Log 144: Bank Robbery (Episode 24, Season2)

Episode 50

This is the real Log 144! 

I was inspired by another classic TV show while writing about this week's episode. I'm sure you can guess which one.

Synopsis:

Reed and Malloy serve a warrant for felony assault, find out what a traveling salesman is really selling, help a theft victim, and uncover the identity of a bank robber. 

The Story:

Ho hum, Pete and Jim are on their way to the Terry residence. Mr. Terry made a complaint against Mrs. Terry after she "bent a beer bottle over his head", now detectives want her brought in for questioning. Pete and Jim are going to pick her up and bring her to the station. Doesn't sound like this story is going to start out in an exciting way.

They arrive at the Terry residence and Jim rings the bell twice. No one comes to the door. He wonders if Mrs. Terry left town.

Malloy thinks she may be at the store buying another six pack.

Finally, I very large man answers the door. It's Mr. Terry and he wants to drop the charges against his wife and forget the whole thing.

Malloy looks up, up, and up to take in Mr. Terry's full height.

Reed, undeterred by Mr. Terry's hulking size, insists that they talk to his wife. Terry, suddenly compliant, shrugs his shoulders and tells the officers, "Alright". But, instead of calmly inviting them in to wait for his wife, he grabs Reed, pulls him inside the house, then slams the door. Malloy, who has been locked out, desperately tries to open the door as he hears what sounds like a fight coming from inside.

Inside the house, the younger half of our dynamic duo is being thrown across the living room and into a piano! 

Reed hits the piano with such force that it collapses!

Malloy kicks down the door to reach his endangered partner!

Inside, Malloy watches as Reed struggles to his feet after his collision with the piano. The shocked officer does not notice that Terry is standing right beside him. The huge man taps the copper-haired cop on the shoulder. Malloy grabs his arm, but he is powerless against the behemoth.

Terry whips the feeble crime fighter across the room and into the mantle!

Pete then falls right through the Terry's coffee table.

Jim finally manages to regain his footing. He charges at Terry and grabs him by the collar. Using all of his strength, he tries to propel the enormous oaf across the living room.

But, not even Jim's muscular arms can budge Terry.

Terry swats Jim off of him and sends him flying against the wall.

Now it's Pete's turn to try and do some damage to Terry. He throws a punch at him, but the hulking he-man catches the officer's fist in his meaty mitt.

Terry tosses the comparably puny policeman into a chair. After they are both able to stand, the officers join together to battle the big bully.

But, even together these powerful police officers are no match for the terrible Terry. If only they had some sort of weapon, perhaps one with deadly force, that they could at least threaten Terry with. It's really too bad they don't have such a thing hanging from their Sam Brown belts. Since it seems they don't have any way of dealing with Terry other than their fists, he continues to throw them around like rag dolls.

Finally, Mrs. Terry comes home. She surveys her destroyed house and notices two lifeless bodies laying amongst the wreckage. Surprisingly, one of the inanimate blue suits raises his head and speaks.

"Mrs. Terry?"

After Malloy identifies he and Reed as police officers, the hysterical Mrs. Terry begins to understand what this is all about. She realizes the police are in her house because of the complaint her husband filed. She also knows that her husband's violence caused the damage to her home. She wants to "brain" him.

But, Malloy's had enough mayhem to last him for several shifts.

A disheveled Pete lets both Terrys know that they are under arrest.

Before he can get the cuffs on Mrs. Terry, though, she has some business to take care of. She leaps on her husband and begins beating his already-dented head.

The diminutive, scarlet-haired Mrs. Terry and her huge husband remind me of a Cyndi Lauper video.

Somehow, Pete and Jim manage to get the Terrys cuffed and transported to the station. 

I love the way Malloy swings Mrs. Terry's purse as they walk down to the jail.

When Jim shows Mr. Terry to the holding cell, the Mrs. tries to follow. Pete pulls her away, they insist she have separate accommodations. As his wife walks past his cell, Mr. Terry declares his love of her. Her reaction is does not return her husband's affection.

Once they are sure the Terrys are locked up, Reed and Malloy make a stop at Central Receiving to get checked out by a doctor. They're lucky, they don't have any broken bones or need any stitches. 

Adam-12 was a TV show that strove for authenticity. However, sometimes it missed the mark.  I think this scene would have been more realistic if Milner had been shirtless. I really hope time travel is possible someday so this can be corrected.

