Adam-12 is a classic American television police procedural crime drama series created by Robert A. Cinader and Jack Webb. The show follows two Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers, Pete Malloy and Jim Reed, as they patrol the streets of Los Angeles in their police cruiser, designated as “1-Adam-12.” The series was produced in cooperation with the real department it was based on, the LAPD, and aimed to be realistic in its depiction of police procedures and jargon.

Martin Milner and Kent McCord starred as Pete Malloy and Jim Reed, respectively, in the iconic police drama Adam-12, which became a cultural touchstone of the late 1960s and early 1970s. The show also featured many recurring co-stars, with the most frequent being William Boyett and Gary Crosby, who added depth and intrigue to various episodes, portraying a wide range of characters that enriched the series’ narratives. Throughout its impressive run of seven seasons, from September 21, 1968, to May 20, 1975, Adam-12 aired a total of 174 episodes, captivating audiences with its realistic portrayal of police work, the challenges faced by officers, and the importance of community relations. The series not only entertained viewers but also aimed to educate the public about law enforcement practices, making it a significant part of television history.

What set Adam-12 apart from other Cop shows?

Adam-12 was a groundbreaking show that aimed to showcase the reality of police work, and it helped to introduce police procedures and jargon to the general public in the United States. The show’s attention to detail and realism made it an instant hit, and it quickly became a fan favorite. Through its authentic depiction of daily police activities and the challenges faced by officers, Adam-12 not only entertained viewers but also educated them about the complexities of law enforcement. The characters, portrayed with depth and nuance, resonated with audiences, making them invest in the lives and struggles of the officers. Additionally, the series tackled various social issues of the time, shedding light on the relationship between the police and the communities they served. Its pioneering approach to storytelling set a standard for future police dramas, solidifying its legacy in television history.

The show’s creators, Robert A. Cinader and Jack Webb, also created other popular shows, such as Dragnet and Emergency!. Like Adam-12, these shows were produced in cooperation with the real departments they were based on, and they aimed to be as realistic as possible in their depictions of police and emergency services.

Despite its age, Adam-12 still holds up today as a classic of the police procedural genre. The show’s attention to detail, realism, and strong performances by its cast make it a must-watch for fans of crime dramas and police procedurals.

Adam-12 is a classic American television series that helped introduce police procedures and jargon to the general public in the United States. The show’s realistic portrayal of police work and attention to detail makes it a fan favorite and a must-watch for fans of the police procedural genre.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam-12

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Colin Burnett, Washington University in St. Louis

James Bond was front and center at the 2025 Academy Awards – and in a somewhat curious way.

In a musical number, Lisa of Blackpink, Doja Cat and Raye sang the Bond theme songs “Live and Let Die,” “Diamonds Are Forever” and “Skyfall,” respectively. No Bond films had been nominated for an award, and none of these singers has a connection to the Bond franchise, though they did all recently collaborate on the single “Born Again.”

The strange exercise felt less like a celebration and more like a big flashing question mark for a screen icon whose future has never felt more uncertain.

Since the shocking news dropped on Feb. 20, 2025, that Jeff Bezos’ Amazon MGM Studios would assume creative control over the James Bond film franchise, commentators and fans have wondered why.

Why would the Broccoli family, which has long held the rights to Bond movies through their company, EON, cede control of the film series to a tech partner they’ve been at odds with?

Two possibilities have emerged.

First, EON’s Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, the stepson and daughter of legendary EON producer Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli, may have reached a point of creative exhaustion. There could be something to this theory. According to Puck’s Matthew Belloni, the 83-year-old Wilson and 64-year-old Broccoli were having difficulty figuring out their next step after 2021’s “No Time to Die.”

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A second reason could be Amazon’s impatience with EON. In December 2024, The Wall Street Journal reported that Barbara Broccoli balked when Amazon Studios executive Jennifer Salke proposed several Bond spinoff projects, including a Bond series with a female lead, for Prime Video. Perhaps frustrated with the stalemate, Amazon may have made Wilson and Broccoli an offer they couldn’t refuse to get them out of the way and get production of Bond content rolling.

The speculation is certainly intriguing. But a more central question shouldn’t be overlooked: the “what.”

What, precisely, has Amazon MGM acquired? And what can it actually do with the Bond story?

Breaking down the Bond rights

In my research on the 007 franchise, I’ve discovered that this property has never been a traditional film series.

