. It's equipped with a multi-channeled DFE radio and an electronic siren capable of admitting three variables: wail, yelp, and alert. It also serves as an outside radio speaker and public address system. The automobile has two shotgun racks - one attached to the bottom portion of the front seat, one in the vehicle trunk. Attached to the middle of the dash, illuminated by a single bulb, is a hot sheet desk, fastened to which you will always make sure is the latest one off the teletype before you ever roll.
-->Reed: Yes, sir.
-->Malloy: It's your life insurance...and ''mine''. You take care of it, and it'll take care of you.
-->Reed: Yes, sir. You want me to drive?
-->Malloy: (DeathGlare)
* InstrumentalThemeTune
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold / JerkassFacade: Malloy early on, particularly in episode one. Once he [[DefrostingIceQueen defrosts]] he's more just TheStoic.
** And then there's Ed Wells, who is a [[{{Jerkass}} jerk]] along the lines of a [[TheBully schoolyard bully]], but isn't all bad deep down.
* KnowNothingKnowItAll: A few examples:
** To a point, Officer Wells; although a very good officer, along with his [[{{Jerkass}} jerky]] behavior he often acts before he thinks, along the lines that his way is '''''the''''' way to handle a given situation ... only for the situation to be incorrectly handled.
** In the episode "Training Division," Wells was actually saddled with a "know-nothing know-it-all" rookie officer. Naturally, the rookie officer didn't last long on the force. (Several other episodes dealt with "know-nothing know-it-all" rookies and the consequences of their mistakes.)
* LampshadeHanging: In the pilot episode, Reed gives Malloy a reason to take the wheel. After that, Malloy ''always'' drives (continuity edits being easier that way).
** And in "Vice Versa" Malloy is physically unsettled that Reed is driving. It's some sort of meta-lampshading. Or maybe it's just [[RuleOfFunny funny]].
* LargeHam: Studiously averted by the regular cast, but fairly common among guest stars, often in "eccentric citizen" or "funny drunk" roles. Known Large Hams appearing in more than one episode include [[TheAlcoholic Foster Brooks]], [[BorschtBelt Norm Crosby]], and [[TheDickVanDykeShow Rose Marie]].
* NaiveNewcomer: Reed (in the first two seasons). A few one-off characters throughout the series.
* TheOtherDarrin: Jean Reed was played by two different actresses, and her incarnation in season seven is practically SameCharacterButDifferent. [[TheSeventies The decade]] can account for her radically different wardrobe and hairstyle choices, but also gone is the understanding Jean Reed who knew the risks and was happy anyway, until in the final episodes she almost seems to resent her husband's job.
* OnlySaneMan - Frequently both Reed and Malloy, when they're interacting with the odder elements of society. Malloy often feels this way among even his fellow officers.
** "The world is full of squirrels."
* OurMermaidsAreDifferent: The third season episode "Post Time" features Morey Amsterdam as a Printer named Jerry Mermaid, whose printing press is stolen.
-->'''Jerry Mermaid''': I'm Mermaid, Jerry Mermaid. And before you say anything, I've heard all the jokes! 'Oh, was your Dad a Crab and your Mother a Berracuda?' Ha ha ha!
** The line about knowing all the jokes could be an ActorAllusion to Amsterdam's reputation as "The Human Joke Machine".
* PoliceBrutality:
** In 1972's "Badge Heavy," we meet a rogue cop who thinks that criminals should be dealt with severely. Reed witnesses once such incident and tries to flush him from the department, but his complaint is determined to be unfounded (after the cop and the suspect lie about the incident, the officer claiming it was retaliation from another officer who was tired of his (unfunny) practical jokes). In the end, the officer's rant about asserting authority over suspects with brutal force leads to his downfall.
** While Malloy and Reed were both professional about their duties and kept their cool, Malloy blows it once in the 1974 episode "X-Force," where he is accused of roughing up a child molester he just arrested (after the creep had made a snide remark); Malloy is suspended for four days without pay for his mistake.
** Another episode – "Good Cop, Handle With Care" – has two freelance journalists trying to make Malloy and Reed out to be bad cops out to beat up people and arrest others at random. They seem to have found their catch after taking a seemingly incriminating photo of a drugged-out suspect with a broken nose (obtained by hitting his head against the seat frame of the police car, after he had gone into a seizure), but in the end the two rogue journalists end up (indirectly) causing a tragedy.
