Still image from video below.
The title of episode 22 of season 4 of Adam-12 is Who Won? The short answer is, "We did!" as this episode is a must-see for muscle car fans. Officers Pete Malloy (Martin Milner) and Jim Reed (Kent McCord) try to help local cars clubs with corny names—the Street Runners, Cam Busters and Valley Lifters—get drag racing off the streets and onto a track by, "putting together an association of car clubs and lining up a dragstrip," according to Malloy.
With a charter and proof of insurance coverage in hand, they approach the owner of Benson's Drag Strip, J. Benson, (played by none other than Dick Clark) who first retorts, during a heated exchange with Spider Watson of the Valley Lifters car club, "I've got a business to run here, and I'm not going to jeopardize it so a bunch of wildcat hot rodders can drag once a week!" When calmer heads prevail, Benson reluctantly agrees to let the car clubs race at his track with the stipulation that no street racing continues in the surrounding area.
However, "Fat Charlie" of the Street Runners would rather not lose his lucrative gig of being paid by the clubs and/or participants to put together those outlaw street races, so he tries to sabotage the deal.
Throughout the show, Officer Ed Wells (Gary Crosby, Bing's son) is vocally skeptical of Malloy and Reed's actions, providing such time warp phraseology as, "Well now, if it isn't our two social workers. When are you guys going to wake up? You're the heat—the kids don't dig ya. There's only one thing these kids understand and that's this (holding up his ticket book). There's no social work to it, they get out of line, they get a ticket. I leave the bleeding heart routine to somebody else." To which Reed immediately replies, "Thank you, we accept." A "gotcha" comeback, which is oh-so-prevalent in Jack Webb (of Dragnet fame) created TV shows.
A host of muscle cars and other vintage cars are shown in the episode including among others: a green 1969 Road Runner, a bumperless white 1964 Plymouth, a gray 1964 Plymouth with open headers, a Limelight 1970 Road Runner with Americans, an orange-and-black 1972 El Camino, a white-and-blue 1956 Chevy wagon, the Cam Busters' Donny Simmons' purplish-blue 1965 GTO with aluminum slots and cutup rear wheel wells and even a glimpse of an orange 1969 Daytona with a black nosecone. There's a brief street race scene in the beginning of the episode and lots of drag race action near the end of it, not to mention the characteristic moral message found in all of Webb's shows.
The big climax is supposed to be Reed racing the 1954 Ford that he ran back in high school against antagonist Officer Wells driving his kid brother's 1968 Camaro. Both of which are said by Reed to be B/Modified Production cars.
At the track, the "Benson's Drag Strip" banner is obviously covering a more permanent sign beneath it. According to IMDB, filming was done at the famed Lion's Drag Strip in Wilmington, California.
Listen to the announcer, as there are some interesting performance numbers provided for the cars that are racing. Thanks to the magic of editing, when Well's Camaro and Reed's Ford are shown attempting multiple short burnouts, during one of them, you can see a man in a sports jacket running towards the Camaro and then the scene quickly cuts to more burnouts. Soon thereafter, the actual scene of Benson running to the car to tell Spider, the starter, to tell Wells to put on a helmet is played through from multiple camera angles.
Nevertheless, it's a very entertaining show that's a product of its era, from the cars and their appearance to the driver's clothes, hairstyles and slang terms. Regarding the much anticipated race between Reed and Wells, you'll have to watch the episode to find out "who won."
Link to free full episode on Hulu with ads or no ads if you play a trivia game first.
from Hemmings Daily - News for the collector car enthusiast http://ift.tt/1VsC56h
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