Adam-12
The Dinosaur
TV Flash files “The Dinosaur” as hour 90 of 174 in the TV Flash guide — Adam-12 (1968–1975) on NBC, season 4, episode 12, aired 1971-12-15, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S04E12: listed hour 90 of 174 in the Adam-12 guide, hour 12 of 24 in season 4. It aired 1971-12-15 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “Assassination” (S04E11). Next is “Pick-Up” (S04E13).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Officer Art McCall returns to the force after eight years on disability. He rides with Malloy and Reed learning changes since he left the force. They start with a young woman whose ex-husband has returned from prison and she feels threatened. McCall wants to resort to old techniques that are no longer allowed. After a juvenile robbery bust, they are forced to release the boy captured by Art who did not read the boy his rights. He fumbles the arrest of the ex-husband carrying a gun. After being released, the ex-husband plants a bomb in the woman's car. Malloy is forced to have a frank discussion with Art about his inability to adjust to the changes in law enforcement policy.
Viewer FAQ
Where does The Dinosaur sit in the Adam-12 guide?
S04E12 is listed hour 90 of 174 — hour 12 of 24 in season 4, season 4 episode 12.
When did Adam-12 S04E12 air?
The Dinosaur aired 1971-12-15 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…