Short preview of Adam-12, published in TV Guide's Fall Preview issue 1968, when Adam-12 was a new show.
It you have a police series--about the Los Angeles Police Department--and it's produced by Jack Webb, you might expect it to sound like Dragnet. Adam-12 sounds like Dragnet, with all the flat, clipped dialogue; all the hyperaccurate jargon, hyperjargon phraseology; and all the strange and wondrous character actors who all seem weirder than your Aunt Sadie's parakeet. Adam-12 is about an embittered patrol-car cop (Martin Milner, above, left) who just lost his partner to a crooked bullet. He is thinking about quitting the force, but, when given a new, overeager, overbrave ("Who the hell do you think you are--Sergeant York?") young rookie (played by Kent McCord, above, right) he sticks around to keep the kid alive. Together, armed with the usual Webbian compassion, irony, disgust and guts, they go forward to meet the people, both good and bad. "Adam-12", by the way is the code number of their patrol car. Debut: Sept. 21.