This show has been described as "Dragnet on wheels." It might also be described as "My Mother the Patrol Car" on the prowl. But don't dismiss it too lightly. On the surface it's just another cop-in--two officers, one a veteran and the other a rookie, in their car named Adam-12. But underneath this surface routine it's at least an attempt to get at one the underlying causes of one of our deepest troubles these days--that many of us fail to realize that if the average policeman of today bears no relation to the Keystone cop of yesterday, neither does he necessarily bear any relation to helmeted Yippie beaters. And this show tells us, without ever laboring the point, that if we can't look up to the police in quite the same way we did as kids, still we should, as adults, at least be able to look at them fairly and squarely, without looking down on them.
Don't expect every episode to contain wild chases, fierce street fights or exciting shoot-'em-ups. It won't and it shouldn't, because it would miss the point if it did. There will be an occasional chase and once in a while a hold-'em-up, but more often than not, even when the officers do happen on something big, they have to leave it to the detectives and move on to arbitrate and husband-wife fight. In another episode, even when they are able to settle something terrifically tense--a deranged man making off with a woman's baby--they hardly had time to accept the woman's thanks before they were off to the next job--running down a run-of-the-mill case of witness harassment.
There are several other regular characters in this show--men at the station house--but for all intents and purposes Adam-12 rises or falls on the performances of the two principles. And in our opinion, it rises. The veteran Malloy (Martin Milner) is excellent--just the right mixture of world-weariness on top (he's over 30 but still in possession of all his faculties) and good-guyness underneath. The rookie Reed (Kent McCord) is fine, too--just the right mixture of youthful pride and earnestness. Their scenes together will not pull you out of your chair, but you will believe them--even when Malloy tells Reed for the 18th time not to get emotionally involved or even think too much ("It's when you start thinking before you're supposed to think that you think yourself dead"). Milner, incidentally, was particularly fine in the baby scene we mentioned--first gently telling the deranged man to look at the baby and then at the mother; then saying he didn't want to hurt them, did he; and then later, just at the right time, going tough and telling the man he didn't have to guts to shoot himself inside and to please do it outside. All in all, it may not be a show you'll want to stay home for, but if you are at home, you could do a lot worse than turn it on and, afterwards, think about it.