After the doc bandages Malloy's midsection, he asks why they didn't use their batons on Mr. Terry. They embarrassingly admit that they left their batons in the car. (OK, but what about their guns!?!?) They must have never expected to meet an ex-professional wrestler like Mr. Terry. Good thing Terry was, as he described himself, "really outta shape".

The doc at Central Receiving must have a dual license because Pete also asks him to look at a tooth that feels loose.

The next day Malloy notices that Reed is rubbing his still-sore shoulder. He suggests that they drop by the Academy for a steam to "sweat Mr. Terry out of their systems. Reed would love to go, but Jean has a girlfriend coming over for dinner tonight. Malloy stops him right there.

"Look, your wife is a doll, but so far her girlfriends don't show me much."

What have learned from this statement?
1. If Jim even mentions dinner and one of Jean's girlfriends, Pete automatically assumes he's invited to dine with them.
2. Pete doesn't like modest girls. He wants to see the goods, ladies!

Oh well, it doesn't matter anyway. Jean's girlfriend has said "no blind dates". Which surprises Jim, he thought a runner-up to Miss Hollywood would be more sociable. Suddenly, Pete seems more interested in this friend of Jean's. But, before he can ask about the almost-beauty queen's talents, they are called to take a 459 report at 11211 James Street.

At 11211 James Street Pete and Jim make their way down a dingy hall littered with records towards the PR's apartment. The door of apartment 31 is answered by Charlie Jensen, a traveling salesman who's glad to see the cops for the first time in his life.

Oh, hey, it's Jed Allen in his first of many Adam-12 appearances!

Mr. Allen also hosted Celebrity Bowling. Marty and Kent competed on two episodes of the star-studded strike-fest in 1972. 

Mr. Jensen came home early this morning, sometime after the bars closed, and found his place burglarized. His stereo, 45rpm records, clock radio, clothes (including a new suit), and about 6 bottles of booze were missing. 

Reed asks Jensen if the records in the hall are his.

Sure enough, the records in the hallway do belong to Jensen. He came in through the back door of his apartment and didn't see them. After he confirms that the records are his, Malloy and Reed ask him to wait in his apartment while they follow the trail of evidence.


The records lead them to the door of "the world's dumbest thief". After Malloy's knock goes unanswered, Reed listens at the door. He hears footsteps coming from inside the apartment. "They're taking off," he tells Malloy. 

Malloy kicks the door in order to stop the dumb thieves.

Pete runs into the kitchen and captures the most dangerous type of Mark VII criminal:

a hippie!

Reed, perhaps trying to find out why the hippie loves everyone, opens the closet door. 

He doesn't find the answer, instead he finds a hippie playing hide and seek.

Reed tries to rouse this hippie, but he just falls to the ground. The other young man thinks his friend is just high. Reed, however, knows this guy's trip has ended, permanently.

"Your buddy's dead, pal."

Since the dead guy's friend is at least guilty of theft, Malloy cuffs him and reads him his rights. The young man, Kenny Tucker, agrees to talk.

Malloy asks Tucker where he and his friend, Jerry Young, were earlier.

Tucker admits that he and Young were in Jensen's apartment. 

Reed finds evidence to corroborate his statement.

After Reed finds Jensen's stolen booze in the boys' closet, he asks Tucker how much his friend drank. Malloy knows that it was more than alcohol that killed Young, though. He asks how many pills Young dropped. Tucker replies that they wouldn't believe how many. They then ask where they bought the pills. Tucker tells them inside the building.

"From who?"

"Jensen."

Back at apartment 31, Jensen invites the officers in like they are old friends. He even offers them some of his only vice, booze. They inform Jensen that Tucker claims to have bought pills from him. Jensen thinks this is funny and comments that kids are always blaming everyone but themselves when they are in trouble. Reed and Malloy act as if they didn't really believe Tucker, either. But, they ask if they can look around his apartment anyway.

"Sorta for the record, OK?"

Jensen reluctantly agrees to the search. He nervously watches Reed as he looks around the kitchen. After a few minutes of inspecting Jensen's kitchen, the rookie officer calls for his partner. He's found a bag of pills. When faced with the evidence, Jensen acts like he's never seen them before.

Malloy tells him that Jerry Young died of an overdose.

At first Jensen doesn't believe Malloy. But, once the cuffs are on and the rights have been read to him,  Jensen knows it's no joke. He decides to talk rather than be blamed with the boy's death. He no longer denies that the pills are his, but he doesn't admit selling them. He claims the boy stole the pills.

