Episode 67
The Lakers lost last night. Reed knows because he was there. He and Jean went to the game last night while her sister watched the baby. Pete's surprised that Jean would want to spend her evening at a Lakers game, he didn't know that she "dug" basketball that much.
Turns out there's a lot that Pete doesn't about the Reeds. Basketball is what brought Jim and Jean together, they met at a game where Jim was playing. It's news to Pete that his partner even played basketball. He's really impressed when Jim tells him that he was all-conference for two years.
"Well, hooray for us, then. We've got a star in our midst." |
Jim quickly puts his achievements in perspective.
"It was a small conference." |
They're ten blocks away from the location. Pete begins driving with a look of steely determination on his face, he asks Jim to holler when they reach the 11800 block. With the red lights flashing and the sirens wailing they speed to the location.
Jim has the shotgun at the ready as they round the corner onto Tamarac. |
Once Pete reaches the front door, he quickly checks out what is going on inside.
He sees two men in stocking masks holding the proprietor and a woman customer hostage. One of the suspects sees Pete and fires at him. Before Pete can fire back, the gunman grabs the woman and uses her as a shield.
Knowing that they will need help with this one, Pete returns to the car radio and requests a clear frequency for an emergency broadcast. In his broadcast, he confirms that there is a 211 in progress. He also lets Communications know that there are two armed suspects holding hostages and that shots have been fired.
Soon after Pete makes his broadcast Mac arrives with another backup unit. The sergeant meets up with Pete and Jim and gets a rundown of the situation. Now that more cops have arrived, the gunmen are getting anxious. One of them shouts a demand at the police, they walk out and drive away or both hostages get it. "Sounds like they mean business," comments Jim.
Even though he knows firsthand that the suspects are quick to fire, Malloy still thinks they can take the two of them without anyone getting hurt. He tells Mac and Reed his scheme to capture the gunmen.
To set the plan in motion, Pete quickly gets behind a pickup truck parked near the door. So that he doesn't cross in front of the door, Reed has to go around the entire building to get into position on the other side. Once Mac sees that they are set, he uses the bullhorn to tell the suspects they can come out.
Jim takes cover behind the phone booth on the other side of the door.
Mac watches from behind the door of his station wagon.
Once the gunmen and the hostages are out in the open, the plan to free the hostages is set in motion. But, it's not Pete's plan that goes into effect.
The well-dressed female hostage sees her chance. She drives her stiletto heel into the suspect's toe. Then while he is in shock from her sudden attack, she elbows him in the gut.
As he doubles over in pain from the hit to his abdomen, she begins beating him with her purse. He falls to the ground and drops his gun. Reed and Mac rush in to capture the incapacitated suspect. Meanwhile, Malloy grabs his accomplice.
While the suspects are being led away, the guy in the beige windbreaker whines that the woman broke his foot. She retorts that she hopes she did break it. She spent an hour and a half getting ready for a party and then he roughed her up! After he limps off to the patrol car, Malloy stops the woman and asks her an important question.
"Lemme ask you something, lady. Where did you learn to use your heel like that?" |
"I watched a lot of cop shows on TV." |
Malloy failed to tell Reed that he did have a short basketball career in high school, but he got kicked off the team for smoking in the locker room. |
Reed's not too impressed that Malloy just played football, he wants to know if he has any additional accolades on his recreational resume.
"All conference?" |
"Well, it was a very small conference," he adds. |
They are met at in the driveway of 1348 by a very angry Edwin M. Kale. Mr. Kale doesn't care what the officers' names are, he only wants to know why they did not act as his personal security service and prevent his home from being burglarized while he and his wife were on vacation.
Both Reed and Malloy try to explain to Kale that they have other duties and need the public's cooperation to prevent crimes. Kale's mystified by their suggestions to leave lights on and a radio playing when nobody's home. He also doesn't understand why it's a bad idea to leave a week's worth of newspapers in the driveway. He thinks Malloy and Reed are only trying to shirk their responsibilities as protectors of the citizens of Los Angeles. Malloy sets him straight.
"Mister, we're not here to shirk anything. We're here to help you. Now do you want that help or not?" |
Of course Kale wants their help. He pays an astronomical amount of taxes for police protection; which, he feels, he has not received. Malloy, tired of making the same point, explains to Kale in a flat monotone that they would have been happy to keep an eye on his place if he had helped them by telling them he was leaving town. He would have known to do this had he attended the basic car plan meeting. Kale has never heard of the meetings, despite the fact that they are publicized through mailers and billboards.
Reed explains to Kale that the meetings take place so the police and the community can get to know one another and work together to prevent crimes. |
When Reed asks for a list of stolen items, Kale really becomes incensed. He doesn't want to give them information for a report that they will only file and forget. He wants satisfaction or he wants their badges. Malloy's now had enough of this guy.
