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Adam-12 is a television police drama that followed two police officers of the Los Angeles Police Department, Pete Malloy and Jim Reed, as they patrolled the streets of Los Angeles in their patrol unit, 1-Adam-12.
“1-Adam-12, 1-Adam-12, see the man...”
1969
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.
Reed busts his first sex offender, who was caught brutally raping a 5-year-old boy in a park restroom, and gets frustrated when he learns the boy died. The officers later find trouble when an arrest in a predominantly Black neighborhood almost sparks a race riot. Another call is a possible dead body that turns out to be rotting fish.
An older husband complains about his wife and friend's noisy karate practice. A hit and run traffic accident looks looks like a homicide. The officers use their investigative skills to locate the suspect and arrest him.
Malloy and Reed double date on their day off to a ghost town only to be confronted by a motor cycle gang. It takes their quick police instincts to save the day as Mrs Reed gets too close to delivering the baby.
Reed's wife is in the hospital expecting their first child, and Reed soon regrets his decision to report for work as usual. Out on patrol, they encounter a drunken man directing traffic, chase down a robbery suspect, investigate the theft of money from washing machines and become involved in a minor traffic accident that results in a major delay.
A former convict and informant who Malloy helped give a second chance is accused of assaulting a priest, dealing drugs and stealing a gun after being fired from his dish-washing job at Duke's Longhorn Café. Malloy and Reed set out to determine if his story, which is full of suspicious coincidences, is actually true.
Reed feels a strong sense of accomplishment when he stumbles upon a large stash of narcotics as he secures a residence after executing a traffic warrant with Malloy and Officer Ed Wells. He's in for a rude awakening at the trial, however, when he's cross examined by the defense attorney.
Malloy and Reed begin their shift responding to a disgruntled tenant who is holding his landlord at knife point. Later, they investigate a rash of property theft from multiple homes in a quiet neighborhood, stake out an apparent bag of laundry left on the side of the road and search for a runaway boy who gets himself into a life-threatening situation.
As Malloy and Reed's patrol begins, an uneventful traffic stop becomes more interesting when something catches Malloy's eye. Later, they discover an unusual situation responding to a break-in at a hospital supply warehouse, which becomes even more odd when the warehouse owner and a group of revenge-seeking thugs show up at the scene. The shift ends in a fitting way when they are called to an apartment where a baby has been left unattended with a pet lion.
Two armed convicts holding up a diner shoot Malloy who entered innocently, and hold him and other civilians hostage.
Malloy and Reed become envious of officer wells, who has been given a coveted assignment in the newly established astro helicopter division. Out on patrol, they require assistance saving a wealthy elderly couple who get locked in their heavily fortified basement safe, and then use air support to track down robbery suspects who escape on a motorcycle.
Malloy and Reed are the first to respond to a downtown rooftop sniper who has been indiscriminately shooting at anyone he can find with his scoped rifle. After risking their lives to get civilians out of his line of sight, they become lead participants in the S.W.A.T. team's attempt to neutralize the suspect.
Malloy and Reed see the same drunk twice in one night, respond to a bar fight and engage in a high-speed pursuit with good samaritans who make a bad decision. They also search for a biker who tries to coerce a woman to repay a debt by riddling her apartment with buckshot.
Malloy and Reed hope to find an impostor as they investigate a boxing promoter's accusation that a police detective stole $350 from him. In the meantime, they deal with a disgruntled wife who is in the process of destroying her own car in the middle of a downtown street, investigate a gun theft from a pawn shop, drive up on a home burglary in progress and obtain critical information while interrogating a suspected car thief.
Malloy spends a weekend afternoon attending a barbecue at Reed's home, where Reed lets him hold his newborn son for the first time and tries to set him up with his wife's friend. However, their relaxation is interrupted when they have to deal with a young neighbor who overdoses on drugs and becomes the target of his dealer.
Malloy and Reed are rendered powerless when a drunken man with no flight experience decides to take a solo flight in a stolen airplane at a busy airport. Later, they try to locate a 17-year-old runaway living in a condemned home with a much older man, engage in a shootout with a convenience store robber and search for a booby-trapped bank safe that has been stolen with a tow truck.
Malloy fears that a boxer who has just been paroled after serving a murder sentence is going to seek revenge against him. Out on patrol, they try to save a man who has been crushed while working under a stolen car, apprehend a liquor store robber who swears revenge against reed, change a flat tire on their patrol car, locate a four-year-old child who locked himself in a refrigerator and become the targets of an ambush.
Malloy and Reed search for a suspect who frames an employee of a manufacturing plant for theft and then plants a powerful bomb on the premises. They also apprehend two criminals after questioning a suspicious man who is carrying heavy bags down the street, and protect an innocent motorist from a street race that still ends in tragedy.
Malloy and Reed spend a night shift on desk duty after Malloy breaks his wrist and another office worker calls in sick. With the assistance of a new female recruit, they deal with a homesick elderly woman who refuses to identify herself, help a lenient father bail out his son and become suspicious of a man who walks in looking for a wanted fugitive.
Malloy and Reed respond to a fire where a young man, Lauro, saves a man trapped inside. But Lauro seems reluctant to receive any praise or attention much to everyone's surprise. Meanwhile, a concerned landlord reports suspicious in-activity from a tenant with heart trouble where Malloy and Reed arrive in time to give him CPR and save his life. Malloy attempts to keep his new hat clean, but finds it an impossibility.
Reed has to deal with the consequences of forgetting to roll up the window on the patrol car before he left it. Back on patrol, Malloy and Reed search for an estranged husband who kidnaps his own child, deal with an elderly man who tries to pay for a meal with trading stamps, engage in a shootout with an escaped prisoner caught napping on a city bus and pull over a hijacked delivery van full of booze.
Malloy and Reed are in for a rude awakening when they report to the home of a former professional wrestler on a domestic abuse call. Later, they become suspicious of an apartment burglary victim after they find one of the suspects dead, deal with a man who discovers car parts that were stolen from him installed on another car and become involved in a shootout responding to a bank robbery.
