The BEST episodes of Adam-12 season 1
Every episode of Adam-12 season 1, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Adam-12 season 1!
Follow two Los Angeles police officers as they patrol the streets of Southern California. Adam-12 was the first series to realistically portray the joys/frustrations of being a police officer in the late 1960's-early 1970's. This attention to detail made the show a catalyst for uncounted numbers of people to enter public service as adults. "1-Adam-12" was the radio call number of the unit that Malloy & Reed worked: "1" was the division assigned, "Adam" was LA Phonetic for "A" designating a 2-person patrol unit, and "12" was the beat area assigned. (Although, Malloy & Reed could be seen patrolling the streets anywhere in L.A. from Downtown to the Valley, they retained the number division #1, no matter where they were). The police station used throughout the series was the newly-built (at the time) Rampart Station.
#1 - Log 033: It All Happened So Fast
Season 1 - Episode 17 - Aired 2/1/1969
It's been a long night of patrol for Malloy and Reed. Just as the two tired officers are headed to the station to turn in for the night, shots are fired at the patrol car. In the blink of an eye, Reed kills whom he believes was the gunman. Back at the station, Reed undergoes a night of intensive questioning from the captain and lieutenant, as part of the superior officers' investigation into the incident. Much like the Dragnet episode, "The Shooting Board", this episode highlights how seriously the LAPD takes all officer-involved shootings. It also takes pains to show the difficulty most officers have when forced to take a life in the line of duty for the first time.
#2 - Log 011: It's Just a Little Dent, Isn't It?
Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/5/1968
Officers Malloy and Reed are involved in a high speed chase, a murder case and a family dispute as they work the P.M. watch. Reed worries all evening that the small dent in the fender he caused while backing the car up for fuel might lead to termination, since he is still on probation.
#3 - Log 122: The Thief Who Stole Christmas
Season 1 - Episode 13 - Aired 12/21/1968
On Christmas eve Reed and Malloy make rounds distributing police department donation packages to needy families, and pull many heartstrings.
#4 - Log 101: Someone Stole My Lawn
Season 1 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/16/1968
Reed gets Malloy to agree to an early dinner when his wife puts him on a low-cal diet. However, one after another event prevents them from going code 7 all night long. Events include the theft of a man's sod, stolen credit cards, and a suspected car theft.
#5 - Log 012: He Was Trying to Kill Me
Season 1 - Episode 23 - Aired 3/15/1969
A "child-left-alone" call turns up a horrifying case of child neglect. A 6-year-old girl is left home with her baby brother and both parents are unable to provide for their children.
#6 - Log 132: The Producer
Season 1 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/30/1968
Reed tries to pawn off his new litter of puppies to co-workers, strangers, even victims. The officers work a silent alarm, rescue a boy with his head stuck in a fence, and track down a prowler.
#7 - Log 111: Snake in the Trunk
Season 1 - Episode 11 - Aired 12/7/1968
Officers Reed and Malloy have to break apart a couple of feuding neighbors, attempt to find a stolen car with a boa constrictor in the trunk, and effect a rescue of two people from a house on fire.
#8 - Log 102: We Can't Just Walk Away from It
Season 1 - Episode 21 - Aired 3/1/1969
A teenager is threatening to commit suicide and Malloy and Reed try to talk the troubled youth out of it.
#9 - Log 061: The Runaway
Season 1 - Episode 12 - Aired 12/14/1968
When officers Reed and Malloy get to a communal house occupied by hippies, they find a young girl, who has run away from home, extremely sick from narcotic use.
#10 - Log 062: Grand Theft Horse?
Season 1 - Episode 16 - Aired 1/18/1969
Reed and Malloy assist park rangers in catching a horse thief, a homesick Texan who was high on drugs at the time. The officers then chase two gunmen in a high speed pursuit.
#11 - Log 172: Boy, The Things You Do for the Job
Season 1 - Episode 24 - Aired 3/22/1969
Malloy writes a young woman a traffic ticket and then is bombarded with attention and affection, all of which he doesn't want.
#12 - Log 131: Reed, the Dicks Have Their Job and We Have Ours
Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/12/1968
Officers Malloy and Reed assist a young mother whose baby is threatened by a deranged man and they help a woman being harassed by a spiteful neighbor.
