My God…50 years ago today. It only seems like it was a week ago.
This was my first interview for ADAM-12. Little did I know how much a television show would have an impact on me, just like GUNSMOKE.
Stuart Lee and I were on something of a roll. We were currently working on the RED SKELTON SHOW when we went on this interview. Matter of fact, within hours we would be going to CBS Television City (at Fairfax Avenue & Beverly Blvd.) to tape the episode.
I have no recollection of going in to read for the producer and director. I do remember when we were told by them that we got the part, I put my arm on Stuart’s shoulder and said, “We’re great brothers!” which caused them to chuckle.
Two days later, August 22, we were driven to Colonial Street on Universal’s back lot where we shot our scene.
During the filming of the “two shot” of Stuart and I, I was having a hard time keeping my eyes open because of the arc lights. Martin Milner noticed this and told me to keep my eyes closed until the director said action. “Wait a second and then say your lines,” he told me. Damned if his trick did not work! Years later if I saw an actor having that difficulty, I’d pass along Marty’s advice.
We were whisked off to lunch at the commissary and then came back for a few shots of us running into another police car and being driven off. I was greatly disappointed that this car only looked like a cop car on the outside, as the inside wasn’t at all like Marty & Kent’s car.
William Boyett, who played Sgt. MacDonald on the show, and I had a sort of reunion. In 1965, we did a McDonald’s commercial and he played my dad. Years later, we lived about 6 blocks from each other, and I would often see him in the front yard and wave as I drove by.
My day on ADAM-12 was over by 3 p.m. Like any other acting job, I hated to leave the set. There was then, and always would be for me, some magical sense of being set. The best way I can describe it would be like telling a child they had to leave Disneyland. You just don’t want to leave the magic.
ADAM-12 was not a darling of the critics. Never won an Emmy award. Heck, the first season, the show barely got by in the ratings, but NBC (to their credit) stood by it. It was a different time then, the networks run by folks who were different than the people who now oversee networks. (Class? Creativity? Talent?) Milner once told me years later that the reason they got a second season pick-up was the network was “proud of having a law and order show” in times that were changing.
From the second season on, the show proved popular, especially with the kids. In one first season show, Marty was seen smoking in a scene. He later stated that when he realized how much the kids loved the show, he never allowed Malloy to be seen smoking. That is a testimony to an actor’s ethics and how his character could influence a generation.
Marty, Kent McCord and Jack Webb did just that. ADAM-12 and DRAGNET influenced a whole generation, and showed that police work was important career, a calling. So many police officers in the late 1970s and on became law enforcement officers because of watching ADAM-12.
Milner and McCord were often told by adults that they became police officers because of them and their series. “I get that a lot,” Milner told me.
(Jack Webb’s EMERGENCY! television series also influenced many to become a paramedic or EMT.)
For a long time I wanted to become a LAPD officer. I knew all the call codes, talked to cops. The show made police officers approachable to kids, when many were deriding them with chants of “pigs” or “fuzz.” Kids wanted to meet the real versions of Malloy & Reed. While my asthma kept me from becoming a member of “Jack Webb’s Boys in Blue,” I have a great respect for those who wear a badge. That has never changed, thanks to this show. Yes, there are some bad apples in police work. Jack Webb knew that, and in his shows they were dealt with. The officers were either disciplined or fired.
It still amazes me, after spending 60 years in the business to see how a movie, or in this case, a TV series can have such an impact on several generations of people. I remember the crowds of kids the show would attract when it shot on the streets of L.A., especially in the summer. Kids would yell hello to “Malloy” and “Reed” and squeal with delight when they waved back at them.
When Jack Webb died in 1982, he had a memorial service given by the LAPD. It was the only time the police department ever honored an actor.
In 2015, when Milner passed away, the LAPD sent an honor guard to his memorial services in Oceanside, CA. They also honored him by having Sharon Claridge Snead, the real LAPD radio dispatcher who was used in that role on the TV series, give a “End of Watch call” over the LAPD radio channels in Marty’s honor.
Like I stated, ADAM-12 was never a critical darling. But that never mattered. The greatest compliment or award the show ever received was the many people it inspired to become a law enforcement officer.
Not many television shows can claim that honor, and that, in my opinion, beats a handful of Emmy awards and praise from critics.