Substation (16 Feb. 1972)

Malloy and Reed are assigned to the Los Angeles Airport sub-station.

Director:

Christian Nyby

Writers:

Robert A. Cinader (creator), Jack Webb (creator),

Stars:

Martin Milner, Kent McCord, Francine York

Cast

Episode complete credited cast:
Martin Milner	...	Officer Pete Malloy
Kent McCord	...	Officer Jim Reed
Francine York	...	Kathy Benson
Robert Dowdell	...	Lt. Tom Ashton
Sid McCoy	...	Policeman Ron Carter
Jed Allan	...	U.S. Marshal Chuck Stanton
Joe E. Tata	...	Noel Simmons
Lenore Stevens	...	Sharon Wells
Frank Sinatra Jr.	...	Tyrone Jeffers

Storyline

The officers are on loan to LAX airport. The first case is a man taking a stewardess hostage because he wants a job with a specific film director in LA. They convince the man that the director is on the phone to distract him. The police are given a tip by another police department that a shipment of drugs is arriving in a suitcase. They tail the suitcase and arrest a group of men making separate drug pickups at the airport leading to a huge bust. Final call is a woman who is picked up by man posing as a limo driver. He pistol whips, robs and dumps her but she tears his shirt. They find the car and a tip leads them to the suspect in the airport.

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Genres:

Comedy | Crime | Drama | Mystery

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

16 February 1972 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles International Airport - 1 World Way, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Mark VII Ltd., Adam-12 Productions, Universal TV

Technical Specs

Runtime:

30 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

User Reviews

lax-12

This is one of the more interesting late in-the-series episodes. Pete and Jim are assigned on a detail a Los Angeles International and are immediately thrown into the action. Several of the '72 episodes have me gagging at Pete's new AMC Matador, but here we see the boys tooling around the airport parking lot on pretty girlie-Honda 90's. Cases include a hostage situation involving Frank Sinatra Jr., a rapist trying to get to Salt Lake and 30 kilo dope bust (prepare to be puzzled on how 30 keys of dope can fit in a small American Tourister). Police tactics have certainly changed too: you'll be in awe of how the guys take down dope dealers on 90cc Honda girly bikes while wearing police-issue rain slickers. A little hokey, but it's nice to see Webb & Co. take a field trip. Unlike Dragnet, which used a liberal amount of stock exterior shots, everything here appears shot on location. And notice how Reed was allowed to grow into a fully trained officer over time and how their relationship morphed a bit from the first two seasons of rookie-hood--- with Dragnet, Gannon and Friday had a mature dynamic that never morphed. Adam-12 also had a more impressive range of guest stars than the later Dragnets. Interesting episode; it's almost as if you can see Webb testing the idea of a cop series set at Los Angeles International.