* PoliceProcedural
* PoorlyDisguisedPilot: Season 6, Episode 24's ''A Clinic on 18th Street'' is the pilot for a show featuring Fraud Division. The cast of the pilot (including future ''Series/{{Switch}}''[=/=]''Series/CagneyAndLacey'' star Sharon Gless who gets the WelcomeEpisode treatment), are all listed in the opening credits as "Special Guest Stars". Reed and Malloy only appear in the very begining and very ending of this story of a Doctor peddling electronic health belts to diabetics and fake blindness cures to little girls. Jack Webb directed, but not in his trademark ''{{Dragnet}}'' style.
* PreciousPuppies:
** In one episode Reed tries to give away his dog Queenie's "All American" puppies.
** In another episode, Reed and Malloy return to the squad car after having lunch only to find Reed had forgotten to roll up his window....allowing a German Shepherd named Luger to jump into Reed's seat.
--> '''Reed''': Well....he ''is'' a police dog....
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: The ''[[GratuitousFrench raison d'être]]'' of several of Jack Webb's productions is to portray the police and other avatars of the Establishment in this light.
* RedOniBlueOni: At least in the pilot, but subverted by the nature of Jack Webb procedurals. As the more learned and world-weary Malloy (Blue) starts to mold the impulsive, eager Reed (Red), they converge into a sort of Purple Oni. Adherence to reality - job codes, paperwork, procedure - is required at all times by the script and show philosophy, meaning the two never get to burn very brightly in their respective colors.
* [[RomanAClef Roman à Clef]]: Occasionally drifts into [[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory 'loose interpretation' territory]].
* TheSeventies: What happened to your hair, Reed? [[FashionDissonance Ah.]]
* ShoutOut: All non regular, non-corrupt background officers are named after actual LAPD policemen Webb had gotten to know all the way back to Dragnet's {{radio}} days.
* ShownTheirWork: As mentioned in the main description.
* StalkerWithACrush: The innocuous variety. An attractive young blonde begins showing up at the precinct, sends suggestive photos, and even tries to follow Malloy home. [[DoubleStandard It's okay because the stalker is a woman and Malloy is a man.]]
* StayInTheKitchen: Wells. He never stops complaining about the female officer who rides patrol with Malloy in one episode, though it does get toned down a little after she proves herself during a concert riot and even has to save him.
* TeamDad - Malloy, who in his [[DeadpanSnarker stern way]] sometimes chides other officers in the division that they should "listen to daddy." He's also of a rank and seniority that is "almost as good as a sergeant."
* TechnologyMarchesOn: Poor Malloy.
-->Reed: I can live without [helicopters].
-->Malloy: Don't be too sure. It wasn't so long ago we thought we could live without something else: the two-way radio. Remember?
-->Reed: That was before my time.
-->Malloy: (DeathGlare)
* TitleDrop: Constantly. Probably sets some sort of record.
** In addition, the title of an individual episode is often stated word-for-word in the episode.
* TotallyRadical: "Helicopters? That's dirty pool, man."
** Some of the "drug culture" dialogue is especially painful:
-->Junkie (to Malloy after being rescued from a burning building): Hey...I wanna...thank you...you saved our lives...you guys in the Fire Department...man, I'll tell ya...you're the greatest.
-->Malloy: Wrong department, friend. We're the police.
-->Junkie: Fuzz...lousy, stinking fuzz!
-->Malloy: Don't give it another thought.
* VerySpecialEpisode: The season three episode "Log 105: Elegy for a Pig." It's made more as a documentary. The regular opening credits were replaced by Jack Webb reading them over a black screen. Martin Milner narrated the episode in character. The policeman the episode revolves around, Tom Porter, had not been seen on screen before despite being a friend of Malloy and Reed's, going through the police academy with the former. No lines are spoken by any character on screen.
* TheVoice: Real-life LAPD dispatcher Shaaron Claridge.
** [[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0505386 Actually, Claridge appeared on-screen in one episode]], helping Malloy run plate numbers on a dispatch computer.
*** Claridge isn't shown full-face, either - only in an over-the-shoulder shot. It's possible she got recognized enough on her voice alone.
