Sitcom: Adam-12
Episode: Christmas
Year: 1974
Story line: The Christmas spirit is sorely lacking on the partners’ tour of duty.
Details: Officers Reed and Malloy spend Christmas Eve fighting crime and distributing presents to needy kids. They meet little Harvey’s mother in a parking lot to give her a yellow dump truck they bought him, along with other toys, but when she goes to buy a tree someone steals the car and all the presents in it. But Reed and Malloy are on the case, and they eventually track down the car thief and manage to outsmart department bureaucracy to ensure that little Harvey gets his dump truck.
Killer quote: “You gotta be a real creep to steal toys from kids, especially on Christmas.” The car thief, explaining that he stole the car and TV in it but had no idea the trunk was packed with presents for kids. I guess he wouldn’t have taken it if he had known that. Har.
Ebenezer alert: The car thief, though as the quote above indicates he’s not all bad. Malloy also has a bit of Scrooge in him, initially refusing to buy a yellow dump trunk for Harvey. But he’s a cop with a heart of gold and borrows three bucks from Reed to buy the truck for Harvey.
Childhood memory: This was one of my favorites as a kid. I think it aired Saturday nights, so we used to watch it after returning from Mass (Catholics get to cheat on Sunday like that …). I don’t remember this episode specifically, though. But the crackly “One Adam-12 One Adam-12 … see the lady at …” still bounces around in my brain from time to time.