Trivia
The paramedics from Emergency! sometimes crossed paths with the cops at Rampart Hospital.
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Star Martin Milner's daughter, Amy Milner, made a guest appearance playing the daughter of a shopkeeper shot during a robbery. Look for her as Debbie McMahon in episode #164, titled "Victim of the Crime."
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Martin Milner's youngest son, Andrew Milner, drove a mini-bike as Johnny Whitaker's stunt driver in the episode "Northwest Division" (episode #137).
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The LAPD station building where the show was based is actually the Rampart Division, northwest of downtown Los Angeles.
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During the final season, Malloy had a girlfriend named Judy who was often talked about and appeared in a couple of episodes. She was played by Aneta Corsaut.
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The "one" in "One Adam 12" stood for the area of the division they were stationed in, "Adam" referred to the type of car they drove (a two-man patrol car) and "12" was for the area they patrolled. However, "one" was the code for Central Division (downtown). Since the unit was shown working in Rampart Division, the actual call sign should have been 2-Adam-12.
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During the first couple of seasons, Reed and Malloy had an informant named T.J. (played by Robert Donner) who was a recovering heroin addict.
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The dispatcher voice on the program was played by Shaaron Claridge. Claridge was a real L.A. dispatcher. Producer Jack Webb thought using a real dispatcher for the voiceovers would lend authenticity to the program. Webb did the same thing for his later series, "Emergency!", casting a real-life emergency dispatcher to voice the role.
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The patrol cars in the series were not real LAPD cruisers, but were purchased by Universal Studios from Chrysler Corporation and American Motors, and outfitted by the prop department to LAPD cruiser specs. In order, the cars were:
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- 1: 1967 Plymouth Belvedere 383 V8 ("pilot" only)
- 2: 1968 Plymouth Belvedere 383 V8 (season one)
- 3: 1969 Plymouth Belvedere 383 V8 (season two)
- 4: 1971 Plymouth Satellite 383 V8 (season three)
- 5: 1972 and 1973 AMC Matador 401 V8 (seasons four and on)
In keeping with the reputation of Jack Webb's series being scrupulously accurate about police procedures, select episodes of this series were used in police academies as instructional films.
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Fresh out of the academy, Probationary Officer Jim Reed is paired with veteran Officer Pete Malloy. However, Kent McCord had already appeared as LAPD Officer Jim Reed in several Dragnet episodes nearly a year before Adam-12 debuted.
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According to the LAPD Training officers doing the audio commentary on the Season Two DVDs, the little medallions that Reed and Malloy wear on their uniforms signify their shooting abilities. In the case of Malloy, who has a gold medallion with two bars, he is rated as an expert shot while Reed, who has a medallion with one bar, is at least a marksman. The commenting officers also explain that police officers are required to be tested on their shooting skills every two years in the LAPD.
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In the later seasons Malloy's personal vehicle is a tan AMC Matador coupe. In a few episodes he complains of it "needing to go into the shop". This issue plays a major part one episode from the last season. It's unusual that he has issues with the car, as AMC provided vehicles to the show.
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While the series used 1 ADAM 12, LAPD units used odd numbers for beats, so they would have been 1 Adam 11 or Adam 13. The only even numbers were used by the supervisors (I.E. Sgt's) and they would have been the numbers 10, 20, etc. so 1 Adam 12 would never have been an actual assigned number.
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