* WelcomeEpisode: Malloy shows Reed the ropes.
* WhatASenselessWasteOfHumanLife: Many episodes that depict the death of innocent (and sometimes, not-so-innocent) people. A few examples:
** "I Feel Like a Fool, Malloy": The episode-closing incident involves a 5-year-old girl who drowned in a swimming pool. The tyke is actually still alive – barely – as she is taken away by ambulance, but Reed and Malloy remark that her death is imminent. (The cops' response had been delayed because an elderly neighbor refused to help the inexperienced babysitter (the woman had called the police in mistaking the babysitter for a drugged-out girl wanting money for a hit), and only while checking out the loud happy chase-type music do Malloy and Reed realize the seriousness of the incident.)
** "Good Cop: Handle With Care": Two rouge freelance journalists, seeking to do a sensationalist story on police brutality, harass Malloy and Reed throughout the episode. Things reach their climax when the officers pull over a car matching the description of one used in an armed robbery. The journalists harass the officers as they're trying to take the suspects into custody just enough for one of the suspects to fire his gun ... and he ends up shooting an innocent passer-by across the street. The assailed – whom we quickly learn is a married father of three – later dies at the hospital of his wounds, and the officers muse about it in the tag scene.
** "Elegy for a Pig": See above.
* YouLookFamiliar: Gary Crosby was a part-time regular as Officer Ed Wells on Adam-12 and appeared in two different roles (the first time as a firefighter, the second time as a publicity-happy paramedic) in season one of ''{{Emergency}}''
----
PoliceProcedural, featuring Martin Milner as Officer Peter J. Malloy and Kent [=McCord=] as Officer James A. Reed, two Los Angeles cops partnered in a patrol car with the call sign "Adam-12". Produced by Jack Webb of ''{{Dragnet}}'' fame (and arguably a SpiritualSuccessor to that show), ''Adam-12'' was scrupulously accurate about police procedures of the period, to the point that several episodes were used in police academies as instructional films. The sense of realism was aided by casting actual L.A. police dispatcher Shaaron Claridge as the never-seen voice whose frequent calls of "One Adam Twelve! One Adam Twelve!" were virtually emblematic of the show.
The series ran 174 episodes on Creator/{{NBC}} between 1968 and 1975. There was a failed {{Revival}} in 1990-91.
The entire series has been released on DVD, and the first four seasons can currently be enjoyed [[http://www.hulu.com/adam-12 on Hulu]], [[OldMediaPlayingCatchUp assuming one is in the United States.]] As of January 2013, the show (along with the 60s/70s ''Radio/{{Dragnet}}'') airs weekday afternoons and Saturday/Sunday evenings on digital subchannel network Antenna TV.
----
!!Tropes:
* AffectionateParody: "Boredom-12", in ''Magazine/{{MAD}}''.
* TheAllegedCar: Malloy and Reed are assigned "The Beast," a patrol car only a few hundred miles away from its mandatory retirement, in the episode of the same title. It's so awful, Malloy even "lets" Reed drive for one of only a handful of times during the course of the series.
* AlwaysOnDuty: Webb did his best to avert this. It is made clear that our main characters are one team out of many working one shift out of many and that just as much happens off-camera as on.
* AuthorAvatar: Malloy seems to be one for Jack Webb in the pilot, especially when he slips into Joe Friday's talking style during the InfoDump listed below. (Webb directed the pilot).
* BadCopIncompetentCop: Several episodes dealt with officers who were ill-suited for the job or made major mistakes that put others (if not innocent bystanders, Reed and Malloy) in jeopardy. Other episodes – for example, "Pressure Point" – have rookie officers with various handicaps, and even though they are by all accounts good officers, it is their shortcomings (not necessarily through any fault of their own) that lead to trouble.
* BigBrotherMentor: At least one episode paid homage to Big Brothers Big Sisters, with both Malloy and Reed serving as mentors. The other usage is Malloy (the senior officer) serving as training officer for Reed in the early episodes.
* BottleEpisode: The season two episode "Light Duty" takes place entirely within the police department, as Reed and Malloy man the front desk for a night while a riot brews elsewhere in the city.
* BrandX: In the pilot there is one quick insert shot of the radio (one that doesn't quite match the radio usually shown in the car) that has tape over the Motorola name but leaves the M logo intact.
