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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8289 in DVD
• Brand: MALDEN,KARL
• 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
• Subtitled in: Spanish
• Number of discs: 4
• Dimensions: .50 pounds
• Running time: 60 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

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Customer Reviews

STREETS is here...at last!
THE STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO was one of the best crime dramas of the 70's, featuring screen veteran Karl Malden as Lieutenant Mike Stone and rising star Michael Douglas as Inspector Steve Keller. The series was produced by Quinn Martin and filmed on location in the City By The Bay.

Perhaps the most impressive thing about STREETS, besides the solid scripts and beautiful location scenery, was its powerhouse roster of guest stars. The series featured performances by many top actors from both new and old Hollywood, including Martin Sheen, Joseph Cotten, James Woods, Ida Lupino, John Ritter, Leslie Nielsen, Patty Duke, Nick Nolte, Rick Nelson, Larry Hagman and even a young Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Michael Douglas left the series in 1976 to pursue a movie career. His final episode was the two-part fifth season premiere, "The Thrill Killers", about a radical organization that kidnaps an entire jury. The story was inspired by the Patricia Hearst kidnapping case, which was still making headlines at the time. Douglas was replaced by Richard Hatch for the final year.

The first season has quite a number of outstanding segments, and it's great to see it finally coming out on DVD. Praise should go to the artist who did the cover design -- it's one of the coolest DVD covers I've seen in quite some time. Yes, having the season split up into two separate volumes is questionable, but regardless of how it's released, THE STREETS OF SAN FRANCISCO is definitely worth adding to anyone's classic TV collection.

4 stars for the show, 3 stars for the extras and 2 stars for giving us a half season
I'm surprised that this Quinn Martin production has come to DVD with so many other Martin shows ("The Invaders", "The Fugitive) left in limbo. I'm going to give this 4 stars for the series, 3 for the extras and 2 for only giving us half a season. I don't want to discourage fans from buying it because studios usually release these half season sets to gage whether or not it will sell well enough to keep putting it out.

Regardless, "Streets" was a fine series and introduced Michael Douglas to many people. The real star here though is Karl Malden who LIVES in the skin of his character of Lt. Mike Stone. Actually shot on location in San Francisco, the show may have aged a bit but the performances, writing, guest stars and deft direction by a parade of TV veterans keeps the show entertaining despite the passage of time. I was always a fan of this show and while the passage of time has diminished many great shows, this wouldn't be one of them. Sure, it's not geared towards our "story arc" based audience but the episodic nature of the series works well for this series quite well.

The show looks pretty good here with nice colors and image quality. Some of the shots look a bit soft here and there but overall the show continues to look very good. The original mono audio sounds clear as well. I still love that propulsive opening theme music.

We don't get any featurettes or commentary tracks (a pity because it would be interesting to hear Douglas' assessment 30 plus years later of his performance and that incredible hair). We go get a nice vintage interview from 1972 with Douglas and Malden on the set of the show. We also get a "pilot presentation" reel.

Although lacking in new special features, the vintage ones are quite good for this set. Paramount/CBS unfortunately has taken the strategy that Fox has with many of their vintage shows and decided to release this (along with "The Untouchables") in half season sets which will be frustrating for fans of the show. I just hope it doesn't discourage too many fans from purchasing this set as they are no doubt looking at sales to gage the release of the rest of the seasons of the series.

Excellent show buddy boy!
The opening theme music, the San Francisco scenery, the stories, and the performances of Karl Malden and Michael Douglas make "The Streets of San Francisco" one of the best cop shows of the 1970's. The shows are still enjoyable and do not seem dated with the exception of the clothing and cars (it was great seeing a mint '67 Dodge Charger in one episode!). I wished they released a full Season One DVD set, but I'm happy to have these episodes.

I hope they release volume 2 and all the other seasons as this show deserves it.

Episodes on volume 1 and the air dates:

Pilot - 16 September 1972

The Thirty-Year Pin - 23 September 1972

The First Day of Forever - 30 September 1972

45 Minutes from Home - 7 October 1972

Whose Little Boy Are You? - 14 October 1972

Tower Beyond Tragedy - 28 October 1972

Hall of Mirrors - 4 November 1972

Timelock - 11 November 1972

In the Midst of Strangers - 25 November 1972

The Takers - 2 December 1972

The Year of the Locusts - 9 December 1972

The Bullet - 16 December 1972

Bitter Wine - 23 December 1972

A Trout in the Milk - 6 January 1973