The BEST episodes of Adam-12 season 4
Every episode of Adam-12 season 4, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Adam-12 season 4!
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 - The Search
Season 4 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/20/1971
1-Adam-12 is back after routine maintenance, but the radio is having problems communicating with Central. During a robbery involving two suspects, Reed captures one while Malloy takes off in pursuit of the other one through a park, but Malloy loses control of the car and it rolls into an embankment, hidden from the road, and the officer suffers internal injuries and a broken leg. All available units are called in to search for Malloy, who has to watch helplessly while a murder suspect comes out and take his shotgun (which Malloy was using for a splint) and sidearm, and rips out the radio mike only leaving the wires. Malloy uses the wires to send signal for help, which Reed picks up and rescues his partner.
#2 - Assassination
Season 4 - Episode 11 - Aired 12/8/1971
A phony prowler call results in shots being fired at Malloy and Reed. Shots ring out again when the officers head to the airport to transport a blood donor. The suspect is a known check bouncer, and Reed's wife gets a disturbing phone call. Later Reed heads home and meets an acquaintance who just happens to be driving the same car as the shooting suspect. Other cases include a suicidal man who tries to incinerate himself with gasoline, and a wino who is nearly shot by a hyped-up Reed.
#3 - Who Won?
Season 4 - Episode 22 - Aired 3/1/1972
Malloy and Reed work to curtail the rise in illegal street racing by working with the leaders of rival racing clubs and obtaining the legitimate use of a drag strip through a race promoter. Their work is threatened, along with an anticipated race between Reed and Officer Wells, when one of the racers resorts to sabotage.
#4 - Back-Up One L-20
Season 4 - Episode 21 - Aired 2/23/1972
Malloy tries to prove Sgt. MacDonald's innocence when he accidentally hits and kills a jaywalker while driving his police cruiser. Every witness on the sidewalk claims she was in the crosswalk, and the burglary suspect MacDonald is transporting is unmotivated to testify on his behalf. The truth proves to be far more complicated than the officers realized.
#5 - Extortion
Season 4 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/15/1971
Malloy and Reed investigate an extortion racket against a group of Jewish Holocaust survivors, with the owner of a dry cleaners willing to testify but others not out of fear of retribution. The officers return to handle the owner's panel truck being set ablaze and later the owner is physically assaulted. Malloy and Reed capture both suspects. Other incidents involved a robbery at a bar (the perps escaped initially, but are later captured after a shootout), and a drunk man owed back pay by a dockmaster threatens to dump his boat onto dry land from a crane unless he's paid.
#6 - The Dinosaur
Season 4 - Episode 12 - Aired 12/15/1971
Officer Art McCall returns from eight years on disability and rides with Malloy and Reed to see how much has changed in law enforcement. McCall soon learns exactly how much has changed when he tries illegal techniques to help a young woman with her ex-con husband, fails to Mirandize a boy after arresting him for robbery, and screws up an arrest of a gun-carrying man who later plants a bomb in his ex-wife's car, which requires Malloy to dress down the veteran officer on his use of antiquated (and illegal) police procedures.
#7 - The Grandmother
Season 4 - Episode 3 - Aired 9/29/1971
Malloy and Reed investigate a robbery in a store run by a group of "grandmothers", who sell small homemade items, then later return the money. The suspect later robs an antique shop but is captured when he returns to the first store to attempt another robbery, and the officers purchase some items from the "grandmothers". Other incidents include a high-speed chase of three robbery suspects, who are captured with the help of Sgt. MacDonald, and a priest stopped for a traffic violation who wants to have a drug dealer arrested for selling him marijuana.
#8 - Truant
Season 4 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/3/1971
Truancy is on the rise in the district and Reed has a plan to pick up truants on the street, which was approved after a garage break-in by two truants. Results show a drop in crimes committed by truants, in one case two truants were stopped by the police and were implicated in a burglary, and one of the two truants involved in the garage break-in is brought in on another incident. Other incidents include arresting two heroin smugglers who hid the stash in their car's gas tank, which leaked some of the contraband after the car stalled, and stop car thieves from stripping the parts to build a dune buggy.
#9 - Million Dollar Buff
Season 4 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/22/1971
Police "buff" Jennings Thornton (a thorn in the side for Malloy and Reed) is back, and intervenes in a drunk driving case, runs down a shooter after a robbery (and nearly kills Reed), and finally is arrested for falsely arresting two men for stealing their own mag wheels. Another case involves a woman who stole an expensive ring from a store, leaving a cheap one in return; the suspect is found during a parking lot dispute and booked when a search found the ring on her.
#10 - The Princess and the Pig
Season 4 - Episode 15 - Aired 1/12/1972
A disturbance call leads the officers to a nightclub where a singer named Kathy is strung out on drugs, and clings to Reed on the way to the hospital, telling him someone is trying to kill her and give her drugs. Narcotic detectives decide to assign Reed undercover as an AWOL soldier with a large stash of heroin to sell. Reed makes a deal, but Kathy blows his cover, and Malloy saves his partner from being killed and helps bring down the dealers.
#11 - Sub-Station
Season 4 - Episode 20 - Aired 2/16/1972
Malloy and Reed are temporarily assigned to a police sub-station at LAX. While there, they deal with a hostage situation between a flight attendant and a man desperate for the attention of a television producer, go undercover to intercept a drug shipment from Toledo, Ohio, and prevent a rape suspect from escaping on an outbound flight.
#12 - Adoption
Season 4 - Episode 18 - Aired 2/2/1972
Malloy and Reed investigate when a college football locker room is ransacked, and uncover systematic use of performance-enhancing drugs. They also investigate parents who dispute their maid's report that their baby is missing, arrest a prowler who is suspiciously allowed into a home by his female accuser, and get involved in a high-speed chase that resulted from a domestic disturbance.