Malloy and Reed prove they cannot and will not be bribed, no matter how good the offer, resulting in desperation from a young man charged with his third drunk driving offense. An elderly man admits mercy killing his wife.
Malloy and Reed track down a kooky female shoplifter involved in a cult-type relationship with a ego-maniacal spiritualist weirdo. Malloy gets help tracking her down from an old girlfriend.
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.
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.
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 expresses frustration at turning a case over to detectives instead of investigating it.
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.
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.
In an episode where Reed learns to keep his wits under control, the officers deal with a loud noise complaint where an elderly woman refuses to answer, much less acknowledge, a teenaged girl's desperate pleas for help after the woman learns she was at a house where loud party music is being played, and it leads to a tragic drowning of a 4-year-old girl in a backyard swimming pool. Other calls include a brawl at a pop-spirituality temple on the verge of a schism over meditation styles, and a misused silent alarm at a liquor store.
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.
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.
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.
A ditzy young woman reports her 1958 Ford convertible stolen while she went into a liquor store. She left the keys in the car, has no paperwork, doesn't know the license number or other details but she needs it by 6 PM for a date. She finally tells the officers that her eight-foot boa constrictor is in the trunk as she was coming from the vet.
Walters and Brinkman are on a roll lately and like to brag, much to the irritation of Reed. He and Malloy help them out by finishing one of their calls, then rescue a sick teenage girl and arrest the young man who took her in. Back on patrol, they meet an informant who gives them a tip on a big drug buy scheduled for 11 PM. They give the info to Sgt. Miller who asks them to help in the bust.
On Christmas eve Reed and Malloy make rounds distributing police department donation packages to needy families, and pull many heartstrings.
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".
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.
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.
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. In the end, the captain confides in Reed that his story is credible and the rookie officer will likely be allowed back on patrol upon the completion of the investigation.
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.
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.
While Malloy is attending college, radicals learn he is a cop. They reject him and antagonize him on the job. After helping arrest demonstrators, his new car is vandalized. When a timer is found missing, he locates and disarms a bomb using it.
Malloy and Reed respond to a call about a drug overdose and track the drugs to a 17-year-old who has barricaded himself in his room with a gun and threatens kill himself. They contend with a distraught mother and an overbearing father.
An impressionable Reed is taken in by the "cowboy cop" antics of fellow Officer Ed Wells (Gary Crosby), a wise guy who takes unnecessary and reckless risks to arrest suspects. At the station, Malloy loses his cool while talking to Wells because Wells' tactics endanger his life and others. Wells tries to play it down until his recklessness nearly catches up with him when he is shot in the shoulder by a psychotic sniper, and because of Wells' disobedience and foolishness Reed is also almost shot. Malloy and Reed are forced to rescue Wells and mastermind a way to end the standoff peacefully.
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.
Malloy writes a young woman a traffic ticket and then is bombarded with attention and affection, all of which he doesn't want.
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.
Reed hears a joke from Ed Wells before roll call, and then spends the shift retelling it to Malloy. The partners solve a mystery for a little old lady. Later, Reed needs to break up a noisy party hosted by an old school chum.
Martin Milner
Officer Pete Malloy
Kent McCord
Officer Jim Reed
William Boyett
Sergeant MacDonald
1973
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.
Malloy has his eye on an attractive woman he's seeing all over town walking a scotty dog, which eventually turns out to be bad news for her. Meanwhile, he and Reed assist a police helicopter track down a young man riding his dirt bike in the hills illegally during fire season, search for an armed suspect who held up a movie theater before escaping on a motorcycle and coordinate with the police helicopter in a futile search for two armed robbery suspects who fatally shot a night watchman inside a department store.
Malloy and Reed have to break the news to a young model that her press agent lied when he said there would be nothing wrong with having a nude photo shoot on a busy public beach. Later, they discover a man stealing from a phone booth, assist in the chase of a stolen dune buggy, try help an attractive woman whose safety is put in grave danger by an obscene phone caller, deal with a wino who dies while eating at a diner and pull over a woman towing a large jack-o-lantern.
Today's patrol begins with a traffic stop of a high-society cat burglar who's just finished serving a four-year prison term, and Malloy senses the guy is about to return to his old ways. Meanwhile, he and Reed engage in a standoff with a wounded robbery suspect who fatally shot a convenience store worker, examine an abandoned vehicle, investigate the theft of a book from a library and deal with a distraught unemployed man who takes his young daughter hostage in his home.
Malloy returns from vacation sporting a mustache, prompting chuckles and guffaws from the squad. The officers then assist Air Ten in rescuing two people from an airplane crash. Reno West, a paroled thief, is suspected in the theft of some stamps from a mansion. A witness provides excellent descriptions of suspects involved in a jewelry store robbery. And a woman takes an alleged purse snatcher to the police station in her car rather than walk four miles to do so. Malloy shaves off the mustache when he has trouble trimming it.
A rookie cop with a "know-it-all" presents problems for the officers on the force, including Officer Wells, Malloy and Reed. Barrett bungles the arrest of a kooky but ultimately harmless elderly man suspected of holding up a bank. Later, a bomber has planted an explosive device inside a cereal box at a local grocery store, with the bomb set to go off within the hour.
Reno West's burglary reign continues, and the Captain orders it stopped at all costs. Other cases include having to divert a vicious guard dog so the officers can save a 70 year old man in a diabetic coma, investigate a theft of a rare jade statue from a mansion, and a domestic dispute between a couple where it appears the wife is the abuser.
There's a new dispatcher on today's day watch, and while Reed can't stand her voice, Malloy sees the situation much differently. On patrol, they search for a hit and run driver who left a small girl in serious condition, investigate a break-in at a synagogue, deal with a drunk woman who is searching for her daughter and become part of a SWAT team attempting to neutralize a sniper terrorizing the movie studio from which he was just fired.
