One-Adam-12, One-Adam 12, see the man...

Sgt 127 said:

Blue arrow-Steel hook that goes behind the trigger.
Green Arrow-Leather covered button. Depressing it moves a hinged lever that releases the "hook" on the front of the holster, red arrow.
The oustide of the clamshell has a steel loop that the hook catches to keep things closed.

There is a full length hinge and springs on the back side that force it to "pop" open when released.

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Designed by a committee, was it?

Wait till you have a clamshell that the hinge has loosened up on it...and it smacks the back of your leg when it opens..

I bought this rig in the mid 1970's and used it for several years. Best holster I ever had for prolonged hours in the car.

shouldazagged said:

Designed by a committee, was it?

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I was told that the old guy that made those holsters wandered around taking the hoods and trunks off abandoned cars and that's what he used for the steel. Those holsters are, literally, solid steel covered in leather. They are pretty heavy.

I just picked up another one. This one is 4" smooth. No maker marks. Just OPD stamped on it. From the buyer, I know it's Oakland. I may have to figure out who made it. It's very slightly different than the Safety Speed I have. And, it's a high ride.

I'm pretty sure the shotgun was kept in a lock in front of the front seat, right up against it, muzzle pointing towards the driver's door while the stock was under Reed's legs.

The scene that sticks out in my mind is in the episode "Venice Division" and involves Reed telling Malloy to catch the next right for a "pumpkin" in an alley. That interaction and their demeanors are exactly what police work is all about in that scene. I can't figure out how they got it SO right but every subtle movement and reaction is perfect. One example is Malloy's reaction when he looks in the rearview and sees the motor officer coming up behind them - just watch. You can see he's thinking "Great, I'm going to get $#!t for this tomorrow." Search "Venice Division" on Youtube, it's there.

We all know about the Belvederes, Satellites and Matadors but keep an eye out in the periphery for Mercury Montegos that occasionally showed up as back-up units. I'd read about them in the Encyclopedia of American Police Cars by Sanow but in one episode, don't recall which one, there's an awesome full side shot.
Best TV show ever as far as I'm concerned.

I just googled up the pumpkin episode on youtube, it's at 2:30 into part 2 of the Venice Division episode.
If you hadn't mentioned Malloy's looking in the rear view just before the motor cop pulled up, I never would have picked up on that (or the sigh when he saw the motor).

I always thought of the character Milner played as starting off as Kooky Byrnes(the kid hanging out with old pros), hitting the road in Route 66, then finally settling down and joining LAPD. (I know Milner didn't play Kooky, I'm just talking about the fictional character)In Route 66and Adam 12 he was the more level headed of the two.
It was like watching a fictional guy grow up.

Scotter260 said:

I'm pretty sure the shotgun was kept in a lock in front of the front seat, right up against it, muzzle pointing towards the driver's door while the stock was under Reed's legs.

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In the first episode, which was the pilot filmed about a year before regular production began, Malloy gives Reed a long speech about the police car. In it he mentions two shotguns, one attached to the front seat and one in the trunk. He also talks about the radios, siren, etc,.

It's a classic Joe Friday type speech, just the facts.

It's amazing what an archaic radio system LAPD had well into the 1980s. VHF, no repeaters, no portable radios issued to regular officers, multiple divisions sharing talk out channels with different channels for the mobiles. Harry Marnell, a retired RTO, has a great web site about the radio system from the start up until the mid 2000s. Los Angeles Police Department Communications Division History

There are a few other instances where I'm just baffled at when they do things in ways that I perceive as correct or at least amazing to me given the show being filmed in the late 60s-early 70s.

Many rail on their tactics but there are numerous times where Malloy will confront a bad guy or offer the "Police, don't move!" when only partially exposing himself around the side of cover with his revolver drawn. Most shows even now the officer will jump out fully exposing themselves.

Another scene that really blew me away given the period was when they dealt with a female shoplifter who had her baby in her car in the parking lot. They were going to transport her and the baby to the station and Malloy radioed dispatch "My starting mileage is X, what's your time?" I never knew they concerned themselves with such things back in the day.

I also liked in one episode where they're dealing with a racist gas station owner who's trying to describe a black suspect's hair. Reed simply says, "You mean a natural?" The owner doesn't quite get it and I can't recall what he says but I recall it as being somewhat derogatory, Reed again says, "Yeah, a natural." To me it just shows that while cops are usually portrayed as inherently racist, IMO they're usually the most tolerant because they deal with the broadest range of people in a broad range of situations compared to most professions. The "bull-in-a-China-shop" mentality won't get one very far and it's much easier to try and understand or have some connection with everyone in the demographic to gain a productive resolution.

Sorry to keep posting but I'd gotten a Netflix subscription for Christmas last year and watched almost every episode so these random observations pop up as I reminisce.

GaryS said:

In the first episode, which was the pilot filmed about a year before regular production began, Malloy gives Reed a long speech about the police car. .....It's a classic Joe Friday type speech, just the facts.
...

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In a teaser ad they run for the Adam 12 reruns on "Me TV", they show part of Malloy's very Joe FRiday-like speech about the police car, then cut in a very rookie-looking Reed asking "Do you want me to drive?....No?"
Pretty funny.

The "Do you want me to drive?" part became funnier the older I got and the longer I was in EMS. What amazes me is how well the show has held up all these years. Maybe not the technical and procedural stuff as that has changed dramatically, but the personality stuff of the cops and the people they interact with. I see the same sort of thing on Emergency on the rare occasions I watch that. Human nature changes much more slowly than technology. If it changes at all.

hotrod150 said:

In a teaser ad they run for the Adam 12 reruns on "Me TV", they show part of Malloy's very Joe FRiday-like speech about the police car, then cut in a very rookie-looking Reed asking "Do you want me to drive?....No?"
Pretty funny.