Long before “Star Wars” launched in 1976 and the Marvel Cinematic Universe launched in 2008, Bond relied on a range of mediums to tell its story.

The Bond franchise began in 1953, not with a film but with a novel, Ian Fleming’s “Casino Royale.” One year later, “Casino Royale” was adapted for American TV as a live anthology show. Four years after that, in 1958, a popular Bond comic strip made its debut.

It was only in 1962, with “Dr. No,” starring Sean Connery, that the now-iconic film series began.

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Since then, James Bond has been spun off into a children’s animated show, choose-your-own-adventure books, a “Young Bond” novel series, video games, a reality show, radio dramas and more.

Here’s what’s crucial: With its new deal, Amazon MGM has a controlling stake only in the rights that EON holds. EON has licensed the right to produce future films and TV shows from Fleming since 1961. EON secured worldwide merchandising rights in 1964 and production rights to video games in the early 1990s.

Other 007 media – the literary, comic and audio series – are managed by the Fleming Estate and Ian Fleming Publications.

The James Bond media franchise is what I call a shared rights and licensing network.

No one company controls all of the Bond rights, and no one company produces all of Bond media. Though this arrangement is a complicated one, the sharing and licensing of rights has allowed Bond to emerge as a lucrative and fecund product line. According to my calculations, it now boasts over 330 original stories in 72 years of media production.

In other words, Bond is much more than the 25 films released by EON.

James Bond’s many lives

Until now, rights sharing and licensing have ensured that the Bond franchise remains creatively distinct from “Star Wars” and Marvel.

The companies that produce these series – LucasFilm and Marvel Studios – are owned by The Walt Disney Company. With their rights pooled under one corporate entity that also oversees all production, “Star Wars” and Marvel have been able to drive toward high levels of creative consistency and unity among their stories. Across films, TV, comics and video games, “Star Wars” and Marvel aspire to what media specialists call “transmedia storytelling.”

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By sharing rights, the Bond franchise has arrived at a very different type of storytelling, one that fragments the story and multiplies the James Bonds to be experienced across distinct media. The effect isn’t transmedia storytelling, or even a Marvel-style multiverse. In Bond, characters can’t cross over to alternate realities and meet other versions of themselves.

James Bond exists in many different worlds and leads many different lives.

To name a few: There’s the Bond of Fleming’s 1950s and 1960s novels, who loses his first love, Vesper Lynd, and hunts down her killers, who are members of SMERSH, the assassination arm of Soviet intelligence agencies. Fleming’s Bond also lives on in the novels of Kingsley Amis and John Gardner, which were published in the 1970s and 1980s.

There’s EON’s silver screen Bond, who, from 1962 to 2002, never falls in love with Vesper, but loses his wife, Tracy di Vicenzo, to the crime syndicate SPECTRE and remains scarred by the loss. And in the modern era, there’s the Bond who appears in author Samantha Weinberg’s “Moneypenny Diaries.” Published from 2005 to 2008, the series depicts a version of Bond who has retired to a small Scottish isle with his lover, MI6’s Miss Moneypenny.

The effect of Bond’s shared structure is what I dub “threaded storytelling.” The novels present various versions of Bond’s life, at different points in history. The film series creates two of its own. The comic series offers yet more lives of 007.

Each version of Bond runs alongside the others in the market, focusing on a Bond character who exists only within his unique story world. This gives fans an unpredictable, ever-expanding canon of stories to follow and even compare, like one grand spot-the-difference game in time.

Where next for Bond?

The deal between Amazon MGM and EON awaits regulatory approval in the U.S. and U.K.

If it goes through, Amazon MGM will have a strong property on its hands. Over the decades, EON has reinforced certain elements to the character and the story: James Bond is a debonair hitman. MI6 chief M gives him high-stakes missions. MI6 armorer Q fits him with the latest gadgets. And Bond lives large, enjoying beautiful women, fine dining, Savile Row fashions and Omega timepieces.

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Amazon MGM is unlikely to tinker with these Bondian elements. They’re also likely to preserve the movies’ “Bond formula” – the gun barrel visual that kicks off each film, elaborately designed credit sequences, film-specific theme songs, and the closing title card that reads, “James Bond Will Return.”

Yet some fans fear that Amazon MGM will develop “woke” storylines. Others foresee the product being diluted with countless streaming spinoff series.

