Starring

Martin Milner
Kent McCord

Country of origin United States
Language(s) English
No. of seasons 7
No. of episodes 175

Production
Executive
producer(s)

Jack Webb
Running time 30 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel NBC 
Audio format Monaural sound
Original run September 21, 1968 – May 20, 1975 

The program concentrated on the daily activities of a pair of Los Angeles police officers, veteran Pete Malloy (Martin Milner) and rookie Jim Reed (Kent McCord), and to a lesser extent Sergeant William "Mac" MacDonald (William Boyett).

Kent McCord  and Martin Milner as Officers Reed and Malloy In the pilot episode, seven-year veteran Malloy is planning to resign from the police department following the death of his partner, who was killed in the line of duty while trying to foil an armed robbery.

 Malloy is persuaded to stay on and train a new partner: rookie officer Jim Reed, fresh out of the police academy and a two-year stint in the Army. Reed has a lot of potential, but is green and overeager. At the end of the pilot episode, Reed disobeys Malloy's direct order, but succeeds in safely arresting several armed persons.

Malloy dresses him down; however, the Division's Watch Commander, Malloy's one-time training officer (Art Gilmore, who also narrated the openings to the 1955–59 TV series Highway Patrol), reminds Malloy that the latter was also once an eager young rookie, much like Reed. Malloy takes it on himself to mold Reed into one of Los Angeles' "finest," at which, as evidenced by later episodes, he succeeds.

Adam-12 episodes centered on Malloy and Reed's maturing skills and relationship as patrol partners, and their shared experiences. Both would be wounded in the line of duty, kidnapped, and held hostage (separately and together), and face disciplinary measures for their mistakes.

Car chases and shoot-outs occurred, but with less frequency than in other TV cop series. A typical episode involved Reed and Malloy encountering people and places on their daily patrol beat, with incidents ranging from humorous to deadly serious. Sometimes a common incident or theme is explored throughout the episode, or incidents therein. Other episodes focused on mistakes of rookie, and sometimes more experienced, officers.

A memorable 1970 episode, Elegy for a Pig, detailed Pete Malloy's earlier relationship with his best friend from the police academy (Officer Tom Porter, played by Mark Goddard), starting from the stormy night that Porter was killed in the line of duty, and going back to their shared experiences as LAPD cadets in the early 1960s, before ending with Tom Porter's full-LAPD-honors funeral.

 Among some of the one-time-only features of this episode were that it used relatively little background music, especially over the opening credits (which included a voiceover by Jack Webb) and end credits. There was also no on-screen dialogue in the half-hour episode, except for Pete Malloy's narration.

In later years (after the patrol car switches from Plymouth Belvedere to AMC Matador), Reed completed his probationary period, and was granted regular LAPD Officer status, and Malloy was promoted to Field Training Officer ("Officer-3", ranking one step below Sergeant, with two chevrons/star patches on his shirt-sleeves).

The duo also became members of their division's SWAT team (a then-relatively new concept pioneered by the LAPD) and were shown in that capacity for a handful of episodes.

In the latter part of the seventh and final season it is strongly implied that Malloy will become the Division's new Patrol Sergeant/Watch Commander (after he fills in for an ailing Sgt. Mac on at least two episodes), and Reed will attain Detective status, after a successful plainclothes stint in LAPD's Narcotics Division as detailed in the final two episodes.

The outdoor filming was done primarily in the North Hollywood, Toluca Lake, Studio City, and Hollywood Hills sections of Los Angeles (and close to Universal Studios and the infamous studio backlot itself, which was heavily used during the first two seasons), although the exteriors of the station house were actually of the newly completed Rampart Division station of the Los Angeles Police Department. However, in the pilot episode, shot in late 1967, the station shown is North Hollywood Division.

Adam 12 Tv Show Cast:
Martin Milner ................ Officer Pete Malloy
Kent McCord .................. Jim Reed
Gary Crosby .................. Officer Ed Wells
William Boyett ............... Sergeant MacDonald
William Stevens .............. Officer Jerry Walters
Claude Johnson ............... Officer Green
William Elliott .............. Officer Grant
Fred Stromsoe ................ Officer Woods
Mikki Jamison ................ Mrs. Jean Reed (1969-1970)
Kristen Nelson ............... Mrs. Jean Reed (1974-1975)
Shaaron Claridge ............. Dispatcher (Voice)