Reed needs his TV repaired, and brings in his Boy Scout neighbor with a merit badge in electronics to work on it. Cases involve pursuing a juvenile on a souped-up minibike, a woman suspected of killing and burying her husband in the back yard, a robbery committed by a long haired woman in high heels, a picket line at a store resolved when the lead picketer found out she went on a "computer date" with the store manager and he lied about his occupation, and a report made on a robbery turned out to be made by the actual robbers.
While Reed is having his shoes fixed at the repair shop, the squeakiness of his replacement shoes is driving Malloy crazy. On patrol, they deal with a deranged homeowner destroying his own possessions, stop a cargo van whose driver misunderstands the meaning of double jeopardy, search for a young boy hiding in an industrial building about to be demolished and create a hostage situation after shooting a bank robber.
Reed and Malloy respond to a dispute in a park, where elderly woman Edna Digby (Lillian Bronson) tries to stop painter Andre Pochek from selling a painting that she considers indecent. To resolve the issue (due to the seller needing a new permit and being short on money) Malloy buys the painting and puts it in the back of the cruiser. It becomes a frequent topic of discussion despite Malloy's dislike for the painting, and when Malloy tries to sell it to another officer, the officer only buys the frame, leaving him with the painting. Calls include a man trying to retrieve a valuable coin from a toy dispenser, a potential "peeping tom" who is actually a city employee using a telescope to check meters to avoid dogs, a repo man trying to widen a door in a house he is trying to repossess furniture from, and an ex-football star-turned-robber who flees into the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Malloy and Officer Woods return from a day of fishing smelling like fish...which is aggravated when a disoriented woman spills perfume in the back seat. Numerous trips to the police garage fail to get the smells out. Other incidents include a mute woman informing the officers someone had broken into a church, a kidnapping call that turns out to be a man picking up a drunk woman to take her home, and a boy whose bike was stolen by a big boy and was recovered when the boy's friends caught and held the big boy until the police arrived.
While on a quiet patrol, Reed decides to spend part of his lunch break doing business at his bank while Malloy waits in the patrol car. Unfortunately, he walks into the clutches of a pair of ruthless robbers who take him hostage.
Reed volunteers to write a profile on Malloy for the LAPD's magazine to honor his 10th anniversary on the force, but soon discovers he may be in over his head. Out on patrol, an apparent gas station armed robbery gets turned on its head when they question the parties after a long chase, a man goes to extreme lengths to get his neighbor's poodle to stop barking, a woman's plan to get her husband arrested backfires and a liquor store robbery suspect barricades himself inside a house's garage after a high-speed chase.
Reed is suffering from a wrist injury which puts him on desk duty, while Malloy has to break in a new rookie partner. Reed's day is far from routine as he has to handle a bomb threat that results in the evacuation of the station, Officer Brinkman accidentally discharges his shotgun twice, a young man wants to report misconduct by a police officer, an elderly man brings a shotgun into the station to drop off, Malloy brings in a group of children abandoned by their mother, and Malloy and his partner pursue a car into the police parking lot, where the suspects are arrested.
Malloy's brand new car gets dinged up when he has to bail out to chase down a purse snatcher, but Sgt. MacDonald promises him his kid brother in Beverly Hills can fix it on the cheap. Out on patrol, he and Reed search for a drunk man accused of randomly shooting arrows, respond to a robbery at a deli that results in tragedy and search for a drug store robbery suspect who gets away after being shot.
Malloy and Reed begin today's patrol by responding to a call of a drunken woman threatening the patrons of a bar with a handgun. Afterwards, they search for a group of four carjackers who go on a robbery spree after targeting a man with a cache of guns in his trunk, and investigate the suspicious death of a mentally disabled man.
Reed returns from an off-day with an uncomfortable full-body sunburn, which causes him problems throughout the watch. Calls include responding to a traffic accident, acting on a tip from an informant, busting a drug dealer working out of abandoned homes, searching for a robbery suspect based on a vehicle description, and assisting in the rescue of two boys when their boat capsizes.
Malloy and Reed are chosen to ride in Air-70 to observe how the LAPD's air patrol works. The chopper's cases include searching for two robbery suspects inside a high-rise building and tracking an escaping murder suspect.
Malloy and Reed take to separate helicopter units to continue their observations. The choppers assist in a stolen light plane from LAX by a distraught man, track two robbery suspects fleeing in separate cars, and assist in a nighttime house fire.
Malloy, Reed, and Officer Woods are assigned airport duty at LAX, now equipped with closed-circuit cameras, which were used to observe a burglary in progress and apprehend the suspects before they could leave. An argument over a suitcase resulted in the discovery of drugs, another dispute involving an Army soldier and another man uncovers a scheme where the civilian took Japanese Yen from the soldier. A ticket clerk that catches Malloy's eye informs him of a man who bought tickets from her previously under a different name, which results in the breakup of a credit card theft ring, a runaway is escorted to security until his mother can pick him up, and a silent alarm at a toll gate results in the capture of a robber who was holding a hostage. As a reward for breaking up the credit card theft ring, the company invites Malloy and the ticket clerk to lunch—Reed is invited too but Malloy pays Reed (a week's worth of lunches) NOT to join the couple on the lunch date.
Malloy and Reed investigate the death of an old man wearing an unusual belt, which leads to the case being turned over to Frauds Division, who finds that Dr. Gantman, running a clinic, is treating a blind seven-year-old patient with a pituitary gland condition but his "treatment" is worthless and preventing a real treatment (removal of the gland). Later, a TV repairman who makes oscillator belts for Gantman is busted for bookmaking and agrees to testify against the doctor, but Gantman demonstrates his "treatment" in open court and fails miserably. Note: This episode, in which Reed and Malloy appear only briefly, was intended to be the pilot for a new Mark VII series focusing on the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office, and was directed by Webb himself. However, no such series came to be.
1972
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.
Reed and Malloy rush an 8-year old to Rampart Emergency Hospital, where he is diagnosed with diabetes. Scared of the hospital, Jimmy runs off, and it's up to Reed and Malloy to find him before he goes into a diabetic coma. Elsewhere, Malloy's new girlfriend, Cathy, mans a hospital telephone hotline. Sherry, a 15-year old junkie, is threatening suicide to escape her troubled life. Malloy and Reed need to find her fast, before she OD's.
