Not exactly a top-notch episode. This one goes way overboard featuring an extremely annoying old biddy. She's Mrs. O'Brien, Malloy's apartment building landlord. She's had her purse snatched and her social security check was in it.
The old lady is written to be nothing but mean, nasty and stubborn. Not one redeeming quality within her personality. Yet for some reason, Malloy says he likes her. Reed admires her "stick with it" mentality which stretches to picketing outside the Police Station. Only Sergeant MacDonald and Detective Sanchez seem to recognize her for her true self - Vicious.
In another storyline, chance and coincidence come into major play. And that also lessens the quality of the episode. Malloy notices a car in the squad's rearview mirror. The driver is acting "hinky". Circling a block, M & R manage to get behind the hinky driver and they're off on a chase. They get the two bad guys who are in the car. While we get a view of some drugs stashed in the car's glove compartment, the camera pays special lingering attention to some Chocolate Almond candy bars that were also in there. Hmmm... wonder if those candy bars will come back into play later in the episode.
Of course they do. Investigating a murder scene, Reed takes note of some Giraldi Tire tracks in some mud. Thing is, the Mother of the college-aged boy that's dead believes that her miserable, horrid drunk of a husband killed their son. She's in a stage of initial shock but makes it clear to the partners that she's terrified of her husband who has routinely beaten her and their son.
Malloy and Reed take the denying drunk to the slammer while Detectives take over the scene. Later Mac nonchalantly mentions to Reed that there were Chocolate Almond candy bar wrappers found at the scene of the murder. Well of course there were!
So those two bad guys in the "hinky" car were the ones who murdered the college kid. Turns out, the college kid was a drug pusher who pushed just a bit too much. So by "shear coincidence", Malloy & Reed happened to be the cops at the scene of both crimes and therefore, also coincidentily, knew all about those candy bars with which to link the crimes. Very far-fetched.
Perhaps worst of all, this means that the miserable, horrid drunk of a husband is innocent and can be released from custody. The storyline makes no comment whatsoever that this means this rotten excuse of a man will now be going right back home, free to continue terrorizing his desparately distressed wife.
As for Malloy's old biddy landlord? Even after Malloy solves the matter of the serial purse snatcher and is able to reconnect her with her social security check, the snarling old harpie isn't the least bit grateful. She demands Malloy drop his police work and drive her home immediately. Malloy tells her that doing so right then and there would be against department regulations. Sergeant MacDonald is so sick of the old terror, that he tells Malloy to go right on ahead and break those department regulations.
We do get some nice camera shots of the area around and across the street from the front of the Police Department. This was an actual Police Station at the time of filming. Though eventually shuttered and vandalized, the building is again (as of this writing in 2023) in use by the Los Angeles Police Department - it's LAPD Metropolitan Division Facility. On the show, one of the buildings across the street from the Station has a huge "Scientology" sign on it.
No, not one of the better episodes of "Adam-12", although Martin Milner certainly does the best he can with the material he's been given to work with. Actor William Boyett as Sergeant MacDonald also has some great moments in his reactions to the old lady's exasperating intolerence.
The old lady is written to be nothing but mean, nasty and stubborn. Not one redeeming quality within her personality. Yet for some reason, Malloy says he likes her. Reed admires her "stick with it" mentality which stretches to picketing outside the Police Station. Only Sergeant MacDonald and Detective Sanchez seem to recognize her for her true self - Vicious.
In another storyline, chance and coincidence come into major play. And that also lessens the quality of the episode. Malloy notices a car in the squad's rearview mirror. The driver is acting "hinky". Circling a block, M & R manage to get behind the hinky driver and they're off on a chase. They get the two bad guys who are in the car. While we get a view of some drugs stashed in the car's glove compartment, the camera pays special lingering attention to some Chocolate Almond candy bars that were also in there. Hmmm... wonder if those candy bars will come back into play later in the episode.
Of course they do. Investigating a murder scene, Reed takes note of some Giraldi Tire tracks in some mud. Thing is, the Mother of the college-aged boy that's dead believes that her miserable, horrid drunk of a husband killed their son. She's in a stage of initial shock but makes it clear to the partners that she's terrified of her husband who has routinely beaten her and their son.
Malloy and Reed take the denying drunk to the slammer while Detectives take over the scene. Later Mac nonchalantly mentions to Reed that there were Chocolate Almond candy bar wrappers found at the scene of the murder. Well of course there were!
So those two bad guys in the "hinky" car were the ones who murdered the college kid. Turns out, the college kid was a drug pusher who pushed just a bit too much. So by "shear coincidence", Malloy & Reed happened to be the cops at the scene of both crimes and therefore, also coincidentily, knew all about those candy bars with which to link the crimes. Very far-fetched.
Perhaps worst of all, this means that the miserable, horrid drunk of a husband is innocent and can be released from custody. The storyline makes no comment whatsoever that this means this rotten excuse of a man will now be going right back home, free to continue terrorizing his desparately distressed wife.
As for Malloy's old biddy landlord? Even after Malloy solves the matter of the serial purse snatcher and is able to reconnect her with her social security check, the snarling old harpie isn't the least bit grateful. She demands Malloy drop his police work and drive her home immediately. Malloy tells her that doing so right then and there would be against department regulations. Sergeant MacDonald is so sick of the old terror, that he tells Malloy to go right on ahead and break those department regulations.
We do get some nice camera shots of the area around and across the street from the front of the Police Department. This was an actual Police Station at the time of filming. Though eventually shuttered and vandalized, the building is again (as of this writing in 2023) in use by the Los Angeles Police Department - it's LAPD Metropolitan Division Facility. On the show, one of the buildings across the street from the Station has a huge "Scientology" sign on it.
No, not one of the better episodes of "Adam-12", although Martin Milner certainly does the best he can with the material he's been given to work with. Actor William Boyett as Sergeant MacDonald also has some great moments in his reactions to the old lady's exasperating intolerence.