* BuddyCopShow
* ByTheBookCop: Most of the officers are [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure reasonable]]. Malloy is completely willing to bend the nitpicky rules, particularly in an episode like "Suspended" where Reed's job is at stake. The obnoxiously by-the-book officers are figures of humour, often [[ObstructiveBureaucrat Obstructive Bureaucrats]] in uniform...including the cop that replaces Reed in "Suspended".
* CampGay: The occasional run-ins with "out there" types. While Reed's reactions can sometimes stray toward [[LicensedSexist Licensed Homophobe]], Malloy and the show as a whole are non-judgmental.
* CannotTellAJoke: Reed. He spends a good portion of the finale of season one trying to tell Malloy a joke about ... a dog... and paint... or ''something'', suffering constant interruptions from calls (not his fault) and his own disjointed retelling (totally his fault), and then he's crushed when Malloy doesn't laugh, invoking SoUnfunnyItsFunny. Also, Reed obsessing over Malloy's failure to laugh, to the extent that he [[DontExplaintheJoke explains the joke]] and is ''offended'' that Pete doesn't find it amusing, is completely {{Adorkable}}.
* CoolCar: Webb set out to make the patrol car the third star of the show, featuring it and its functions as much as possible.
* CowboyBebopAtHisComputer:
** The car's name is ''sort of'' Adam-12; that's the unit's call sign. It's not exactly a "KITT from ''Knight Rider''" deal. And neither of the two fellows pictured at the top of the page are named Adam.
** There is, however, a third-season episode in which Malloy and Reed chase a stolen police car. When it runs out of gas, they discover it was taken by a kid who had just signed up to work at the police department's auto shop. When he recognizes their car, he says "Yeah, that's 1-Adam-12," suggesting that the car's ID matches the radio call sign.
** Dialouge in the season five episode, "Lost and Found," suggests the area Reed and Malloy patrol is a "district" known as "Adam-12." However, this is the ''{{Emergency}}'' cross-over and it may be that the character speaking, a woman working a suicide-prevention hotline at Rampart, doesn't understand what the designation means.
* CowboyCop: A big no in Jack Webb land. In the episode "A Dead Cop Can't Help Anyone", recurring officer Ed Wells is characterized as a cop of the cowboy variety. He learns his lesson... Via shotgun. He lives and is reeled in a bit, but he's still an almighty JerkAss.
* CPRCleanPrettyReliable: In the first episode, Malloy preforms CPR on a suffocated infant, who is fine and dandy seconds later.
* {{Crossover}}: with several other Jack Webb productions: ''{{Dragnet}}'', ''{{Emergency}}'', and the short-lived Robert Conrad vehicle, ''The D.A.''
* TheDanza: In an episode telecast 01/14/75, Riikka Pitkonen plays a character named Riikka Kekkonen.
* DeadSidekick:
** Malloy's previous partner, who was about Reed's age. His death was Malloy's [[MyGreatestFailure greatest failure]], over which he almost quits the force. Malloy is a bit of a FailureKnight in the first episode, but as Reed gains more experience he mellows.
** Early in the third season, there was an episode titled "Elegy for a Pig," where another of Malloy's closest friends both on and off the force was shot to death while trying to capture an armed robber. Officer Tom Porter is '''''NOT''''' the same policeman that was gunned down shortly before Reed joins the force, but another officer that went through the police academy at the same time that Malloy did. The episode itself showed Porter as he and Malloy became fast friends in the academy, and Porter's role as not just a police officer but a family man and friend (Reed also grows close to Porter), and Porter's finest moment as an officer -- helping to catch an escaped mental patient who was about to go on a deadly rampage. The episode ends with Porter's funeral and showing his grieving wife and children.
* DeadpanSnarker: Malloy.
* DeathGlare: An integral part of Malloy's repertoire.
* DirectedByCastMember: Season 4 episode "The Grandmothers" was directed by Ozzie Nelson, who also plays a robbery victim in one scene.
* DirtyCop: As with BadCopIncompetentCop, a few officers thought that their badge allowed them to operate outside the law; it was always Reed and/or Malloy who made them see otherwise. The most notable example was "Internal Affairs – Blackmail," where one of Malloy's best friends had secretly been blackmailing witnesses.
