The worst episodes of Adam-12
Ranked by viewer rating, lows first. Vote on a placement to back it or contest it.
- 01
Reed and Malloy have to think outside the box to capture an intelligent yet neglected teenage purse snatcher. Their efforts to talk sense into him before he commits a much more serious crime prove to be futile.
- 02
Malloy continues his assignment as acting Watch Commander, so Reed is paired with Officer Dana Hall, while Officers Wells and Woods treat the new policewoman with the typical (for the 1970s) "not the woman's place" attitude, Reed treats her with respect and they go on patrol, where they encounter an underage DUI suspect with an uncooperative mother, locate and search a car stripping operation, and arrest numerous young people who riot at an outdoor rock concert.
- 03
Malloy and Reed are rendered powerless when a drunken man with no flight experience decides to take a solo flight in a stolen airplane at a busy airport. Later, they try to locate a 17-year-old runaway living in a condemned home with a much older man, engage in a shootout with a convenience store robber and search for a booby-trapped bank safe that has been stolen with a tow truck.
- 04
Reed has to deal with the consequences of forgetting to roll up the window on the patrol car before he left it. Back on patrol, Malloy and Reed search for an estranged husband who kidnaps his own child, deal with an elderly man who tries to pay for a meal with trading stamps, engage in a shootout with an escaped prisoner caught napping on a city bus and pull over a hijacked delivery van full of booze.
- 05
Malloy and Reed prove they cannot and will not be bribed, no matter how good the offer, resulting in desperation from a young man charged with his third drunk driving offense. An elderly man admits mercy killing his wife.
- 06
It's Christmas Eve in Los Angeles, and Malloy and Reed track down a suspect who beat and mugged a rescue mission Santa, who later gets arrested himself. They also respond to an alcohol-related traffic accident that resulted in a fatality, help a penniless widow who has been detained for shoplifting and take part in the search for a young Native American child who wandered off into a mountainous area while her parents were asleep.
- 07
Reed becomes preoccupied with the well being of a friend, an electrical engineer by profession, who has just qualified as a reserve police officer and has the bad luck of drawing Officer Wells as his partner. On patrol, Reed and Malloy help out a group of distrusting young adults who are planning to illegally camp in a public park after a rock concert, pull over a young couple in a stolen car and aid wells and the reservist in the foot chase of a heavily armed man who has been coercing innocent strangers into committing bank robberies.
- 08
A series of purse snatchings involving motorcyclists frustrates the LAPD, as they cannot follow them down the off-road trails they take. Reed holds a community meeting with the various motorcycle clubs, and the leader of one club challenges Malloy to a dirt bike race. Reed teaches Malloy how to ride a dirt bike, and while Malloy loses the race, he gains the respect of the club's leader, who helps them apprehend the suspects by blocking their escape route.
- 09
Malloy and Reed are patrolling the outskirts of Los Angeles when a girl on horseback alerts them to a small plane that landed in a secluded area. When the officers investigate, they see a pickup truck fleeing and the plane trying to take off; though they stop the plane, they have no proof the pilot did anything. Malloy and Reed later learn from the DEA that a Mexican cartel is behind the landings, with the pilot instructed to play dumb if caught. The officers find the pilot and trace the pickup truck's location, and the truck is followed to the landing site, where the smuggler and the pilot are arrested.
- 10
A hotel janitor (and wino) named Harry witnesses a murder in a hotel room, but refuses to talk until Reed shows him compassion and respect, both of which are lacking from his family and friends, but his testimony is clouded by his alcoholic past. Malloy relives his childhood by telling the story of his chaperoning a junior high dance.
- 11
Malloy and Reed are called to a hotel to stop a woman's suicide attempt; while there, they learn of a parolee there who refuses to speak with the woman because he thinks someone from the mob is after him. Later the officers are called back to the hotel because the manager wants the parolee evicted; another call to the hotel leads to shots fired from the parolee, who was having delusions the mob was after him. In another case, the officers offer assistance to a man whose extremely damaged car simply needed a tire change; the man and his car are later the suspects in a robbery, and detectives arrest the man with the officers' help.
- 12
Reed spreads his flu to several other officers, leaving the station undermanned. Calls include a shootout with a rifle-toting bookie, an argument between a storekeeper and a customer over a cantaloupe during an unrelated traffic stop, Reed locating a burglar after seeing a flashlight inside a store, and a teenager evading Reed in a foot pursuit. Due to the understaffing situation, Malloy and Reed are asked to do double shifts, and Malloy tickets a woman for turning right at a red without stopping. Later, Sgt. MacDonald assigns them to drive around a police commissioner for the night; the commissioner is actually the woman Malloy ticketed.
- 13
While on second shift, Malloy and Reed take Police Commissioner Dixon on a ride-along. They encounter a bar owner who locked a naked, elderly man inside, a fight with a knife-wielding man and another man with a gun, and a missing 17-year-old deaf boy with mental instabilities, which Reed recognizes as the boy that escaped his foot pursuit in the previous episode.
- 14
During their Christmas Eve Patrol, Malloy and Reed contemplate using their patrol car to deliver a Christmas tree to the residents of a soon-to-be-closed retirement home. Meanwhile, an elderly man's bagpipe playing is considered a public nuisance, a couple of teenagers steal a delivery truck containing radioactive material, a nervous man is desperate to cover up the smell of perfume on his clothing and an armed robbery suspect becomes intent on committing suicide-by-cop.
