Adam-12
Truant
TV Flash files “Truant” as hour 85 of 174 in the TV Flash guide — Adam-12 (1968–1975) on NBC, season 4, episode 7, aired 1971-11-03, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S04E07: listed hour 85 of 174 in the Adam-12 guide, hour 7 of 24 in season 4. It aired 1971-11-03 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “The Ferret” (S04E06). Next is “Ambush” (S04E08).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Two boys break into a garage. Truants have become a big problem in terms of crime and Reed has a plan he wants approved to pick up truants on the street. While patrolling, they come upon a stalled car they help off the street. Malloy receives a message to hold the car and occupants under arrest. They are smuggling heroin in the gas tank and some leaked stalling the car. They spot a stolen car which leads them to the thieves who stripped the car to build a dune buggy. Reed's plan is approved but initially the other officers are unhappy playing babysitter. A pair of truants are spotted and picked up as a call comes in about a nearby theft. The lady identifies the two truants as the thieves and they are caught with the goods. The results show massive reduction in crime and happier officers. However, as Reed envisions stopping juvenile crime, one of the boys from the first call whose mother did not see her son as a problem is brought into the station again.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Truant sit in the Adam-12 guide?
S04E07 is listed hour 85 of 174 — hour 7 of 24 in season 4, season 4 episode 7.
When did Adam-12 S04E07 air?
Truant aired 1971-11-03 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…