It’s hard now, in hindsight, to quantify just how important Adam-12 may have been in terms of police-citizen relations. The show gave the profession two clean-cut, competent, authoritative faces with which the public could identify the police.
Martin Milner and Kent McCord— the show’s Officer Pete Malloy and Officer Jim Reed, respectively— were a far cry from the Keystone Cops and other bumbling versions of the profession typically portrayed in media.
In 2022, Kent McCord spoke with Boomer Magazine about the show’s impact, his co-star, and why the formula continues to resonate with audiences today.
“The charm of Adam-12 was its simplicity,” said McCord. “Just two cops in a black-and-white [squad car] patrolling the streets of Los Angeles. The moral of the story was simple— crime doesn’t pay.”
Those two cops may have seemed simple to McCord, but in reality, they were two of the most complex characters in police media. Officers Reed and Malloy were afforded rich interior …