50 Fun Facts About Adam-12

Which two LAPD officers are the central characters of Adam-12?

Malloy is the veteran field-training officer; Reed starts the series as a rookie on probation.

In which year did Adam-12 premiere?

It stayed on the air until May 1975.

What is Jim Reed's status when the series begins?

Malloy is assigned as his field training officer and, after his probation, the two simply stay partners.

Jack Webb's production company, which made Adam-12 with Universal Television, was called what?

The show was created by Robert A. Cinader and Webb, and made in cooperation with the real LAPD.

On which network did Adam-12 originally air?

It ran for seven seasons and 174 half-hour episodes.

How many episodes of the original Adam-12 were made?

The finale aired on 20 May 1975.

In LAPD radio code, what does the 'Adam' in '1-Adam-12' signify?

The LAPD's phonetic alphabet renders the letter A as 'Adam'; the '1' is the division and '12' the reporting district.

Why could a real police unit never have carried the call sign 1-Adam-12 during the show's run?

The department finally activated a genuine 1-Adam-12 unit in Central Division in 2003.

Despite a Central Division call sign, which real LAPD station did Malloy and Reed work from?

The Rampart Police Station on West Temple Street closed in 2008.

What make of car did Adam-12 drive in the pilot and first three seasons?

A 1967 model in the pilot gave way to 1968 and 1969 versions.

From the fifth season onward, Adam-12's black-and-white was which model?

The Satellite had served for season four; the Matador carried shop number 85012.

What was Malloy's plan at the very start of the series, before he was assigned to train Reed?

His previous partner had died; Reed's single-handed arrest of armed suspects convinced him to stay.

How long was Reed's probationary period, which Malloy stayed on to guide him through?

The first two seasons were not chronological, so Reed's stated time on the force varied episode to episode.

What running joke about the patrol car recurs throughout the series?

Reed is the family man of the pair, married to Jean with a son, Jimmy.

What is Malloy's badge number?

Reed's badge is 2430; Joe Friday's famous 714 belongs to Dragnet.

Who played Sergeant 'Mac' MacDonald, the watch commander?

MacDonald always drove the station-wagon version of the patrol car.

Officer Ed Wells, Malloy's friend, was played by the son of which famous crooner?

One plan to keep the show going would have promoted Malloy away and made Wells the lead.

What other job got Fred Stromsoe (Officer Jerry Woods) credited in every episode?

He is one of the few people besides the two leads credited on all 174 episodes.

How were the driving scenes filmed?

A script supervisor lay on the floor of the back seat reading the radio dispatcher's lines aloud.

What did Jack Webb have removed from the car for the pilot because sky reflections hid the actors' faces?

The result was blowing hair and audio problems, so the prop department restored it and built an overhead shield instead.

Adam-12 shares a fictional universe with Dragnet and which other Jack Webb series about LA paramedics?

Malloy and Reed appeared in the Emergency! pilot movie, and the Emergency! cast turned up in the Adam-12 episode 'Lost and Found'.

Which recurring Adam-12 investigator was often shown in different divisions, similar to Joe Friday?

He was played by Jack Hogan and handled the investigations Malloy and Reed fed into, mostly in early seasons.

Which future NCIS star guest-starred as rookie Officer Gus Corbin in a late episode?

He was one of several actors tested as a possible replacement for Milner.

Jo Ann Pflug played Officer Dana Hall, notable at the time for what?

Wells and other officers mocked her, but Reed treated her as an equal.

Which sketch-comedy show featured Milner and McCord in cameos as their Adam-12 characters?

The cameos came in the fifth season of the show.

Which 2003 blockbuster includes '1-Adam-12' audible on a police radio feed?

By then the LAPD had activated a real unit with the call sign in Central Division.

Which two events happen to Reed in the series finale?

Malloy, meanwhile, is lined up for promotion to sergeant.

Martin Milner left Adam-12 after signing to play a father in which short-lived 1975 adventure series?

The birth of Kent McCord's son days before the finale aired took him off the show too, and the series ended.

Before Adam-12, Martin Milner starred as Tod Stiles in which 1960s road series?

That show was shot on location, so he spent nearly four years driving across the United States.

Martin Milner made his film debut in 1947, aged 14, in which movie starring William Powell?

He soon followed it with a minor role alongside John Wayne in Sands of Iwo Jima.

What is Kent McCord's real surname?

He used his real name on The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet in 1962 before adopting the stage name.

Kent McCord became a close friend of which teen idol while appearing 44 times on his family's sitcom?

He also had small parts in five Elvis Presley films.

After Adam-12, Kent McCord played Captain Troy in which sci-fi spin-off?

The short-lived spin-off ran for ten episodes.

The 1990–91 revival's lead, Officer Matt Doyle, was played by a son of which Hollywood legend?

Ethan Wayne took the role, with Peter Parros as Officer Gus Grant; Milner and McCord made two guest appearances.

How many episodes did The New Adam-12 run, airing consecutively for a full calendar year?

Two seasons of 26 episodes ran from 24 September 1990 to 16 September 1991.

Which planned Jack Webb project, with Kent McCord as Joe Friday's partner, was cancelled by Webb's death in 1982?

Webb's sudden death ended the era of his police procedurals.

Which Leave It to Beaver star appeared with his real brother in 'Log 61: The Runaway'?

Tony Dow, TV's Wally, later played a young Marine victimised by a car-theft ring in another episode.

Which singer's son played a disturbed man holding a stewardess hostage in the episode 'Sub-Station'?

He appeared three times on the show in different roles.

Which future Cagney & Lacey star guest-starred in 'Clinic on Eighteenth Street'?

She later co-starred in Burn Notice on USA Network.

Where were most scenes in the earlier seasons filmed?

Courthouse Square and Colonial Street doubled for Los Angeles neighbourhoods.

Who composed the music for Adam-12?

Comstock was a Jack Webb regular; the show's clipped radio-call theme became instantly recognisable.

What was the title of the very first episode, filmed in September 1967 before the pilot was picked up?

Early episodes all carried 'Log' numbers in their titles.

Who co-created Adam-12 with Jack Webb?

Cinader and Webb went on to create the paramedic drama Emergency!, set in the same fictional universe.

In which year did the original run of Adam-12 end?

The series ran seven seasons from September 21, 1968, to May 20, 1975.

Who voiced the radio operator heard in almost every episode?

Claridge treated acting as a side job until she retired from the LAPD in 1990.

What does the '1' in the call sign 1-Adam-12 indicate?

Rampart Division, where the pair's station actually belonged, uses '2' as its prefix.

What is the name of Jim Reed's wife in the series?

She was played by several actresses, including Mikki Jamison and Kristin Nelson; a son, Jim Jr., appears in season two.

Which two Universal backlot areas hosted most of the early-season filming?

From the third and fourth seasons the show shifted to real Los Angeles and San Fernando Valley locations.

Which actor played Detective Sergeant Jerry Miller and also helicopter pilot Lt. Fred Benson?

Miller's role shrank after season two, with Sergeant Mac largely taking over as Central Division's on-screen commander.

Which company acquired the DVD distribution rights to Adam-12 from Universal in 2008?

Universal had put out season one itself in August 2005.