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Farmer17 said:

Made me think why the heck don't cars still have bench seats and column shifters? It made the front seat so much more roomy and comfortable and most cars now have floor shifters and huge consoles so even the larger cars make you really cramped in the front seat.

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Short answer is, same reason kids have to be in safety seats and booster seats til practically junior high school, seems like: Crash-test-driven safety requirements. Bench seats gave no lateral support in a side-impact; three-point belt harness by itself didn't get the job done, especially in small light cars.

Some bigger cars and pickups still have them, but most of the cars I've seen with "bench" seats actually have a semi-bucket design that makes you sit in one particular spot if you want to be at all comfortable. My wife's 05 Buick is one such, a "bench" seat with a massive fold-down center arm rest & butt-buckets for only two people up front, and not much legroom below the dash if anyone actually tried to use that center-front belt set

Now that we have airbags, it's even more important to have the occupants in a specific place so they can be protected in a crash without getting beat stupid when the bags go off.

If you like nostalgic police armament, it's hard to beat a Model 15. This is a "dash 3" from 1971, in exceptional condition. One would still be well-armed with it today, in spite of the plastic semiauto wonders.

John

This is speech that Malloy gave in Episode 1,

"This black and white patrol car has an overhead valve V-eight engine. It develops 325 horsepower at 4800 RPMs. It accelerates from 0-60 in seven seconds. It has a top speed of 120 miles an hour.

It’s equipped with a multi-channel VHF radio, an electronic siren capable of emitting three variables: wail, yelp, and alert. It also serves as an outside radio speaker and a public address system.

This automobile has two shotgun racks, one attached to the bottom portion of the front seat, one in the vehicle trunk.

Attached to the middle of the dash, illuminated by a single bulb, is a hot-sheet desk, fastened to which you will always make sure is the latest one off the teletype before you ever roll. It’s your life insurance. And mine. You take care of it, it’ll take care of you."

I have to say that with 30+ years in the business here in the north east, the most realistic police show, in my mind, is Barney Miller. That show just seemed to capture the attitude of most of the cops I worked with. I always liked Adam 12 when I was growing up but I never saw cops in real life act and talk like they did. At least not around here. Maybe I just never got around enough.

Adam 12 was an idealized show. Barney Miller was much more about people than police work. Just as Scrubbs was the most accurate medical show I ever saw, although Saint Elsewhere was close. The medical people I knew over 30+ years in EMS were much more like the characters in those shows than in House, ER, or any of those "serious" shows.

cmj8591 said:

I have to say that with 30+ years in the business here in the north east, the most realistic police show, in my mind, is Barney Miller. That show just seemed to capture the attitude of most of the cops I worked with. I always liked Adam 12 when I was growing up but I never saw cops in real life act and talk like they did. At least not around here. Maybe I just never got around enough.

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PALADIN85020 said:

If you like nostalgic police armament, it's hard to beat a Model 15. This is a "dash 3" from 1971, in exceptional condition. One would still be well-armed with it today, in spite of the plastic semiauto wonders.

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Darn well armed I would say. But I may be one of the mossbacks by now.

Beautiful Model 15 John.

Old TexMex said:

I always thought of the character Milner played as starting off as Kooky Byrnes(the kid hanging out with old pros)....

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For an extra 100 points and the win....which television show running in the 60's featured Kookie Byrnes (Kookson, actually)?

sac-gunslinger said:

For an extra 100 points and the win....which television show running in the 60's featured Kookie Byrnes (Kookson, actually)?

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77 Sunset Strip. Kookie, Kookie, lend me your comb...

John

GaryS said:

Adam 12 was an idealized show. Barney Miller was much more about people than police work. Just as Scrubbs was the most accurate medical show I ever saw, although Saint Elsewhere was close. The medical people I knew over 30+ years in EMS were much more like the characters in those shows than in House, ER, or any of those "serious" shows.

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That's a good observation. St. Elsewhere was a great show. A comparable police show would be Hill Street Blues. Although they would go off the tracks sometimes in the interest of entertainment, for the most part HSB was a good representation of a police house. The roll call scene at the beginning of each episode was right on in my experience. I can't picture the guys from Adam 12 swilling down coffee and donuts while the supervisor read roll call. I think that in their world a lot of time was spent worrying about if their shoes were shined. Where I worked, we considered it a minor miracle if everyone showed up to roll call with clothes on!

Same production team, I think. Same as LA Law, NYPD Blue for that matter. HSB was pretty good in that gritty sort of way. St. Elsewhere was a fairly accurate portrayal of some of the goofy stuff that went on at Boston City Hospital back during and before the time period when it was filmed.

Like the time a patient disappeared and was found dead in a boiler room a few days later. I joked that they probably billed him for a single room.

Or the sign on bulletin board of the old Emergency room. It had various codes that were to be used for patient dispositions. DL was Danger List, DOA, was dead on arrival, and so on. Someone wrote "DWE" Died Waiting for Elevator.

cmj8591 said:

That's a good observation. St. Elsewhere was a great show. A comparable police show would be Hill Street Blues. Although they would go off the tracks sometimes in the interest of entertainment, for the most part HSB was a good representation of a police house. The roll call scene at the beginning of each episode was right on in my experience. I can't picture the guys from Adam 12 swilling down coffee and donuts while the supervisor read roll call. I think that in their world a lot of time was spent worrying about if their shoes were shined. Where I worked, we considered it a minor miracle if everyone showed up to roll call with clothes on!

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