‘The Dinosaur’ episode airs on ‘Adam-12’ 40 years ago this hour (1971)

(Wednesday, December 15, 1971, 8:00 p.m. ET) — Eight years after an act of heroism put him out of commission, an officer returns to active duty, only to find that the changes made to the job that limit an officer’s power and increase suspect’s rights are too much to handle on tonight’s episode of the NBC-TV police drama Adam-12.