* DrivingTest: An expired license forces Malloy to allow Reed to drive in the third season episode "Vice Versa".
* EveryCarIsAPinto: In the first-season episode "Log 62 Grand Theft Horse?", a Ford Falcon Adam-12 is pursuing fails to make a turn and hits a tree. The engine explodes on impact (or, from the way it appeared, explodes ''just before impact.'') but the car isn't destroyed.
* {{Expy}}: Picture [[{{Dragnet}} Joe Friday]] in his uniform days. That's Malloy. Also, the team dynamic of happily-married X/confirmed-bachelor-playboy X is a typical feature of many other Jack Webb shows, including ''{{Emergency}}'' and ''{{Dragnet}}''.
* FemaleGaze: Reasonably attractive actors [[FairCop in tight cop uniforms]]. It's a CopShow, fair enough. But then there are {{Anvilicious}} seat-belt buckling scenes (because all good, socially responsible people buckle their seat-belts) and the camera likes to focus directly on Reed or Malloy's crotch while they perform the maneuver. Remember kids, buckle your seat-belts, and let it not be said, ladies, that Jack Webb never pandered to your interests.
* FiveFiveFive:
** A form of: LXI 483 seems to be the license number of a ''lot'' of cars in Los Angeles. It's the license number the dispatcher checks in the opening credits of the first two seasons and of several cars over the course of the series.
** One of the things Pacific Telephone had set up in Los Angeles County was a fake phone number in every exchange, consisting of the exchange number, the digit 1, and the exchange number, so a phone number like 282-1282 or 772-1772 would be a fake number. At least one guy asked for his phone number by the police gave a number in the exchange-1-exchange format. Of course, this was back when Los Angeles consisted of just area code 213, not the current 10+ area codes it has now.
* HappilyMarried: Jim and Jean Reed. Frequently averted with couples encountered on calls, who are often enmeshed in the MasochismTango or perplexing relationships where there is just NoAccountingForTaste.
* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: For the first three seasons, episode titles followed a "Log #: Descriptive Phrase" convention.
** Season six episodes follow a "X Division" naming convention with "X" standing in for the name of the division, such as Hollywood, Northwest, Rampart (Some season six archived on You Tube are misnamed).
* InfoDump: Pretty common in all Jack Webb shows. Here's Malloy in the first episode, running down the specs of [[CoolCar Adam-12]]:
-->Malloy: You know what this is?
-->Reed: (smiling) Yes sir, it's a police car.
-->Malloy: This ''black and white patrol car'' has an overhead valve V8 engine. It develops 325 horsepower at 4800 RPM's. It accelerates from 0 to 60 in seven seconds; it has a top speed of 120 miles an hour. It's equipped with a multi-channeled DFE radio and an electronic siren capable of admitting three variables: wail, yelp, and alert. It also serves as an outside radio speaker and public address system. The automobile has two shotgun racks - one attached to the bottom portion of the front seat, one in the vehicle trunk. Attached to the middle of the dash, illuminated by a single bulb, is a hot sheet desk, fastened to which you will always make sure is the latest one off the teletype before you ever roll.
-->Reed: Yes, sir.
-->Malloy: It's your life insurance...and ''mine''. You take care of it, and it'll take care of you.
-->Reed: Yes, sir. You want me to drive?
-->Malloy: (DeathGlare)
* InstrumentalThemeTune
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold / JerkassFacade: Malloy early on, particularly in episode one. Once he [[DefrostingIceQueen defrosts]] he's more just TheStoic.
** And then there's Ed Wells, who is a [[{{Jerkass}} jerk]] along the lines of a [[TheBully schoolyard bully]], but isn't all bad deep down.
* KnowNothingKnowItAll: A few examples:
** To a point, Officer Wells; although a very good officer, along with his [[{{Jerkass}} jerky]] behavior he often acts before he thinks, along the lines that his way is '''''the''''' way to handle a given situation ... only for the situation to be incorrectly handled.
** In the episode "Training Division," Wells was actually saddled with a "know-nothing know-it-all" rookie officer. Naturally, the rookie officer didn't last long on the force. (Several other episodes dealt with "know-nothing know-it-all" rookies and the consequences of their mistakes.)