The officers undergo their driver refresher courses to hone their pursuit and driving skills. A rash of car strippers brings about a new approach suggested by Officer Wells: going undercover as paperboys riding bicycles to find the thieves. Hilarity ensues; Wells wrecks his bicycle that belonged to a young girl, Malloy deals with an irate newspaper customer, and Reed and Malloy pull over a VW Microbus on a traffic violation where the driver's parrot chanted "Down with Pigs!", but the tactics work and the officers break up the car stripping ring.
Officer Charlie Burnside pulls a prank on Officer Albert Porter, a friend of Reed's. Porter, who does not find the prank funny, informs Reed that Burnside is frequently "badge-heavy" (rough) with his suspects. After dealing with an inept would-be robber, Malloy and Reed observe Burnside choking a suspect. Reed reports the incident, but nothing is done by the Captain because the victim would not admit Burnside was the aggressor. Burnside turns cocky on Reed saying he has "an ace in the hole" and that Reed was mad about the prank he pulled on Porter, but it is later revealed that Burnside got to one of the robbers, placing him under investigation. At the end of watch, Burnside tries intimidating Reed, then tries brushing his intimidation off as a joke when he realizes the other officers are against him; when they all walk out, Burnside resigns.
A hotel janitor (and wino) named Harry witnesses a murder in a hotel room, but refuses to talk until Reed shows him compassion and respect, both of which are lacking from his family and friends, but his testimony is clouded by his alcoholic past. Malloy relives his childhood by telling the story of his chaperoning a junior high dance.
During Malloy's birthday, he lets Reed know he does not enjoy surprise parties, but becomes increasingly suspicious and believes the others are actually planning a surprise party, much to his chagrin; it is soon revealed that is not the case. Meanwhile, Sgt. MacDonald warns the officers about a rash of robberies using milk crates to break store windows; during a routine traffic stop, Reed notices a milk crate in the back of a car and surreptitiously marks it for identification later, and the thief is apprehended later using the same milk crate. Calls include a backup call for a jewelry store robbery when the officers pull over the owner of said store for DUI, an embarrassed male purse snatching victim inside a negligee shop, a phony gas station worker at a closed gas station, a shootout in the police garage between the entire station and a drunk suspect officers failed to handcuff, and Officer Wells capturing a B&E suspect based on a hunch by Malloy.
A World War II survivor and tailor shop owner sets an ambush for an unidentified intruder when Malloy and Reed intervene. R&I determines the owner is clean and emigrated to the U.S. seventeen years earlier from Eastern Europe. The officers speak with a local priest who knows the owner, who complains to Sgt. MacDonald about what he feels is the officers' interference. Later, shots are fired at the shop, and the officers find a wounded intruder with no one else in the shop. Malloy and Reed find the owner with the priest, who informs them that the intruder is a former Nazi soldier who killed his relative during the war.
Malloy and Reed encounter an armed private investigator from out of state, who is in Los Angeles to find a bail jumper. Later the PI is in the middle of an altercation with two black men, one of which is injured; the PI claims the men tried to rob him, but the men tell a different story, and Sgt. MacDonald orders the PI arrested. The PI is found roughing up the bail jumper and is arrested. Calls include an elderly man wanting a group of cars driven by hippies ticketed for illegal parking, and a woman who demands the officers ticket her husband's car because he refuses to replace the balding tires on it.
Malloy and Reed have to wear their long-sleeved uniforms despite a hot forecast, then learn they could have changed to short sleeves but missed the radio notification. Calls include the search for a bicycle pump that contains drugs, a woman experiencing withdrawal symptoms with the dealer and the pump up the street, a man complaining about his grass being trampled during his neighbor's yard sale (which had stolen property taken by the neighbor "on consignment") leads to the discovery of the burglar, who then provides a tip on a murder suspect.
Malloy and Reed are called to a hotel to stop a woman's suicide attempt; while there, they learn of a parolee there who refuses to speak with the woman because he thinks someone from the mob is after him. Later the officers are called back to the hotel because the manager wants the parolee evicted; another call to the hotel leads to shots fired from the parolee, who was having delusions the mob was after him. In another case, the officers offer assistance to a man whose extremely damaged car simply needed a tire change; the man and his car are later the suspects in a robbery, and detectives arrest the man with the officers' help.
Malloy's old landlady, Mrs. O'Brien, has her purse stolen and refuses to leave the station until her case is settled. Mrs. O'Brien resorts to other means, including hounding detectives and setting up a picket line to vent her frustrations. Malloy makes connection between her theft and a string of purse snatchings involving social security checks, and a decoy leads to the end of the theft ring. Calls include two suspicious men and a pursuit involving them, and a homicide where candy wrappers and tire tracks from the pursuit suspects are found.
Reed spreads his flu to several other officers, leaving the station undermanned. Calls include a shootout with a rifle-toting bookie, an argument between a storekeeper and a customer over a cantaloupe during an unrelated traffic stop, Reed locating a burglar after seeing a flashlight inside a store, and a teenager evading Reed in a foot pursuit. Due to the understaffing situation, Malloy and Reed are asked to do double shifts, and Malloy tickets a woman for turning right at a red without stopping. Later, Sgt. MacDonald assigns them to drive around a police commissioner for the night; the commissioner is actually the woman Malloy ticketed.
While on second shift, Malloy and Reed take Police Commissioner Dixon on a ride-along. They encounter a bar owner who locked a naked, elderly man inside, a fight with a knife-wielding man and another man with a gun, and a missing 17-year-old deaf boy with mental instabilities, which Reed recognizes as the boy that escaped his foot pursuit in the previous episode.
Malloy and Reed arrest a seemingly less-fortunate woman for shoplifting items for her baby, but she escapes from custody during a disruption at the station; the officers later learn the woman and her husband actually stole the baby, as they could not have one of their own. After finding the woman at a landlord-tenant dispute, they learn the woman's husband stole his car, and that the manager supposedly made an extortion call demanding $2,000 for the baby. The officers pursue and eventually catch the husband at a rail yard. Another call results in Reed briefly being held at gunpoint by a burglary suspect; Reed manages to trick the suspect and signal Malloy for help.
