Adam-12
Million Dollar Buff
TV Flash files “Million Dollar Buff” as hour 80 of 174 in the TV Flash guide — Adam-12 (1968–1975) on NBC, season 4, episode 2, aired 1971-09-22, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S04E02: listed hour 80 of 174 in the Adam-12 guide, hour 2 of 24 in season 4. It aired 1971-09-22 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “Extortion” (S04E01). Next is “The Grandmothers” (S04E03).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
While on break Malloy and Reed learn that an old "friend" Jennings Thornton is back. He likes to play cop - a cop Buff. First call is to a store where a young inexperienced clerk had an expensive ring swapped for a cheap one. This is followed by their "friend" Thorton calling in a drunk driver he encountered. A call about a robbery at a store results in a shootout in the parking lot but the shooter has a flak jacket. Thorton runs down the shooter with his car to end it but putting Reed in danger . The officers take a call at a parking lot where a minor accident has occurred. The woman has no ID and appears to be the woman who stole the ring. They arrest her but the clerk cannot identify her. They receive another call where Thorton used a gun to arrest two young men for stealing mag wheels. However, they were the legal owners of the wheels and the roles are reversed with Thorton under arrest. Mac arrives to say they found the ring on the woman at Central Booking making for a very good day.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Million Dollar Buff sit in the Adam-12 guide?
S04E02 is listed hour 80 of 174 — hour 2 of 24 in season 4, season 4 episode 2.
When did Adam-12 S04E02 air?
Million Dollar Buff aired 1971-09-22 and is listed at 30 minutes.
Do I need Dragnet first?
No. Mark VII sister spirit, not a sequel. Adam-12 is two-man patrol television: Malloy, Reed, and the next call.
In the series
Why this series still plays
One-Adam-12: Malloy and Reed on patrol in a black-and-white unit while Jack Webb keeps the moral grammar tight. Ride-along procedural before every badge show learned the radio-code poetry. Two officers closing the shift, case by case, with the calm of a training film that became a hit.
The black-and-white unit arrives before the siren. NBC, 1968–1975: Martin Milner's Officer Pete Malloy and Kent McCord's Officer Jim Reed in a patrol car that defined the two-man format, Jack Webb and R.A. Cinader's Mark VII shop keeping the moral grammar tight. Adam-12 is sister spirit to Dragnet: real LAPD consultation, radio-code poetry, shift-by-shift calls with by-the-book ethics. *Black-and-white paint as a silhouette, radio as jewelry, training-film calm as a press strategy.* Style is the plot. One-Adam-12…
Filed against
- Martin Milner as Officer Pete Malloy
Martin Milner’s Tod Stiles put a Corvette on actual American pavement in Route 66 — location drama when most series never left the lot — then patrolled Adam-12 as Malloy with Jack Webb’s moral grammar tight. Highway as character;…
- Kent McCord as Officer Jim Reed
Kent McCord's Officer Jim Reed made Adam-12 a ride-along before every badge show learned radio-code poetry — Malloy and Reed in a black-and-white unit, Jack Webb's moral grammar, case by case, shift by shift. TV Flash files him as 1970s…