Isn't it odd that officer Jim Reed appears in several episodes of Dragnet, alone or with a partner who is not Malloy? It's not just the actor, Friday called him "Jim" once and he's in the credits as officer Jim Reed.
I just checked out Kent McCord's profile here on imdb and he did play Officer Jim Reed 3 times on Dragnet. Once after Adam 12 premiered in fall 68, but twice before Adam 12 with no Malloy in sight. McCord also made a few other appearances on the show under different character names or as just "officer". His second appearance, on The Interrogation, is one of the best Dragnet episodes ever--McCord showed some acting chops and looked stunning. And Webb delivered an impassioned, well written speech about the life of a Police Officer.
In the pilot of Adam 12, wasn't it mentioned that Reed had been an officer for a couple of months? Anyway, here's what I copied and pasted on McCord's appearances on Dragnet:
aka "Dragnet 1970" - USA (fourth season title)
1.The Big Explosion (19 January 1967) - Officer (as Kent McWhirter)
2.The Interrogation (9 February 1967) - Officer Paul Culver
3.The Bank Jobs (5 October 1967) - Officer Whitman
4.The Big Neighbor (12 October 1967) - Officer
5.The Big High (2 November 1967) - 2nd Officer
6.The Phony Police Racket (7 December 1967) - Officer Jim Reed
7.The Big Search (4 January 1968) - Officer Jim Reed
8.Internal Affairs: DR-20 (12 December 1968) - Officer Jim Reed
My guess is that McCord was probably hired to appear occasionally on Dragnet as a "bit-part" officer. (If you watch Jack Webb shows you'll notice this happens from time to time with various actors.) Anyway, when given the go-ahead to launch Adam-12, Webb probably wanted to keep McCord so they just slotted him into his new identity. Well, maybe his OLD identity, since they recycled the name of Jim Reed, but gave him a new persona as a fresh-faced rookie right out of the academy, and married to boot.
shareMarco Lopez turned up in, according to IMDb, eleven episodes of Dragnet (1967) and ten episodes of Adam-12 (1968) before Webb tapped him to play "Marco Lopez" on Emergency (1972).
And Tim Donnelly (Chet on Emergency) was also in a number of Dragnet episodes, as well as a couple of Adam-12s. (Also, Donnelly's brother was a director, who worked on both Dragnet and Adam-12. Nothing like a little nepotism to put food on the family table, eh?)
Anyway, yeah, I think Mark VII productions knew how to make good use of its assets, and if Jack Webb liked you, chances are you were "In like Flynn." :-)
I don't see why.
(Referring to the original post)
Martin Milner appeared in the radio version of Dragnet as Sgt. Friday's sidekick which makes him, of course, well known to Jack Webb.
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