"1-Adam-12, 1-Adam-12, please respond to a 10-101 ... sighting of tropes seen in this episode":
Chase Scene: What would be a rarity in Adam-12, but this, the pilot episode, sees Malloy and Reed pursue two liquor store robbers down a highway under construction, until the bad guys' car crashes off the end of the completed section of highway. The crash stuns the crooks long enough for Reed to easily help Malloy apprehend them and make his first bust.
Every Car Is a Pinto: Averted, in a way ... the car (a 1959 Buick LeSabre) used by the liquor store robbers in their getaway doesn't blow up spectacularly explode upon impact, or even after a few seconds. Instead, a fire that starts in the engine compartment slowly begins to build before really taking off, and there is plenty of time for Malloy and Reed to pull them from the car before heavy smoke and then flames overtake the passenger compartment.
"Not So Different" Remark: Malloy goes through the long list of things that Reed needs to work on, saying to his Lieutenant that the only thing Reed does well is "wear the uniform right". The Lieutenant replies that when he was a patrolman he made the same complaints about some hot-shot rookie his watch commander had stuck him with; a rookie named Pete Malloy.
Oh, Crap!: When, in the final act (a disturbance at a neighborhood park) Malloy hears gunshots and sees Reed nowhere around, he thinks Reed has been gunned down.
"The Reason You Suck" Speech: "You're not supposed to think yet, Junior! It's when you start thinking before you're supposed to think that you think yourself dead!" Those are a royally pissed-off Malloy's words to Reed after the latter busts a pair of teenaged gunmen creating a disturbance at a neighborhood park. Reed had been explicitly told by Malloy to position himself at a tree and hold until further instructions, but Reed saw an opportunity to capture the two youths.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: Very evident in this episode, especially in the final scene where the officers are told of gunshots going off at a local park and Reed wanting to capture the crooks on his own. While Reed probably went by the book and knew what he was doing, the reason Malloy was so upset with his rookie partner was for that very reason: He's a rookie and he put himself (and others) in danger by disobeying a direct order to stay positioned by a tree until told to move.
10-Minute Retirement: In the opening act, it's established that Pete Malloy, a 10-year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department's Adam-12 Division, is so grief-stricken by the death of his previous beat partner – he had been killed in the line of duty just weeks earlier – that he is planning on retiring. This, on the night a good-looking young man named James Reed has his first night on duty. Malloy's lieutenant is barely successful in talking him into showing Reed the ropes, even if only for the first night. In the end, it's averted: Malloy sees that Reed has a lot of potential, but sees the need to turn this eager young rookie into one of L.A.'s finest ... which he would.
The Backstory of Malloy's recently-deceased beat partner, killed during a shootout. In the disturbance at the park, Malloy briefly goes through this again when he hears gunshots and doesn't see Reed anywhere around, although Reed will turn out unharmed, both suspects in hand.
Earlier in the episode, Reed has this moment when he and Malloy respond to a medical emergency at a residence, where a young couple's baby girl has quit breathing. Malloy is able to use CPR to save the baby's life and avert the trope. Malloy even tells the little girl, who is by now crying robustly (with her parents): "You swim the English Channel; you've got the lungs for it!"