The next day Malloy wants to know how dinner with (almost) Miss Hollywood went. He's excited when Reed lets him know that she cancelled for the previous evening and has rescheduled for tonight.

They continue their patrol into a business district of the city. As Pete rounds a corner a man waiting on the sidewalk runs up to the black and white. He knows they will think he is crazy, but he suspects that he has found some property that was stolen from him.

He points out a VW bug with a red hood and red fenders parked up the street. The man, John Lewis, knows that the red body parts are his. They match a hood and fenders that were stolen from him 2 nights ago. He can prove they're his, too,he's marked his parts with 3 small dents. 

He shows them where he made the dents. Reed can feel the dents.

So can Malloy.

Now that he has proven that the components are his, Lewis wants to know what they do now. "We wait," replies Malloy.

Lewis joins Malloy and Reed in 1-Adam-12 on stakeout. While they wait for the owner of the Volkswagen to show up, Lewis learns just how boring and monotonous a policeman's job can be. Malloy tells him the job "has it's moments". Just then one of the moments is dispatched over the radio, a 211 silent has just occurred at the bank. Unfortunately, Mr. Lewis won't be able to see the exciting side of police work. They'll call another unit to assist him.

As 1-Adam-12 arrives at the scene two gunmen in ski masks and coveralls run from the bank to their getaway car in the adjacent parking lot. Malloy blocks the exit from the lot with the black and white. He and Jim take cover behind the car doors as the gunmen get out of their car and start firing at the officers.

The suspects try to escape on foot. One of them begins climbing over the fence surrounding the lot, but Pete is able to hit him with a shot.

Backup arrives to cover the lot exit, Pete and Jim move to surround a car where the other suspect is hiding.

"Alright, mister, let me see your hands, nice and slow!"

At Pete's command the hands come up. Once he's satisfied that the situation is under control, Pete reaches inside the car and unmasks the gunman.

Oops, make that gun person.

[It's a sister, not a mister.]

"Like the guy said...we lead a pretty dull life."

The next day Jim fills Pete in on what happened with Mr. Lewis. When Ryan and Smith drove up to Mr. Lewis, he was more upset about missing the bank caper than his stolen car parts. Eventually, the owner of the VW did show up, but Lewis didn't get to see the arrest. He was in the black and white.

"Doing what?" asks Malloy.

"Hiding," answers Reed.

After they share a laugh about Lewis, Malloy tells Reed that he should be able to come over for supper tonight.

[That's great, Pete. But, when did I invite you?]

The End

My Evaluation:

I'm probably in the minority on this, but I don't really like this episode. The part that kills it for me is, I think, what most people adore about this episode. You guessed it, I do not like the scenes where Mr. Terry beats them up. The slapstick humor of it feels out of place in a show that tried to be true to life. I know that the show has it's silly moments, but this is just really over the top. The whole thing is just ridiculous and cartoonish and more suited to an episode of Batman than Adam-12. 

If this were from a Batman episode, wouldn't Batman or Robin have used some sort of weapon or device from their utility belt to help them in the fight? I understand that Malloy and Reed didn't have their batons, but did they also leave their guns in the car? If they had their guns, which I believe they did, why didn't they draw their weapons? I'm not saying they had to shoot Mr. Terry, but the sight of a loaded pistol may have made him stop the beating.

I'm not an expert on police procedures, but I did go through my local PD's Citizen's Police Academy. I learned there that if an officer is in danger of being beaten unconscious, he should use his firearm. Otherwise, he could be incapacitated. Which would give the suspect an opportunity to take the officer's gun. Maybe this wasn't part of an officer's training in the late 1960's.

Maybe I'm expecting too much reality out of a TV show and I should just enjoy those minutes of film as a farce. But, even if I did suspend my disbelief of the situation, I still wouldn't like the scene with Mr. Terry. It just doesn't utilize the lead actor's strengths. Milner's biggest asset as an actor was his subtly, he could convey so many emotions and messages just through his facial expressions. I'd much rather watch him roll his eyes at Reed or a suspect than watch him perform this type of broad, physical humor. The funny sequences that focus on his face are so much funnier than this one.

After we get past the parts with Mr. and Mrs. Terry, the rest of the episode just falls flat. I like Jed Allen well enough, but he doesn't have a large enough role to save the whole thing. 

So, sorry to disappoint, but I give "Log 144: Bank Robbery" a rating of:

Do you agree? Let me know what you think of this one in the comments. I'll see you in two weeks. I've got a lot of traveling coming up, so I need to take next week off from the blog. KMA-367