Adam-12 had an enviable run of seven full seasons back when a single season represented 24 episodes. Only a few series get to depart on its own producer's terms and Adam-12 was among those few. This series ending episode features a momentous sendoff as Officer Jim Reed (Kent McCord) earns the LAPD's highest award for courage, the Medal of Valor. This for the key scene of the preceding episode where he drags his partner Pete Malloy to safety, after Malloy was shot and unconscious in a dangerously exposed position.
The episode also deals frankly with the issue of fear and trepidation faced by family of police officers. The scenes of marital strife that Reed's career is causing are honest and significant.
The medal ceremony features a cameo by the then actual LAPD Chief of Police Edward M. Davis, which is another hallmark of the series, the close association, and genuine respect, that the LAPD had for the Adam-12 series.
Adam-12 was a series with the courage to deal honestly with nearly all aspects of service as a police officer. The range of issues ran the gamut, from death of an officer in the line of duty and the impact of the surviving family (Elegy of a Pig), to cops dismissed from the force for intolerable abuse of office, to the supreme sacrifice and hallmarks of courage in saving lives and risking one's own.
The series showed police in a mostly sympathetic light, but wasn't afraid to expose human frailties and outright corruption on the part of select officers, including lapses in performance by the series' two principle stars. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, actual police officers generally regard Adam-12 as the finest police drama in TV history. It is generally regarded as perhaps the most realistic episodic portrayal as well.
The episode also deals frankly with the issue of fear and trepidation faced by family of police officers. The scenes of marital strife that Reed's career is causing are honest and significant.
The medal ceremony features a cameo by the then actual LAPD Chief of Police Edward M. Davis, which is another hallmark of the series, the close association, and genuine respect, that the LAPD had for the Adam-12 series.
Adam-12 was a series with the courage to deal honestly with nearly all aspects of service as a police officer. The range of issues ran the gamut, from death of an officer in the line of duty and the impact of the surviving family (Elegy of a Pig), to cops dismissed from the force for intolerable abuse of office, to the supreme sacrifice and hallmarks of courage in saving lives and risking one's own.
The series showed police in a mostly sympathetic light, but wasn't afraid to expose human frailties and outright corruption on the part of select officers, including lapses in performance by the series' two principle stars. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, actual police officers generally regard Adam-12 as the finest police drama in TV history. It is generally regarded as perhaps the most realistic episodic portrayal as well.
