Reviews

Very interesting and well done. For the year that it was filmed, the producers did a good job of making it realistic. Where was this filmed?

These episodes seem shallow and the characters lack depth compared to today's programs and even some of the older ones throughout the 60s and 70s. This is more of a docudrama style of film and the episodes are well done for that period. What's really intriguing for me is finding out what parts of L.A. most of these episodes were filmed at. Where in particular is/was the police station located at that's regularly shown in some of the episodes?

I saw this for a second time in a row a year or few months later after I first saw it. It is very instructive and contains many lessons. Very powerful acting. Actual blind people were used as actors. I think this fact alone added to the interest and realism of this episode. Interestingly, I recently learned that my father used to race home from his job to see this program back when it was first aired in the 50s and 60s. The writing is very well done and this and other shows during the 50s and early 60s demonstrate what an excellent era that was.

Terrible acting. The characters lack depth except the protagonists. Most acting is boring and two dimensional. Too much unrealistic drama. For example, when Nolan is being attacked by another man, the woman who is with Nolan knocks out the attacker with a gun. The worst part is how police suddenly show up. How did they know? Even worse is how two LEOs rush in, as if they know exactly where to go and who to look for. Then they fire off shots as the two people get away. I doubt that this was ever police protocol. A LEO especially does not fire away at a criminal as the criminal is running away at a distance. It's more of a cute movie with corny one-liners here and there. It's supposed to be a mystery detective comedy I guess but it's just poorly made. There are plenty of early 1940s films like Penny Serenade that have depth and three-dimensional characters.

I don't see this as one of the best episodes but it's still pretty good. Tod's behavior after taking the drug kind of reminds me of Frank Sinatra's character in a movie where he tries to kick the heroin habit. Sinatra's character is much more profound but his character still comes close to the one Milner plays here as Tod. I guess that this episode was very dramatic and realistic when it was shown back in 1961. The shock value is no longer there because this kind of problem has become so common in the US with much more lethal effects by more potent drugs. We're just too used to seeing and knowing about this kind of topic because society has been experimenting with all kinds of drugs ever since the early 60s. We've become desensitized. It stands to reason that the drug in this episode is LSD. It was a commonly prescribed medication in the late 40s. It's obvious after reading literature about LSD when it became popular in the US before it was made illegal. It was once legal to take as a recreational drug around the late 50s or early 60s. It started as an experimental drug at universities by the CIA in the mid 50s for mind control and chemical warfare, but it soon became popular among the young kids. Only after too many reports by police of nude people climbing trees and other drug induced behaviors did the government decide to make it illegal.

Most or all of these episodes are interesting for several reasons. But for me, Adam 12 provides a window into various historical aspects about the L.A. area and police procedures that can get a LEO killed or injured. I don't know if the arrest and pursuit procedures were realistic but compared to today, no way. It seems too easy for the officers to simply chase and arrest people without any real precaution or awareness of danger. Today they would have their guns drawn at almost all times.

As some people who already posted reviews mentioned, the greatest value to me about this movie is being able to see a slice of what it was like in CA during the late 50s and early 60s. I love this particular era, so I guess I am biased. I also enjoy listening to the music that's heard throughout the movie, especially the slower-paced cool jazz-like tunes with xylophones.

It's too silly to be taken seriously but if you like documentaries about American society, this film is very interesting and won't disappoint. I'm pretty sure that some neighborhoods like this in CA had bad neighbors and even dangerous ones, as hard to believe as that may be. A good example is when bikers during this period would buy homes in fairly new conservative neighborhoods like the ones depicted in this film. All kinds of sordid behavior occurred, and the neighbors had to put up with it for some time until police would finally kick them out. That and other undesirable reality was swept under the rug and hardly ever reported, but it did happen and it was very scandalous and shocking at that time-more than today. Not everything was as happy during this era as it seems in this film, but life was slower and there were fewer people in CA. The neighborhoods in this film are located in Panorama City and Woodland Hills, still very nice neighborhoods today. They're both located in San Fernando Valley, an area that is still in the higher end of the real estate market. Unfortunately, most neighborhoods that looked like this at that time have been transformed to ugly ghettos or concrete jungles with endless and boring strip malls.

Even if the neighborhoods and life in the film seem to be exaggerated, it's still a contrast to today's life in CA. I'd rather live in that era than in the one today. There's a lot of negative that can be listed about that era, but there's also a lot of positive. People were held to higher standards and most people dressed a lot better than they do today. Even the colors seemed to be nicer, not just in the clothing that people wore but in the colors they chose for their cars. I also notice the artistic quality of the cursive shapes of the letters in marquees, advertisements and neon signs. The way buildings look today and their marquees look unappealing, very boring and very ugly. Of course, I'm biased because I have always liked almost everything about the particular era depicted in the film. It was like the beginning of the end of a fantasy that I unfortunately didn't get to experience because I was born in the the mid 60s. I think it was the apex of ideal happiness in CA. But I still remember some things about the late 60s that were distinct from the 70s and the ensuing decades. Unfortunately and ironically, life improved in many ways, it also degenerated after the early 60s; and that's why I think many people like me yearn for that era.