Product Description

Twenty year veteran Detective Lt. Mike Stone is partnered with young college educated Inspector Steve Keller who has a lot to learn about being a police detective on the Streets of San Francisco.System Requirements:Run Time: 644 minsFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 097361227542 Manufacturer No: 122754

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13275 in DVD
• Brand: PARAMOUNT PICTURES
• Released on: 2007-04-10
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC, Full Screen
• Original language: English, Spanish
• Number of discs: 4
• Dimensions: .50 pounds
• Running time: 644 minutes

Amazon.com
More career-making than groundbreaking TV, The Streets of San Francisco is an efficiently entertaining old-school cop show from Quinn Martin, master of the four-acts-and-an-epilogue hour drama (The Untouchables, The Fugitive). Old Hollywood meets new with the casting of Oscar-winning character actor Karl Malden (A Streetcar Named Desire, On the Waterfront) and, in the role that put him on the map, future Oscar-winner Michael Douglas (Wall Street) as partners in San Francisco's Bureau of Inspectors. Malden is 23-year-veteran Lt. Mike Stone. Douglas is Inspector Steve Keller, whose "fancy degrees in criminology" don't impress Stone. The generational conflict is more pronounced in the pilot episode. When Keller questions whether a deceased woman found floating in the bay is a suicide, Stone derisively responds, "If you were born in this town, you'd know that the current under the bridge flows out to sea and not in." Though the t wo have their differences (Stone, a self-described "slob," wears the classic trench coat, while Keller is "the best dressed cop on poverty row"), Stone is a more patient mentor in the 1972 series' first 14 episodes (13 plus the pilot) that are contained in this set's four discs.

One of this series' retro-TV delights is the veteran/rookie casting dynamic that extends to the series' guest stars. The pilot episode features Robert Wagner as a slick and initially suspect lawyer, and a pre-Happy Days Tom Bosley as the victim's landlord. The future Starsky & Hutch show up, albeit in separate episodes. David Soul is a racist cop with a surprising genealogy in "Hall of Mirrors" and in "Bitter Wine," Paul Michael Glaser stars as a man who spent 12 years in San Quentin for his brother's crime. Other familiar faces from TV Land include Vic Tayback (Alice), Victor French (Little House on the Prairie), Edward Mulhare (The Ghost and Mrs. Muir), and Di ck Van Patten (Eight Is Enough). But perhaps this serie s' real star is San Francisco, an offbeat location for a cop show. Ghirardelli Square, the Golden Gate Bridge, and other landmarks are intriguing backdrops as the gruff but compassionate Stone and the more hotheaded Keller pursue criminals and killers, some of whom are as deeply twisted as Lombard Street. Throw in a vintage show-launch interview with Malden and Douglas conducted by former Hollywood columnist and Oscars red-carpet emcee Army Archerd, and you have a set that's a real San Francisco treat. --Donald Liebenson

Beyond The Streets of San Francisco

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Customer Reviews

What would you do without this show? What WOULD you do?
I'll let others describe the episodes. Presumably, you are here because you already know something about this maverick 1970's cop TV drama, and my rating reflects you are that type of person. If your idea of good TV is I Survived A Japanese Game Show, this may not be for you. In addition to Hawaii Five-0, another good series of this era now on DVD is The Rookies.

What I noticed immediately was the sound and video transfer to DVD was excellent. It's almost creepy to see SOSF in such high fidelity. The episodes make a lot more sense now that I've grown up and understand a bit more about inner city, 1970's culture! And to me, they seem to hold up very well. The writing is very good. Some language and clothing styles are a bit dated (well heck, that's part of the fun), but the stories move along, particularly without commercials butting in every 10 minutes. There are also several moments of humor in many episodes.

I've visit San Fran a few times in the last two years, and it's wonderful to see some of the shots of neighborhoods. If you enjoy this nostalgia or even live there or have lived there, I think you'll get some bonus enjoyment from the series. And seeing those big Chryslers and Matadors fly two feet off the ground while driving down hills with 30 degree inclines...it's a thing of beauty.

One of the Best Cop Shows of All Time
"The Streets of San Francisco" was one of the best cop shows of the 1970s and its wonderful that it is finally available on DVD. The formula was similar to other cops shows, but seemed to have more realistic story lines. This release marks the first time the Pilot has been seen in many years. When the episodes re-air on TV, the pilot is usually not shown since it was 98 minutes long, so it was a definite treat to see how the show started and what made the show so interesting.

I think the reason that Karl Malden's Mike Stone and Michael Douglas' Steve Keller worked so well is because their characters were completely different - Stone was raised on the streets of San Francisco and Keller was a college educated cop, but yet they had one thing in common, the pursuit of justice. I think it also helped that Karl Malden knew Michael's father, legendary actor Kirk Douglas, since before Michael was born. The chemistry between the two actors was undeniable and you could tell they both had fun shooting together, which was made even more evident after Douglas left the series at the beginning of the shows final season and was replaced by actor Richard Hatch.

The colors and audio have been enhanced on this DVD and makes the show look even better than it originally aired back in the early 1970s on ABC. This show was well renowned for its ability to get major guest stars and even have stars who later became famous in their own right, years after appearing.

Also included are two special features. One features Douglas and Malden being interviewed on the set of the show by legendary interviewer Army Archerd before the show began airing in September 1972. The other is a 9 minute Pilot Presentation which summarizes what the show is about. Both are thoroughly entertaining and wonderful to see all these years later. All in all this DVD set is a wonderful trip back in time to the good ol days of partner crime drama.

great series, but not all of season one!
Agreeing with nearly every reviewer here about the quality of the show and the greediness of Paramount to not have the whole first season on these discs for the price you'd normally pay for a complete season, I have to add alittle about the show's appeal to someone who wasn't aloive at the time of its airing. I grew up in the 80s, but the residual culture of the 70s was quite strong in my neighborhood and childhood television experience. Watching this show brings me right back to all that was well with the world of my youth with its fros, leisure suits, big cars, loud colors and cymbol tinking sound tracks when the cops sneek around at night. And i love how you can see the mics under the casts' shirts and the camera in the windows' reflections. Or how the dead can be seen breathing or blinking. So refreshing compared to the over-hyped and over-gross details of death, murder and sex that are soooooo pervasive today. And the camera work is great. No jumping aorund like Law and Order to give you a headache! Oh how I wish the 70s and early 80s were still here. Every age has it's own sense of innocence when thought back upon, and this show captures that for me. Sounds wierd, but maybe you understand too.

The plots of SoSF are pretty good, the pace relaxing and the acting/guest appearances are superb. Buy this set (used?) or get it like I did at the library. Good times indeed! Enjoy!