Adam-12

Adam-12 is the best cop show before Cagney & Lacey, & NYPD Blue. Martin Millner plays Officer Pete Malloy Badge #744 and his partner Officer Jim Reed Badge #2430 played by Kent McCord was great.

After the first season of the show, there were changes. The 8 point caps that they wear changed to round. Reed's hair grow in every season. and they begain to wear nametags in the second season.

I like it.

I give it *****.

This is a wonderful show that I really enjoyed as a child! The very first episode, originally airing on 9/21/68, was a classic. Pete Malloy is disgruntled and about to quit the force after his patrol partner's death in a warehouse shooting, and is assigned rookie cop Jim Reed, age 23 and fresh out of the LA police academy. That first day, the officers break up a fight between two men over a lady on the street, then they chase two robbers in a big 1959 Buick four-door that crashes and burns in a canal confluence - this is a breathtaking sequence - that Buick is HUGE with the big canted fins! Malloy finishes his day by giving mouth to mouth to an infant who had stopped breathing. All in a day's work! A portent of good things to come over the next seven years. Watch it, get videos - you won't regret it!

This has got to be the best TV series I've ever seen. It has clean drama, humor, and action, and best of all, everything *really happened.* It's a superb look at a policeman's life, and after every episode I have even more respect for those who risk their lives to keep us safe.

The title is my attempt to honor the classic Johnny Carson "Claude Cooper copper clappers" bit with Jack Webb. As a kid I tried to never miss an episode of any Jack Webb series. Adam 12 being one of them. I really enjoyed how the relationship between Reed and Malloy developed throughout out the seasons. From the beginning when Malloy was a bit distant from his partner but still very mother hen-like to the later years when the two were comfortable with each other and taking little jabs at each other between calls.

One of my favorites was the episode when Reed's wife was pregnant, and the Reeds, Malloy, and his girl friend were trapped in a ghost town by a motorcycle gang. That episode still stands out in my mind. I enjoyed how the series dealt with more day to day stuff than the impossible situations shown in many other cop shows. It was amazing how a day's work could be squeezed into a 30 min show (22 w/o commercials).

Around 1975, I heard a police officer call Adam-12 the most realistic police show ever. In 1999, I heard a recently retired police officer say the same thing. It's hard to top those reviews.

All I'll add is that it had the best casting of any TV show I've seen.