User Reviews

This episode features a couple instances of some rather shoddy police work by Malloy and Reed. But the fault actually lies with the show's writers.

First off, M & R speed through a suburban area, chasing a kid on a suped-up minibike. Malloy even comments that these things aren't suppose to go so fast. The kid does a rather excellent job of evading his pursuers. He leads them into a cul-de-sac where he easily doubles back. Malloy meanwhile has to lose valuable chase time by conducting a three point turn. Then the kid cuts through a construction area which the squad car has to detour around. Meanwhile, the kid is hauling major you-know-what down side streets upon which children could be hurt.

M & R finally stop the little terror on wheels and then proceed to tell him he has the right to... remain free to terrorize other neighborhoods later in the day. Maybe because they recognize the kid to be Jody from the TV series, "Family Affair". Jody tells them a sad story about dead parents, a new locale, no friends and an ancient, decrepid Aunt who knows nothing about kids. This demon-on-wheels brat, who just made Malloy eat his dust, receives no talking down to, no lectures on safety and no trip to the jailhouse. The partners just smile and skip and bounce as they put the minibike in the squads trunk and aim to take the kid home. They probably stopped and treated the rotten little lawbreaker to pizza and ice cream on the way.

But that's not it for shoddy police work. Later Adam-12 responds to a call of picketers at a grocery store. There they roll up on about 10 or so picketers blocking the parking lot entrance/exit as well as the store entrance. The picketers are loud and angry (about rising food prices) and car owners are honking their horns because they're unable to depart the premises. They're being blocked by the picketers.

M & R decide to converse with one woman who throws herself to the ground right in front of the store's doors. While the partners warn her that they'll have to arrest her if she doesn't stop blocking the door, the store manager steps outside and recognizes this woman. After they share some words that has nothing to do with the picketing, she storms off of the premises. At that point, Malloy and Reed hop back into the squad and... just leave. But hold on! There were 9 other people there picketing as well. They were blocking the parking lot and all that. What happened to them? The direction of the scene makes it seem that all those picketers must still be there, still blocking the lot and still angry about the rising cost of food. But again, the partners just get in their car and leave the scene. Shoddy police work? It looks that way, but it's really shoddy writing, shoddy direction and shoddy production.

There's another badly directed scene at a coffee shop robbery. M & R are shown to have no clue that two "victims" in the shop are actually the robbers. Then, for some reason, when Reed goes to question an elderly female witness, she screams in his face. A very oddly constructed set-up.

There's attempted humour presented in a bit that has Reed trusting a teenage Police Recruit to fix his 200 dollar television set. Malloy keeps needling Reed about it through-out the episode. It all falls completely flat. There's also supposed to be laughs in a quick storyline involving a woman who keeps chickens in her house. It's not the least bit funny and is instead, simply disgusting.

Leads Martin Milner and Kent McCord do their best with the material they've been given. Unfortunately, this is a surprisingly dull, uninspired and sloppily written episode of the series.