* LampshadeHanging: In the pilot episode, Reed gives Malloy a reason to take the wheel. After that, Malloy ''always'' drives (continuity edits being easier that way).
** And in "Vice Versa" Malloy is physically unsettled that Reed is driving. It's some sort of meta-lampshading. Or maybe it's just [[RuleOfFunny funny]].
* LargeHam: Studiously averted by the regular cast, but fairly common among guest stars, often in "eccentric citizen" or "funny drunk" roles. Known Large Hams appearing in more than one episode include [[TheAlcoholic Foster Brooks]], [[BorschtBelt Norm Crosby]], and [[TheDickVanDykeShow Rose Marie]].
* NaiveNewcomer: Reed (in the first two seasons). A few one-off characters throughout the series.
* TheOtherDarrin: Jean Reed was played by two different actresses, and her incarnation in season seven is practically SameCharacterButDifferent. [[TheSeventies The decade]] can account for her radically different wardrobe and hairstyle choices, but also gone is the understanding Jean Reed who knew the risks and was happy anyway, until in the final episodes she almost seems to resent her husband's job.
* OnlySaneMan - Frequently both Reed and Malloy, when they're interacting with the odder elements of society. Malloy often feels this way among even his fellow officers.
** "The world is full of squirrels."
* OurMermaidsAreDifferent: The third season episode "Post Time" features Morey Amsterdam as a Printer named Jerry Mermaid, whose printing press is stolen.
-->'''Jerry Mermaid''': I'm Mermaid, Jerry Mermaid. And before you say anything, I've heard all the jokes! 'Oh, was your Dad a Crab and your Mother a Berracuda?' Ha ha ha!
** The line about knowing all the jokes could be an ActorAllusion to Amsterdam's reputation as "The Human Joke Machine".
* PoliceBrutality:
** In 1972's "Badge Heavy," we meet a rogue cop who thinks that criminals should be dealt with severely. Reed witnesses once such incident and tries to flush him from the department, but his complaint is determined to be unfounded (after the cop and the suspect lie about the incident, the officer claiming it was retaliation from another officer who was tired of his (unfunny) practical jokes). In the end, the officer's rant about asserting authority over suspects with brutal force leads to his downfall.
** While Malloy and Reed were both professional about their duties and kept their cool, Malloy blows it once in the 1974 episode "X-Force," where he is accused of roughing up a child molester he just arrested (after the creep had made a snide remark); Malloy is suspended for four days without pay for his mistake.
** Another episode – "Good Cop, Handle With Care" – has two freelance journalists trying to make Malloy and Reed out to be bad cops out to beat up people and arrest others at random. They seem to have found their catch after taking a seemingly incriminating photo of a drugged-out suspect with a broken nose (obtained by hitting his head against the seat frame of the police car, after he had gone into a seizure), but in the end the two rogue journalists end up (indirectly) causing a tragedy.
* PoliceProcedural
* PoorlyDisguisedPilot: Season 6, Episode 24's ''A Clinic on 18th Street'' is the pilot for a show featuring Fraud Division. The cast of the pilot (including future ''Series/{{Switch}}''[=/=]''Series/CagneyAndLacey'' star Sharon Gless who gets the WelcomeEpisode treatment), are all listed in the opening credits as "Special Guest Stars". Reed and Malloy only appear in the very begining and very ending of this story of a Doctor peddling electronic health belts to diabetics and fake blindness cures to little girls. Jack Webb directed, but not in his trademark ''{{Dragnet}}'' style.
* PreciousPuppies:
** In one episode Reed tries to give away his dog Queenie's "All American" puppies.
** In another episode, Reed and Malloy return to the squad car after having lunch only to find Reed had forgotten to roll up his window....allowing a German Shepherd named Luger to jump into Reed's seat.
--> '''Reed''': Well....he ''is'' a police dog....
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: The ''[[GratuitousFrench raison d'être]]'' of several of Jack Webb's productions is to portray the police and other avatars of the Establishment in this light.
* RedOniBlueOni: At least in the pilot, but subverted by the nature of Jack Webb procedurals. As the more learned and world-weary Malloy (Blue) starts to mold the impulsive, eager Reed (Red), they converge into a sort of Purple Oni. Adherence to reality - job codes, paperwork, procedure - is required at all times by the script and show philosophy, meaning the two never get to burn very brightly in their respective colors.
