Arguably the finest depiction of the average law enforcement officer's daily routine ever recorded on film. With obsessive accuracy and superb, fact-based scripts, everything about this program resonates with truth. The direction is always crisp, sharp, and exciting. The writing nothing less than excellent. The on location shooting brings astonishing realism to every episode and one can almost smell the exhaust in the air. Martin Milner as Officer Pete Malloy is superb and brings authority, humanity, and depth to the role. Kent McCord is also quite good as the younger officer who learns from the experienced Malloy. Their teamwork and loyalty to one another is inspiring and they are wonderful role models for today's directionless, electronic obsessed youth. No other program in the history of television has served as such a tribute to the men and women who put their very lives on the line everyday to keep us safe. These are the heroes who stand on the parapets of law and order that guard civilization and protect it from anarchy. Adam-12 is a salute to their bravery and sense of duty. No one can view this show without feeling a sense of pride in what these men represent and the great nation they serve so selflessly.

This show, like its predecessor Dragnet, was produced at a time when the LAPD was facing a lot of criticism for racism and police brutality. It seems one of the goals of these shows was to "correct" these impressions of the LAPD and American law enforcement in general. Well the show does it well. Episodes tackle issues such as protest against the Vietnam war, black people who mistrust the police, cops who object to having to Mirandize suspects, etc. And what's more, though this portrayal of the LAPD does seem a little whitewashed, the LAPD officers (except the main cast of course) aren't even always portrayed as being completely in the right. Dirty cops are an issue that the series doesn't completely dodge, for example.Unlike Dragnet and many other cop shows, most episodes feature several different incidents that the police have to respond to. and even though a lot of them are quite mundane with no action or gun fights, the show still manages to make the mundane life of two LAPD officers seem interesting.

For those who liked the docudrama style of Jack Webb without some of the overblown moralizing that Dragnet was capable of Adam-12 was your kind of show. Done in the staccato Webb style, Adam-12 focused on the day to day happenings of two uniformed officers as they drove in the squad responding to whatever they saw or were dispatched to.Like Dragnet which was revived, Adam-12 was created to refurbish the image of the LAPD which was badly damaged after the LA riots in the middle sixties. The difference here was that Jack Webb and Harry Morgan were already veteran cops. In Adam-12 it starts with Martin Milner as the veteran breaking in a rookie Kent McCord. By the end of the series run however, McCord certainly became a veteran.One thing that they copied exactly from Dragnet was that Officer Reed grew off the job as well. He got married during the show's run and in those alone time scenes in the squad car he would talk about the various problems young marrieds have, especially as they related to the job he was on. But like Joe Friday, Officer Malloy never divulged much if anything about his personal life. Jack Webb and Martin Milner were truly married to the badge.The episodes were done in nice and compact Jack Webb style. They hold up better than a lot of the Dragnets.

A great TV Police Show of the 1960's, and in fact only one of the very few that I would ever watch. So good in fact, that I joined the Police in 1970, and was a Police Officer until 2003. Yes, this show was very down to earth with its stories, and a great example of the every day to day duties performed by uniform Police (its the same "Job" all over the world!).