Malloy and Reed are given an older cruiser with 300 miles to go until retirement. They quickly learn the car is extremely unreliable and barely works: the accelerator surges, the glove compartment door constantly drops on Reed's knees, the water hose breaks while they are sneaking up on a prowler suspect (actually just a man who once lived there), their malfunctioning taillights prevent them from writing a ticket to a citizen whose car had the same problem, the distributor cap fails when trying to respond to another call, and finally, after capturing a pursuit suspect, the car's brakes fail and the unmanned car totals itself on a light pole. Another call regarding a truck loading up at a warehouse leads to the arrest of a large group of organized burglars after Malloy notices a slight discrepancy in their otherwise foolproof plan.
Malloy and Reed pull over a car on a routine traffic stop and are taken hostage by two robbers escaping from their heist. The officers have to use all their skills to escape the situation.
Reed spends a Saturday night talking about buying a used car, during the watch the officers handle a possible DUI but the driver passes the field sobriety tests, a shooting during which a man kills his recently paroled son-in-law, a car stripper, trick a man into revealing his name after pulling him over for speeding and finding the car has over $900 of unpaid tickets, and two beatings at motels.
Reed spends an evening on the firing range, then stops by an all-night grocery store. When Reed leaves, a man approaches him as if he knew him, then points out another man in a green Beetle holding a gun on the officer. Reed drops his groceries, shoves the man, jumps and fires at the Beetle driver, hitting the car, but the man in the Beetle shoots his accomplice. The grocer swears he only heard one shot, and the accomplice gives a dying declaration that Reed was trigger-happy and shot him, leading to Reed's suspension. Malloy and his by-the-book replacement partner locate the green Beetle (now yellow) after going through numerous DMV checks and locate the other man, exonerating Reed.
Malloy wins $10,000 in a women's shampoo naming contest and is stampeded by people telling him what he should do with the money. Calls include an elderly male tenant complaining that a new elderly female tenant's Irish music is too loud, a sniper wreaking havoc until he is shot trying to escape in a car, a reported theft turned out to be a broke man whose three wives stripped the expensive house he was in clean except for the stolen items, and a wino is killed by another wino for his new tennis shoes.
Malloy and Reed spot a runaway young boy hiding in the woods and prepare to take him home, then respond to his address for a disturbance and find his mother and step-father quiet. They return a second time with the couple throwing things at each other and break it up. A third call to the same address forces the officers to send the husband to his sister's house, but he returns to the apartment and when he does, shots ring out just as the officers arrive for the fourth time. Calls include a motorist encountering a girl who offers him drugs, a man trying to break into his own truck after his dog locked him out, and a drunk bicycle thief.
Malloy and Reed are stunned to discover that the driver who led them on a high-speed chase is the son of Sgt. MacDonald, and Malloy takes it upon himself to help his boss figure out why the young man is acting out. In the meantime, they investigate a possible burglary in progress at an apartment building, mediate a dispute at a park over an elderly woman feeding ducks, respond to a call of two armed men fighting over a woman and deal with a wino who is attempting to direct traffic at a busy intersection.
Reed loses a case against a young car thief in juvenile court, who later dies in high-speed pursuit. A girl's boyfriend dies from a heroin "hot shot", she buys drugs from the supplier and provides the serial number of the $10 bill she used to buy them. An elderly woman insists on being arrested rather than ticketed for a traffic violation.
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.
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.
The radical Robin Saydo on the loose, tied into 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 begins a crossover with The D.A. that concludes on "The People vs. Robin Saydo".
1-Adam-12 is back on the streets after routine maintenance, but the radio isn't working properly. During an armed robbery involving two suspects, Reed captures one while Malloy takes off in pursuit of the other one through Griffith Park and loses control of the car, and it rolls into an embankment hidden from the road, with Malloy suffering severe internal bleeding and a broken leg. All available units are called in to search for Malloy, who has to watch helplessly while a suspect hiding in the park takes his shotgun (which Malloy was using as a splint for his leg) and sidearm, and tears off the radio microphone leaving only leaving the wires. Malloy uses the wires to send a signal for help, which Reed picks up and is able to rescue his partner.
A man named "The Ferret" is vandalizing 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.
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 making the car stall, and stop car thieves from stripping parts to build a dune buggy. Starting with this episode, Officer Ed Wells is promoted to Police Officer III (just under Malloy's rank of Police Officer III+1).
Malloy and Reed are sent to assist the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department with transporting a prisoner from Malibu to Los Angeles for outstanding traffic warrants. During the trip, the prisoner reveals he is also a witness in a mob murder and a hit has been ordered on him. Suddenly, the cruiser is ambushed on a rural road, a tire is shot out, and they crash on a dirt road out of radio range. Reed is captured by hitmen attempting to get assistance, but Malloy and the prisoner steal the hitmen's car to get to a phone. The LAPD sends a police helicopter to search for Reed, who ends up overpowering the hit men and are captured.
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.
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. When they catch the suspect, supposedly a black man, they find he is actually just an equally-racist white man in blackface. Other calls include a hitchhiker who extorts money from drivers she leaves in embarrassing situations, and a drunk who is seeing pink elephants.
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 Reed.
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.
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. The officers also handle a robbery at a construction yard foiled by police scouts.
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.
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.
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.
Malloy is told that the best player on the recreational league basketball team he coaches has begun using narcotics again, which he flatly denies despite evidence to the contrary. He and Reed also search for a hit-and-run driver who struck a child, and pull over a driver with a seemingly disrespectful and wanted passenger.
Malloy and Reed investigate the ransacking of a college football locker room and uncover a controversial performance enhancing drug program. They also investigate suspicious parents who backtrack after their maid reports their baby as missing, apprehend a reported prowler who is then suspiciously let into the home by the female accuser and engage in a bullet-riddled high speed chase through a residential area.