"Mr. Kale, you do whatever you want to. We have other things to do, too. More important that standing here listening to your threats. So, you wanna get on with the report?" |
Later, near the end of their shift, Reed confesses that he is looking forward to never hearing from Mr. Kale again. Malloy agrees.
"You and me both, partner." |
"Wonder what his trouble is," asks Reed. "Let's find out," responds Malloy. |
"What's your name?" asks Reed. After she doesn't answer, he tries again. "What's the matter, haven't you got a name?" he jokingly asks. She shyly giggles, then answers that her name is Wendy Tucker. |
"What's he doing with her?" he asks. |
"He's calming her down, he has a child of his own," Malloy answers. |
"She says her name is Wendy Tucker, " states Reed. Malloy slowly turns to face Hammond and hear his answer. |
While Reed is in the car and Malloy is looking at the ticket book, Hammond sees his chance. He tries to make a break for it! He begins to run and Malloy takes off after him. The frightened, and obviously intelligent, girl runs to Reed.
After Malloy has tackled Hammond and cuffed him in the back of the car, Reed fills his partner in on what Wendy has told him. Hammond lured the girl over to his car with candy, when she got in the car, he took off with her. A red convertible pulls up during their conversation.
Wendy's mother is behind the wheel of the red car. She stops when she sees her daughter with the police, then runs out to embrace her. Mrs. Tucker is shocked to learn that Wendy was with a man she had never seen before. She's also upset that Wendy didn't heed her warnings to never speak to strangers. Ultimately, she's relieved that her daughter is, at least physically, unharmed.
They've determined where these units will be deployed by using LEMRAS. They've been using the computer program in the division for awhile, so everyone in the room should be familiar with it. But, just in case they are not (or if the audience at home is not), Mac goes over what each letter in the acronym stands for.
"Law Enforcement Manpower Resource Allocation System" |
"That's a mouthful," observes Malloy. |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------OK, I tried to find out more about LEMRAS. But, there's not a lot of information out there on an almost-fifty-year-old computer program. I was able to find out that the LAPD started using LEMRAS in 1967 after it had been developed for the St. Louis PD. The LAPD used the system until 1973 when officer dissatisfaction led to it being redesigned and renamed ADAM (hmmm, interesting choice for a name), which stood for Automated Deployment of Available Manpower. After six months, ADAM was then redesigned.
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The ever-curious Reed wants to know how well LEMRAS works. Mac reads a brief from the chief stating that "LEMRAS is 92.5% effective in predicting where and when the calls for police manpower will come."
"Can't do much better than that." (Actually, you can do 7.5% better than that, Reed.) |
Here's what I learned watching this scene: Kent's hands are huge! |
At 817 South Rossman, they are shown inside the large home by the slightly-loopy Mrs. Vandemar. She was out back painting in her studio and, literally, ran into the burglars on her way back into the house. Her collision with the suspects caused the nasty scratch on her head. Reed's concerned about her injury and asks if she's sure she doesn't need a doctor.
"My husband always says it would take a Rolls Royce head-on to really do me in." [Do you want to see the Rolls Royce he just bought?] |
[Ma'am, that sounds like an awful thing to say to someone. Are you sure we can't call a marriage counselor or divorce lawyer for you?] |
After Mrs. Vandemar was knocked on her fashion-model-sized keister she only got a glance at the two burglars. They were both wearing light pants, dark leather jackets, goggles, and white helmets. She also heard motorcycles.
Malloy presses her on the detail about hearing motorcycles. 1-Adam-12 arrived at the scene pretty quickly and they didn't hear any motorcycles. He asks if she's sure it was motorcycles and not a car with a broken muffler.
She's sure she heard motorcycles, she knows what they sound like from first-hand experience. Mrs. Vandemar explains that she and her husband are "pretty crazy" and like to ride motorcycles themselves.
[Pretty crazy? You don't say.] |
[Pete, what is that look she's giving me? Let's get out of here before she asks me to model in her studio.] |
When they are back in the black and white Pete vents his frustration at not being able to find the elusive bandits.
"Motorcycles, motorcycles, who's got the motorcycles?" |
After Pete turns the car around, he turns on the reds and sirens and they begin pursuing the two-wheeled getaway vehicles. But the chase doesn't last very long. After the motorcycles turn a corner, they're nowhere to be seen or heard.
"That's the best vanishing act since Houdini." |
OK, you all know McWhirter is Kent McCord's real last name. If you don't know why he changed it, don't worry, I have the full story. Check this out. |
They then meet up with Mac at the corner, the commanding officer is curious to know how they lost the motorcyclists. Pete doesn't have an answer for him.
But, he does have a hunch about that green van. They get back in the patrol unit to check out the van, which is now headed down the street.
