The Streets of San Francisco

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This article is about the TV series. For the album by $wingin' Utter$ see The Streets Of San Francisco ($wingin' Utter$ album)
The Streets of San Francisco
Genre Police Drama
Running time 60 minutes
Starring Karl Malden
Michael Douglas
Country of origin Flag of United States United States
Original channel ABC
Original run September 16, 1972–June 23, 1977
No. of episodes 119
IMDb profile

The Streets of San Francisco was a successful 1970s television police drama filmed on location in San Francisco, California, and produced by Quinn Martin Productions. The show ran for five seasons, between September 16, 1972 and June 9, 1977 on ABC, with a total of 119 60-minute episodes. The series started with a TV-movie (based on the detective novel "Poor, Poor Ophelia" by Carolyn Weston) of the same name in 1972.

Contents

[edit] The series

The Streets of San Francisco debuted on ABC on Saturday September 16, 1972, at 9 P.M., competing against two popular CBS sitcoms, The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Bob Newhart Show. Another critically acclaimed crime drama, The Rookies, debuted just five days before Streets, where it was also seen on ABC. After Streets gained attention on Friday nights during the first season, the show was moved to Thursday, where it remained for the remainder of the run, beginning with the second season, competing against other successful crime dramas, in different timeslots.

This show was about two police officers in San Francisco. The center of the series was the veteran cop and widower, Lt. Mike Stone (Karl Malden), who had more than 20 years of police experience and was now assigned to the Homicide Detail of SFPD's Bureau of Inspectors (i.e. Detective Division). He is partnered with the young, educated, and energetic Assistant Inspector Steve Keller (Michael Douglas), a 28-year-old college graduate (in real-life, Douglas was born in 1944). Eventually Keller was promoted to full inspector. As the series went on, Douglas, the son of actor Kirk Douglas, became a star in his own right. Mike's daughter, Jeannie Stone (Darleen Carr), made occasional appearances.

After the second episode of the fifth and final season, Douglas left the show to produce the film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, which was the #1 movie of 1976. His character's absence was explained by having him take a teaching position at a local college, while Lt. Stone was partnered with another detective, Insp. Dan Robbins (Richard Hatch). The change was not popular with audiences, and the show ended in 1977, due to low ratings. Also in 1977, writer James J. Sweeney won an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for his teleplay for the Season 4 episode "Requiem for Murder".

[edit] TV movie

An NBC TV movie, Back to the Streets of San Francisco, was released in early 1992. Karl Malden returns as Mike Stone but Keller's absence is explained by having the character be a murder victim. Stone heads up an investigation, while at the same time investigating a different brutal murder. He also attempts to decide which of two inspectors should be recommended for the position of Lieutenant. Actors Debrah Farentino and Conor O’Farrell played the two inspectors.

[edit] Trivia

  • As of late August 2006, the show has not been Closed-Captioned.
  • An occasional character in the series, "Sekulovich," played by Art Metrano, was usually a leg-man for Stone and asked to do errands or get coffee. The inside joke was that Sekulovich was Karl Malden's real surname.

[edit] Notable 1972 cast

  • Karl Malden - Lt. Mike Stone
  • Michael Douglas - Insp. Steve Keller - Lt. Stone's first partner (seasons 1-5)
  • Darlene Carr - Jeannie Stone - Lt. Stone's daughter
  • Richard Hatch - Insp. Dan Robbins - Lt. Stone's second partner who replace Insp. Keller (season 5)

[edit] External links

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