Adam-12

... is this unfairly forgotten TV series that actually lasted longer than either series that chronicles the professional lives of two LA police officers as they patrol the streets.

This was one of several successful TV series that Jack Webb produced. From the start it dealt with modern topics while sticking with that buddy cop formula that Webb did so well. Also like Dragnet, one cop is single and one is married. This time, however, it is the rookie patrolman who is married and starting a family when the series premieres, and it is the older cop who is as close to a confirmed bachelor as you could be in 1968 without raising middle class eyebrows. There is usually one personal issue that the two cops discuss while on patrol as well as the following of a few cases that they encounter while on the job. You'll notice that the format is very similar to that of Emergency!

Jack Webb stays with the formula that served him so well - keep production costs down, use a core group of actors for supporting roles, have some entertaining conversational interplay between teammates, and keep the focus on the situation of the week. If you like Dragnet or Emergency! Give this old series a try.

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.

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).

A great TV Police Show of the 1960's, and in fact only one of the very few that I would ever watch. So good in fact, that I joined the Police in 1970, and was a Police Officer until 2003. Yes, this show was very down to earth with its stories, and a great example of the every day to day duties performed by uniform Police (its the same "Job" all over the world!).

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!