When the driver realizes that he is being followed by not one, but two police cars, he begins to rabbit. Pete hits the reds and the sirens and the chase is on!
Once again, it's a short pursuit. The van turns onto a dead-end street and the driver bails out. Reed takes off after the driver.
Malloy stays behind and covers the rear doors of the van with the shot gun.
"Alright, you in the van, come out nice and slow with your hands empty!" |
Finally, Mac sends Marco Lopez and his partner to open the van doors. He and Pete cover them.
[Let's see what's behind door number one.] |
[Open sesame!] |
[Ta-da!!] |
"Just in time for the cross-country rally to prison," quips Pete. |
Reed is impressed with the thieves' ingenuity, he thinks their rolling concealed getaway and loot transporter is pretty clever. Pete doesn't think it would win any awards, even in a small conference.
"Not clever enough," is Pete's final determination on the suspects. |
The End
Love, love, love this one! It's got just about everything a great Adam-12 episode should have. Since I'm running short on time, I'm just going to list all of the awesome features of this episode:- Tense situations balanced with humor. The first call is a real nail-biter involving gunmen and hostages. However, it ends on a light note when the woman unexpectedly incapacitates the suspect. The almost breach of the fourth wall when she admits that she learned the self-defense technique by watching TV cop shows is just the icing on the cake.
- An irate citizen. I have a love/ hate relationship with these types of calls. Any time the boys are faced with a real jerk, it makes my blood boil. I want to jump to their defense and tell whichever idiot is being mean to them to go take a hike. But, I also look forward to these calls because then I get to see all of the priceless faces Milner makes when reacting to these blowhards.
- Children. Reed is just too cute with Wendy Tucker. It makes my heart melt, I don't know how else to say it.
- A squirrel. Mrs. Vandemar is a little squirrelly. The only thing better than Milner's reactions to a jerk are his reactions to a nut.
- An inside joke. McWhirter, he said McWhirter!!
- Mac!
That's the list of the good parts. My list of the bad parts would be very short and only include one entry. That would be the LEMRAS scene, it was a little heavy-handed and too much like a training video for my taste. But, despite that one complaint, I still rate "Log 26: LEMRAS" as:
Do you agree? Let me know in the comments! See you next time with "Log 155: Internal Affairs- Blackmail"!
KMA-367
Good episode! I may be prejudice but of course Wendy is going to run to REED!! Well look at him!!!❤️❤️❤️❤️ Besides PETE was busy getting the bad guy! I agree with you on the nasty people calls. They want the BOYS to help but treat them like dirt, just like now! I wouldn't last to long in that job. I'd be fired for smacking the jerks around !! I did like the tough lady hostage. Instead of acting "like a girl" and whining she helped herself. The NUTTY BIKER LADY well I'm not so sure she was nutty . More like she was inhaling her PLANTS IN THE GARDEN!!! Enough said๐๐ Another great post KEELY. and I wouldn't have minded one bit if he posed for her๐ป๐ป๐ป๐ป๐๐๐๐ฎ๐ป๐ฎ๐ป๐ฎ๐ป
ReplyDeleteWell spotted on Marco Lopez - he'll turn up a few more times before becoming a full-time firefighter on EMERGENCY!
ReplyDelete(He was originally hired on the revived DRAGNET as Jack Webb's stand-in for camera setups and long shots - same build and coloring as Webb and could match the Joe Friday walk. By his account, within his first week or two on the show, Webb noticed that he was spending his time between shots reading the paper or doing crosswords -and promptly hauled him up to the office at lunch one day."If you ever wanna be anything more than a stand-in or an extra, you better put down that paper and start paying attention to what the REAL actors are doing...and what everybody else on the set's doing, too." It paid off.)
Smoking in the gym? Only you Keeley!!!!
ReplyDeleteMilner apparently was a smoker in real life - while we only saw him smoking once on A12 (and there he's more playing with his cigarette than actually smoking it), he's got a visible pack of Marlboros in his shirt pocket in his one COLUMBO episode.
Delete(While Jack Webb was a chain-smoker and had a lifetime supply of cigarettes from DRAGNET's original sponsor, he cut smoking out of his shows almost completely when the FTC banned cigarette ads in '68. EMERGENCY's Randolph Mantooth has a pack in his shirt all the time, but you never see him light up - and even the ashtrays disappear from Station 51's messroom after 1 or 2 seasons.)
Smoking in the gym? Only you Keeley!!!!
ReplyDeleteDid you notice when Reed first called in the 459 suspects, he didn't mention that they were on motorcycles, but the person on the other end of the radio said, "1 Adam-12 is in pursuit of 2 459 suspects on motorcycles ...." Nothing of the sort was said in Reed's call. Blooper!
ReplyDeleteI think I was so focused on the McWhirter call-out that I missed that! Good catch!
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