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.
On temporary assignment at LAX, Reed and Malloy have to save a stewardess who is taken hostage inside a lounge by a man desperately trying to get the attention of a television producer. Afterward, they go undercover as rental car employees to intercept a large narcotics delivery from Toledo, and then try to identify and apprehend a rape suspect before he's able to escape on a flight.
Malloy tries to prove Sgt. MacDonald's innocence when Mac 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.
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.
Malloy and Reed search for a six-year-old boy who was apparently abducted while walking home from school, and later fear that an elderly witness's wildly inaccurate account may actually pertain to a different crime. They also respond to a barking dog complaint and become suspicious of the dog's owner, mediate a domestic dispute caused by a husband's obsession with watching football, respond to a very creative college prank and pursue armed robbery suspects through a crowded train depot with the aid of a police helicopter.
Reed becomes preoccupied with the well being of a friend, an electrical engineer by profession, who has just qualified as a reserve police officer and has the bad luck of drawing Officer Wells as his partner. On patrol, Reed and Malloy help out a group of distrusting young adults who are planning to illegally camp in a public park after a rock concert, pull over a young couple in a stolen car and aid wells and the reservist in the foot chase of a heavily armed man who has been coercing innocent strangers into committing bank robberies.
1974
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.
An 'officer needs help' call comes in with no callsign or location. The dispatcher starts a division wide radio "roll-call" in order to account for every officer on patrol. While the roll-call is going on, calls for service from the public still needs to be handled. When a motorcycle officer fails to check in when prompted, a division wide search is instituted to look for him, which Malloy & Reed are assigned to assist in.
Malloy tries to find a way to help a 60-year-old career criminal he arrested 10 years ago, who was recently released and begs to be re-arrested so he can spend his retirement years in the federal penitentiary. Meanwhile, he and Reed become suspicious while investigating an apparent home burglary, and later respond to a bank robbery in progress.
Sgt. MacDonald is unhappy about two things: his marriage and radio problems among the officers causing delays in response. Mac reaches out to Malloy about his wife opening an antique shop which is taking time away from him and the kids. Mac later realizes his situation during a call with an old married couple where the wife (whom the husband thought had run away) likes to go to the pizza parlor alone and listen to music, and the husband doesn't understand her need for some alone time. Other calls include a woman taken hostage by two robbers who head to the roof of a building; the suspects jump to a different roof but leave the hostage behind, and the robbers are apprehended with the help of Air Ten.
A serial rapist is on the loose. Malloy and Reed team up with Sgt. Gloria Tyler to teach self-defense techniques to a group of girls at a school near where the attacks have been occurring. Later, Tyler is used as bait to lure the rapist out, and he is captured after a pursuit. Other incidents include a home burglary involving a man whom the officers know and his nephew, and a shoplifter in a rain coat who escapes into a bar where he tries to be a stand-up comic.
Malloy and Reed search for a six-year-old girl in a red sweater who was kidnapped. Malloy finds the girl in a neighbor's house – the neighbor has kidnapped and raped the girl, and she is unconscious. The perp attempts to escape, Malloy catches him and loses his cool when the suspect claims that the girl was "asking for it." The suspect files excessive force charges against Malloy, which he admits to; he knows he will be punished by his old mentor, Capt. Moore which may derail his ambition to become sergeant. Moore gives Malloy a four-day suspension for his actions. Other calls include rescuing a man who got stuck in the storm drain system.
A burglar is on the loose, and the officers handle a call with a drunk who is nearly a dead-ringer for the burglar, later he ends up falling down at a bar where Officer Woods was handling a call regarding him. Other calls include looking for an antique stove an Asian woman gave away without knowing her husband had hid money inside it, getting an obese woman out of a phone booth, and a stakeout for the burglar mentioned at roll call resulting in his capture; during the pursuit, the charity truck that picked up the antique stove is located, and the money is returned to the family.
Reed's wife Jean is turned down for credit when purchasing a washer and Reed goes to the credit bureau to see why; the reason was that his name was confused with another James Reed with a different middle initial, and is cleared up. Other incidents include a hit-and-run accident, the victim gives a description and license number of the car that hit her, which is found with damage but the owner insists she was not involved; further investigation proves the owner right and they locate the real suspect, two boys that stole camping gear and later found when they were trying to hitchhike, and they arrest a liquor store owner in error while he was chasing the robbery suspect.
During their Christmas Eve Patrol, Malloy and Reed contemplate using their patrol car to deliver a Christmas tree to the residents of a soon-to-be-closed retirement home. Meanwhile, an elderly man's bagpipe playing is considered a public nuisance, a couple of teenagers steal a delivery truck containing radioactive material, a nervous man is desperate to cover up the smell of perfume on his clothing and an armed robbery suspect becomes intent on committing suicide-by-cop.
While paying a visit to the laundromat before going into work, Malloy encounters a man using the facilities to dry something much different from clothing. On patrol, he and Reed deal with a minister-in-training who uses a very unorthodox method to get his message across, try to reunite a Finnish-speaking child with her family, mediate a strange dispute between feuding neighbors and engage in a high-speed chase with a well known drug dealer.
Malloy and Reed investigate a large car theft operation that targets older cars, then stages them around the city as abandoned vehicles so they can be towed and scrapped. Meanwhile, they try to figure out why the son of Malloy's girlfriend is getting bad grades, search for a suspect who robbed an elderly woman and attempt to rescue two foolish teenagers who enter a house that is being fumigated.
The watch starts with an elderly woman whose TV was stolen and asks why nothing more is done for victims of crime. A silent alarm at a shop results in the owner being shot and critically injured; one suspect is caught, the other escapes when Reed has to save a baby in a runaway carriage. The shooting puts the family in a financial crunch, which can be helped with paperwork from a new program to help victims of violent crimes, but none are available. The officers question the bail bondsman to determine where the second suspect is, obtain the vehicle description and license number from a neighbor, then arrest him after pursuit in vehicle and foot. Another silent alarm finds young men robbing a drive-in, but their car stalls trying to get away. The forms for victims' families finally arrive and are provided to those that need them. Amy Milner, Martin Milner's daughter, appears in the episode as the shop owner's daughter.
