Meet Sgt Mac at Universal

Come on down to Universal in April of 1974 and meet one of these actors. I need an insider to tip me off about which day is Mac Day! Just think, if you had someone to tip you off, you could only be notified by phone. A rotary phone at home. 

I took this photo of the former Boyett Family home in Studio City. It's very close to where Reed and Malloy chased the bad guys into the Tujunga Wash in the pilot episode of Adam-12. It might look and sound like a nice middle class family home, but because of its location, that would list for around $1.7 million.

Just wanted to end July with a Mac-based post.

Adam-12 Drive All Over Pig is a Three Letter Word

Log 23: Pig is a Three Letter Word, aired Saturday October 11, 1969. I covered the actors in my previous post. This post focuses on locations.

The easiest Valley location to identify was this one because the two apartment buildings are still there (for how much longer?) and Adam-12 love Tujunga Avenue (though they're north of Moorpark this time!)

My recent photo of 5056 Tujunga:

When the car turns the corner, we see a lost corner of North Hollywood:

The Monster Boxing of Los Angeles outrages me to the point I can't stand to look. Had I started this project in the 90s, most every Adam-12 location would have still been intact, and I'd have taken some of the last photographs of them (who knew!)

If you've read much of this blog (thank you!), you'll know I rage about this a lot. It hurts. The "re-imagining" of Los Angeles in the 21st century is an abomination. And it's why so many of the houses and apartment buildings Adam-12 drove past look familiar, so very Valley, but you just can't find them now. Someone dropped a Monster Box on them.

Note for non-Angelenos, it's "Tuh-HUN-guh." You may recall Reed calling in their pursuit in the Tujunga wash in the first episode. (I spent decades calling both the Tujunga wash and LA River "the storm drain"! It actually rained in the 80s and sometimes you'd see a proper river of water in there, in addition to shopping carts and graffiti. Pre-internet I think we all knew the names of every Los Angeles newscaster, and anytime it rained, it was delivered as a major catastrophe: "Stormwatch!" Everywhere else in the country it would have been reported as "rain." I digress!)

I'll try to go in some sort of order. My main interest is seeing the San Fernando Valley in the late 60s. Then I like learning more about the actors, seeing the cars that were still on the road (but I suspect the "hey, look!" ones were all provided by Universal and not just local people's cars that got caught in the shot), looking at Mac (!), noting any contemporary social commentary, laughing at various things, and last of all following the story.

In this episode too much time was wasted on the back lot, but they still packed in a lot of their part of the Valley, a clear Temple Street view, and some nice old cars. 

Great view of the opposite side of the Rampart station:

The Lewelleyn was a big deal 40 years before the new Rampart station (Adam-12 headquarters, allegedly Central division -- which was actually in Parker Center).

The Rampart Division headquarters where Adam-12 were based (while patrolling far away North Hollywood most of the time 😁) was new in 1966.