- 15
Malloy is filling in for Sgt. MacDonald as Watch Commander, so Reed rides with a new partner, Gus Corbin, an officer with nine months on the job, and they begin watch with a purse snatcher found inside a church confessional, then a break-in at a pharmacy leads to the real intention of the thieves—the next door pawn shop. Corbin defies Malloy's direct order not to search the pawn shop until backup arrives, which results in a dressing down by the acting Watch Commander, and the two suspects are captured. Finally, Corbin loses his gun during a foot pursuit and captures the suspect despite being unarmed.
- 16
Something Worth Dying For: Part 2
Reed is awarded the Medal of Valor by the LAPD for rescuing a wounded Malloy from the shootout, and despite Jean's feelings about her husband's new assignment and about him taking the investigator's exam to become a Detective, she decides to attend the ceremony. Malloy and Reed reunite and handle cases; including a typing school B&E where both money and typewriters were suspected to be stolen, a suspicion confirmed by an assistant who allows the officers to freely check the typewriters; and a shootout in a warehouse full of mannequins with two young people.
- 17
An older husband complains about his wife and friend's noisy karate practice. A hit and run traffic accident looks looks like a homicide. The officers use their investigative skills to locate the suspect and arrest him.
- 18
The officers undergo their driver refresher courses to hone their pursuit and driving skills. A rash of car strippers brings about a new approach suggested by Officer Wells: going undercover as paperboys riding bicycles to find the thieves. Hilarity ensues; Wells wrecks his bicycle that belonged to a young girl, Malloy deals with an irate newspaper customer, and Reed and Malloy pull over a VW Microbus on a traffic violation where the driver's parrot chanted "Down with Pigs!", but the tactics work and the officers break up the car stripping ring.
- 19
Log 102: We Can't Just Walk Away From It
Malloy and Reed respond to a call about a drug overdose and track the drugs to a 17-year-old who has barricaded himself in his room with a gun and threatens kill himself. They contend with a distraught mother and an overbearing father.
- 20
Malloy fears that a boxer who has just been paroled after serving a murder sentence is going to seek revenge against him. Out on patrol, they try to save a man who has been crushed while working under a stolen car, apprehend a liquor store robber who swears revenge against reed, change a flat tire on their patrol car, locate a four-year-old child who locked himself in a refrigerator and become the targets of an ambush.
- 21
Malloy and Reed are in for a rude awakening when they report to the home of a former professional wrestler on a domestic abuse call. Later, they become suspicious of an apartment burglary victim after they find one of the suspects dead, deal with a man who discovers car parts that were stolen from him installed on another car and become involved in a shootout responding to a bank robbery.
- 22
Malloy and Reed track down a kooky female shoplifter involved in a cult-type relationship with a ego-maniacal spiritualist weirdo. Malloy gets help tracking her down from an old girlfriend.
- 23
Over the course of their shift, Malloy and Reed deal with a racist gas station owner who is tired of being the victim of repeated robberies. When they catch the suspect, supposedly a black man, they find he is actually just an equally-racist white man in blackface. Other calls include a hitchhiker who extorts money from drivers she leaves in embarrassing situations, and a drunk who is seeing pink elephants.
- 24
A phony prowler call results in shots being fired at Malloy and Reed. Shots ring out again when the officers head to the airport to transport a blood donor. The suspect is a known check bouncer, and Reed's wife gets a disturbing phone call. Later Reed heads home and meets an acquaintance who just happens to be driving the same car as the shooting suspect. Other cases include a suicidal man who tries to incinerate himself with gasoline, and a wino who is nearly shot by Reed.
- 25
Cases include a woman whose purse was robbed after two men bumped her car while on the road, then are captured along with the loot when a citizen complains about loud noise coming from their lair. A broken-down car leads to a meeting between the car's owner and a counterfeiter, and a fight in a fast-food restaurant results in an arrest of one of the combatants on outstanding warrants.
Shows like Adam-12
The closest matches on shared genres, ranked by match strength and popularity.
- 01Drama·Adventure·HistoryThe worst episodes of Shōgun2024–present
Shōgun is set in Japan in the year 1600 at the dawn of a century-defining civil war. - 02Drama·Action·HistoryThe worst episodes of Vikings2013–2021·History
Vikings transports us to the brutal and mysterious world of Ragnar Lothbrok, a Viking warrior and farmer who yearns to explore - and raid - the distant shores across the ocean. - 03Drama·Romance·HistoryThe worst episodes of Reign2013–2017·The CW
Hidden between the lines of the history books is the story of Mary Stuart, the young woman the world would come to know as Mary, Queen of Scots. - 04Drama·Crime·HistoryThe worst episodes of Peaky Blinders2013–present·BBC OneAn epic gangster drama set in the lawless streets of 1920s Birmingham.
- 05Adventure·Mystery·HistoryThe worst episodes of Expedition Unknown2015–present·Discovery
In the hit series Expedition Unknown, Travel Channel's witty explorer Josh Gates seeks answers to some of the world's most captivating unsolved stories and legends. - 06Drama·Action·HistoryThe worst episodes of The Last Kingdom2015–2023The Last Kingdom is a show of heroic deeds and epic battles but with a thematic depth that embraces politics, religion, warfare, courage, love, loyalty and our universal search for identity.
