Forgotten Gems of the 70's: Streets of San Francisco

Welcome, welcome, welcome back to Day 4 of Forgotten Gems of the 70's Week.  This next show is another cop drama and yes I know you thought we covered that with The Rookies.  Well, we didn't... enough that is.   Oh hush and read on.   So this time around the folks of Martin Quinn Productions (The Fugitive, Twelve O' Clock High, The F.B.I., The Invaders, Cannon and Barnaby Jones)  felt we needed to explore the dark and mean streets of beautiful San Francisco.  Competing against two beloved sitcoms on CBS, The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Bob Newhart Show this crime drama series got excellent rates and gave the folks of Frisco a different view, not so much as one of dark void that cannot be brought to justice but putting a smudge on a town that California is proud to call " The City"   This is Streets of San Francisco.

Keep Spelling out!!!!

Detective Lt. Mike Stone:  There's a lot of spoiling out there and we got to do something about it, kid.







Our series follows a pair of plainclothes homicide detectives out on the streets of San Francisco (say, great name for a title!) as Lt. Mike Stone (Karl Malden of A Streetcar Named Desire, The Sellout, Operation Secret, On the Waterfront, Birdman of Alcatraz, The Cincinnati Kid, Hotel and Patton) a veteran cop of 20 years, street smart, savvy and follows his gut instincts is partnered with a rookie fresh from college but schooling allows him procedure, shows his book learning giving him the rank of Inspector, Steve Keller (Michael Douglas of The China Syndrome, Romancing the Stone, Fatal Attraction, Wall Street, Falling Down, Traffic and The In-Laws) is being shown the ropes, what to expect on most murder scenes and how reliable witnesses are but we gotta go by the book according to Stone.

Sorry about about your dog, Steve.

The two knock their heads together, walk the scene, retrace their steps and follow the clue wherever they may lead.    With Stone as a mentor, Keller has the rigors and procedures down-pat offering him the potential promotions and how to be a better cop,  to truly care about the victims and their next of kin.

Just a few comments about the show now.  Standard protocol.

The two play off each other well and share their separate skill sets with their partner slowly forming a bond and yes we do have grumpy older cop stuck with rookie scenarios from time to time but this is good solid writing that while a trifle predictable comes off well.   The murder scenes are as accurate for television as allowed.  Apparently showing the true effects of gun shots and splatter patterns is deemed too violent for viewers, in spite of that this does occur in real life.  Both Malden and Douglas did more than 3 months research with the SFPD homicide giving the authenticity needed for the show and the series was filmed entirely in San Francisco using a converted warehouse for the precinct.  

Ford Motors was proud to sponsor the series giving a fleet of Galaxies and a LTD for Keller and Stone to arrive in record time.  

This show offered a lot of actors their bones on it as guest-stars including: Ricky Nelson, Pernell Roberts, Susan Dey, Don Johnson, Tom Selleck. Robert Wagner, Nora Marlowe, Mark Hamill and many more.

Yes, my ears are huge! WHAT OF IT???!!!