38 Fun Facts About Adam-12

In the call sign 1-Adam-12, what does the "12" identify?

The car's assigned patrol area. The LAPD says no real unit ever carried that designation until 2003, when it put a 1-Adam-12 car on the street in the show's honour.

What is Jim Reed's status when Adam-12 begins?

A rookie on probation, out on his very first patrol. He ignores Malloy's orders on a shooting call, arrests the gunmen single-handed, and earns himself a partner for seven seasons.

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

Mark VII Limited, whose hammer-and-stamp logo closed every episode. Webb's shows stood so close to the LAPD that when he died in 1982 the department buried him with full police honours.

On which network did Adam-12 originally air?

NBC, for all seven seasons. The 1990 revival, by contrast, had no network at all: it was sold station by station in syndication.

For its first three seasons, every Adam-12 episode title began with which word?

Log, followed by a number. The numbers were never in order, though: the pilot was number 1, and the very next episode to air was number 141.

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

A two-officer patrol unit; 'Adam' is simply how LAPD radio says the letter A. An officer riding alone is an L, or 'Lincoln', which is why Sergeant MacDonald answers to 1-L-20.

Which real LAPD station did Malloy and Reed work from in Adam-12?

Rampart, even though the call sign 1-Adam-12 marks a Central Division car: real Rampart units carry the prefix 2, not 1.

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

Plymouth Belvedere. The pilot's car was a genuine LAPD cruiser on loan; after that the studio bought civilian models from dealers and dressed them to match department specifications.

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

1972 AMC Matador, the model the real LAPD had just switched to. Jack Webb wanted the patrol car treated as a character in its own right, and this one kept the part until the final episode.

In Adam-12's first episode, what is Malloy planning to do before the night changes his mind?

To resign from the LAPD. Malloy is shaken by his partner's death in the line of duty, but a new partner's nerve on a shooting call that night persuades him to stay.

Which future Oscar winner appeared as a little girl in a 1970 Adam-12 episode about a missing child?

Jodie Foster. At seven she played the missing girl's playmate, one of a run of television parts that made her a screen veteran years before Taxi Driver.

Who played Sergeant 'Mac' MacDonald, the watch commander on Adam-12?

William Boyett. Jack Webb had used him as a policeman on Dragnet and cast him as the low-key but authoritative 'Mac', a part he kept for all seven seasons.

On Adam-12, Officer Ed Wells was played by the son of which famous crooner?

Bing Crosby. His son Gary played the wisecracking Wells, and Frank Sinatra's son worked the same beat: Frank Sinatra Jr. guest-starred three times, first as a hostage-taker and later as a fellow officer.

What did Jack Webb have removed from the patrol car on the first morning of shooting Adam-12's pilot?

The windshield. Webb disliked the sky's reflections hiding his actors, but with the glass out their hair blew about, so it went back in under a purpose-built shade.

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

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

In which 1989 TV movie did Milner and McCord reunite, playing former LAPD partners far from Los Angeles?

Nashville Beat. McCord, who also had a story credit, plays a Los Angeles cop visiting his old partner, now a police captain in Tennessee, and the two take on a gang together.

Which future NCIS star guest-starred as rookie Officer Gus Corbin in a late Adam-12 episode?

Mark Harmon, whose older sister was playing Reed's wife that season. His eager rookie loses his own gun in a foot chase and still brings the suspect in unarmed.

In a 1975 Adam-12 episode, Jo Ann Pflug's Officer Dana Hall is a woman assigned to what, unusually for the time?

Patrol duty. Wells and the others jeer that the street is no place for a woman, but Reed treats his new partner as an equal and she holds her own on every call.

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

Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In. Milner and McCord dropped in several times as Malloy and Reed, mostly staying in character and trading quips from the front seat of their car.

After Adam-12, Martin Milner played the father in which short-lived 1975 adventure series?

The Swiss Family Robinson. Milner went straight from the patrol car to Irwin Allen's castaway series as Adam-12 ended, but where the police show ran seven seasons, the Robinsons lasted one.

