Pete Malloy Gets Paired Off Adam-12's Final Season

Pete Gets Paired Off

Suddenly Dirty Old Man Malloy does a 180 from checking out girls while on duty to pairing off with a single mom his own age in Season 7. We hear about her first and then get to see her twice, in episodes 16 and 24.
 
Possibly they named her "Judy" as a thank you to the real Mrs. Freckles, else it was just easier for Freckles to remember. Not sure how they chose Aneta Corsaut. 

Ms. Corsaut was a fine actress, but just not who I would have cast as Malloy's serious love interest. 

Here’s the short list I would have had, counting down # 5 to # 1.
 
My fifth choice would have been

Judy Milner. They had already done Bring Your Daughter to Work Day for Amy Milner and Kristen McCord. Why not Bring Your Wife? Think how much fun it would have been for the Freckles clan to watch Mom and Dad together on Adam-12 reruns years into the future.
 
My fourth choice:

Vera Miles. The last we saw her with Freckles, he was pretending to be Mr. Nice Guy, only to have her hauled away for a psychiatric evaluation. I always like a good Twilight Zone reunion.

My third choice:

Patty Duke. This could have been a shocker as Patty Duke shows up at the station as Pete’s ex-wife. Reed’s eyes would have opened wide for that one! They had married young and split up because of her drug addiction. Now she’s back and hopes to patch things up, but it turns out she’s still in the drug scene, which could disrupt Malloy's shot at making sergeant. A conflicted ending, leaving that little opening for a spin-off. That’s how I would have written it.

My second choice:

Barbara Baldavin. This lovely actress had put in three Adam-12 appearances: once with her baby threatened by Zalman King, the king of TV psychos for a while; once as Wells’ wife – yeah, right! – and once as Pete’s nurse girlfriend. Remember how she held the gun on the burly biker creep in the backlot Western town? She was a good match. [She will show up in a bit part on my Murray Hamilton blog, but she’s not there yet.] She had a fairly regular gig on Medical Center with hunky Chad Everett and film noir bad girl Audrey Totter.

And my top pick for who they should have cast to be the future Mrs. Malloy:

Barbara Eden. For starters, they might have still been married for the past decade! They could have thrown in lines like, “Malloy get married? He’d rather be thrown off a bridge!” She would have been perfectly age-appropriate, she’s cute as can be, and she was used to a man in a uniform.
 
But instead they cast Aneta Corsaut as Female Pete: red hair, a bit overweight, smoky voice. Female Pete. Given the show had Malloy chasing after the much younger Tina Sinatra, I’m surprised they didn’t give the final lady friend role to young Kelly Harmon. They’d already featured her siblings Kristin and Mark. Why not three for three of the Tom Harmon children? When Adam-12 went off the air, Kelly Harmon was already divorced from John DeLorean. Yes, that John DeLorean! Wild world of show-biz.
 
Sadly, Ms. Corsaut passed away at only 62 (curses to cancer), and she is buried in, yes, North Hollywood. Donations could be made to Richard and Diana Basehart’s foundation, Actors and Others for Animals, also based in NoHo.

 

Young Kent McCord Prepares for His Role 1968

Great little article on young Kent McCord preparing for his new role on Adam-12, 1968.

We learn "Reed" spent 14 nights riding in a real LAPD patrol car; it was Bob Cinader's idea; he gained new respect for cops; he was shocked by the language cops get called; dead and severely injured people freak him out; he was once a bar bouncer and ended up in the hospital from it; he went to Citrus Junior College in Azusa; playing football with Ricky Nelson launched his career; acting classes, contract at Universal, Jack Webb; Kent McCord would NOT put up with what cops do for that money.

Is this Adam-12 or Batman?

Log 144: Bank Robbery, season 2, episode 24, opens with our heroes (and their stuntmen) being tossed around like dog chew toys by giant Mike Mazurki. All that was missing was the "Biff! Zowee!" cartoon words on the screen. Aired Saturday, April 11, 1970.

Jed Allan's first of six (it only seemed like more) Adam-12 appearances. Mr. Celebrity Bowling -- Don't miss Kent McCord bowling against Batman if you haven't seen it.

Reed's visible disgust at touching a dead, dirty hippie.

Car banter has Malloy complaining that Reed's wife's girlfriends "haven't shown me much" -- pardon?

Still a chance he might get set up with a former Miss Hollywood contestant. 

In front of the Cahuenga Shopping Center on the southwest corner of Cahuenga and Regal-- you can see KPFK headquarters. The radio station had some controversy.  Notice it says North Hollywood.  

