Monday, August 25, 2014

1 Adam 12

I have a confession to make.  I never watched a whole episode of Adam 12.

Oh sure, it ran while I was alive.  And there were endless repeats for years and years after the show ran its course.  But I only caught snippets.  Never watched a whole one as a kid.

Oh I knew the basic concept and all.  So it's not like I was talking out of my butt when griping about over rambunctious over-militarized modern polices.

Dad's early shows, in my memory, were Star Trek repeats, Mission Impossible, and Emergency (the other Mark VII production).  I guess he wasn't a fan of police procedural.  Then the shows were all sorta ours, after.   

Well, thanks to Netflix, and a more mature taste and being able to enjoy a slower paced cop show in my dotage, I can watch Adam 12 now.   And just saw the first DVD.  Not bad.

But it's fiction.  It's idyllic cops.  What they wanted to be, not what they actually were.  Jack Webb was a fan and wanted to show the LAPD in the best light possible.

You know how I know it wasn't true truth on that show?  Look at the squad room.  Out of 2 dozen cops there is maybe 14 pounds of fat total between all of them.  That right there blows it out of the water.

This is what police work was really like.  True truth.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I loved the show. But, even they were not a training film.
On numerous occasions, one cop has bad guys covered, while the other walks in from of his muzzle!
And, of course, the JW style of hippies and their music was especially hilarious.
There was a remake a few years back (out of Canada, I believe) as there was a new Dragnet.
Neither took...

gfa

Unknown said...

Note that that in a couple of seasons, Reed and Malloy have custom stocks on their service revolvers. Looks like the work of John Hurst or 'Fuzzy' Farrant, perhaps even early efforts from Guy Hogue. All of the above were at one time LAPD firearm instructors. LAPD used to have offer a paycheck bonus for officers who topped a specific score during qualification shoots, and that why some officers preferred to carry the 6" S&W Model 14 versus the 4" Model 15.

Old NFO said...

Dan is right. Back in those days, there was one helluva battle over who was the best LEO shooter... CHP, LAPD, LASO, SFPD all of them used to battle regularly at matches. As for Grease, I knew Doug when he was at WAPE in Jacksonville, and he actually was a reserve deputy! ;-)

Sigman said...

The ability to shoot used to be a matter of pride. It wasn't uncommon in the day, for wagers to be placed on qualification scores, or low score buy the beer. There aren't as many "gun people" in law enforcement now as then I think. Hill Street Blues was the closest to real back in the day.