Officer Woods' new partner is a nervous and quiet recruit, and the embarrassing secret he's trying to keep from his fellow officers might actually imperil them. On today's patrol, a real estate broker's well meaning but poorly thought out gesture nearly leads to a mob scene, a drug store owner discovers a way to profit from armed robbers and an armed robbery suspect opens fire during his escape attempt.
Malloy and his girlfriend Judy and Jim and Jean Reed agree to a double-date, before then the officers and Motor Officer Grant have to corral three runaway cows from an overturned truck, ticket a girl for unsafe bicycling who likes Malloy but thinks Reed is a grouch, and respond to a barfight which is really a pick-pocketing scheme. En route to the date, Reed spots a robbery in progress; he drops Jean off to call for uniformed assistance while he pursues and catches the suspect, causing him to rip his clothing and miss the date.
Malloy and Reed back up Officers Wells and Brady (who, like Wells, likes to "do things his own way") on a domestic dispute involving a husband with a gun. Calls include a dead body which turned out to be a girl playing with a mannequin, a man who likes to climb the sides of abandoned buildings, and a taxi driver who tips off the officers to an in-progress pawn shop burglary; they find the suspect working at a car wash and arrest him. The officers once again back up Wells and Brady on a prowler call where the homeowner comes out shooting. The four officers also hone their skills on the firing range in preparation for their monthly qualification.
Reed thinks he's got a great deal lined up on a used boat, but Malloy's convinced there's something fishy going on. While on patrol, they search for a man who sold a stolen horse to a riding academy, use an informant's tip to investigate a suspicious restaurant parking lot attendant and face an accusation of stealing a socialite's diamond ring during a burglary investigation.
Malloy and Reed are on the lookout for a traveling business man driving a green pinto, who called his wife in Nebraska and told her he was going to commit suicide at 2 PM. Meanwhile, they search for a woman who abandoned her newborn baby in a garbage can, and get a tip from an elderly woman about a group of car strippers.
Malloy is kidnapped leaving the station by a drug runner and his female accomplice, demanding her boyfriend be released from jail in exchange for Malloy. When the couple has Malloy contact the station to confirm his status, he reveals a clue about where they found a girl with a mannequin (a reference to the episode "Citizen With Gun"). Reed finds Malloy's car and a citizen gives a description of Malloy's kidnappers and their car, which Reed finds abandoned but he locates their hideout from case files, meanwhile Malloy manages to spill gasoline and ignites it, allowing Malloy to be rescued by Reed who notices the gunfire and smoke.
Malloy is filling in for Sgt. MacDonald as Watch Commander, so Reed rides with a new partner, Gus Corbin, an officer with nine months on the job, and they begin watch with a purse snatcher found inside a church confessional, then a break-in at a pharmacy leads to the real intention of the thieves—the next door pawn shop. Corbin defies Malloy's direct order not to search the pawn shop until backup arrives, which results in a dressing down by the acting Watch Commander, and the two suspects are captured. Finally, Corbin loses his gun during a foot pursuit and captures the suspect despite being unarmed.
Malloy continues his assignment as acting Watch Commander, so Reed is paired with Officer Dana Hall, while Officers Wells and Woods treat the new policewoman with the typical (for the 1970s) "not the woman's place" attitude, Reed treats her with respect and they go on patrol, where they encounter an underage DUI suspect with an uncooperative mother, locate and search a car stripping operation, and arrest numerous young people who riot at an outdoor rock concert.
Reed's bust of a drug dealer named Sparky was thrown out in court, and after Sgt. MacDonald offers him a chance to join the Vice squad for 30 days to gain experience, Reed volunteers, however the lifestyle and training cause a rift between him and Jean, and Reed quickly discovers how dirty Vice is; he's involved in a bust where a man wants to trade drugs for pictures of young boys, and the assignment is taking its toll on him. Malloy and Officer Woods team up to assist in the arrest of two drug dealers, but Malloy is shot and wounded during the bust and rescued by Reed.
Reed is awarded the Medal of Valor by the LAPD for rescuing a wounded Malloy from the shootout, and despite Jean's feelings about her husband's new assignment and about him taking the investigator's exam to become a Detective, she decides to attend the ceremony. Malloy and Reed reunite and handle cases; including a typing school B&E where both money and typewriters were suspected to be stolen, a suspicion confirmed by an assistant who allows the officers to freely check the typewriters; and a shootout in a warehouse full of mannequins with two young people.
1970
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.
Reed and Malloy report to a burglary call that was witnessed by a boy with a photographic memory. Afterward, they are called to the scene of two drunk men shooting at a box of dynamite at close range in a residential area.
The officers bring down an auto-theft ring where young girls get rides with the victims, steal their cars, and take them to a "chop shop". Other calls include an elderly woman who ran a red light and whose license lists her in her 30s, a would-be motorcycle thief stopped by a feisty woman, a shut-in woman who thinks she is hallucinating while her nephew is hosting a marijuana party, and two men moving a safe down the street.
Malloy and Reed investigate a missing child with a Band-Aid on her leg. Other calls include rescuing a cat and birds from a woman who was trying to get rid of them using gas, apprehending a man who stole a disability check from his uncle, and responding to an auto burglary turned homicide with a Hispanic family more concerned with how the officers would treat them.
The shift starts with Reed being taken hostage by a woman out of her mind. Malloy and Reed are faced with multiple reports of burglaries and the thieves appear to be young boys. After a couple interviews, Malloy picks up on the fact that the victims are all supposed to be playing bridge and it points to one family.
Officer Malloy pays tribute to Officer Tom Porter, who has recently fallen in the line of duty. Malloy recounts the close friendship they developed while training at the academy, as well as the moments where they crossed paths on duty, including the night of the officer's unfortunate demise.