How could I not leave the top of Pat Buttram's column!

More of the Cahuenga Shopping Center and its shops:

Also quite a robbery at a Thriftimart Discount Foods. That was Adam-12's beat, southeast corner of Lankershim and Erwin. $18,000 in 2021 money is almost $130K. Wow! 

And you know how Malloy and Reed often exchange $5 here and there? According to the inflation calculator, 1970 $5 is over $35 in 2021. 

While Malloy and Reed listen to the man's stolen car parts story, Phil's Transfer and Storage (not a Valley business) truck drives past the 101 on-ramp behind them. You can see the Sheraton Universal at the top of the picture. 

Tethered to the Universal lot:

Here's an odd thing to have on Adam-12: a 1949 Plymouth with the name blocked out. Marty Milner had just turned 17 when this car was new. 

Adam-12 pass Nudie's Rodeo Tailors and Kentucky Roast Beef

Adam-12 Patrol Nudie's 

Log 164: The Poachers, S3, Ep21, aired February 25, 1971

Not the most exciting episode crime-wise, but some classic San Fernando Valley places on Lankershim make cameos.

The theme here is businesses with horses on the roof.

The one that jumped out at me was Nudie's! Nudie's Rodeo Tailors. I went in there once or twice, probably early 80s. I remember they had a fully signed photo of the Flying Burrito Brothers on the wall, just fading away. 

In my mind, I once stood across the street and took photos of the cowboys on horses on the roof and have it as a real hold-in-your-hands photo. Quite possibly I just always meant to. 

Just to tie in Phil Ochs [who I believe was America's best songwriter ever; he wrote topical songs and his technique was alliteration] -- Phil's best friend Andy's girlfriend Frances worked for Nudie. "She's working for the tailor, makes the western clothes." Phil Ochs' song about his friends, "Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, and Me." 

Nudie's was often hiring!

I have a clean DMV record and know my way around the Valley. I want that job! 

Almost nobody remembers when Kentucky Fried Chicken had a spin-off, Kentucky Roast Beef, but here it is on Adam-12:

Hard to catch it unless you really obsess over Lankershim Blvd maybe (hee!) but they pass the Silver Saddle Motel right next to the former Kentucky Roast Beef.  

A couple of my own recent photos of the area (note the horse on the roof):

I recognized the Hub furniture store sign at 6418 Lankershim, just north of Victory, and I was very curious about that "Seaside" sign, especially as NoHo is nowhere near the sea. The "Seaside" sign is probably left over from a much earlier business, Bud's Seaside Service which existed in the 50s. By the 60s it was Rayes Shell. Not sure what it was in 1971, but the address is 6335 Lankershim. 

Note: These drive-by shots heading south have jumped back and then back again -- the higher numbers are further north, so coming south, it was The Hub furniture store north of Victory and "Seaside" sign in the 6300 block south of Victory; the Silver Saddle and Kentucky Beef in the 6200 block south of Sylvan before Erwin; Nudie's way down just north of Morrison, getting closer to where Lankershim crosses Vineland.

Adam-12 Patrol North Hollywood is largely just Adam-12 drive up and down Lankershim. 

Yet Tujunga and Moorpark is Adam-12 Square! (Make it happen! #Adam12Square)

Two more items: Whitnall Highway and an actor of note; Sinclair Paint in Studio City

Whitnall Highway, not really a highway, but a collection of giant high voltage towers:

Am I the only one that can't look at Whitnall without thinking "Withnail and I"?

Whitnall and Cartwright. Marty Milner lived on Cartwright in his younger days (further south than this, between Huston and Camarillo). 

I like to think Milner just ad-libbed this classic comedy zinger, but probably not. 

An actor of note in this episode, Scutter McKay. He passed away at only 45, but not before having been in costume on both Pufnstuf and The Land of the Lost. He was on Adam-12 twice ["Log 153: Find Me a Needle" was the other]. I was surprised to learn he had been Freddie the Frog on the New Zoo Revue (oh how I loved that show!) -- and both imdb and Wiki list only Yanco Inone. Whoever's doing the New Zoo Revue blog (please let there be one!), please research this one.

I suspect he was my height, and that is how I would look size-wise compared to the giant officers of Adam-12.

Then we head down to Ventura Blvd to Sinclair Paint:

For that one other person on earth who wondered "how many Sinclair Paint locations were there in the San Fernando Valley in 1972?" 

Not knowing the exact location of this Texaco knocks the wind out of my sails:

At another point the dispatcher sends them to the in-joke of a non-existent street called McWhirter 😀 That's where I'll say this Texaco was, Lankershim and McWhirter!