Adam-12

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.

Malloy and Reed learn of a serial home burglar stealing color TVs. They stumble upon the suspect's car with unusual results. Also, Reed must come to terms with his anger over a drug using mother that endangered her children to score dope.

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. 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.

On their day off, Malloy and Reed agree to give a talk to a group of fifth grade students, and then offer to let the kids watch them train for the California Police Olympics. But when the tires of their patrol car are slashed and a stopwatch goes missing out of reed's car, the two officers start to suspect one of the children.

Malloy and Reed are on the lookout for the "Mulholland Mauler," who has raped six female hitchhikers and left them for dead. They quickly make an arrest of a likely suspect and take him to the location of an abandoned vehicle, after learning its owner never made it to her destination.

Malloy and Reed see a man passed out in an alley and stop to lend assistance, deliver bad news to a young wife, apprehend a mentally ill man who then becomes uncontrollably violent in their patrol car, and respond to a robbery that needlessly becomes a tragedy. All along the way the officers have their every move second guessed by a pair of young, unethical freelance journalists who are determined to document police brutality.

Malloy and Reed try to investigate a series of beatings at a plant resulting from a loan shark operation, but the employees refuse to talk until the son of one employee stands up to testify. The officers arrest an armed robber who could only bring himself to steal $2, then was robbed himself.

Malloy and Reed investigate the mysterious source behind a boy's suspicious spending spree, wield a blanket instead of gun during a disrobed driver's DUI arrest and bust up a car parts theft ring.

Reed and Malloy have to think outside the box to capture an intelligent yet neglected teenage purse snatcher. Their efforts to talk sense into him before he commits a much more serious crime prove to be futile.

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.

Police "buff" Jennings Thornton, a thorn in the side for Malloy and Reed, intervenes in a drunk driving case, runs down a shooter after a robbery (and nearly getting Reed killed), and is finally arrested himself for falsely arresting two teenage boys for stealing mag wheels that were actually legally bought. Another case involves a woman who stole an expensive ring from a store, leaving a cheap one in return; the suspect is later arrested during a parking lot dispute and the ring is found on her during a search

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.

A series of purse snatchings involving motorcyclists frustrates the LAPD, as they cannot follow them down the off-road trails they take. Reed holds a community meeting with the various motorcycle clubs, and the leader of one club challenges Malloy to a dirt bike race. Reed teaches Malloy how to ride a dirt bike, and while Malloy loses the race, he gains the respect of the club's leader, who helps them apprehend the suspects by blocking their escape route.

Malloy finds himself attracted to the new girl in the steno pool, and decides to ask her on a date after learning she's Officer Wells' 25-year-old niece. Out on patrol, he and Reed investigate a report of a prowler in a heavily wooded neighborhood, make a deal with a flower vendor before booking him for unpaid tickets, engage in a high-speed pursuit with a green corvette and investigate a suspicious gardener.

Malloy and Reed are patrolling the outskirts of Los Angeles when a girl on horseback alerts them to a small plane that landed in a secluded area. When the officers investigate, they see a pickup truck fleeing and the plane trying to take off; though they stop the plane, they have no proof the pilot did anything. Malloy and Reed later learn from the DEA that a Mexican cartel is behind the landings, with the pilot instructed to play dumb if caught. The officers find the pilot and trace the pickup truck's location, and the truck is followed to the landing site, where the smuggler and the pilot are arrested.

Malloy needs to sell two tickets to the ballet after his date cancels, but he quickly regrets putting a notice on the station's bulletin board. While patrolling the harbor and surrounding area, he and Reed investigate a marine fuel dealer accused of forgery, pull over a driver with a suspicious box on the roof of his car, question a suspicious young couple, deal with an astrologer who is driving recklessly and encounter a drunken cook shooting a rifle from the crow's nest of a docked ship.

Malloy and Reed patrol a neighborhood of Los Angeles inhabited by a large retired population. Calls include a purse snatching during which the suspect eluded capture, but was later found during routine patrol, an elderly man with multiple warrants for auto theft trying to break into a car in a church parking lot, a dispute between an elderly woman and man over her eviction and his offer to take her in (the woman is later arrested when she begins smashing 1-Adam-12's windshield with a baseball bat), a dispute over $5, a baby stroller rolling into a lake, and a retired policeman-turned-security guard named George who wants to talk shop, then assists in the suspects' arrest after a robbery, afterwards laments to the officers about being lonely due to all of his friends passing on.

Sgt. MacDonald reported his camper was broken into with three fishing rods and a pair of custom-made cowboy boots missing, and offers two free steak dinners for their return. The officers come across another man with the same "one of a kind" boots that Mac lost. Cases include Malloy, Reed, and Mac riding horseback to locate three suspects in a break-in at a stable, the station comes under sniper fire, and Officer Wells (showing his rarely-seen compassionate side) takes up a collection for a couple and their cancer-stricken daughter to get to San Francisco, later Wells finds out he's been had as the "couple" were well-known con artists with a long rap sheet.

A young boy, Greg Whitney, is arrested for a burglary attempt and is released to his mother's custody. However, it is later determined that Whitney had a record under another name and the man he was with was posing to be his father. After Whitney is arrested for fleeing a robbery he actually did not commit, Malloy takes him to a special police-sponsored camp for troubled youth. Other cases include an attempted robbery of a taxicab, and an accident involving an elderly man and a long-haired motorcycle rider.

Malloy goes to camp with Greg Whitney and a group of other boys, and due to his short height is told to bunk with the younger boys. Greg gets into trouble right away, accused of stealing ice cream and a watch from one of the other boys, but runs off before it was determined the watch was misplaced, and is found. Olympic gold-medalist pole vaulter Bob Seagren stops by to coach the boys on a cross-country race, which Greg wins, while Reed speaks with his mother about handling Greg in the future. Back on patrol, Reed and Officer Wells deal with a woman whose alleged attacker fainted when he discovered she had a python under her coat.

As part of a trial program, Malloy and Reed team with Motor Officer Grant to better combat crime. Out on patrol, they make a safety check at a residence, investigate a suspicious witness at the scene of a traffic accident, deal with a young member of a neighborhood watch, respond to an annoying complaint about illegally parked cars and perform a daylight stakeout to catch a serial burglar.