50 free Adam-12 trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Adam-12 put viewers in the front seat of an LAPD black-and-white for seven seasons and 174 episodes, riding along with Pete Malloy and Jim Reed from 1968 to 1975. Jack Webb's insistence on real procedure made it the show that taught America what a Code 7 was, and its clipped radio calls are still instantly recognisable. This quiz covers the whole run: the cast and recurring officers, the meaning of the call sign 1-Adam-12, the Plymouths and the AMC Matador, how the driving scenes were filmed, badge numbers, crossovers with Dragnet and Emergency!, notable guest stars, why the series ended, and the 1990 revival. Easy questions handle the leads and the network; the hard ones dig into shop numbers, first episodes and Kent McCord's real name. Every answer has been checked against documented production history and the source is shown after each question.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which two LAPD officers are the central characters of Adam-12?
Pete Malloy and Jim Reed
Malloy is the veteran field-training officer; Reed starts the series as a rookie on probation.
Q 02In which year did Adam-12 premiere?
1968
It stayed on the air until May 1975.
Q 03What is Jim Reed's status when the series begins?
A rookie on probation
Malloy is assigned as his field training officer and, after his probation, the two simply stay partners.
Q 04Jack Webb's production company, which made Adam-12 with Universal Television, was called what?
Mark VII Limited
The show was created by Robert A. Cinader and Webb, and made in cooperation with the real LAPD.
Q 05On which network did Adam-12 originally air?
NBC
It ran for seven seasons and 174 half-hour episodes.
Q 06How many episodes of the original Adam-12 were made?
174
The finale aired on 20 May 1975.
Q 07In LAPD radio code, what does the 'Adam' in '1-Adam-12' signify?
A two-officer patrol unit
The LAPD's phonetic alphabet renders the letter A as 'Adam'; the '1' is the division and '12' the reporting district.
Q 08Why could a real police unit never have carried the call sign 1-Adam-12 during the show's run?
All reporting districts were odd-numbered
The department finally activated a genuine 1-Adam-12 unit in Central Division in 2003.
Q 09Despite a Central Division call sign, which real LAPD station did Malloy and Reed work from?
Rampart
The Rampart Police Station on West Temple Street closed in 2008.
Q 10What make of car did Adam-12 drive in the pilot and first three seasons?
Plymouth Belvedere
A 1967 model in the pilot gave way to 1968 and 1969 versions.
Q 11From the fifth season onward, Adam-12's black-and-white was which model?
1972 AMC Matador
The Satellite had served for season four; the Matador carried shop number 85012.
Q 12What was Malloy's plan at the very start of the series, before he was assigned to train Reed?
To resign from the LAPD
His previous partner had died; Reed's single-handed arrest of armed suspects convinced him to stay.
Q 13How long was Reed's probationary period, which Malloy stayed on to guide him through?
Nine months
The first two seasons were not chronological, so Reed's stated time on the force varied episode to episode.
Q 21Adam-12 shares a fictional universe with Dragnet and which other Jack Webb series about LA paramedics?
Emergency!
Malloy and Reed appeared in the Emergency! pilot movie, and the Emergency! cast turned up in the Adam-12 episode 'Lost and Found'.
Q 22Which recurring Adam-12 investigator was often shown in different divisions, similar to Joe Friday?
Jerry Miller
He was played by Jack Hogan and handled the investigations Malloy and Reed fed into, mostly in early seasons.
Q 23Which future NCIS star guest-starred as rookie Officer Gus Corbin in a late episode?
Mark Harmon
He was one of several actors tested as a possible replacement for Milner.
Q 14What running joke about the patrol car recurs throughout the series?
Malloy won't let Reed drive
Reed is the family man of the pair, married to Jean with a son, Jimmy.
Q 15What is Malloy's badge number?
744
Reed's badge is 2430; Joe Friday's famous 714 belongs to Dragnet.
Q 16Who played Sergeant 'Mac' MacDonald, the watch commander?
William Boyett
MacDonald always drove the station-wagon version of the patrol car.
Q 17Officer Ed Wells, Malloy's friend, was played by the son of which famous crooner?
Bing Crosby
One plan to keep the show going would have promoted Malloy away and made Wells the lead.
Q 18What other job got Fred Stromsoe (Officer Jerry Woods) credited in every episode?
Martin Milner's stunt double
He is one of the few people besides the two leads credited on all 174 episodes.
Q 19How were the driving scenes filmed?
Remote cameras on a hood platform, car towed
A script supervisor lay on the floor of the back seat reading the radio dispatcher's lines aloud.
Q 20What did Jack Webb have removed from the car for the pilot because sky reflections hid the actors' faces?
The windshield
The result was blowing hair and audio problems, so the prop department restored it and built an overhead shield instead.
Q 24Jo Ann Pflug played Officer Dana Hall, notable at the time for what?
Being a woman assigned to patrol duty
Wells and other officers mocked her, but Reed treated her as an equal.
Q 25Which sketch-comedy show featured Milner and McCord in cameos as their Adam-12 characters?
Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In
The cameos came in the fifth season of the show.
Q 26Which 2003 blockbuster includes '1-Adam-12' audible on a police radio feed?
The Matrix Reloaded
By then the LAPD had activated a real unit with the call sign in Central Division.
Q 27Which two events happen to Reed in the series finale?
Wins the Medal of Valor and sits his detective exam
Malloy, meanwhile, is lined up for promotion to sergeant.
Q 28Martin Milner left Adam-12 after signing to play a father in which short-lived 1975 adventure series?
The Swiss Family Robinson
The birth of Kent McCord's son days before the finale aired took him off the show too, and the series ended.
Q 29Before Adam-12, Martin Milner starred as Tod Stiles in which 1960s road series?
Route 66
That show was shot on location, so he spent nearly four years driving across the United States.
Q 30Martin Milner made his film debut in 1947, aged 14, in which movie starring William Powell?
Life with Father
He soon followed it with a minor role alongside John Wayne in Sands of Iwo Jima.