#13 - Log 152: A Dead Cop Can't Help Anyone
Season 1 - Episode 22 - Aired 3/8/1969
Malloy and Reed respond to a domestic disturbance, involving a man with a gun, with Officer Wells and his partner arrive on the scene as their backup. Not wanting to wait to follow proper procedure, Wells barges into the apartment, nearly getting shot to arrest the man. Afterwards, at the station, Wells brags about how criminals need to be put in their place and the police can't let them get away with anything. Concerned that rookie partner Reed may be picking up on Wells' habits, Malloy confronts Wells, telling him he is a negative influence on the younger officers and that, unless asked in the future, he is not to respond to their calls. Back on patrol, Reed tells Malloy how impressed he was with Wells handling of the situation. Malloy tells Reed, that in that situation, a dead cop is no help to the public or their partner. However, Wells' reckless habits catch up with him, when on a similar call as earlier, he again rushes toward the front door of the residence and is shot.
#14 - Log 081: The Long Walk
Season 1 - Episode 14 - Aired 1/4/1969
After roll call, Reed and Malloy provide backup at a robbery, help a lost man return home, handle a call about a prowler, then respond to a silent alarm. Malloy demonstrates for Reed the importance of "officer presence".
#15 - Log 051: A Jumper - Code Two
Season 1 - Episode 19 - Aired 2/15/1969
Not long after an elderly woman insists that Reed and Malloy help adjust her television antenna, the officers are called to a high-rise hotel, where a suicidal man is determined to jump. Malloy incorrectly handles the situation and Mac harshly reprimands him the follow-up investigation.
#16 - Log 091: You're Not the First Guy's Had the Problem
Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/19/1968
Officer Reed learns that a professional officer has to keep their emotions under control; even when confronted with an abusive drunk-driver, right after clearing an "officer down" call & finding his close friend from the Academy critically wounded.
#17 - Log 001: The Impossible Mission
Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/21/1968
Pilot Episode: Working out of a patrol car designated "Adam-12," Officers Malloy and Reed perform a typical day's work, which includes a high speed auto-chase, the capture of two robbers, and an emergency call to save a suffocating baby. Malloy decides to turn in his badge after his young partner was killed a few weeks earlier. But at the end of the shift, he comes around and decides that he can't let inexperienced Jim Reed loose on another officer, so he decides not to leave the force.
#18 - Log 141: The Color TV Bandit
Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/28/1968
Officers Malloy and Reed attempt to save two small victims of narcotic pills, and then pursue a long-sought burglary suspect in a foot chase.
#19 - Log 161: And You Want Me to Get Married!
Season 1 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/26/1968
Officers Malloy and Reed look for a robbery suspect, help a woman pinned under her crashed car and settle a family dispute, among other duties.
#20 - Log 032: Jimmy Eisley's Dealing Smack
Season 1 - Episode 15 - Aired 1/11/1969
Reed volunteers to line up entertainment for the department party, just as Malloy needs to serve a subpoena on a famous singer. The team learns of a drug den from their informant and are handed the bust when detectives are too busy to look into it.
#21 - Log 112: You Blew It
Season 1 - Episode 18 - Aired 2/8/1969
Reed and Malloy make a routine traffic stop on a motorist. Before the NCIC check is completed, the dispatcher broadcasts a domestic dispute call in the two officers' patrol area; Reed and Malloy take the call and let the motorist go. Bad choice; the lieutenant soon calls the two errant officers in to scold them. Turns out the motorist had warrants out for his arrest on robbery and weapons charges. Malloy and Reed then come up with and carry out an ultimately successful plan to nab the wanted criminal.
#22 - Log 072: El Presidente
Season 1 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/9/1968
Malloy teases Reed about calculating the cost of a new house while their first baby is still 6 months away. In the meantime they settle a domestic dispute between arguing neighbors, help a taxi driver that was just robbed, and a local man mistaken as the President by a group of rural Mexicans. Finally, they must arrest a psychotic shooter holed up in his house.
#23 - Log 092: Tell Him He Pushed Back a Little Too Hard
Season 1 - Episode 25 - Aired 3/29/1969
A couple of neighbors co-own a boat and continually fight over it so Malloy and Reed do their best to mediate this latest rift.
#24 - Log 073: I'm Still a Cop
Season 1 - Episode 20 - Aired 2/22/1969
Malloy is a part-time student at a local college, where he suddenly finds himself in the middle of of a riot.
#25 - Log 071: I Feel Like a Fool, Malloy
Season 1 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/2/1968
Among other calls, Officers Malloy and Reed answer a loud noise complaint and discover a teen-age babysitter in desperate need of help.