Karl Malden and Mike Douglas play a buddy cop team cleaning up the badass Streets of San Francisco in the 70s. (cue announcer’s voice: “A Quinn Martin Production!”)

CRITIQUE

Act One: Yes, that’s a hallmark of Quinn Martin; to announce the acts (and epilogue) as if his shows were chapters in a book. The truth is that QM Productions are, by today’s TV standards, barely literate entertainment. For a 20 year period at least one of his shows was always on the air. (The Fugitive, Twelve O'Clock High, The F.B.I., The Invaders, Cannon, and Barnaby Jones, etc.) Why?

The 70s are famous for being the “supercop” era, establishing lawmen with a twist—Kojak, Starsky & Hutch, Baretta… iconoclasts who “bucked the system.” Right on, man! In general, Quinn Martin’s material was much more traditional. The Streets of San Francisco tried to straddle the fence. Malden’s Mike Stone is an older street-wise cop who goes by the book; Douglas’ Steve Keller is college educated in criminology, somewhat hipper (check out that blow-dry haircut!) and apt to question authority. It seems as if Stone begins every sentence with “Now look here, Buddy Boy…” There’s nothing the matter with the mentor/student paradigm (look at Law & Order) but in Streets there’s precious little character development to make the generation gap distinctive.

Act Two: The plots are occasionally engaging. Random samplings from this set include: A Vietnam Vet who forces his wife to help him kidnap their adopted child; a salesman being blackmailed by the boyfriend of a hitchhiker; a psychopathic actor who commits murders in various makeup disguises (a la Lon Chaney). Then there are the episodes in which the leads get personally involved: Stone searching for a criminal who shot a fellow cop; Keller’s inappropriate relationship with a hooker he’s assigned to protect.

Over the top? Well yeah, but that’s 70s TV. The problem is more in the execution. Streets feels like the screenwriters are assuming police procedure rather than researching it—and designing shows for an audience who only knows cops from other cop shows. Often the pacing seems leaden. Of course, to liven things up QM threw in a car chase regardless of the story. Stone is always firing up that magnetic roof light/siren while Keller puts his pedal to the metal—even when called to the scene of a drowning victim. (What kind of cop risks life and limb of innocent pedestrians to visit an immobile corpse?)

Act Three: Compounding the lackluster execution the leads played it straight and humorless; even Keller’s emotional outbursts are predictable. The series isn’t exactly without humor, but that chiefly arises from a case of anachronistic arthritis. For example, in one episode Stone isn’t sure why people assume he’s a cop—while standing there in broad daylight in a black trench coat as hippy youth walk by in the background. Elsewhere, Stone comments on a suspect’s groovy pad, “Is this what kids run away from home for?” (Except for a rock poster and candle, the room is squeaky clean!)

Epilogue:

THE VIDEO

Standard 1.33:1. Not a bad transfer for an unrestored release whose negatives have been sitting around for over 30 years. The best part about Streets is its location work. Unlike virtually every other show at the time, Streets was shot entirely in San Francisco, a colorful city that was barely coming down from its high during the Summer of Love.

THE AUDIO

Nothin’ special. Standard mono TV. Occasionally you can really tell where the dialogue is over-dubbed (because of noisy locations).

ENGLISH: (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono) with Spanish subtitles

SPANISH (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)

THE EXTRAS

Original pilot episode: the “killer actor” show previously mentioned. Not very different than the series, just longer. 

Pilot presentation: a short promo piece [most likely] created for airing in late summer of ’72, to introduce home viewers to the upcoming show. It uses clips from the pilot, with bombastic narration that promises more than it could ever possibly deliver.

Army Archerd interview: Now this is interesting! It was never made for public consumption. Until recently Archerd was Variety’s top columnist. QM Productions brought him on as hired pitchman to woo potential advertisers. (Can anyone spot a conflict of interest here?) A seasoned brown-noser, Archer “interviews” Malden and Douglas. (Note that he repeatedly compliments Malden on his acting—and Douglas on his good looks.)

Also worth noting is Malden’s remark concerning his decision to make TV his new home. “Pictures just aren’t made the way they were 15 years ago,” he quips. Sure. A quick Google search reveals that ’72 saw releases like Cabaret, Deliverance, Frenzy and The Godfather! Malden is clearly ducking the fact that television was once the haven of washed-up stars whose phones had stopped ringing. That’s why Streets was chock-a-block with guest stars like Edmund O’Brien, Joseph Cotton and Ida Lupino.

FINAL THOUGHTS