I grew up on Adam-12. I’ve watched every episode at least three times. As a police officer in the USAF, my partners and I would habitually immitate the patter of the show … “One Adam-12, see the woman … ”
Officer Pete Malloy was not a bad role model for a young gun with a badge.
He wouldn’t be a bad role model for young officers, today, either. Level headed, fair, by-the-book, and abiding by the rule of law (rather than his personal prejudices or any sense of self-aggrandizing badassedness), Malloy usually found a way to do the right thing.
Unrealistic? Sure. It was only a TV show. But life is just acting. Fake it until you make it. You become who you try to be.
Pete Malloy was of a time when role models still mattered.