Having grown up in the late 60’s and early 70’s I was weaned on all manner of TV shows. One of the earliest of my favorite ‘cop dramas’ was “Adam-12.” The series focused on the experiences faced by a pair of Los Angeles Police Officers. As the series began during its first episode, Pete Malloy (Martin Milner) is a seasoned officer who is mourning the death of his partner. His new partner is a ‘wet-behind-the-ears rookie by the name of Jim Reed (Kent McCord) and together they face the dangers of the streets head-on. I can still remember the familiar radio call, “One Adam 12, One Adam 12…” as they would be called to deal with all manner of crime. The series was created by Jack Webb, who is best known as the creator and star of “Dragnet.” But where that series centered more on the behind the scenes work of detectives, here we saw first hand the beat cops who do all the dirty work.

For a series that came out of the late 60’s, it pulled no punches when it came to the manner of crimes they dealt with. There were the usual run of drug dealers and burglars, but along the way there were also cases of child neglect, suicidal jumpers and snipers. In the case of the 16-year old sniper, Reed has to shoot to kill and spends the reminder of the episode coming to terms with his having to kill someone, let alone a young boy.

“Adam-12” was a great show, somewhat ahead of its time and in many ways started the evolution that cop dramas have gone through since (though it rarely gets the credit). The series is only slightly dated, and still carries with it the impact it had almost 40 years ago. The writing was strong and both Milner and McCord brought a strong sense of humanity to their roles. Like their characters, Milner was more of the seasoned and McCord the newbie and they played extremely well off each other. I had seen Milner in several other series, most notably in an episode of “The Twilight Zone” as a man facing his doppelganger.

Both actors kept working after the series ended, but never really achieved the notoriety “Adam-12” afforded them. If anything McCord was thrown into the spotlight again just a few years ago when he was cast as John Crichton’s father in the mega-popular series “Farscape.” He was only in a handful of episodes, but became a favorite face to hardcore fans of the series (including myself).

Universal has been stepping up production on their line of “TV on DVD”, focusing hard on classic series. “Adam-12” is one of the more recent releases, with the 1st season set hitting store shelves just a few days ago. The 2-disc set holds all 26 episodes from the first season, and as best as I can tell, they seem to be uncut. (There has been a rash of shows released recently with the syndicated versions on the discs.) There are no extra features to speak of, a decision I’m sure was more one of cost than anything else. The studio needs to make sure that the series will sell, and by keeping costs down, it helps to insure it.

The quality of the transfers on the episodes varies, but overall they are completely watchable. DVD purists might complain a little about some of the grain, occasional glitches and low volume of some of the audio, however casual viewers will most likely not care. The episodes are on DVD and that’s what really counts.

I love watching “Adam-12” again, as it really takes me back to a time when TV shows were much simpler technically, and could still deliver the goods in terms of content without going to the extreme of some of today’s shows.

Episodes:
Log 1
Log 141
Log 11
Log 131
Log 91
Log 161
Log 71
Log 72
Log 101
Log 132
Log 111
Log 61
Log 122
Log 81
Log 36
Log 62
Log 33
Log 112
Log 51
Log 73
Log 102
Log 152
Log 12
Log 172
Log 92
Log 22

Starring: Martin Milner, Kent McCord
Extras: None
Specifications: Full Screen, Dolby Digital Mono
Studio: Universal
Release Date: 8/23/2005
Region 1
MPAA Rating: NR
Website

We'll give Adam 12: Season 1 a B-.