* [[RomanAClef Roman à Clef]]: Occasionally drifts into [[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory 'loose interpretation' territory]].
* TheSeventies: What happened to your hair, Reed? [[FashionDissonance Ah.]]
* ShoutOut: All non regular, non-corrupt background officers are named after actual LAPD policemen Webb had gotten to know all the way back to Dragnet's {{radio}} days.
* ShownTheirWork: As mentioned in the main description.
* StalkerWithACrush: The innocuous variety. An attractive young blonde begins showing up at the precinct, sends suggestive photos, and even tries to follow Malloy home. [[DoubleStandard It's okay because the stalker is a woman and Malloy is a man.]]
* StayInTheKitchen: Wells. He never stops complaining about the female officer who rides patrol with Malloy in one episode, though it does get toned down a little after she proves herself during a concert riot and even has to save him.
* TeamDad - Malloy, who in his [[DeadpanSnarker stern way]] sometimes chides other officers in the division that they should "listen to daddy." He's also of a rank and seniority that is "almost as good as a sergeant."
* TechnologyMarchesOn: Poor Malloy.
-->Reed: I can live without [helicopters].
-->Malloy: Don't be too sure. It wasn't so long ago we thought we could live without something else: the two-way radio. Remember?
-->Reed: That was before my time.
-->Malloy: (DeathGlare)
* TitleDrop: Constantly. Probably sets some sort of record.
** In addition, the title of an individual episode is often stated word-for-word in the episode.
* TotallyRadical: "Helicopters? That's dirty pool, man."
** Some of the "drug culture" dialogue is especially painful:
-->Junkie (to Malloy after being rescued from a burning building): Hey...I wanna...thank you...you saved our lives...you guys in the Fire Department...man, I'll tell ya...you're the greatest.
-->Malloy: Wrong department, friend. We're the police.
-->Junkie: Fuzz...lousy, stinking fuzz!
-->Malloy: Don't give it another thought.
* VerySpecialEpisode: The season three episode "Log 105: Elegy for a Pig." It's made more as a documentary. The regular opening credits were replaced by Jack Webb reading them over a black screen. Martin Milner narrated the episode in character. The policeman the episode revolves around, Tom Porter, had not been seen on screen before despite being a friend of Malloy and Reed's, going through the police academy with the former. No lines are spoken by any character on screen.
* TheVoice: Real-life LAPD dispatcher Shaaron Claridge.
** [[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0505386 Actually, Claridge appeared on-screen in one episode]], helping Malloy run plate numbers on a dispatch computer.
*** Claridge isn't shown full-face, either - only in an over-the-shoulder shot. It's possible she got recognized enough on her voice alone.
* WelcomeEpisode: Malloy shows Reed the ropes.
* WhatASenselessWasteOfHumanLife: Many episodes that depict the death of innocent (and sometimes, not-so-innocent) people. A few examples:
** "I Feel Like a Fool, Malloy": The episode-closing incident involves a 5-year-old girl who drowned in a swimming pool. The tyke is actually still alive – barely – as she is taken away by ambulance, but Reed and Malloy remark that her death is imminent. (The cops' response had been delayed because an elderly neighbor refused to help the inexperienced babysitter (the woman had called the police in mistaking the babysitter for a drugged-out girl wanting money for a hit), and only while checking out the loud happy chase-type music do Malloy and Reed realize the seriousness of the incident.)
** "Good Cop: Handle With Care": Two rouge freelance journalists, seeking to do a sensationalist story on police brutality, harass Malloy and Reed throughout the episode. Things reach their climax when the officers pull over a car matching the description of one used in an armed robbery. The journalists harass the officers as they're trying to take the suspects into custody just enough for one of the suspects to fire his gun ... and he ends up shooting an innocent passer-by across the street. The assailed – whom we quickly learn is a married father of three – later dies at the hospital of his wounds, and the officers muse about it in the tag scene.
** "Elegy for a Pig": See above.
* YouLookFamiliar: Gary Crosby was a part-time regular as Officer Ed Wells on Adam-12 and appeared in two different roles (the first time as a firefighter, the second time as a publicity-happy paramedic) in season one of ''{{Emergency}}''
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