#13 - Anniversary
Season 4 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/17/1971
Sgt. MacDonald's anniversary is coming up and the officers have limited funds to spend on a gift, which is a bottle of champagne, but when the officers pick it up, the owner of the liquor store was shot in an attempted robbery. Malloy and Reed later find the robber dead in a park from a gunshot wound inflicted by the owner. Other incidents include a paralyzed ex-wrestler tearing up a bar, a man driving suspiciously turns out to be the proud owner of several traffic tickets in a 24 hour period, a used car dealer trying to take advantage of a Mexican customer who speaks little English, and two camper thieves pushing a truck with a camper that is too small for the truck bed.
#14 - Day Watch
Season 4 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/24/1971
Over the course of their shift, Malloy and Reed deal with a racist gas station owner who is tired of being the victim of repeated robberies, a hitchhiker who extorts money from drivers she leaves in embarrassing situations, a drunk who's seeing pink elephants, and get caught up in a shootout in a junkyard.
#15 - The Parole Violator
Season 4 - Episode 17 - Aired 1/26/1972
Malloy doesn't believe that the best player on the rec-league basketball team he coaches is back on drugs, even in the face of evidence that suggests otherwise. Meanwhile on their beat, Malloy and Reed must find a hit-and-run driver who struck a child and pull over a traffic violator whose passenger is belligerent (and wanted).
#16 - Mary Hong Loves Tommy Chen
Season 4 - Episode 19 - Aired 2/9/1972
A young girl from Chinatown is ordered by her father to withhold information from Malloy and Reed regarding her boyfriend, an undercover cop left in a coma after investigating a potential attack on a Chinese elders' association. Meanwhile, the officers also encounter a middle-aged marijuana user and a cross-dressing criminal who leads them to a counterfeit money ring while trying to pay his lawyer.
#17 - Citizens All
Season 4 - Episode 14 - Aired 1/5/1972
Cases include a woman whose purse was robbed after two men bumped her car while on the road, then are captured along with the loot when a citizen complains about loud noise coming from their lair. A broken-down car leads to a meeting between the car's owner and a counterfeiter, and a fight in a fast-food restaurant results in an arrest of one of the combatants on outstanding warrants.
#18 - The Tip
Season 4 - Episode 16 - Aired 1/19/1972
Malloy and Reed deal with a woman who thinks she has a rattlesnake in her luggage, an out-of-town traffic violator, and a bar brawl, all while tackling armored truck robbers whose attacks have been predicted in advance by an informant.
#19 - Eyewitness
Season 4 - Episode 23 - Aired 3/8/1972
Malloy and Reed are searching for a missing six-year-old boy and they believe a elderly witness' inaccurate account may actually be for a different crime. They also respond to a suspicious dog complaint, a domestic dispute over a husband's desire to watch football, a college prank, and search a train station with a police helicopter for fleeing robbery suspects.
#20 - The Sniper (1) (concl on The D.A., 8 Oct 71) aka The Radical
Season 4 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/6/1971
The radical Robin Saydo is on the loose, tied in to a number of bombings. Reed spots him and Saydo is arrested by D.A. Paul Ryan. Other calls include an abandoned police cruiser which turned out to be a lone policeman on a foot pursuit capturing a drug suspect, and retired security officer Fred Tibbles assists the officers in breaking up a truck theft ring which took the trucks but not the merchandise within them. NOTE: This episode is a crossover with short-run series "The D.A.," which concludes the storyline started by this episode in "The People vs. Saydo."
#21 - The Ferret
Season 4 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/27/1971
A man named "The Ferret" is damaging a manufacturing plant due to their poor record on ecology, and escapes Reed easily on foot pursuit. A reporter catches Reed in an unflattering light after the escape, and plasters him over the front page. Reed is redeemed when he catches the Ferret when he returns later to the same plant and dumps a bucket of waste in the lobby. Other calls include a man whose pregnant wife fell into a coma after eating mud given to her by a voodoo priest, resulting in her baby boy being stillborn (when the officers confront the priest, he puts a mojo hex on Reed), and an elderly lady pulled over for a traffic violation who thinks the policemen are gas station attendants.
#22 - Pick-Up
Season 4 - Episode 13 - Aired 12/29/1971
Malloy and Reed find a girl who was raped and left for dead in the hills but was actually alive and identified her attacker's car as a red Porsche. Malloy spots the suspect car picking up another girl and gives chase, only to have the suspect dump the girl on the street and the officer loses the car. Later the girl's mother finds drugs in the laundry and determine she was selling and the "rapist" was her supplier, while the real rapist is caught when he checked out of the hospital after being hit by his victim's heavy purse. Also, the officers handle a robbery at a construction yard foiled by police scouts.
#23 - Ambush
Season 4 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/10/1971
Malloy and Reed are assigned to transport a prisoner from Malibu to Los Angeles for outstanding traffic warrants. The prisoner is also a witness in a mob murder and a hit has been ordered on him. En route to LA, the cruiser is ambushed, a tire is shot out and they are out of radio range in an isolated area. Reed is captured by hit men attempting to get assistance, but Malloy and the prisoner steal the hit men's car to get to a phone and LAPD sends the police helicopter to search for Reed, who ends up overpowering and capturing the hit men. NOTE: This is the episode of Adam-12 seen on the television in the "Emergency!" Season 1 episode "Hang-up"
#24 - The Wednesday Warrior
Season 4 - Episode 24 - Aired 3/15/1972
Reed is worried when his friend, an electrical engineer, is made a reserve police officer and ends up being partnered with Officer Wells. Malloy and Reed have to contend with illegal campers, a couple driving a stolen car, and help Wells and his new partner chase down a heavily-armed bank robber who forces innocent people to participate in his crimes.