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

Route 66, filmed on the road all over North America as Tod and his buddy drifted from town to town in a Corvette. Milner then spent seven more seasons at the wheel of a patrol car.

Adam-12's Martin Milner made his screen debut in Life with Father at 14, then spent a year recovering from which disease?

Polio. He caught it within two weeks of finishing the picture; bedridden for the best part of a year, he recovered to spend most of his career behind the wheel of a Corvette and a patrol car.

While Malloy and Reed patrol in a sedan, Sergeant MacDonald always drives which version of the same car?

A station wagon. As the field supervisor he carries the heavy equipment, including a riot gun that fires tear gas, which is why he turns up whenever a call becomes a stand-off.

Kent McCord became a close friend of which teen idol early in his career?

Rick Nelson. They met at a touch-football game in which Nelson captained one team and Elvis Presley the other, and the friendship led to McCord's first acting job, on the Nelsons' own sitcom.

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

Galactica 1980. His Captain Troy turns out to be Boxey, the small boy of the original Battlestar Galactica, now grown up and sent down to present-day Earth.

The lead of the 1990 Adam-12 revival, Officer Matt Doyle, was played by a son of which Hollywood legend?

John Wayne. Ethan Wayne, named after his father's character in The Searchers, had played the Duke's grandson in Big Jake as a boy before he inherited the famous patrol car.

Which TV host guest-starred on Adam-12 as a drag-strip owner who helps the officers get racers off the streets?

Dick Clark. In 'Who Won?' Malloy and Reed fight illegal street racing by steering rival clubs onto his legal strip, where Reed ends up lining up against fellow officer Ed Wells.

Which Jack Webb project, due to feature Kent McCord, was abandoned when Webb died in 1982?

A third Dragnet series. Webb spoke to McCord about the revival only days before his fatal heart attack that December, and the project died with him; accounts differ on the part McCord was to play.

Where were most scenes in Adam-12's earlier seasons filmed?

The Universal Studios lot. Its Colonial Street, known decades later as Wisteria Lane in Desperate Housewives, doubled for Los Angeles neighbourhoods until the show moved out onto real streets.

Adam-12's composer Frank Comstock also scored which cartoon?

Rocky and Bullwinkle, in their first series, Rocky and His Friends. His police score was a world away from moose and squirrel: the music for Malloy's tribute to a fallen friend earned an Emmy nomination.

On Adam-12, what does the radio request 'Code 7' ask for?

A meal break. The codes on the show are the LAPD's own: Jack Webb made it with the department's cooperation and prided himself on getting police procedure right.

Who co-created Adam-12 with Jack Webb?

Robert A. Cinader. He devised the show while producing Webb's revived Dragnet, turning the camera from the squad room to two uniformed officers in a patrol car.

Which honour does Reed receive in Adam-12's 1975 finale?

The Medal of Valor, for pulling a wounded Malloy out of a shoot-out. Reed has to prepare an acceptance speech while facing trouble at home, where his wife fears for his safety.

The radio voice heard in almost every Adam-12 episode belonged to whom?

A working LAPD dispatcher, Shaaron Claridge, who fitted the show around her shifts at the Van Nuys station. She appears on screen only once, filmed so that her face can barely be seen.

Kent McCord later played astronaut Jack Crichton, the hero's father, in which sci-fi series?

Farscape. McCord played two versions of Jack Crichton: the astronaut himself, and an alien 'Ancient' who borrows the father's face to test his stranded son.

What is the name of Jim Reed's wife on Adam-12?

Jean. Several actresses played her, and her fear for her husband's safety comes to a head in the finale, when he volunteers for a dangerous temporary assignment.

Which actor played Detective Sergeant Jerry Miller on Adam-12?

Jack Hogan, Kirby in the war drama Combat!, played Miller; he later moved behind the camera, working in casting on Magnum, P.I.

At the end of Adam-12, Reed considers taking an exam to become what?

A detective. In the two-part finale he takes a temporary posting with another squad to sharpen his skills, while Malloy, back from a gunshot wound, ends the series one step short of sergeant.