'Adam-12,' 'T.J. Hooker,' 'Emergency!' released on DVD

Here's a batch of old TV shows new to DVD, the bulk of them being released on Tuesday.

"Emergency! Season One" (Universal, 1972, not rated, $39.98, two double-sided discs). Jack Webb co-produced and directed the two-hour pilot for this 1970s series about emergency medical personnel, and it has the touch of Webb's earnest, staccato-style realism, la "Dragnet." Subsequent shows tried to maintain the style but relaxed a bit. And it's better than I expected.

The series follows two members of a newly formed paramedics team, who, with local firefighters, law-enforcement officials and hospital personnel, try to save lives in and around Los Angeles. In the pilot, the paramedics program is new and controversial until the California Legislature passes a bill.

Randolph Mantooth and Kevin Tighe are the newly recruited paramedics, Bobby Troupe (a former band leader) and Robert Fuller are the lead doctors, Julie London (a singer who was Troupe's real-life wife) is the chief nurse — and in the pilot, those "Adam-12" guys Martin Milner and Kent McCord show up briefly.

Extras: Full frame, 12 episodes, subtitle options (English, Spanish), chapters.

"Adam-12: Season One" (Universal, 1968-69, not rated, $39.98, two double-sided discs). This Jack Webb-produced police procedural (he also directed the pilot) is done very much in the "Dragnet" style, with rat-a-tat dialogue, two or three story lines crammed into each half hour and a notation that the stories are true but the names are changed.

Veteran cop Martin Milner takes rookie Kent McCord under his wing, and though the pilot is a bit stiff, subsequent episodes are better and quite entertaining.

Extras: Full frame, 26 episodes, language options (English, French), optional English subtitles, chapters.

"T.J. Hooker: The Complete First and Second Seasons" (Sony, 1982-83, not rated, $49.98, six discs). Corny almost to the point of camp, this early 1980s cop show doesn't hold up nearly as well as other recent TV releases from a decade earlier ("McMillan & Wife," "McCloud," "Kojak," "Columbo"). But there's lots of action, and fans of William Shatner or Heather Locklear will no doubt get a kick out of it.

Shatner is the tough, no-nonsense title character, who gave up being a plain-clothes detective to return to the police academy where he can train recruits and to get back to the streets "where I'm needed."