To me, the more intriguing possibility is whether Amazon will try to create a more unified Bond universe, akin to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Yes, the Fleming Estate will continue to manage the novels, comics and radio. But with creative control over EON’s rights, Amazon MGM could, in theory, develop an elaborate transmedia strategy never before explored in this franchise.

A relaunched film series, perhaps serving as Amazon MGM’s “mothership,” would feed into satellite series in video games and streaming shows. These games and shows, in turn, would tie into and expand the universe of the films.

Were that to happen, the Bond franchise would truly enter a new phase and risk losing much of the creative flexibility it’s possessed in the past.

Colin Burnett, Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies, Washington University in St. Louis

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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As I look back on the countless movies that have shaped my cinematic experience, one brave offering leaps to mind: Duel (1971), directed by the then-unknown Steven Spielberg. Having seen it for the first time just six years after its release, it struck an immediate chord with me—not merely as a film but as an immersive adventure during long, winding motorhome road trips down those nostalgic two-lane highways. After all, what’s a road trip without a bit of fear and exhilaration?

A Thrilling Premise

Duel is an unassuming yet masterful thriller, and it transports us into the boots of David Mann (portrayed by Dennis Weaver), a traveling salesman who becomes a reluctant protagonist in a deadly game of cat and mouse with an unseen truck driver in rural California. The movie begins innocently enough, but as Mann encounters a dilapidated Peterbilt, it transforms into a relentless chase that epitomizes the essence of road rage. The artful way Spielberg captures anxiety, frustration, and fear elevates Duel from a simple story to an engaging psychological thriller.

Relatable Tensions

As a fan of action-packed thrillers with heart-pounding car chases, I can’t help but revel in the film’s extraordinary use of vehicles as its main characters. The timeless duel between Mann and the monstrous truck illustrates a primal struggle of man vs. machine. Who hasn’t felt that rush of adrenaline while driving, especially when faced with reckless drivers? The movie resonates deeply with anyone who has ever been on the road, creating a unique connection that persists even after more than five decades.

The cinematography, predominantly shot on location in California, adds to its authenticity, and those dusty roads remind me of childhood summers spent on family road trips. Spielberg’s direction couples beautifully with Richard Matheson’s intelligent screenplay, which coaxes tension from every frame. What’s brilliant about this film is how it manages to elevate an ordinary incident into an epic survival story.

Sound and Fury

One of the film’s most compelling features is its minimalistic approach to sound. The absence of dialogue amplifies the eeriness and tension. The growl of the truck engine serves as a character in itself, conveying menace and power without uttering a word. Spielberg’s ability to utilize sound and silence strategically keeps viewers on the edge of their seats—a technique that would define his future projects.

From the pulse-quickening moments where Mann finds himself sandwiched between track and truck, to the visceral final confrontation, every scene is carefully crafted to maintain suspense. The artistry in storytelling is evident as the viewer is left guessing about the truck driver’s motives—an enigma that intensifies the film’s allure.

Timeless Legacy

Duel is not just a thrill ride; it has left an indelible mark on cinema and continues to influence filmmakers today. Spielberg’s take on road rage feels timeless, and the film’s status as a coveted cult classic attests to its lasting power. Critics laud it as one of the greatest television movies ever made, and it proudly sits in the annals of American film history.

This masterclass in suspense is more than just a movie; it’s a nostalgic experience that can turn a road trip into a thrilling escapade—even if you’re just driving to the grocery store. As I reflect on this film, I must highlight that it’s a testament to the art of storytelling; a simple narrative framework, developed with supreme direction and compelling visuals, can create anxious anticipation and excitement.

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Final Thoughts

Ultimately, Duel still resonates with viewers who appreciate its raw intensity, thrilling car and truck chases, and the fear of being prey in the vast, open roads. I wholeheartedly believe it stands the test of time, and if I were to rate it, it would earn a perfect 5 out of 5 stars in my book. A classic that perfectly encapsulates action, drama, and innovation in filmmaking, Duel remains an unforgettable ride that sparks both nostalgia and adrenaline, even fifty years later. If you haven’t seen it yet, rev up your engines and experience this cinematic gem—you won’t regret it!

Related links:

Duel ( Wikipedia)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duel_(1971_film)

Duel ( IMDb) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067023

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