Malloy and reed hunt down a suspect who has been bombing downtown storefronts. Then they report to a scuffle between two native americans at a bar that the bartender thinks may be a prelude to something a lot more serious.
Malloy and Reed search for a serial arsonist who spawns a copycat, settle a domestic dispute that results from a love triangle, rescue a man who wandered onto the ledge of a high rise and deal with a mentally ill man who is holding his wife at knife-point.
It's Christmas Eve in Los Angeles, and Malloy and Reed track down a suspect who beat and mugged a rescue mission Santa, who later gets arrested himself. They also respond to an alcohol-related traffic accident that resulted in a fatality, help a penniless widow who has been detained for shoplifting and take part in the search for a young Native American child who wandered off into a mountainous area while her parents were asleep.
Malloy and Reed start the shift with a call to a liquor store robbery, where a fellow officer was shot but the owner of the store appears to be lying. Further investigation pushes the owner to admit one of the thieves was his brother and he was trying to protect him. In the meantime, they have a zoning issue with an elderly astrology reader followed by the report of a young boy asking a pharmacist questions about Seconal pills.
Reed and Malloy respond to a car rollover where a good samaritan makes matters worse. Afterward, they respond to several victims of a well-known family of seasonal home improvement con artists before finally catching them in the act. In the meantime, they search for a disgruntled ex-employee who is trying to sabotage his former workplace, and take a drunk driver off the street.
Officer Reed loses a robbery suspect while in foot pursuit. Afterward, he and Malloy try to help a priest prevent bloodshed between rival hispanic gangs, and then respond to a battered wife whose husband is very familiar to the officers.
Malloy and Reed drive up on a convenience store robbery in progress, which results in the suspects taking hostages. Later, they pull over a reckless driver who has just committed a heinous crime, learn about a new computer system designed to help them be more productive and finally thwart a group of serial burglars who use motorcycles.
Officer Tony Johnson finds out he has been accused of a shakedown just after saving Malloy's life during a shootout. Reed and Malloy set out to find a bar girl named Ginger who Johnson says will prove his innocence, but her story leaves Malloy with an uneasy feeling.
Reed and Malloy have a gun pulled on them after stopping a car that turns out to be stolen, but the contents of the trunk link the two suspects to an even more sinister crime. Afterward, a recently widowed father and his teenage daughter report that their home has just been toilet papered, which ends up being a prelude for a much more serious incident.
Officer Reed, who is an optimist and still has faith in the human race, is subjected to ridicule from Officer Wells after he is swindled twice. On patrol, he and Malloy come to the aid of a woman whose baby has been kidnapped by a heavily armed man seeking a large ransom. Afterward, wells once again questions Reed's judgment during the search for an intoxicated sniper at large.
Malloy and Reed are on patrol, and find a homeless man stabbed. They take a retired policeman, Jack Donohoe (who lives nearby), in for questioning, but he is released when the real suspect is found. Donohoe later gets involved in a shootout with a robbery suspect. Other incidents include an aspiring actress from Missouri shooting up a phone booth at Union Station after being lured by a theatrical agent who promised a movie career and took her money, and then having her suitcase, containing a rattlesnake, stolen at the station.
The officers respond to a shooting involving police and two black men, one of which was shot by one of the officers and later found dead in an alley. The dead man was the younger brother of Reed's friend Kenneth James; his older brother Cleotis was an accomplice and both were members of a black militant gang, The Brotherhood. Kenneth believes the gang's contention that Cleotis was murdered by the officers until the James brothers confront each other and Kenneth learns the truth; his brother Cleotis is arrested after briefly taking his brother hostage. Malloy and Reed also pull over an elderly driver on his 75th birthday for multiple traffic violations.
Malloy and Reed's day begins with a police garage employee taking a joyride in a police car (Code 3), later finding a young woman trying to cash an old age benefits check she found, checking a garage whose closed circuit TV security system was stolen, an elderly woman thinking she saw a prowler, finding a B&E suspect inside a coffin in a mortuary, and poaching into Officer Wells' territory to check on break-ins occurring in warehouses; finally apprehending two drugged out burglars inside a warehouse.
Malloy has to shoot one of two robbery suspects, then the officers counsel a young woman in a bad neighborhood not to hang around (she is later kidnapped by two men claiming to fix her car), the LAPD's Air-Ten helicopter is used to catch the kidnappers (who already had outstanding kidnapping warrants), find a "mover" (burglar) whose partner hides in a freezer, and the officers visit an apartment on a domestic dispute complaint and find another woman with severe injuries but the couple insists nothing is going on, later arresting the husband on domestic violence charges after the woman's mother calls the police back to the apartment after the woman's husband beats their daughter.
Malloy celebrates his birthday by having to let Reed drive 1-Adam-12 (due to Malloy allowing his driver's license to expire) and is nervous about his young partner driving the car. Calls include a bank robbery reported by the Bank robber, a burglary involving several neighbors, an abandoned baby, a suicidal wife who killed her husband on their 22nd wedding anniversary, and a drug dealer selling his wares out of an ice cream truck.
After beginning the search for a well known suspect who just stole a 600-pound offset printing press, Reed and Malloy try to convince an 85-year-old man to leave the soon-to-be demolished apartment building where he's resided alone for 27 years. Afterward, they pull over a very unusual vehicle, and chase a delivery truck to the end of an unfinished bridge.
Malloy and Reed are called to a riding stable run by retired actor Slim Berkeley. The owner is careless about trusting people and has $100 and a gold belt buckle stolen. Because of a criminal record in New York his young assistant runs, but when searched nothing is found. A call to a phone booth where the man inside is being attacked leads to a drug arrest and sore jaw for Reed. Reed spots a robbery at a drive-in resulting in a shoot-out.
Malloy and Reed investigate a series of safe jobs, which all seem to tie in with a retired safecracker who is taking care of his orphaned niece and nephew, and after a "tip" from him, finds the niece and nephew practicing his old tricks on another safe. The officers also investigate a woman whose baby was held hostage by her cousin and forcing her to meet and steal from other men, after which the officers arrest the cousin and rescue the baby.
