I don't know about any of you all, but I was 21 when Adam-12 first came on tv. Today (2014) I've been watching Adam-12 on Netflix. In 1968, I didn't own a tv bbut I was a jazz musician, and I promise you! That horrible 'music' they play isn't any version of 'rock' or 'jazz' that I remember from then. I've been trying to figure out what the HECK it is or WHY they used it. I can't imagine anyone, back in the 60s, not noticing the hideousness of it. There are several things that 'date' the show (at least from the perspective of 'society in general'... that horrible music, the way they portray 'hypes' (drug addicts), and the way they portray 'hippies'.
Since I was a semi-hippie (but I played jazz trumpet, go figgur) and due to being a jazz musician I knew a LOT of heroin addicts and crystal meth users (not me)... none of MY hippie or druggie 'friends' were ANYTHING like the way they are portrayed on Adam-12. That leads me to 'suspect' the writers/directors were out of touch with that down-low world, which seems odd since they were 'hollywoodites'.
Other than that, I LOOOOOVE this show, because I get to see Los Angeles as it was when I played gigs there. I wish they had had the budget or the desire to show what was REALLY going on then with regards to the younger 'society' of Southern California, at least. But I suppose Jack Webb & his partner(s) were ... more straitlaced than 'us'. Even though my name is 'really' Violet Weed I never did do drugs or drink... was raised on an organic farm and just did not have a 'taste' for stuff like that. Besides as a musician without much 'natural' talent I needed to be as straight as possible to play 'reasonably' well. Today, in 2014, I look back and realize that many of my musician/hippie/druggie friends from back then are long dead or might-as-well-be dead. Watching Adam-12 I have so much more respect for cops, at least those of the 1960s-70s, then I did back then. Sad but true. However, cops of 2014... not so sure what I think of them. They are not always very ethical or self-disciplined, not the 'big city' cops, not the ones I've seen in the past couple of decads. Now THAT is REALLY sad. Well, I'm working on a book and listening to season 7 of Adam-12 and my break is over ... ttyl.
Life is a journey not a destination. Fear nothing.
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slackersmom
10 years ago
Thanks for offering your "first-hand" perspective as a musician from the era of Adam-12. So it's not just us with our 2014 sensibilities who think that music was embarrassingly bad. I think I mentioned in another thread that I have older siblings who listened to rock'n'roll during that time, and neither they nor their friends looked anything like the so-called "hippies" portrayed on Adam-12.
I do think that Jack Webb was out of touch with the counter-culture of the young people of that era. On one hand, it's kind of ironic,since Webb was apparently a big fan of jazz. So maybe he just cared for jazz so much that he hated or resented the growing popularity of rock. Why or how he (or his writers) came up with the depiction that he did of hippies/rock fans, who knows, but I'm sure that even at the time, that ridiculousness was plainly obvious to anyone under the age of 25. It was sort of like confirmation bias, in which people who aren't familiar with something and don't think they'd like it, characterize it negatively--probably because they're not familiar with it. On the other hand, maybe Webb's cheesy depiction of the music and lifestyle of the era was deliberate. Maybe he purposely made hippies seem dull and uncool.
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charcas67
10 years ago
Just watched the final episode of season 1 and among the calls included a noise complaint of a loud party. Sure enough, that music was blasting away. The party host was an old high school track teammate of Reed's...now a young professional in his early 20s, certainly not a counter cultural type. Malloy's stalker Penny Lang played the music as well so I think that music was used for "loud music noise complaint calls" regardless of whether they were hippies or counter cultural types or not. In Season 1, the "sitar" music was cued to indicate someone really weird and/or druggie and/or hippie-ish. I'm rewatching the seasons in order so I'm going to pay attention as to if and when the "rock music" and the "sitar" music were discontinued.
I do agree that the depictions of hippies and counter cultural types generally didn't ring true or catered to stereotypes. And the slang was often wrong. In that Season 1 episode which ends with Malloy rescuing a suicidal guy, there is a call where they confront hippies who leave a swastika on a couple's yard and their "leader" is making references to Philo Vance mysteries--Philo Vance's hey day was the 20's and 30's!
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